I no longer need to travel to see a rehearsal of a piece, which allows me to work with anyone with access to the internet.
One of my first collaborations with dance was with the Jose Limon Dance Company. We were making an evening length piece and had six months to make the piece. For most of that process, I would spend each day in the dance studio with the company as the piece was being created. I would be working on the music while Mark Haim, the choreographer, would be developing different sections of the piece. Whenever he wanted to try something, I was right there to play along with the choreographic idea. Mark and I would meet before and after rehearsals and talk about the piece. It was an incredible experience and I really thought that every collaborative process would be just like that.
As I started getting calls for more collaborations, the time I was able to visit the studios with the choreographers got shorter. Soon, I was only going into the studios if it was a residency based project or if I was going to perform live. When I started doing collaborations with folks beyond NYC, I knew I had to figure out a system to keep the processes feeling the same level of depth as if I was working right next to the choreographer.
Great art can be made in collaboration with other artists in the same space and remotely. Even before people knew what Zoom was, lots of folks were using online tools to facilitate remote collaborations. A remote collaboration is when at least two artists are working on a project from different geographical locations. There are a few tools and steps that are needed to produce successful projects remotely:
There are advantages to working remotely that are not possible when working with folks in realtime and in the same space. The biggest being the amount of time/budget that is saved by working remotely. I no longer need to travel to see a rehearsal of a piece. That alone allows me to work with anyone on the planet with access to the internet.
Email - On my website, I have an email form that folks can use to get a collaboration started. This is when the broad details of the piece like concept, timeline, duration and budget are communicated. Some requests are for simple edits, which can be communicated over email and completed without speaking more in depth. For projects that are more involved, I’ll schedule a time to talk in “real time”.
Phone/Zoom/Whatsapp - For in-country calls, I schedule a phone chat to talk about the project in more detail. For out-of-country calls, I use Zoom or Whatsapp. During this conversation I am getting more details about the project and agreeing on a plan for when I will need to turn in drafts and finalized audio files. This is also when deposits and final payment dates are agreed on.
YouTube/Spotify/Apple Music - A few years ago I started to request a playlist of 5-10 tracks that are really important to the collaborator. This playlist is not the same as “reference tracks” or music that is inspiration specifically for the project. The playlist is for me to listen to on a walk and helps me get to know the new collaborator in a different way than just the ideas in the project. It also exposes me to new music from around the world. Dancers/Choreographers/Film makers are some of the most voracious listeners to music. Sharing ideas about art and art making is the most rewarding aspect of collaboration.
Google Folders/Docs - Next, I set up a Google Folder with the name of the choreographer. If this is our first project, that folder will just be for that project. As we move on to more collaborations, I will create sub-folders for each of the individual projects. All of a project’s assets including images, audio and video are shared in the folder. I will also add a Google Doc that will track the project details. I add the “Collaborator, Title, Timeline, Budget and Budget Used” to the top and then write out all of the notes we have for the project. The goal is to fill up this part with ideas, links and outlines and then slowly erase it as we make our way through the project.
Texting/Messaging - As the project progresses, I often need to ask a quick question or get some quick feedback. Texting/messaging can be a great solution for this. Some folks feel really comfortable communicating this way and others prefer using email or phone. I always ask at the beginning of the project to establish the preferred mode of communication. I definitely have some boundaries for both myself and with collaborators with quick and small communications like this. I have silenced all my notifications and only check them at certain times during the day. When collaborating with people internationally, messages can come in at all hours of the day. I want to catch all of the communications that come in and then respond based on my working hours.
Quickbooks/Venmo/PayPal/CashApp - For most projects, I request 50% of the budget to get started and 50% at the completion. All of my invoicing is done using Quickbooks which will also process most payments. I find it helpful to also have Venmo/PayPal and CashApp for all of the other payments. This allows me to accept payments internationally.
I am from the generation that went to studios to watch and rehearse with dance companies. When I started working remotely, choreographers would mail VHS tapes. I had a player and TV on my piano that I would write from. That shifted to DVDs and then to private YouTube/Vimeo videos. When smartphones became more widespread, making videos of rehearsals and uploading them to a shared Google Folder became super easy.
With all of the ease and multiple ways of communicating internationally, it is important to set up a workflow like this so that the project can be streamlined. The main goal is to set up a “container” for the project, a system that is simple and user friendly for folks all over the world.
Go through each of the different tools and see which ones you know and use, and which ones are new. Begin to set up your one system for remote collaborations. Sketch out that system and share with other students in the class. Hold a discussion about remote collaboration. What other tools would be helpful in a remote collaboration? What advantages and disadvantages do you see with remote collaborations? Have you ever collaborated remotely? If so, what was your experience? How has remote collaboration developed with learning/teaching choreography?