interview with doug post from "djp artist srevices"
by asimplesound
where are you from and how did you get here?
i was born in penna, father episcopal priest, mother housewife. went to public schools, played in a successful rock band, went off to college, quit to become a rock star which never happened. joined the workforce, spent 5 years in the printing industry, became enamored of computers, got some training and spent next 30 years or so in various positions including operations, systems, programming and management. presently work for an income tax service as contract programmer, and have done a few free lance short term contracts in programming and system testing. married to a children's librarian at our local library. three children, one daughter a fiddler in a philly area irish band (jamison irish) who also plays cello & euphonium, the other daughter a cullinary school grad who is presently a baker in chicago, and a son who is a visual arts mfa candidate at brooklyn college (rec'd bfa from mason gross school of the arts last spring).
when did you become interested in the nyc dance community?
had an interest in modern dance since watching late night PBS programs of experimental videos and perfomances in the early 1970's. in the 1980's became involved with "beyond the nj turnpike" which evolved into beyondance, inc. was on their 
board of directors for a number of years and served as president and treasurer. attended performances in various nj venues over the years. saw limon, early momix, pilobolus and others. have had a subscription to dance series at mccarter theater in princeton for probably 20 years. have been attending next wave since 1989 (first performance was the night of the san francisco earthquake during the world series). in the '90's became involved with freespace dance and was a charter member of their board.
can you describe how you started djp artist services?
june 2000 i started working in nyc. after 6 months or so i realized the enormous opportunities working in the city afforded for seeing dance. so i started attending a few performances. after a few months i met a couple of people in the audience who were dancers and/or choreographers who engaged me in conversation. this helped me overcome an innate shyness around 'performers'. and i realized the computer contract that had me in the city could expire at any time, so i started attending more and more performances as i never knew when my regular commuting into the city would end. (it finally did at the end of last year). and this led to meeting more and more people in the community.
a couple of years ago i began thinking about how i could continue my involvement with the community and provide some 'payback' for the unrestricted inclusion i had been afforded by so many people. i figured i could use some of my business experience and expertise to help people who needed some assistance. i 
didn't want to limit my involvement to a particular area as different people have different needs. i attended a dtw lab on artist management to expose myself to the various areas of the business that i was unfamiliar with. so this was the informal beginning of djp artist services. last spring through a referral by a choreographer friend i joined eva dean dance as assistant booking manager, a position i still hold.
and occasionally i would send out a note to friends about upcoming performances. after tax season ended i had more time on my hands and the notes became more frequent and more extensive; that is now the djp artist services newsletter that i try to get out once a week.
what do you see djp artist services developing into?
so where does this go? the tax guy i work for turned 80 this year ... so this job won't last forever. i see expanding my services in consulting on a project basis and perhaps taking on a management role for an artist or company on a part time or per project basis. the reality is i need to make a living too, and i recognize that dollars are limited in the dance community so i will likely have a lot of part time gigs to scrape together a few bucks to pay the bills. at some point a web site is in the offing, and perhaps that will be the income generator while the newsletter is the freebee. or some combination of free and pay services in the marketing/promotion area. but underlying it all is still the 'thank you' to the community so some things will always be at no cost to the dancers.
how has dance changed over the years in nyc?
my exposure in the city (other than next wave) is really limited to the last six years or so. two things stand out ... there are more and more people performing and working at their craft and yet, with only a couple of exceptions, there are minimal opportunities for them to be presented, particularly in the larger, better known houses. so it's self production, collaboration, festivals where the performance is often just a teaser or excerpt, and debt debt and more debt.
yet in spite of that there are numerous people woking on experimental forms,
some venues willing to take a chance with lesser known performers and companies, others willing to allow more established performers try out new pieces with the chance of failure (or perhaps just lesser success) and not banish them forever as a result.
the loss of corporate and governmental funding is and will continue to have an impact (nothing new to that statement). and yet the creative juices that turn out work after work can be applied to funding and performance solutions in ways we haven't seen yet. so i am optimistic about the future.
dougjp55@yahoo.com
