Field Notes: In the Studio with Ralph Lemon and Donald Byrd

Abstract

The reflections that follow derive from a panel discussion, “Dramaturgical Reports from the Field,” at the 2011 SDHS conference on Dance Dramaturgy, which also included Talvin Wilks, dramaturg for Bebe Miller. That discussion grew into a written exchange that further developed some of its themes: the nature of dramaturgical labour, with its oscillation or split focus; the notion of a “simpatico moment” (Wilks’ term) when the dramaturgical relationship revealed its possibility; the intertwining of the dramaturgical/collaborative relationship with the interpersonal relationship; and the notion of a productive tension between the choreographic and dramaturgical voices in the process.