An excerpt from an article by Christie Taylor:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>In 1996, the Choreographers Group began a collaborative approach to presenting new work. In last night's case the group's three core members - Lillian Carter, Perla Joy Furr and Carol Somers - invited Ruth Benson Levin and Daniel McCusker to join them at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. Their teamwork paid off.<P>The first half was a lesson in building dances. Levin's engaging ``The Same Dances'' offered three, 30-second movement phrases - one each by dancers Alison Ball, Audra Carabetta and Cheri Opperman - which were then expanded into three, neatly composed dances. The final third, to music by the Incredible Casuals, was downright cool - with Ball in particular dancing like an aloof rock star, always on her own drum beat, which made you want to watch her more.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><B><A HREF="http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/danc08132000.htm" TARGET=_blank>Read the Boston Herald article</A></B>

It's interesting (do I use that word often enough?)- I'm working on a portfolio, and just the other evening noticed what a huge portion of the choreographic work I've done has been collaboratively produced.<P>The problems and bonuses of collaborating on choreography are pretty unique - egos and divisions of labor among the problems, and developing a shared understanding and sharing the workload being among the bonuses. In my experience you can either get more done or way less when working with others - sometimes even within the same project. <P>I've wound up learning about other people's methods of creating dances - seeing what I think works, and what I can do without. If I only worked by myself I'd have missed out on this part. <P>All in all it's also helped me learn about where to give and take and where to try to stand my ground. How to share too.

A lot of modern choreographers use improvisation by the dancers to make significant contributions to a piece.<P>Perhaps the foremost exponent of this method is William Forsythe of Ballett Frankfurt. In his 'Improvisation Technologies' CD-ROM he shows how he gives his dancers a systematic framework for improvisation. This is used in the creation of at least parts of a work, with Forsythe selecting the bits that work and those that don't. <P>In many of his pieces this improvisation takes place live on stage. Even 'In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated' performed by POB and the RB has a couple of places where the dancers improvise.<P>As a result of these innovatons, for the last 5 years or so Forsythe has described his work as - Choreographed by William Forsythe in collaboration with [the names of the dancers involved].<P>From what I have seen of Forsythe's work this method comes up trumps.<P>Here is a <BR><A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000329.html" TARGET=_blank>link to two articles and a discussion about Forsythe.</A><P><BR><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited September 02, 2000).]