First up, I'm conducting two Internet workshops at the NYS Arts Summit 2009 in Schenectady, New York from September 22nd-23rd.
The first workshop is a nuts-and-bolts introduction to Facebook and Twitter. And the second workshop will offer a strategic overview of Facebook and Twitter with examples of how arts organizations are using these tools. Both sessions are hands-on and participants are encouraged to bring their computers and connect via Wi-Fi.
Then, on September 29th, I'll be on a Movement Research Panel: "Towards an Adjudication Model for Dance Criticism," here in Manhattan.
If you can make it to one or both of the programs, please let me know.
Kathleen Isaac, a dance teacher at PS 165 in Flushing, Queens, and I are delighted to launch KidsMakeDance.
The main objective of KidsMakeDance is to develop a new educational approach and framework to child-centered dance-making that integrates proven dance teaching methodologies with the Internet, digital technologies and social media.
Our first pilot project is next week. "KidsMakeHipHop" with Carlos Cordova from Souljerz Crew will take place in Flushing from July 27 - 31, 2009. Kathleen, Carlos and I will be working with kids from Kathleen's PS 165 Dance Company and we and the students will be documenting (video, pictures and text) the creative process online during and following the program.
I've been taking a wonderful beginner West African dance class with live drumming at Alvin Ailey taught by Maguette Camara.
Emily Cannarella, from Alvin Ailey, took photos of the class this past Monday and was kind enough to forward pictures of me and other students dancing in the class.
If you have a Facebook Fan Page for your organization, you can use the Fan Box widget to promote your Page on your blog or website. This widget includes a one-click join button, your page feed, and random images of fans. You can customize your widget to meet your needs.
You will find the link for the Fan Box widget toward the top left column of your Fan Page.
I created a Great Dance Fan Page last week. Here is what the Fan Box widget looks like for my Page:
If you have a WordPress blog, you can create a mobile theme for visitors who access your posts with iPhone, Android and other mobile devices. It is worth considering this functionality because more and more users access blogs, websites and other content via their mobile phones.
Here's an example: I created a WordPress blog for Jody Sperling of Time Lapse Dance. I installed the WPtouch plug-in and customized it. Now when mobile visitors access jodysperling.com, they will see the mobile theme instead of the standard browser page view:
Mobile users can then decide whether they want to view the mobile theme or switch back to the regular browser view.
Also, when you configure WPtouch, you can add customized icons that mobile users will see when they save your blog to their device's home page screen.
There are many mobile applications that you can use to publish text and pictures to WordPress blogs, Facebook, Flickr and other social media sites. The beauty with these applications is that you can easily share multimedia content from wherever you happen to be, which makes these tools ideal for dancers who want to share their work in real-time or almost real-time.
Once the app was downloaded, I logged-in to my test blog Dancing Interface. It took just a minute or so to write a short post, take a picture with my phone and publish both the text and image to my blog.
With WordPress for iPhone, you can add and edit posts and pages, add new or saved pictures, moderate comments, and write/edit in portrait or landscape mode.
Dance Theater Workshop's Community Choreography project is an innovative experiment that leverages Twitter, YouTube and blogging to create and share collaborative movement pieces.
Here's how it works:
- DTW sends a tweet to its almost 700 followers on Twitter encouraging them to submit movement or non-movement ideas that will be incorporated into a new video.
- Twitter followers respond. Some of the responses can be searched for using the Twitter hash tag #communitychoreography or you can just do a search for DanceTWorkshop.
- DTW, lead by Front of House Manager Adam Smith and Manager of Public Relations Jillian Sweeney, collect the twitter suggestions and create a movement video based directly on these submissions. These videos are posted to YouTube and DTW's blog.
This round of community choreography provides some avoidance techniques, throwbacks to "classic" CCs, and one epic dance number. I'm sure Jillian wouldn't mind if someone commissioned her to create an evening length work around this one. Enjoy!
Great Dance is devoted to Internet marketing and social media strategies for dancers and dance companies. And you will find extensive coverage of dance videos, animations, movement-based installations and cutting-edge cinematography.
To share stories and ideas, offer feedback, and ask questions, please email Doug Fox.
