Community Arts

Rhythmically Speaking 2016 yielded successes and challenges in the face of the goals we set forth to accomplish in producing the program. Among the successes were continuation of the organization's mission to support practitioners of jazz and rhythm-driven dance by providing them space, funding, marketing and audience development for their work. Fulfillment of this aim continues to increase; the artists selected for this year's jazz and rhythm-driven choreography showcase received stipends of $1200, up from Fiscal Year 2013's $1000 and Fiscal Year 2012's $800. This is the highest stipend paid to choreographers out of all similar events in the Twin Cities dance community, something of which we are very proud. Rhythmically Speaking is working hard to continue providing increasingly meaningful stipends. Receipt of this funding also allowed us to better the production elements of the show, hiring quality technical staff to bring the Southern Theater space alive not only with great rhythm-driven dance, but also excellent light and sound atmosphere. Personnel-related successes include the ability to fund the Artistic Director's hourly programming, marketing and development work. The goal of the production audience containing at least 20% new viewers was also met, and we engaged 35 artists (5 more than goal) and 396 attendees, just about the 400 we hoped to engage. The artists and audience truly engaged with the challenge to innovate within the territory of ‘jazz and rhythm-driven dance,’ resulting in a production rich in cultural diversity and forward thinking. This year’s choreographers stepped up to the challenge, delivering a diverse range of work that spoke to the ability of jazz and rhythm-driven dance forms to reflect upon serious topics including protest and loss. This variety and depth is a testament to our success in widely spreading word of this opportunity throughout dance community and reaching artists of high calibers. Artistic challenges included the logistics of hosting out of town guests on a budget; we continue to consider how we can best support bringing in guest artists, including the possibility of setting aside travel funding beyond the offered stipend. We also experienced challenge in dealing with audience members who were not conducting themselves appropriately for viewing theater (speaking loudly while the production was in progress). This challenge has caused us to consider more deeply how we language box office information. Based upon audience surveys, Rhythmically Speaking is successfully engaging our creating community (45% of the audience identified themselves as a 'Dancer', 20% as a 'Choreographer'). We also managed to beat our goal of having 20% of our audience be new attendees! 20% quoted reading an article or media piece as their reason for coming. We have also been focused on drawing in people with interests related to jazz and rhythm-driven dance, such as hip-hop dance and jazz music. 30% of responders said they attend live music at least monthly, and 80% gave a 9 or 10 (10 being high) when asked how likely they'd be to recommend the show to a friend, so we are hopeful that new audiences will continue to connect with us. It is important to us that our programming is accessible, so we promoted the opportunity widely throughout the dance community and also took care to select an ADA accessible venue located along public transit routes. Admissions were priced to balance paying the artists a reasonable stipend while providing an affordable experience to audiences. We feel that our general ticket rate of $24 was reasonable in line with this goal, and we also offered student rush rates and volunteer opportunities. One challenge we experienced again being at the Southern Theater was a shortage of parking, exacerbated by the opening of U.S. Bank Stadium and concert events that happened there during three out of our four shows. We also again found challenge in ensuring our measures for making the production accessible to people with physical disabilities were utilized. We allocated $300 in our budget toward providing an audio-described performance, and while we took great lengths to spread the word, maintaining regular contact with VSA Minnesota, we received no interest in the service. We will continue to work toward best practices for engaging the disabled community, and are considering creating an element of programming that will enable us to connect to special needs students in public schools. The strongest long-term benefits we believe our participants took away are the relationships they built and public exposure for their creative work. For audiences, short-term connection to their bodies can translate into long-term desires to seek out such opportunities again. Viewing the show challenges them to fall whole-heartedly into an artistic experience that connects them to their eyes, ears and hearts. The audience stepped up to the challenge, providing feedback indicating they were moved. In summary, the most significant outcomes resulting from the completion of this project include a continually expanding base of new audience members engaging with our programming, a deepening of our support of artists innovating in jazz and rhythm-driven dance and a developed capacity to select artists exploring subject matter with great depth.