‘Once you enter television from a broadcaster’s point of view, you end up seeing television as a huge ogre that eats up programs. It’s not a very discriminating ogre. It just gobbles up what it’s fed. Sometimes things that aren’t of the best quality.’

So says Lucie Amyot, executive producer at tfo. Not content to stick solely with the task of constantly filling hours, Amyot would like to refine the tastes of the hungry ogre, especially its appetite for the arts. Towards this end, Amyot appeals to the people spending their money, souls and energy as producers and she advocates more concern for the quality of what’s being shot.

Television, she says, is still seen as somewhat consumable. ‘It took cinema a long time before we started thinking of it in terms of an art form, but then it became le septieme art – the seventh art.’ Amyot looks forward to a time when television might gain similar status, perhaps ‘le huitieme art,’ instead of food for an indiscriminate ogre.

Towards those ends, Amyot is focusing on transposing the already established arts – dance, in particular – more effectively onto television. In order to do it effectively, she says, a few things must happen.

First and foremost, she believes a new vocabulary needs to be developed. She notes that language has already developed for presenting theater through the television medium.

‘No one would dream of doing theater the way it’s done on stage for television – having the actors projecting in the same way, with the same costumes, same lighting. We’ve learned. It moves faster, it’s in close-upsthere’s a language.’

It’s this mindset she notices lacking when dance, music, or even visual art is transposed onto tv. She feels production teams need to approach the taping of arts for tv from a different angle. Amyot says there’s ‘nothing more boring than watching an orchestra play on television’ and ‘a straight taping of a ballet is like watching ants.’

Amyot doesn’t believe dance as it’s now represented on tv will grab viewers as they channel surf. The only interested viewers may be those predisposed to dance who will see it as a documentation of something they weren’t able to see on stage. She believes a more visually effective way of presenting it will draw in more eyes.

As for actually doing that, Amyot suggests it might involve co-operation between choreographers and directors. Since such collaborations have already happened in the film world, television is the next natural progression. The result could be the beginnings of the new language, one which keeps in mind that tv is intimate, but not a commitment. Programming that’s not immediately engaging will be zapped away.

As to where these revolutionary culture shifts might happen, Amyot suggests they will spring from public television or possibly the new specialty channels. While specialty channels might be an outlet for arts programs in particular, Amyot proceeds with caution. ‘That’s not the ideal situation. I don’t like to ghettoize the arts, or anything else for that matter.’

In terms of the bottom line, Amyot concedes that financing will be a challenge because of the small market. She adds, however, that ‘it’s not just a question of money, it’s also a question of approach and attitude.’

On the cutting edge of this approach and attitude is the work of Rhombus Media. Producer Barbara Willis Sweete, resident ‘dance queen,’ is a close friend of Amyot and a strong supporter of her vision. Taking the vision one step further, Willis Sweete says there is no other way to present dance on the screen.

‘It can’t be done any other way. Without taking into consideration the medium in which you’re working, you might just as well set up a camera at the back of the hall and make one of those horrible documentation films.’

To make a dance film, Willis Sweete says, you have one of two options: you can adapt a traditional stage production, as she’s done with her newest project Dido and Aeneas, or you can work with a choreographer who creates with the medium in mind, as was the case when she worked with Mark Morris on Falling Down Stairs.

While Willis Sweete admits that the language of theater on television has become very much a part of the growth of the language of dance on television, she’s quick to point out the differences.

‘The movement of the camera in a dance film becomes another entity, another point of view within the performance. The camera moves much less overtly in drama than in dance.’

While the process of conceiving dance for film is definitely more time consuming (her collaboration with Morris for Falling Down Stairs took a year of consultation), Willis Sweete sees it as a growing element in the performing arts community. So much so that she teaches workshops for choreographers on how to work for and with a camera instead of a static audience sitting at the front of the stage. It’s the first step in making the transition successful.

‘One thing I teach is that in this medium there is no `front.’ There can be as many fronts as you want, if you want any. The camera is in, around, through and above the dance, changing the very idea of the dance.’

Amyot is optimistic that these changes and a new vocabulary will allow arts broadcasters to reach a new public – non-traditional viewers of arts on tv. ‘I’d like to give it some staying power, or at least develop a public that’s appreciative, who goes and looks at it in the way they do with film.’

Amyot’s vision of the culture of television involves a shifting of attitudes. She sadly acknowledges the question, ‘What are you doing?’ often gets the reply, ‘Nothing, just watching tv.’ She fears that television isn’t revered enough to be considered a social event.

She’s concerned that ‘no one talks about who directed a television program. Television directors don’t exist. They don’t have names. They do in the profession, but outside the profession, no one has a clue.’

Expanding on her vision of tv as the eighth art form, Amyot imagines ‘telematheques’ as the film world has its cinematheques. ‘It would develop future `televisionmakers’ like filmmakers.’

Tammi Sotnikow is a second-year media writing student in the School of Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto.