by Dulce Gomez, Marketing Intern at The Joyce

Internships enhance the classroom experience by bringing to life theories and issues discussed. It is also an opportunity to observe an organization as it lives and functions day by day. As students we seek out those internships that will provide us an opportunity to test theory on practice. That is why I chose The Joyce as my internship site. As a second-year graduate student studying Performing Arts Administration at NYU, I have already interned for a dance company and now I wanted to see what the perspective was for a presenter. What challenges do they face that are both similar and unique to this environment?

I am now in my fourth week and what is it that I have observed so far? Well for one, the great thing about The Joyce is that they have something that most arts organizations would kill to have- their audience. It is incredibly diverse. One could say that most presenting organizations have diverse audiences due to the variety of programming they provide but I believe that it goes beyond that for The Joyce. There are few organizations that pump as much diversity into their programming. Just looking at the performances scheduled from February to the end of March you will find Indian dance, a Mexican ballet company, Flamenco, Classical Ballet, a group from Uganda, and an Israeli dance company. Talk about an international passport! “What do the arts do to enhance our lives and what service do they provide to the community?” That is a question that is often posed when the need for arts is questioned. In relation to The Joyce, one answer is that they are promoting cultural awareness through dance. This is an incredibly important resource as the world around us shrinks and we are forced to interact with more and more people that are different than we are. Rather than fear the unknown, organizations like The Joyce are fostering cultural understanding through a medium that everyone has in common- DANCE!

Do you want to be a Joyce intern?

Hello all, Christina, The Joyce’s newest associate, here to share a few thoughts.

Going to college in New York City is really something I know nothing about, but I assume its awesome because everything is here. The museums, theaters, workshops, all the things you study in school are happening all around you. Where I went to school, in a small tourist town in Virginia, the biggest event that happened was a Caravaggio exhibit that came to the school’s small art museum. The turn out was huge, everyone went to see this amazing work of art. Yeah, Caravaggio is a big deal, but in the end it turned out to be one painting and not a cool one like the one where John the Baptist get his head cut off. It was just a bunch of fruit, a very well done bunch of fruit. Not so much groundbreaking history in the making.

Last night I went to see the Trisha Brown Dance Company here at the Joyce Theater and there was a small group of about fourteen students that came from The New School. They were part of a class called Dance and Theories of Community, taught by Danielle Goldman. After the performance there was a short talkback session with Trisha Brown herself, as well as the dancers of the company. Sitting there it made me think how cool it would have been to sit in class and learn about someone’s legendary work, like Trisha Brown and then that night, go see her company perform, a performance where she happens to passing on her signature solo to a young company member, Then, on top of all that, be able to ask her a question about it! Isn’t that education at its greatest? Isn’t this something that could be referred to as legen. . . wait for it. . . dary?! This is something that could probably only happen in New York, but at The Joyce it happens on a weekly basis.

So my question is: where are all the students? (more…)