Monday, March 26, 2007
The Situation
Jermaine (aka. Jay), head cheorographer of Mahogany, has been sitting in in all the dance practices, saying that he reserves the right to cut anyone from any dance whom he thinks cannot make it. Apparently, he says this every semester, but has never done so, until now.
Last Thursday, during Julien & Troy's practice, he called 5 people out in the middle of practice and told them that he was cutting them. All of them had made it through the auditions by Troy & Julien together with everyone else in the dance and have been practicing every Thursday for the last 2 months. Jay did this in front of everybody else and without first consulting either Troy or Julien.
The Issues
Despite being within his self-proclaimed "rights", Jermaine clearly acted in an insensitive and inconsiderate manner to everyone involved. Not only did he bypass Troy & Julien's authority, this being their own choreographed dance, he also questioned their sense of judgement in choosing these 5 to perform their dance in the first place. Furthermore, he thoroughly embarassed each of those he cut by doing so in such a public and abrupt manner; and also disrupted the entire dance by rudely removing a third of the dancers just 3 weeks before the actual performance.
What he could have done
Firstly, Troy & Julien were the first people he should have spoken to before doing anything to their dance & their dancers. He could have told them that he felt these dancers were not up to speed and suggest that they be taken out. However, the final decision should have been Troy & Julien's, not his.
Secondly, if the choreographers had chosen to keep them on, he could have suggested that extra practice be given, and perhaps give the dancers critique as well as a one week grace period to improve their performance.
And if Jay still strongly felt the need to cut the dancers immediately without consulting both Troy & Julien, he could at least have done so in a less humilitating manner for the dancers themselves and shown them some basic respect as fellow UVA students and members of Mahogany.
The Aim of the Petition
To right an injustice.
xx, xx, xx, xx & xx should be allowed to return to practice and perform if they so choose to do so.
***
Ok that's what has been on my mind since 2pm, when i heard about what happened. Jay really crossed the line by doing this. Yes, he's trying to ensure that Mahogany's performance looks as good as it possibly can, but he certainly should not have done so at the expense of Mahogany's dancers!! Helen was telling me about how good Mahogany used to be about accepting people for their love of dance rather than their actual experience, but honestly, i didn't really take what she said to heart until i heard so many people talking about it today. Mahogany was supposed to be fun! Everyone understands the need for auditions because, being part of Mahogany, we want the performance to look good too. But to bypass the choreographers authority and cut people 3 weeks before the performance after they'd been practicing for over 2 months?!? I think the only reason i (and most people, i'm sure) would accept for him cutting them is if they hadn't been going for practice & really don't know the dance or something. But the reason he gave Stella for cutting her was simply that this dance is "not her style". ?@!?##^?? if troy and julien hadn't liked her 'style', they won't have chosen her in the first place! I used to think he was cool, if anal. But i retract the cool part >.<
I want to print out the above for a petition on behalf of those dancers and get the rest of Mahogany to sign it. But apparently there have been a lot of politics going on and i want to do it in a way that won't offend any of them either. Like i said, this is to correct an injustice. Perhaps i should email Jay first, get his side of the story and warn him of what i'm gonna do so as to give him a chance to 'do the right thing' before i start the petition? After all, i'm only going to be here for this semester so I don't have anything to lose right?
And before you ask, yes, i would give up my place to perform for the 5 to do so.
3:56 AM