MyDance Alliance — Minutes of Dance Community Meeting 17 Feb 2010

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Date:   17 Feb 2010

Time:   3-5pm

Venue:   Su-Ling’s house, Sg Buloh

Attendance:  Choy Su-Ling, Bilqis Hijjas, Joseph Gonzales, Prof Anis, Suhaili Micheline, Leng Poh Gee, Visithra Manikam, Janice Yong.

Dance Awards

  • Kakiseni’s model not considered sustainable. Opt to replace it with a more manageable festival-based model, in which awards are given not in the spirit of competition, but as recognition for achievement, with an accompanying statement from the panel of why the award has been awarded.
  • Decisions to be made by a large range (at least 10 people) forming a panel of judges deciding in discussion with each other. This is considered a more congenial and democratic model, which cannot be upset by statistical outliers as occurred in the points system.
  • Judges will be privy to the process of development of the works, in order to recognize process-based as well as performance-based achievement.

Dance Festival

  • To be held September 2011.
  • In a range of venues, possibly including KLPac, TAS @ Lot 10, the Annexe, Panggung Bandaraya & ASWARA in order to attract a diverse crowd. Site-specific urban performances also a possibility.
  • An opportunity for corporations and foundations to be involved as part of their CSR. AsiaDanceChannel will seek RM 1.5 million budget, with the intention of paying performers, funding the costs of production, professional fees and other related costs.
  • PR (by Pixarus Communications) and event management (by ADC) will be professionally performed, in a client-based relationship in which MyDance is the “paying” client.
  • Two separate MyDance committees will oversee the festival: a curatorial committee and a management/production committee. MyDance members should not be in both groups, to prevent burn-out and the wearing of too many hats.
  • To include a program of outreach workshops prior to the performances to encourage new audiences to attend. Participants creating work for the festival and previous year’s participants are required to conduct workshops.
  • Awards will provide seed money for subsequent productions.
  • Festival will have a theme, and participants encouraged to engage with theme. Awards given based on criteria related to the theme.
  • Representatives and applications will be sought from all over the country, to make this a truly Malaysian dance festival.

Agenda for next meeting (end of March 2010)

  • Establish a steering committee of interested individual to lay foundation work:
  • To decide how to form curatorial and ad hoc management committee.
  • To have initial discussions with a professional events manager.
  • To establish returns for sponsors, in terms of exposure, etc.