An insightful and wise colleague recommended this video to Zero and me. At its core is the notion that important ideas might not always be best presented via Powerpoint. The presenter goes so far as to tabulate the financial losses accrued by wasting people's time with the estimate that one-fourth of all Powerpoints are worthless and bad. In clever ways, his dancers are used to explain lasers and photons. Most profoundly, his talk concludes with the wistful hope that people might simply enjoy watching performance art for its own sake, or as the frame around the MGM lion recommends: Ars gratia artis. That this video offers multiple types of inspiration confirms this last point.
A more devious person who send this my way with the
expectation that I'd become obsessed by the idea. Such an individual would chuckle knowing that I would begin to scheme how try it out in
a public setting — a situation in which humiliation and/or infamy might occur. Unlike arranging for dancing Chinese lions or sporting a lobster costume in a banquet hall, thinking about dance is far beyond my imagination. And yet I couldn't help but wonder.
One reasonable question is whether there are particular gains to making a professional presentation via dance. The struggles of the urban student, the challenges of maintaining trust within a school, the resistance to stereotypes of failure versus excellence — each of these crossed my mind as valuable stories to share. In contrast, the TED talker does some odd things with easy chairs and footstools that are amusing but did little to extend his message. I've learned that doing silly things for their own sake is only partially fulfilling. In contrast, cleverness combined with deeper meanings resonates louder and longer. For example, the Nightmares event when Zero pretended to field a phone call from home was silly on one level; it also reminded us that we are more than the actors we portray during professional meetings.
For now, I don't see how dance will find its way into a presentation at a conference. But if I were to proceed with this idea, the downloaded moves (left) might guide my solo interpretive performance. Maybe it's not that hard to envision …
One reasonable question is whether there are particular gains to making a professional presentation via dance. The struggles of the urban student, the challenges of maintaining trust within a school, the resistance to stereotypes of failure versus excellence — each of these crossed my mind as valuable stories to share. In contrast, the TED talker does some odd things with easy chairs and footstools that are amusing but did little to extend his message. I've learned that doing silly things for their own sake is only partially fulfilling. In contrast, cleverness combined with deeper meanings resonates louder and longer. For example, the Nightmares event when Zero pretended to field a phone call from home was silly on one level; it also reminded us that we are more than the actors we portray during professional meetings.
For now, I don't see how dance will find its way into a presentation at a conference. But if I were to proceed with this idea, the downloaded moves (left) might guide my solo interpretive performance. Maybe it's not that hard to envision …