Report on My Interviews

In this post I will discuss more about the genres my teachers and I talked about.

1)  What are the most significant or interesting genres that you learned about from your interviewees? Please identify at least THREE specific genres from your discipline/field of study that your interview subjects discussed writing within.

• The most significant genres that we discussed were dance book publications (specifically Mr. C's), resumes,  Laban notation, and choreography (including mime/Delsarte)

2)  How do these genres differ from one another? Think about things like genre convention, content, purpose, audience, message, and context as you describe these differences.

• Dance books and resumes differ from Laban notation and choreography because they involve actual written text.  Laban notation relies more on symbols, and choreography is an unwritten form of communication.  The purpose of the books usually is to educate an audience on dance, or a dancers life using in depth information, while a resume gives abbreviated information to inform an audience (audience is typically potential employers).  Laban notation is to inform dancers and choreographers by keeping record of dance choreography.  Choreography itself is all over the board.  The audience is usually kept fairly general, and the purpose is typically to entertain and employ some sort of pathos; although certain pieces employ logos as well.  

3)  Based on the information you gathered in your interviews, what is challenging and/or difficult about writing within these genres (from a professional's point of view)?

• Book publications:  For writing the history book, Mr. C found that the most challenging part was deciding how specific or how non-specific he should be with the content.

• Resumes:  One challenging part is including everything that you need while still keeping formatting clean and easily readable. 

• Laban notation:  Since neither teacher has much, if any, experience recording Laban notation, they say that the most difficult part of it is actually interpreting it.  Michael said that although it is create for general movements, it often times can not capture all of the fine details of the choreography.

• Choreography: Working with a time frame is can be challenging for Mr. C.  If one dancer is not as invested one day, it can be difficult for the director because everyone is not as engaged.  For Michael specifically, his most challenging part is coming to the studio with an idea everyday.

4)  Based on the information you gathered in your interviews, what is exciting and/or rewarding about writing within these genres (from a professional's point of view)?

• Book publications: I think the exciting part for Mr. C was that he was able to fill a blank space that was in the curriculum here at U of A.

• Resumes: The rewarding thing about writing a resume is if it helps actually get you a job.  It is also exciting because you are able to show off your best experience and the most appealing way possible.

• Laban notation: None of the information was really applicable to this.  I guess the exciting thing at the time was that you could actually record the choreography.  Before that, you had to have someone memorizing the whole piece, and then parts would change.

• Choreography: Creating something pleasing for an audience.  Having the satisfaction of having parts look exactly the way you want them, and to represent the music excellently.

5)  Where in mass media - popular, academic, and/or social - can examples of this genre be found? If genre examples cannot be found within mass media easily, where can genre examples be found/located?

• I can actually locate dance resumes from many of my dance peers here at the University of Arizona Dance School, since they have taken Michael's class.

• Laban notation examples can easily be accessed online.

• Choreography can easily be found on Youtube and Vimeo.

Graedon, Terry "Untitled" 3/7/2011 via. peoplespharmacy.com. Pubic Domain

• The book publications can be found in the library; however, I can not access them on the computer.  I have Mr. C's book, and although I do not have the two other dance books right now, I have read them before.  Do I film the books, or can I just discuss what rhetorical strategies they use and show a picture of the cover?