In my beginner modern dance class last night at the 92nd Street Y, my teacher Susan Cherniak made the point during one of the exercises that she wasn’t interested in our arriving at the right point in sync with the…

I respect your choice of screendance as a name. I think it does include everything that could make up this art form, but it just sounds kind of dry and boring to me. From a marketing perspective, I’m not sold on it, but I do think it works as a accurate description. In terms of subdividing the form I think this should be based on style and content like other film genres. Everyone understands what a Western is or an Action film. I think the average person would distinguish between Lloyd Newson’s “Cost of Living” and Edouard Lock’s “Amelia.” According to your and Karen’s categorizations they are both cinedances, but content wise and stylistically they are very very different. I think they should live in different genre categories, but what to call them I don’t know. Maybe we should look to the music industry for clues, they have no shortage of new categories being made up all the time, usually coined by fans. To look at genres in music is to examine the Smith Family Tree. Here’s an example of one thread: Rock – Hard Rock – Heavy Metal – Hair bands. It goes on and on… And the names are fantastic too… Grind Core, Speed Metal, Punk, New Wave… I want to see videodance get juicy like that. I guess that requires some more sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll though…

Matt, I look forward to reading more of your thoughts about the clear definitions of these forms. Thanks also for inaugurating my blog with its first comment!