Hints for dealing with the media ...

Other folks don't share our passion for dancing.  Their passions are about
money, ego, power.

Media folks often think they understand all they need to understand.  They
tend to think they know all the relevant questions.  

Broadcast media people are single-mindedly project-focussed.  Once the story
is done, they're on to something else.

Film makers don't understand or respect dancing and dancers.
Theirs is a make-believe world, and they will say whatever they believe will
make you do what they want you to do.  They tend to like working with actors,
and to think that actors can act dancing.

You must never assume that anyone wants to present the dance as it is.  They
tend to have a pretty fixed notion of what they want to present, and they want
you to fit into that agenda.

Watch out for these traps:

	Authentic music and film footage requires rights.  They will have 
	secured the rights to *bad* music and will want you to dance to that.
	Or, worse, they want you to dance to real music and then edit in the
	bad music, so that the dancing makes no musical sense at all.

	Good photographers listen to the music and know *when* good moves happen.

	Camera crews will want to cover most of the dance floor with wires and
	lights, and will blind and crowd the dancers.

	Photographers will choose to film before the dancers are warmed up,
	or during a bad song, or focus on the most awkward dancers.

	They may record a lot of good stuff, but then edit it to bits, so the
	results come out really distorted.

	If you lend them precious videos, music, or printed material, remember
	that what's precious to you may be *nothing* to them.  I once gave
	a reporter a dozen CD liner notes never to see them again.