What We Do, Our Mission.

How we support dancers and the people who love them AND how YOU can become involved!

 

Our Mission:

The Dance Enthusiast is a vibrant, engaging digital news site and arts service organization. We are a project of the non-profit organization Moving Arts Projects, Inc.  Our mission is threefold: to serve the dance community by sharing its stories and news; to offer audiences unique access to the compelling dance companies and moving artists of New York City; and, to invite audiences, artists, and writers into a conversation about dance. Our new media work, as well as our offline initiatives, illuminate, educate and inspire audiences to understand the deep value inherent in dance.

The Dance Enthusiast's founding editor-in-chief, Christine Jowers, and Co-Editor, Social Media Expert and Senior Contributor,  Sammi Lim Sowerby,  work with  an ever-growing team of contributors, to create and nuture dance enthusiasts — people passionate about dance, its artists, and the world we share.

We connect our audiences to people who make dance happen by:
 

1. Covering the news of the dance world.
2. Creating original content.
3. Interviewing, Photographing, video-ing, writing about and constantly looking for new ways to keep dance alive beyond the performance.
4. Supporting dance companies and dance artists to share their stories on our site.
5. Encouraging audiences to advocate for the dance field by sharing their opinions about what they see.

6. Enthusiastic Events!  (CURRENTLY  On hold) click the link to learn about some of the engaging offline events  which we produced.  They combined performance with formal and informal conversation, that brought the pages of The Dance Enthusast to life, and connected artists to new communities.

  • We educate  audiences and support future dance communicators and dance advocates.

  • We celebrate, question, and discuss the dance field.

  • We encourage involvement.

Are you curious about why The Dance Enthusiast was started? Check out Why Enthusiasm and Why The Dance Enthusiast by Christine Jowers

About The Dance Enthusiast Features:

 

READ, WATCH, PARTICIPATE, and  #getenthused!

WE INVITE YOU TO READ and Comment On

A. IMPRESSIONS, thoughts on what we see. (click here to be connected to our The Dance Enthusiast's Impressions)

An IMPRESSION is The Dance Enthusiast’s brand of review.

We call them IMPRESSIONS because we want to be absolutely clear that what you will be reading is simply one person's educated IMPRESSION of a work(s), not the final word of judgment of an artist, and not the opinion of the entire The Dance Enthusiast/a movingartsproject organization.

We value and encourage clear writing and the expression of a variety of opinions. We urge our audience to comment on our IMPRESSIONS whether they agree or disagree with what's written.  This can be done in several ways.

  • Comments on IMPRESSIONS or any form of article on The Dance Enthusiast  can be made in the FB comment section directly under each article on the site.
  • Comments can be made in a letter to the editor at info@dance-enthusiast.com subject heading Letter to the Editor - Please indicate if you want us to publish your letter or keep it unpublished. You must include your full name with the letter if you wish to be published.
  • If you disagree or agree with a writer on The Dance Enthusiast re an IMPRESSION share your own IMPRESSION in our Audience Review Section. We, think many points of view are crucial to dance appreciation and enthusiasm. #getenthused and share your opinion.

Lively dance conversation, clear expression of opinions, often and by many --this is what we are aiming for.

WE INVITE YOU TO PARTICIPATE . Share Your Stories in

B. POSTCARDS - what dancers/dance enthusiast share with us from the field. (click here to be connected to The Dance Enthusiast's Postcards)

Remember when you, or perhaps an older relative, sent postcards via snail mail back-in-the-day?  The Dance Enthusiasts POSTCARDS section aims to revisit this idea online. With a postcard you can share what you are up to with our ever-growing audience.

We invite dancers and dance enthusiasts to write about  their travels from home as well as their unique personal experiences right here in our backyard.

In POSTCARDS you can tell us about a tour, or about your preparation for a concert, you can share a photo shoot, or discuss a particular performance event, or adventure that inspires you, or ….  be creative.  What we don't want is a press release. Your words ( short any where from 350 to 700 words) and pictures about 5 (better at least one is horizontally oriented for our cover).
We are interested sharing your unique stories with our audience, If you are interested in submitting a POSTCARD to The Dance Enthusiast please contact us for consideration. Contact info@dance-enthusiast.com POSTCARDs in the subject lin.

We Invite You to READ AND PARTICIPATE in

C. BAREFOOTNOTES

Opinions, notes and observations by Founding Editor, Christine Jowers, The Dance Enthusiast contributors, and our guests.  If you are interested in being considered for our Barefootnotes section please contact cjchiefeditor@dance-enthusiast.com with I have an opinion in the subject line. The opinions and observations expressed in Barefootnotes are solely those of the writer and not the entire The Dance Enthusiast/a moving arts project organization.

We Invite You to READ and learn about artists in


D. THE DANCE ENTHUSIAST ASKS ... (click here to be connected to The Dance Enthusiast Asks)

Engaging Q+A with The Dance Enthusiast.  Artists respond in the first person.

 READ  and  WATCH and enjoy learning about life behind the scenes of dance and performance

E. A DAY IN THE LIFE ...(click here to be connected to our Day in the Life section)

Behind the scenes stories of dance artists. Features and previews with  original video and/ or photography.

Share your words to support dance and dance enthusiasm , PARTICIPATE!

Talk about dance  performance you see in

F. AUDIENCE REVIEWS (click to be connected to our Audience Review section )

The Dance Enthusiast is committed to communication about our art form. We encourage dance audiences to use their words in support of our ephemeral art and have created several ways for you to share  opinions easily on the world wide web. 

Write a movement haiku, or two. Respond to our questionnaire about a show. If you feel more comfortable writing, just go with your flow and write free form.  We are looking for participation, not perfection.

Would you like to know how audience reviews help artists, presenters, and audiences? Click the links to enjoy social media editor /senior contributor, Sammi Lim's graphic art explanations.  They're so much fun!

We periodically run contests and sweepstakes to encourage audiences to participate. Look for more audience reviews as we expand this important section of our dance news site.

READ, WATCH, PARTICPATE!

G. NYC Dance Listings (click here to find out what is going on in our dance world.)

The Dance Enthusiast wants to help our audience navigate the performance world of our home-base NYC and other dancing cities.

Here you will find listings of dance performance and other special events; information on classes and special workshops; opportunities for auditions, internships and other job searches; and information about galas, benefits, and seasons.

By all means share your listing with us if you are performing, auditioning or teaching. If you are a dance fan, check out our listings to plan your dance viewing week, or as we say #getenthused and GO to dance. While your out consider writing an audience review. Use your words to support Dance.

READ, WATCH, PARTICIPATE and Let us know who you think we should feature in

H. Moving People- Moving People ,Artists Who Power our Dance Community and Beyond

In 2018 and 19 we created a light-hearted series called The Dance Enthusiast's A to Z in which we chose two artists, related only by the first letters in their first or last names, to play a game of 20 questions with us.  It was amazing to us how artists from  totally different back grounds could be so similar in their answers.

While we had much fun with this, certain letters of the alphabet posed problems.( Oh, to find dancers with last names that began with Q!)   In 2020, using a similar format, 20 questions ( both serious and whimsical)  we created MOVING PEOPLE  to feature a single person or couple of people who not only move themselves but move the dance and/or  world community.  Please help us by recommending people who are moving to you.  Contact info@dance-enthusiast.com with Moving People in the subject line.