The second part of my interview with Greg Miller, the Founder and Executive Director of Dance Parade in which we discuss some of the logistical problems in staging such a massive event, along with some of the financial challenges, and the group’s long term goal.
Part 2
| NB: | How else has Dance Parade changed from it’s originally conception? |
| GM: | It’s much more artistic and much more diverse now. We have an outreach team, all they do is look at lists of hundreds of groups to see, okay, how can we make it more diverse, more interesting, what holes are in the parade? For example, we have twenty types of world cultures presented and we’ve never had a Chinese group. So we stopped into the Chinese cultural center and said, hey, you guys should be involved and that’s how it happens. As a result, it’s become more focused on world cultural, with more partner dancing and something really for everyone, for all ages. |
| NB: | Curious about some of the logistic problems in handling such a large event. Last year, correct me if I’m wrong, but it was something like 3,000 dancers and this year I understand you’re aiming for 10,000? |
| GM: | Last year was 5,000 actually, and we’re trying to double that. We have 3,000 signed up already and about six weeks to go. We’re probably going to hit around 8,000, but you never know. We have four Grand Marshals that are pretty well known. But to answer your question, in four years we’ve figured out our logistics pretty well. It mostly has to do with sound and having an audio strategy so the drum group isn’t placed next to the ballerinas or the ballerinas doesn’t get placed next to the strippers. |
| NB: | Do I have to remind you that stripping is not allowed in public? |
| GM: | (Laughs) I mean the pole dancers. We’ve found that actually placing the groups in historical order solves a lot of that. At the beginning of the Parade you have the early cultures, the African and Asian dances which are not real loud, then ballet, the partner dances and so on. Modern dances are also generally not very loud. And then we get into the more colorful and crazy groups, a big segment of the Burning Man population, which is an art festival out in Nevada. There are a lot of circus performers, hip hoppers. Another logistical problem is it takes so many people to make this thing happen. |
| NB: | How many? |
| GM: | Probably about 30 people to do it really right. 30 people that are all volunteers. |
| NB: | In all the years you’ve been involved in Dance Parade what has been the biggest surprise? |
| GM: | A big surprise was people don’t do it because they’re getting paid, they do it because they love dance. They really do, and they really want to make it happen. It was a surprise to see people work all night to make the website happen, to get the press release out, to put lists together. |
| NB: | What is your long term goal? |
| GM: | We made the logo purposely to be Dance Parade with a little New York next to the side of the “D”. So it’s the New York Dance Parade now for the first five or six years, but down the road we can easily see Dance Parade in Boston, L.A., Paris, Tokyo. So we’ve come up with a branding package and we’ll give away the website so others can use our logistical tool to sign up hundreds of groups. Because every city has dance, a hundred different forms of dance. Also, there’s our education program, that’s another long term goal. |
| NB: | What’s that involve? |
| GM: | We started last year to have showcases where kids would see different world cultures and to even have them learn some of the steps. The idea is to have an after school program where kids would learn something two, three months in advance of the Parade and then celebrate in the Parade what they’ve learned. It’s the education program which will kind of complete the dream. It’ll have these little tap dance kids from Harlem and Hip Hop dancers from Queens, Chinese Dragon dancers from Staten Island. That’s really going to be the kind of thing that makes people go, “Wow.” |
| NB: | Can we talk a little bit about the financing of Dance Parade? |
| GM: | Yes. We’re supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. We receive some money through the New York State Council of the Arts, the Manhattan Cultural Council and some other corporations. It’s much easier to get a grant for an organization that’s year ‘round, then for just a once a year type of event. But it’s hard right now with the bad economy, so we’re hoping we can pick up some money along the way. |
| NB: | When someone asks you why “Dance Parade” how do you explain it to them? |
| GM: | Dance has an inherent quality in the movement of the art form to tap into your heart, your emotions, that is very memorable and very powerful in inspiring yourself, when you start to feel how healthy you can be, and also in inspiring others. And we see this in the parade. There’s such a glow in the people in the audience. It’s like a contact high from the people in the parade. The participants are beaming because they are feeling great and looking great and moving and then they see the people in the audience. And it’s this back and forth transference of emotion. It’s just a kind of magical element that helps make it attractive. That same magical element also makes it fearful and frightens some people. Which is one of the reasons I think we’re a little bit more attended to then other cultural events. |
| NB: | You’re referring to the heavy police presence during the event. |
| GM: | I think it’s because of the music and the movement that puts a bit of fear into it. So we take extra care to make sure that it’s safe and controlled. |
| NB: | When you consider all the problems they’ve had from other cultural events, that Dance Parade would be the one that actually draws the most suspicion, it’s kind of funny. |
| GM: | I think the city is actually not quite ready to endorse it fully. We do get the mayor and a lot of other political people to support it, but I think people think, oh dance, there’s going to be a 100,000 people going nuts, jumping around and causing hysteria. |
| NB: | In addition to being the Founder and Executive Director of Dance Parade you are the Executive Director at OurMed.org. Could you tell me a little bit about that? |
| GM: | OurMed.org is an online health care site that is similar to Wikipedia right now. The goal is to have the world’s first ever unbiased place for health care information that is freely licensed, anyone can contribute content or use it. It’s open sourced so programmers can both take and contribute to it. It’s very transparent. Every month we post our financials. So it’s completely open and available to medical professionals in the form of physician verified information. It’s also available to the consumer and patient community, allowing them to relate their personal experiences, rate goods and services, drugs, service providers, and so on. There’s a great need for it because we’re swayed by advertisers and it’s incredible the amount of bias that changes the way our health care gets delivered. So we’re looking to do a very ethical and non profit approach, so it will be the first of it’s kind and available all around the world. |
| NB: | Any thoughts on the recent passing of Obama’s healthcare legislation? |
| GM: | Personally, I like it. It’s a step in the right direction. I think it will be very different in five years. There’s a lot of resistance based on fear of government being controlling and so on. |
| NB: | I understand people had a similar reaction to Medicare when it was first starting out. |
| GM: | There are always ebbs and flows with the way political stuff comes together. If you look at the 1970s ninety percent of Americans were covered by insurance companies and now it’s only sixty percent. There was a huge trajectory change in the way companies became more capitalist. Health care prices rose through the roof. Basically they’re profiting from disease and not profiting enough from preventing disease. And I don’t think it’s ethical to allow companies to profit from disease. |
| NB: | I think that about covers it. Is there anything you’d like to add? |
| GM: | I want to thank you for doing this, it’s a great service to Brazilian Zouk dancers. People need to know more about what’s going on in your community, and we hope with Dance Parade and our Dance Festival, on May 22nd, people will sign up for Zouk dancing or whatever else they find there. |
| NB: | And we thank you for creating such an amazing event. In fact, when I asked the members of our group, which event they enjoyed the most last year, the answer was unanimously Dance Parade, the thing we spent the least amount of time and money on. All that was required was showing up on and looking good. |
| GM: | And you guys looked great. It’s all about looking great on Broadway. |
Dance Parade takes place on Saturday, May 22nd starting at 1:00pm, followed by the Dance Festival in Thompkins Square Park at 3:00. To learn more about it and how to participate go to the Dance Parade website, www.danceparade.org.
Very nice ! The Parede was amazing. Great job Greg and Zouk Nation.
Beijzouks