From the President

It is my great privilege to share with you my first letter for SDC Journal as President of the SDC Executive Board. The Board represents a range and breadth of experience—35 directors and choreographers who are elected by you, the Membership, to serve your needs and ensure that the Union remains strong. I am proud to stand among them.

Since being elected President last November, I have engaged with SDC Members across the country. The meetings and conversations I’ve had in these first several months of my tenure have reminded me of the strength of the SDC community. When I feel isolated in

a country that each day grows increasingly hostile to creative work and free speech, I am buoyed by that strength. I know that my fellow directors and choreographers share my commitment to that creative work, and that together, we can make our Union, and our country, a better place.

One of the things that has been a big takeaway for me is the desire, the yearning, felt by so many of you, to come together with other directors and choreographers in a meaningful way. The professions of director and choreographer are often lonely ones. There are only a few SDC Members in most rooms—sometimes just one

or two, but even when there are more than that, we are usually outnumbered! Being a director or choreographer—people who are envisioning, communicating, and leading the execution of the flow, the movement, the shaping of performance—is a singular endeavor. Across all the things that make us different from each other, across all our many differences in terms of practice, people want to talk in substantive and unmediated ways about the wide world, the field, and our craft.

I have been on the Executive Board of SDC since 2006, and I have never felt more acutely the need for collectivity and unity. Fifteen or 20 years ago, in my mind, SDC Members were striving toward commonality with other directors and choreographers, as opposed to recognizing how much we had in common. Today, when certain dangers are more acute, when we can point to metrics that show the divisions in this country and in the world, when the country has an epidemic of loneliness—we are actively leaning into the notion of commonality.

How SDC can bring us together and increase our sense of shared experience and interests as directors and choreographers feels more important than ever right now. The more we’re able to come together and grapple with how we deploy our strength as a Union—how we develop our relationships with employers, how we secure stronger minimum terms and conditions for our work, how we position directors and choreographers as leaders in the field—the more we also strengthen the possibility of connection.

We also connect people through SDC Journal, a magazine dedicated to craft. The focus of the Journal is on vision and process, sharing insights, and illuminating the work of directors and choreographers. The conversations and interviews in each issue of the Journal remind me that the pursuit of artistic excellence is also a shared one.

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Recently, I had the opportunity, with Western Regional Representative Jon Lawrence Rivera, to meet with Keith McNutt, Executive Director of the Western Region of the Entertainment Community Fund. In addition to sharing information with Keith about SDC’s robust Membership in the Western Region, we enjoyed a tour of the arts center that is under construction as part of the Hollywood Arts Collective affordable housing complex.

The Entertainment Community Fund is one of the industry’s greatest resources, providing free and confidential services and programs to help entertainment workers navigate a wide range of professional and personal challenges. In addition to resources that are available to everyone in the entertainment industry, contract-filing SDC Members also have access to the Fund’s Member Assistance Program, which provides a variety of short-term counseling services. All our Members have to do is call and say, “I’m with SDC” and they can access such programs as a housing resource center, a career center, information about financial wellness, personal wellness, health insurance navigation, educational workshops, and more. I have personally benefited greatly from their services. On behalf of everyone at the Union, I encourage our Members to make use of the opportunities available to them through the Entertainment Community Fund.

In Solidarity,

Michael John Garcés

Executive Board President