Roundup in the Art Corral.

THE REASONS FOR the crisp, clean look you are noticing in Dance Magazine are three: James Lambertus, Sarah Keough, and Julian Becerra. James joined us last month as art director when his predecessor, Shawn Raecke, left to become the full-time caregiver to his young son, Jackson. While we hated to lose Shawn from the staff, we could not argue with the importance of his choice. And he has promised to visit, bringing the baby from time to time.

James, meanwhile, with characteristic good humor, has jumped right into the fray, applying his sense of refinement and flow to the pages of big beautiful photographs and easily readable content. He brings new eyes to the design, skills from his diverse experience, such as at Stanford University and on staff at Discover magazine, that we welcome. The dot-com industry's loss is our gain--and yours.

The pixie in front of the production manager's monitor is Sarah Keough (key-o). She's a photographer cum rock musician cum creative director and set dresser, and general all-round free spirit. She literally grew up in the magazine world, and production work was part of her maturation story. She can slickly place display ads in page layouts and make nicely fitted stories out of the motley electronic jots and tittles that we editors give to her--and so far without a snarl or a whimper. Her experience as an artist guides her technician's hand. We are blessed.

Julian Becerra, an unexpected bonus, came to us as a part-time photo assistant while he was a student at San Francisco's Academy of Art College. His skill at scanning and improving photographs for our use is grand, but his quiet efficiency and organization of materials were not even part of the job description. Now that school is out and he has a little extra time, he has been further revealed as a fine artist whose sense of color and proportion adds to the overall depth of our art department. It turns out he's a watercolorist among other genres, and he studied in Guadalajara beneath the Orozco murals. Now he's ours.

About this time I should be saying something cute and clever that would tie all this human-relations flag waving to jazz, since that's a focus of the August issues, but no. No one above is from Chicago or the Bronx or Japan. There's no parallel with strung-out horn players like Bird or raspy-voiced singers who sound like they gargled with laundry detergent like Louis; no ears-turned-inward improvising percussionists or finger-snapping stop-time artists like our jazz tappers. No Prohibitionera shimmying jazz babies; no hard-driving rap or competition dancers.

But are our artists creative? Sure. Are they frustrated by limitations? You bet. Are they outrageous? From time to time. But mostly, they're just hard working artistic folks doing what they do--and doing it very well.

`Til next month.

Editor in Chief K. C. Patrick has worked for Dance Magazine, both in New York and California, since 1998. After dividing her time between the business world and motherhood, she returned to the arts. She was editor of Dance Teacher Now, a position she held for ten years.