Talk:Virginia Tanner

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[edit] Challenge of Notability

I tagged this article for notability for the following reasons:

  • only 3150 Google hits for the search string "Virginia Tanner" (with quotes)
  • all content is provided by a single editor
  • references and external links are from the dance school, university, and sponsor (not independent of the subject)
  • "significant dancers and choreographers" are not notable
  • lack of significance or historic importance for persons outside of the immediate area

Overall, while this article would be suitable for media specific to Utah or the Salt Lake area, it appears to lack any scope for the broader global audience of Wikipedia. ~ Eidako (talk) 05:42, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] I believe your challenge of notability is ill founded

  • only 3150 Google hits for the search string "Virginia Tanner" (with quotes)
(1) How many living contemporary dancers have 3,150 Google hits?
(2) How many people born in 1915 have 3,150 Google hits?
(3) More philosphically, if number of Google hits is to be the arbiter of what is significant and what is not, Wikipedia will contain little but ephemera (though relative number of Google hits can be a decent method of resolving contradictory spellings of names etc.)
  • all content is provided by a single editor
(1) Very few people are writing about "serious" dance on Wikipedia (or anything else serious for that matter).
(2) I do so extensively (please see my list of contributions.)
(3) Tanner's papers are on deposit at the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
(a) This by itself should establish her significance as the NYPL does not waste its librarians' time or its expensive storage space on the insignificant.
(b) I live in NY and can take the bus to Lincoln Center; most other Wikipedians cannot.
(c) The papers are exactly that, papers, which have not been scanned.
(4) Anyone is more than welcome to add to the Tanner article (the line forms at the right.)
  • references and external links are from the dance school, university, and sponsor (not independent of the subject)
(1) This is simply wrong:
(a) The references include the Rockefeller Foundation reports from 1967 through 1980.
(b) A decade's support from the Rockefeller should by itself establish Tanner's significance.
  • "significant dancers and choreographers" are not notable
(1) This is a matter of opinion, but may I ask whether you attend modern dance or ballet?
(2) The following are significant:
(a) Utah Repertory Dance Theatre (very, very significant)
(b) Bill Evans Dance (significant)
(c) Cynthia Pepper, CPCollaborations (significant)
(d) Prof. Gregg Lizenbery, University of Hawaii at Manoa (very significant)
(e) Jacque Lynn Bell, University of Utah (very significant)
(f) Prof. Kathleen McClintock, Mills College (very significant)
(g) Prof. Lynne Wimmer, University of South Florida (very significant)
(h) Prof. Mary Ann Lee, University of Utah (very significant)
NB Modern dance training is for mostly university based; dance professors are very significant.
  • lack of significance or historic importance for persons outside of the immediate area
(1) If by immediate area you mean, "west of the Mississippi River," I have to agree.
(a) The University of Utah has been a major dance center for over 50 years, both modern dance and ballet.
(b) The latter department was founded by one of the Christensen brothers who had founded the San Francisco Ballet and went on to found Ballet West.)
(c) The University of Utah's children's dance training program (which has served as a feeder to Repertory Dance Theatre has been performing at major venues for over fifty years, including:
Jacob's Pillow
Connecticut College
Seattle World’s Fair
The White House
Kennedy Center
Wolftrap
Stanford University
London
Kuala Lumpur
Cardiff, Wales
(d) I trust that I do not have to explain the significance of the Seattle World’s Fair or the White House and hope I do not have to explain the significance of Jacob's Pillow, the Kennedy Center and Wolftrap.
May I ask that you please remove your challenge of notability? Robert Greer (talk) 01:20, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Undo

Five days having elapsed and having received no response concerning notabilty I have undone same. Robert Greer (talk) 22:31, 2 January 2008 (UTC)