January 31, 2006

Princess Mhoon Cooper of This Woman's Work

Yesterday, I interviewed Ursula Payne about this weekend's dance program "This Woman's Work," which will be performed this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM at Howard University in the Ira Aldridge Theatre in Washington DC. For tickets, you can call: (202) 806-4157.

Today, I have the pleasure of being joined by Princess Mhoon Cooper who is co-director of this project along with Bridget Moore. And Princess is also one of the choreographers and dancers in this weekend's performances.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - 8.9 MB - 19:07 Minutes)

Background

Rennie Harris (acclaimed choreographer) calls Princess Mhoon Cooper, "a visionary of her generation." Noted for making work that responds to pressing social issues, her work has been seen nationally and internationally. She has toured extensively with Ronald K. Brown Evidence Dance Company, Rennie Harris Pure Movement, and Chuck Davis's African-American Dance Ensemble. Most recently Mrs. Mhoon Cooper has been commissioned to create work for Slippery Rock University. She is an alumnus of Howard University and currently serves on the faculty as an Adjunct Professor.

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Marlon Barrios-Solano on Interactive Technology for Dancers

Yesterday, I interviewed Marlon Barrios-Solano, a dancer and new media artist, about his upcoming seminar program, "Interactive Technology for Dancers," which will be taking place in New York City on March 27th, April 3rd and April 10th (view seminar details). This extended interview with Marlon provides an introduction to the software and technology that is used to create responsive dance environments where the movements of dancers trigger real-time effects in the form of videos, animations, sound and lighting.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - 15.19 MB - 32:25 Minutes)

Background

Marlon Barrios-Solano is a Venezuelan dancer, new media artist, teacher and researcher. He has been based in the US since 1994. He works at the intersection of improvisational dance and real-time multimedia technology. In 2004, Marlon received his masters of fine arts from the dance and technology department at Ohio State University. And he is an artist in residence at Amsterdam-based STEIM, which helps artists to develop technologies required for performances.

Seminar Program in New York City

"Interactive Technology for Dancers"

Class: Mon, March 27, April 3, 10, 6:30 - 9:30pm
Class cost: $325 (members) $385 (non-members)

Using Max/MSP/Jitter, this workshop is geared to expose dance artists and performers to digital real-time processing and its application and issues for the creation of performance and installation environments. A hands-on workshop to get participants familiar with the Jitter object system, subjects such as real-time video playback, signal-processing for video, live camera tracking, audio-visual interaction, and the use of wireless game controllers as an alternative interface will be explored. Participants are expected to have basic experience with digital video processing.

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January 30, 2006

This Woman's Work - Audio Preview

This weekend on Friday, February 3rd and Saturday, February 4th there are performances of "This Woman's Work" at Howard University in the Ira Aldridge Theatre in Washington DC. For tickets, call (202) 806-4157 or (202) 806-7700.

To learn about "This Woman's Work" and their weekend's performances, I interviewed Ursula Payne who is one of the original choreographers involved in this project. Ursula is an independent choreographer, and associate professor of dance at Slippery Rock University where she teaches contemporary dance.

Click here to listen to dance performance preview (MP3 format - 6.52 MB - 14:14 Minutes)

Performance Description

After it’s sold out debut in 2003 and again in August 2005, co-curators Bridget Moore and Princess Mhoon Cooper’s This Woman’s Work has been the talk of the New York dance scene. “Our mission is to expose dance and movement pieces choreographed by women from the African Diaspora and to ensure that these works are seen by a broad audience. We seek to create opportunities that will allow this new generation of artists to flourish in their profession. As Black women, we stand on the shoulders of pioneers like Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus and their students, who are our teachers. We do not intend to let history be written without our voice of creativity and unique perspective, shared through our medium of choice…DANCE! The collective This Woman's Work and the contributions of Princess Mhoon Cooper and Bridget Moore along with the other choreographers were recently recognized as one of Dance Magazine's top 25 to watch.

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International Ballet Academy Festival at Kennedy Center

On Friday I attended "Proteges: The International Ballet Academy Festival" at the Kennedy Center here in Washington, DC. The program featured:

- Dance Theatre of Harlem School
- New National Theatre, Tokyo Young Artists Training Programme
- Paris Opera Ballet School
- They Royal Ballet School
- Vaganova Alumni (Kirov Ballet)

Here are three reviews of performances:

- "No Moment Wasted" in Dance View Times by George Jackson

- "Proteges': Ballet Steps From the Past Into a Bright Future" in Washington Post by Alexandra Tomalonis

- "Showcase for the World's Young Dancers" in New York Times by Jennifer Dunning

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Forget About NY - The Real Dancing is in San Francisco

You may recall that a New York Times Article by Gia Kourlas on September 6, 2005 loudly proclaimed that "New York is no longer the capital of the contemporary-dance world." (free PDF version - PPV version on NY Times)

This New York Times article was followed by "Hot Topic: Has NYC lost its leading edge in contemporary dance?" by Dance Magazine Editor in Chief Wendy Perron.

Finally, there was a week-long discussion on ArtsJournal titled "The Center of the Dance World?" - an online public conversation, December 12-16, 2006.

But while the East Coast may be offended by the loss of status, "...you could forgive a Bay Area denizen for yawning," writes West Coast blogger Rachel howard in "Dancing in the Bay Area Dance Guide A-Z" in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle. "It's hard to worry about New York when you live in a dance community like ours boasting the highest per-capital concentration of dance activity in the United States. But let's put all those pecking-order contests aside: San Francisco is simply a great place to live if you love great dancing."

Rachel then proceeds to provide profiles and links to 100 Bay Area dance companies.

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January 27, 2006

Interesting Community Threads

Here are some message threads from dance community boards that I find interesting:

Ballet Talk: "What Makes a Ballet Company a Solid Business?, Finance, Good Business & Ballet Cos."

CriticalDance: "How can ballet attract a new audience?"

CriticalDance: "How can we develop the Artistic Directors of the future?"

CriticalDance: "A creative future for ballet?"

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Kojo Nnamdi Program About Washington Ballet Dispute

Much thanks to Edward McPherson for catching this audio program about the on-going dispute between The Washington Ballet and its dancers on the Kojo Nnamdi show.

The Kojo Nnamdi Show is a program of DC-based WAMU. You can visit the page for this program about The Washington Ballet and choose an audio feed (Real Player - Windows Media Player).

I've just listened to first 10 minutes of this 26 minute interview program that covers both sides of the dispute. Definitely worth listening to.

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Ann Reinking Wants Me to Take Ballet Classes

I was reading the profiles of great choreographers in photojournalist Rose Eichenbaum's "Masters of Movement." I found an interesting passage in her interview with Ann Reinking (bio, bio), who is considered the leading interpreter of the Fosse style:

I always beg my students to take ballet, because if you can master ballet you can master anything. Ballet inherently gives you elegance, strength, and coordination. It gives you a beautiful carriage. You need that in abundance to perform jazz because it requires all of you.

Photograph of Ann Reinking
by Rose Eichenbaum

Actually, I was planning to start taking ballet next week. I just like knowing that Ann Reinking thinks that if you take jazz classes you ought to take ballet. At first I was just going to stick with jazz for awhile. But ballet has such a strong influence that it doesn't make sense for me not to take ballet classes.

While I'm at it, Rose Eichenbaum asked Reinking, "Why do you think jazz dancing is so compelling to watch?":

Because it is sensual, provocative, and a little dangerous. It is rooted in the twentieth century and tells stories in a twentieth-century way. Ballet, for example, comes to us from the eighteenth century, with its emphasis on the celestial, the otherworldly. Jazz is of the earth, of the streets, of this world. It is an American art form, with its own syllabus and stylistic approach. When a jazz choreographer asks you to perform his steps, he's really asking you to express his point of view, his history, and his mood. Jazz employs an element of risk. There's a huge physical risk in ballet, too, but in ballet you hide the risk through its formal approach and refined nature. Jazz dancers are asked to fully reveal themselves and show their emotions and vulnerability. They are expected to show the risk taking and divulge the danger. That's what makes it so hypnotic and compelling to watch.

Read the reviews of "Masters of Movement" on Amazon. All five reviewers give this book five stars. I was given a signed copy as a present - it's a wonderful book of profiles and pictures:

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January 26, 2006

Types and Challenges of Motion Tracking Systems

Matt Gough in his "Splines in Space" blog has two entries about the motion tracking and capture system he uses for his dance research and composition - "Motion Capture (Dance)" and "Noodle Dance".

Matt describes the different types of motion tracking technology (Magnetic, Gyroscopic and Optical) and points out the challenges of tracking large numbers of discrete body movements. Ideally, he'd like to have a dancer outfitted with 100 plus markers and more computer power to process results in real-time.

An image that displays results of 1:41 minutes of motion tracking - "The Noodle Dance":

Using a passive optical motion tracking system with markers that are placed on the dancer's hands and body:

This area of motion tracking systems and dance movement - both for research and performance - is an area I plan to do a lot more interviews about both for my audio podcasts and upcoming publication.

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Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago Coming to DC

After taking a lot of jazz classes, I'm looking forward to seeing Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago here in DC on February 25th at the American Dance Institute.

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January 25, 2006

Interview with Jo-Anne Green

I interviewed Jo-Anne Green this morning. Jo is co-creator and contributor to the Networked Performance weblog, which I've very much enjoyed reading since its founding in July 2004. On her blog, you'll find stories about a diverse range of new media and performance arts projects taking place around the globe.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - 7.89 MB - 17:14 Minutes)

Background

Our guest is Jo-Anne Green, co-creator and contributor to the Networked Performance weblog.

Jo, born in Johannesburg, South Africa, received a BFA in printmaking and art history from the University of Witwatersrand.

She moved to Boston in 1983 where she obtained a MFA in Painting. In 1985, Jo co-founded Cultural Resistance to educate the American public about Apartheid through the art and culture of South Africa.

Jo was instrumental in starting the artist-in-residence program at the University of New Mexico's (UNM) Albuquerque High Performance Computing Center. This initiative led to the creation of the Arts Technology Center (ATC), of which she served as the program coordinator until returning to Boston in 2001 and receiving her MS in Arts Administration.

Jo has exhibited her paintings (view her artwork), one-of-a-kind artist's books, and installations in South Africa, Boston, and New York.

The Networked Performance blog is published by Turbulence, a project of New York-based New Radio and Performance Arts, Inc.

Turbulence is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is the commissioning of networked art by emerging and established artists.

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Listen to Harry Belafonte at Arts Presenters Conference

Complete audio available of Harry Belafonte's opening plenary address at the 49th Annual Member Conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters this past weekend.

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Adding Art Commentary to Videos

Joe at Butts In The Seats has a good post about how artists can use the second audio track (the commentary track) on DVDs to educate viewers about the arts. This is an exploration of a similar idea I wrote about in "Double Your Dance Audiences" earlier this month.

Essentially, the idea is to create dual audio tracks for video programs whether they are distributed in DVD format or online. One track includes the music and the other track includes the commentary.

Joe writes:

A dancer may comment on how their heart soars at a particular place in a ballet even after performing it 50 times or how a piece looks deceptively simple but actually involved hours of practice.

And continues:

If the commentary was designed well, pointing out what people should look for, explaining the process and providing points of reference to which people can relate...it could become a powerful educational and intimidation allaying tool.

I agree. There are many ways that audio commentary can add significant value to all types of arts programs delivered by video.

But making the audio insights of artists available to the public does not have to be an expensive proposition as Joe writes:

It would be an expensive undertaking to pull the video production resources together to produce a DVD. However, I think foundations that support audience building and arts education efforts would probably be happy to underwrite the creation of a tool that could be easily duplicated and distributed to serve large numbers of people.

The least expensive way to proceed is to start by making these types of educational programs available online. It doesn't cost a lot to record an artist and make this audio program available before or after a performance. Or, you can record the voice of an artist and substitute this commentary track for the musical audio track that is part of a video. That way, a visitor to your website or podcast on iTunes could download both videos and enjoy the performance and the commentary.

There are, for example, an increasing number of audio tours available for art shows at different museums. Once you've installed iTunes, go to podcast section and do a search for "museums."

And as part of my audio podcasts, I'm going to soon be interviewing choreographers and dancers specifically about their upcoming performances. That way people who are planning to attend a performance can gain a much better appreciation for a dance work before they reach the theater and will have new tools for thinking about and enjoying the program as it unfolds.

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January 24, 2006

Dancing into the Future: Table of Contents

This year I'm researching and writing a comprehensive guide to dance and technology. The title of this publication is "Dancing into the Future™." Below I've included a description of this upcoming workbook along with a detailed table of contents.

I will be interviewing hundreds of people in the dance community around the globe for this publication. Please email me (Doug Fox) if you would like to be interviewed or have information that you believe should be included.

(Please review copyright and trademark information at the end of this post.)

Publication Overview

Title: Dancing into the Future

Author: Doug Fox, Great Dance LLC

Target publication date: End of 2006

Summary: "The Dancing into the Future" workbook will provide dancers and choreographers with both a strategic and practical overview of how to embrace the latest digital tools and technologies. By following this publication's straightforward recommendations, dancers will learn how to promote performances online, engage with audiences in innovative ways, create new types of digital dance performances and secure a healthier financial future for themselves and their dance companies.

Key Topics:

• Building successful websites and blogs


• Implementing results-oriented Internet promotional strategies


• Creating and distributing dance content through online channels


• Generating revenue from online sales


• Increasing sponsorship revenue, grants and donations


• Expanding dance and technology academic programs


• Offering new types of technology-based dance instruction


• Locating the best online resources for dancers


• Pursuing new digital dance careers


• Fusing digital technologies with performances and installations


• Producing dance on camera productions


• Using software and technology for choreography


• Building hi-tech performance venues and studios

Part I: Building Your Online Presence

1) Building Your Website

- Website strategies for dance
- Determine your objectives
- Implement your game plan
- Content - design - navigation - usability
- What you must do, what you must avoid
- Case studies
- Top 25 dance websites
- Key Software tools and technologies
- Website creation checklist

2) Publishing a Blog (Weblog)

- Blogging strategies for dance
- Transforming how you communicate with your audience
- Types of dance blogs
- Software for creating and maintaining blogs
- Directory of dance blogs
- Keys to successful blogging
- Dance blog creation checklist

3) Promoting Your Blog and Website

- Search engine marketing
-- Website
-- Blog
-- Audio and video content
- Email campaigns
- Blog and podcast syndication
- Banner ads
- Link and banner ad exchanges
- Editorial/advertorial content distribution
- Social networking sites and services
- Community board participation
- Promotion through 3rd party dance websites/blogs
- Online public relations campaigns
- Traditional marketing tools
- Online promotion checklist

Part II: Using and Creating Multimedia Content

4) Using Multimedia Content

- The benefits of multimedia content
- Multimedia applications for dance:
-- Your website and blog
-- Recording stage productions
-- Multimedia and mediated performances
-- Dance installations
-- Dance on Camera
-- Audio and video podcasts
-- Mobile and wireless devices
-- Videos for search engines and video sites
-- Internet video distribution
-- Pay-per-view sales
-- DVDs and related media
-- TV broadcasts and HDTV
-- Online public relations campaigns

5) Creating Multimedia Content

- Types of multimedia:
-- Digital pictures
-- Digital audio
-- Digital video
-- Animated presentations
- How-to guide:
-- Pictures
-- Audio
-- Video
-- Animations
- Directory of software programs and technologies

Part III: Expanding Revenue Opportunities

6) New Revenue Possibilities in the Digital Realm

- Expanding revenue opportunities
- Sell more tickets for dance performances
- Increase funding opportunities and donations
- Secure more advertising dollars
- Sell stage and dance on camera productions:
-- Online distribution (pay-per-view)
-- DVDs and other media
- Sell dance instruction programs:
-- Online distribution (pay-per-view)
-- DVDs and other media
-- License digital dance content in new ways

Part IV: Educational Programs and New Instructional Methodologies

7) Dance Programs at Colleges and Universities

- Intro to dance and technology academic programs
- Dance and technology curriculums
- Using computers and technology to teach dance/choreography
- New media and technology influence on choreography
- New media and technology in the performance space
- Preparing dancers for digital careers
- Directory of dance and technology programs

8) Technology Enhances Dance Instruction

- Introduction to tech-based instructional methodologies
- Dance instruction via the Internet
- Self-directed dance education programs
- Supplemental dance education programs
- Integration of Internet, TV and mobile devices
- Tools and software for creating educational programs

Part V: New Resources and New Career Opportunities

9) Dancers Embrace Digital Resources

- Promote yourself online - websites/blogs/other options
- Create digital video auditions
- Audition listing websites, blogs and email lists
- Top websites for dancers
- Top community websites for dancers
- Top dance blogs

10) Dance Careers Expand to Emerging Digital Markets

- Pursuing a digital dance career
- Dance on camera productions
- Internet-centric dance festivals and competitions
- Online digital content sales of performances
- Online digital content sales of instructional programs
- Product placement and commercials
- Computer and arcade games/exercises
- Virtual 3D environments
- Scientific research in motion analysis

Part VI: Digital Technologies Transform Performances

11) Dance Performances

- Incorporating digital technologies into performances
- Types of digital dance performances
- Case studies
- Future directions
- Top dance companies in digital dance
- Key tools and technologies
- Vendor directory

12) Dance Installations

- New media and interactive dance installations
- Types of dance installations
- Case studies
- Top artists and choreographers
- Future directions
- Key tools and technologies

13) Dance on Camera

- Introduction to dance on camera
- Latest trends and developments
- Case studies
- Dance on camera film festivals
- Production and editing tools
- How to sell/license/distribute dance films
- Directory of recent dance films

14) Choreography

- Digital trends in choreography
- Choreography software and technologies
- Dance notation systems
- Motion tracking systems
- Case studies
- Future directions for digital choreography
- Directory of software and technology

15) Hi-Tech Performance/Practice Venues and Studios

- Anatomy of hi-tech performance centers
- Anatomy of hi-tech dance studios
- Overview of tools and technologies
- Directory of hi-tech performance centers/studios
- Checklist

Copyright and Trademarks

© 2006 Great Dance LLC. All rights reserved.

Great Dance and Dancing into the Future are trademarks of Great Dance LLC.

The book description and table of contents for "Dancing into the Future" are copyrighted by Great Dance LLC and may not be used or republished in any manner, in whole or in part, without the expressed written consent of the author.

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More Dance Bloggers...

More dance bloggers have added profiles to open thread on dance and blogging.

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Bill T. Jones is My Podcasting Hero

This is awesome. I just found a 10-minute audio discussion with Bill T. Jones about his recent dance piece "Blind Date."

I visited the Bill T. Jones website after writing about Rachel Howard's review of this work which she wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle. I found a link to the Hopkins Center for the Arts where you can listen to this post-performance discussion.

I know it's just a 10-minute audio piece, but you get to actually listen to the choreographer discuss his work. It makes a huge difference when you can listen to an artistic director or dancer talk about a performance. This shouldn't be a big deal because it is not difficult to put audio and video on the web. The problem is that almost nobody in the dance world does this.

So I'm just encouraging the dance community to follow in the footsteps (that's corny) of Bill T. Jones and offer your audiences a deeper understanding of your performances.

I'll make it easier. If you have wisdom and insight to share, please contact me and I'll interview you for the Great Dance Audio Podcasts. (Or, if you have Apple's iTunes software, you can access Great Dance Podcasts here.)

Posted by Doug Fox at 5:43 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Rachel Howard's Reviews Bill T. Jone's "Blind Date"

Blogger Rachel Howard reviews Bill T. Jones's "Blind Date" in the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Blind Date," which premiered in September and stopped at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall on Saturday during its national tour, is typical Jones: smart, confrontational, strangely elegant and sprawling. Its subject is nothing less than the terror of our times, and yet the two-part, two-hour work is not one of Jones' most provocative. It holds a mirror to our age. Perhaps it's a sad commentary on contemporary numbness to say the reflection seems only accurate, and neither revelatory nor startling.

Rachel adds to her blog entry about this review:

I reviewed Bill T. Jones's new "Blind Date" Saturday. I'm a big Bill T. Jones admirer--I'm constantly in awe of the sophistication of gesture in his choreography, the complexity and clarity of shape--but "Blind Date" was not one of my favorite Jones works.

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Update on Broadway Dance Center in NYC

Here's a long-delayed update on the Broadway Dance Center, which I read on Downtown Dancer.

The landlord of the mid-town Manhattan building where the Broadway Dance Center is located is trying to force BDC to vacate its premises. BDC serves over 3,000 students per week. On December 23, 2005, a judge granted an injunction, which allows BDC to continue its dance studio operations while litigation proceeds.

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Article19's Twisted Assessment of Dance Films

Article19, an online publication for contemporary dance based in England, is not thrilled with the quality of dance film making. In an article by Jordan Kinsella, "5 Simple Steps," dance on camera productions are ripped to shreds.

The intro to this article reads.

Dance film making, dance for camera, call it what you want but almost without exception it is pretty poor in terms of invention, quality, ideas, quality, craft, design, movement, quality and of course the quality is appalling. Jordan Kinsella looks at five simple ideas for making dance film better and begs the profession for mercy, because we make him watch all this stuff.

Among the article's highlights include:

Sadly I get the impression that most dance film makers resemble cavemen after they discovered fire. Standing around it in large groups making grunting noises whilst poking it and getting their fingers burnt.

I have absolutely no idea what this author is ranting and raving about - he doesn't offer a single example of a terrible dance film. I've seen some wonderfully creative, compelling dance on camera productions.

Posted by Doug Fox at 4:50 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Colorado Ballet Getting Back on its Feet

The Colorado Ballet, after canceling six of its 30 Nutcracker performances last year, expects to end this year in better financial shape.

I briefly wrote about the challenges for the Colorado Ballet and the closing of Indianapolis-based Ballet Internationale last November.

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Another Review of Troika Ranch Performance

Another review of Troika Ranch's mediated dance piece 16 "[R]evolutions Open Source" in New York - this one written by Deborah Jowitt in The Village Voice. Performances are at the Eyebeam Art & Technology Center through January 28th.

I mentioned NY Times review by John Rockwell a few days ago.

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January 23, 2006

More on arts presenters blog

Regarding my post about Arts Presenters conference blog. They did just update it and they did address Belafonte coverage, which I think is helpful.

I have to go to Jazz class...

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Johannes Birringer Audio Interview

I interviewed Johannes Birringer this morning. For more than two decades, Johannes has been working in theater, dance, performance art and multimedia collaborations on both sides of the Atlantic. He has served in numerous capacities including choreographer, curator, conference organizer, researcher, professor, volunteer, writer and speaker.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - 15.08 MB - 32:57 Minutes)

Background

Dr. Johannes Birringer is a German-born performance and media choreographer currently residing in Houston, Texas, London, England, and Schmelz, Germany.

Johannes received his MA and Ph.D. in literature and theater from Trier University in Germany.

For more than two decades, he has been working in theater, dance, performance art and multimedia collaborations on both sides of the Atlantic. He has served in numerous capacities including choreographer, curator, conference organizer, researcher, professor, volunteer, writer and speaker.

- Dr. Johannes Birringer is currently principal research fellow at The School of Art and Design at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham England. And in March 2006 will assume the chair/professorship in Performance Technologies at Brunel University in London.

- In 1999, he was appointed the head of the then new dance and technology program at Ohio State University (OSU) where he developed a new Master of Fine Arts curriculum in dance technologies and initiated the Interactive Performance Series (IPS).

- Johannes is the artistic director of AlienNation Company, a multimedia ensemble, founded in 1993, that collaborates on site-specific and cross-cultural performance and installation projects.

- In 2003, he founded the Interaktionslabor Göttelborn, an annual international workshop dedicated to research, performance and software application development in interactive and networked media technologies.

- And this past December, Johannes organized the Digital Cultures Lab in Dance Technologies.

- And he is the co-creator of the new Dance-Tech Discussion List.

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Arts Presenters Conference Blog Doesn't Live Up to Hype

The Association of Performing Arts Presenters is hosting (January 21-24) its 49th Annual Member Conference in New York City.

From the conference home page, you can access the official blog for this event. This blog could have been a lot better. After being in the meeting and convention business for more than 12 years, I can appreciate how difficult it is to publish a blog on top of carrying out all of the other responsibilities of managing a conference. But at the same time, if an event organizer does create a blog it ought to be done right.

Here are my thoughts about this conference blog:

First, this blog over promises on the conference home page: "Want to hear what this year's buzz is? Click here to visit the Conference Blog to get the scoop." There are only six posts by two people. And only three of the posts describe on-going events at the conference. Plus, just about all of the authors listed in the right-hand column are not posting to this blog at all.

Second, there are five photos and not a one features a live human being. Is it really interesting to see a floor plan of the tradeshow?

Third, there is an audio podcast (scroll-down right-hand column) with a synthesized voice. There's an actual computer voice that reads the posts of this blog. It's sort of funny to listen to, but after a minute or so it gets very bothersome.

Fourth, there are no links to other arts blogs. The rules of blogging are not written in stone and bloggers can do whatever they want. But the intention of many bloggers is to be part of a community. So for a conference for arts presenters not to have a blogroll of visual and performing arts blogs doesn't make a lot of sense. Plus, by exchanging links with other bloggers during the months leading-up to this event, this conference could have gotton a lot of free promotion.

Five, the blog post about conference keynote speaker Harry Belafonte is not really appropriate given his recent controversial comments. Blog readers are encouraged to watch a video clip from The Daily Show that mocks Belafonte's recent trip to Venezuela where he harshly condemned Bush and his administration. I happen to think this Daily Show clip is funny.

Belafonte was invited to be the keynote speaker at this Arts Presenters conference. His bio on the conference website reads:

Harry Belafonte has been called "the consummate entertainer" - an artist in every field in which he has participated - a recording artist, a concert singer, a movie, Broadway and television star and producer. A true renaissance man, Belafonte also has long been active in the human rights struggle and is globally held in high esteem for his activism. He has won multiple awards for his work in entertainment and countless more as a civil rights activist.

Belafonte's views - including his strong condemnation of President Bush - are of great interest to and shared by most of the delegates. At his speech on Saturday, according to an Associated Press story running in yesterday's Washington Post, Belafonte "drew a stranding ovation" for comments such as "We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended."

So I'm all for humor (and condemning the Bush administration, probably not in the same terms as Belafonte), but it strikes me as strange that they're treating Belefonte in a light-hearted way when the delegates, press and other bloggers are taking his remarks very seriously (read blog posts about Belafonte's remarks at Arts Presenters Conference.)

And another point about this Belafonte coverage. If one is going to blog on behalf of a conference, it's a good idea to know what others are writing in newspapers and in the blogosphere about your event. For example, do the organizers of the Arts Presenters know that there's a Washington Post article about Belafonte's speech and that bloggers have been commenting about this speech? If they did, then they could write a meaningful follow-up post to their blog offering the "official" perspective of what Belafonte said and its meaning to the conference delegates.

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January 20, 2006

Review of Troika Ranch Performance in NYC

John Rockwell writes review in today's New York Times about Troika Ranch's "16 [R]evolutions" performance at the Eyebeam Arts and Technology Center in Chelsea.

While praising the recent work of choreographer Dawn Stoppiello, and "computer wizard" and composer Mark Coniglio, Rockwell is not thrilled with their latest performance: "If visuals alone could guarantee success, this would be a triumph. But the concept and the choreography don't deliver as much as the technology."

I've always wanted to see Troika Ranch perform. I thought I might be going up to NYC this week but I didn't make it. So I'll have to catch their next performance.

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More on Strengthening the Dance Economy

Christina of DC Arts Jobs writes the following in response to my post , "Solving the Challenges Facing Artists":

It may be unrealistic or even dangerous to count heavily on government sources of funding these days, a few recent examples of which you can ponder over at adaptistration today, but there is still something to be said for fighting the good fight as thinking people and responsible citizens. Art is vitally important to the human experience. If we believe that, then we have a responsibility to say so and to say it loudly in the public arena. If even those in the arts community start to consider this idea delusional, how on earth will it look to everyone else? The discussion should not be just about government appropriations, but about the larger public value system. We must proclaim (and continue to prove through good work) the value of art in our society in order for any source of funding to be viable--public, private or market-based.

I think that Christina says it very well. My main point is that artists and arts organizations ought to broaden their horizons when it comes to thinking about how art projects can be funded. In an economic environment where it is increasingly difficult to raise funding from traditional sources - government, grant making organizations and donors - it is imperative, I think, to consider new economic models to ensure the financial vitality of the arts.

Yet, it appears to me that artists and arts organizations are often not open to exploring and pursuing new business models in a climate where they do not really have many options. What I'd like to see - particularly in the dance community - is a gathering where artists, arts organizations, presenters, promoters and others got together to start thinking seriously about how the online economy can be harnessed both to strengthen stage performances and develop new digital dance forms. As of today, the Internet, which obviously reaches a huge audience, is simply not used in any meaningful way by the dance community. It is completely untapped. It is a great way to reach audiences, sell tickets and dance in digital formats (DVDs, digital content, etc.) and raise money in the form of donations and advertising. So if the goal is to help artists and the arts be more financially successful, then it makes sense to explore additional funding approaches that will benefit everybody involved in the arts.

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January 19, 2006

Second Interview with Doug Rosenberg

In addition to interviewing Douglas Rosenberg this morning about the upcoming Screendance program, I also spoke to him about his work as a video dance filmmaker. In this interview Doug talks about his art as he gives a tour of his website.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - 7.22 MB - 15:46 Minutes)

Douglas Rosenberg is a video dance filmmaker and Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Doug is an artist and director of the Dziga Vertov Performance Group, whose mission is to create new and challenging works of art based in the language of performance, dance and media.

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Podcast Interview with Douglas Rosenberg

This morning I interviewed Douglas Rosenberg about the upcoming "Screendance: The State of the Art" conference that will take place this summer as part of the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - 6.65 MB - 14:31 Minutes)

Douglas Rosenberg is a video dance filmmaker and Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Doug is an artist and director of the Dziga Vertov Performance Group, whose mission is to create new and challenging works of art based in the language of performance, dance and media.

Doug, in collaboration with the American Dance Festival, is hosting "Screendance: The State of the Art," a four-day conference on the current state of screendance around the globe. This program will be held at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina in conjunction with the NEA Arts Journalism Institute for Dance Criticism. This Screendance conference will coincide with the 11th annual "Dancing for Camera: International Festival of Film and Video Dance." The Screendance conference will take place from July 6-9, 2006.

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DC Arts Jobs Responds to My Post About Challenges Facing Artists

Christina of DC Arts Jobs shares her thoughts about my post yesterday, "Solving the Challenges Facing Artists."

I'll follow-up on Christina's post later today.

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January 18, 2006

Audio Interview with Matthew Gough

Much thanks to Matthew Gough for being the first guest on the Great Dance Podcast. Matt has been very helpful as I've experimented with different ways to record telephone conversations.

Click here to listen to my interview with Matthew Gough (MP3 format - 7.22 MB - 15:46 minutes)

I spoke with Matthew, who is in England, this afternoon.

Matthew is a dancer with a strong interest in dance movement and improvisation. He is a lecturer at the university level teaching classes in dance theater and choreography. He is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at East Anglia in Norwich England and one of the very early dance bloggers.

Matt publishes the Splines in Space blog.

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Solving the Challenges Facing Artists

Dance/USA posted the transcript of a plenary speech given by Ken Foster, executive director, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, at a November 12, 2005 Dance/USA On Tour program in Los Angeles.

The speech, titled "Dance in The Contemporary World," offers a harsh indictment of the social and political environment in the United States and castigates artists for internalizing the same distorted values pursued by the business community.

While I share much of the anger that Ken Foster describes in his compelling speech and very much appreciate it when artists grapple directly with the challenging issues of our time, I don't agree with him on the sources of the problem and I think his recommendations for strengthening the financial health of the arts world - especially dance - are too limited.

Foster opens his speech by describing the extent to which many Americans are deeply disturbed by US actions at home and abroad. Art must address this deep-seated anger, he believes, before it is transformed into madness.

I'm wondering if it isn't time for our artists to lead us deeper into the madness...in order that we can fully understand the rage the "blazing anger" that is out there now. By making us examine this anger and its source, our art and our artists not only move us to action, but also provide us avenues for understanding and action that is other than madness. Madness unleashed, which one can argue is indeed the currency of our time, is madness unchecked, and the results terrify me to consider. Can our artists bring us back from the abyss by showing it to us? I think they must.

Foster then shares his shame and disbelief while watching the TV images of Hurricane Katrina while he was in London:

What in the hell kind of a country have we created in which the weakest of our citizens are left to fend for themselves in the wake of a tragedy beyond imagining; when all we can do is watch and shake our head in disbelief? It was as if a lid had been lifted off the illusion that is America and for a brief moment, again, we faced the madness -- that we had indeed been remade in the Bushian image and it was here for the entire world to see. Shame only begins to describe my depth of feeling at this event.

The source of the problem explains the speaker:

...the values that we saw exhibited by Katrina and that we find so abhorrent are the same values that we have internalized as members of the arts community in the United States. Shrugging our shoulders that "that's the way it is," we have allowed "those" values to become "our" values. Values like the primacy of the marketplace. Values like a token, but not actual, concern for the weakest members of our community. Values like a desire to grab the resources that are "rightfully ours;" that "we worked hard to get" and that we are not going to give up easily if at all, especially to the weaker, dare I say it, browner members of our community?

Like many others who watched the images of despair and inaction during the first week following Katrina, I was appalled and shocked. But I don't think that everybody within the arts community was indifferent to the pain and suffering. Many dance organizations including Dance/USA as well as dancers, dance companies and dance studios made significant efforts to help fellow artists and others.

I also don't think it makes sense to indict the "primacy of the marketplace" as a major culprit. I'm disgusted with the Bush administration as well on just about all fronts - their contempt for the arts, science, the environment, social justice and many other issues. I also think the close ties among the Bush administration, large corporations and lobbying groups is very dangerous and unhealthy. But that doesn't mean that business in the abstract and the values it represents is in and of itself a negative thing. Without a vibrant free-market economy there would be many fewer corporate supporters of the arts. And by completely discounting the positive aspects of the market economy, I believe that Foster and many others in the arts are actually prohibiting the arts community from exploring new and untapped revenue sources - more about this in a moment.

Foster continues by saying that artists are fighting over an ever smaller economic pie:

We are not just invited, we are encouraged to fight amongst ourselves for the scrapes of resources available to us. We are rewarded for co-opting ourselves and our professed values in order to create one more dance, to present one more company, or frankly, even to survive in an actively hostile world? Looters? Is that the word for us that are scrambling over each other to get even the simplest basic resources of artistic survival - money to create, to commission, to present dance?

He concludes with two recommendations for addressing these challenges:

First, the greatest contribution we can make ...is to do work that matters... get your values up front in your work, strongly, unashamedly, aggressively...Art, dance, is about cultural values, so please, please, make it about cultural values in what you create and what you present. Otherwise, you are part of the problem.

Second, we can no longer afford to fight among ourselves for the few crumbs of resources that our benefactors have made available to us. Simple as it sounds, we need to work with each other, not against each other. We need to stand up not for our piece of the pie, but for making the pie bigger. We need to be outraged and enraged that we live in a society that has placed so little apparent value on its art and culture and we need to shout that message from the rooftops wherever and whenever we can with whatever power and voice we have, which is, I might add, far stronger, more far reaching and more powerful that we are willing to admit.

I don't think that anybody involved in arts in the US is going to argue against the premise that the government - local, state and federal - should be more supportive of the arts. But in today's political and economic environment, this is simply not going to happen. People within the arts community can speak with as loud a voice as they want, but their calls for more funding from the government is not going to amount to very much.

What is desperately needed in the arts community is some new, fresh thinking about alternative, additional ways to help arts be more financially secure and healthy. And, as I mentioned above, if one starts with the premise that the marketplace is evil, than you are sabotaging at the outset any possibility of diversifying the funding base for the arts and artists.

My recommendation for how artists - especially in the dance world - should respond to decreasing funding is to jump head-first into the marketplace. Despite all the complaints about evaporating funding sources - these complaints are often justified - nobody has really broken out of the box with new approaches and thinking. The usuall complaint about the funding pie has to be bigger just doesn't cut it anymore.

Given, for example, the growth of video distribution and sales on the Internet, why has not a single dance company created Internet-specific content for sale through their website and/or blog and through iTunes? Why has not a single dance company created a blog to communicate directly with their audiences to increase ticket sales and related product sales?

The online audience is millions of times large than the capacity of a sold-out theater. While I don't have a magical answer as to what specific type of dance content should be created for the web (I do have a lot of ideas), I do know the following: If you sell a video clip for $2 and sell it to 5,000 people, you just made $10,000.

I've written extensively (in this blog and in white papers) and will continue to write about new creative avenues and business opportunities that are available now in the online world for dancers and dance companies who are willing to take their art and their business models in as yet unexplored innovative directions. Given the uncertain economic climate that many dancers face today, there is no reason not to at least consider some of these possibilities.

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January 17, 2006

Updating Dance and Technology Guide

I'm updating the Dance and Technology Resource Guide. Please email me any changes or additions.

The Dance and Technology Guide offers about 200+ links to dance companies, performances, conferences, academic programs, articles, dance blogs and other resources.

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January 16, 2006

Great Dance Podcast Ready to Go

Well, after experimenting with too many different approaches to recording telephone interviews, I've finally figured out the best way to record telephone conversations with dancers from around the world.

So I'm officially starting the Great Dance Podcast this week. I'm looking forward to interviewing a lot of people with experiences and insights about many different aspects of dance. It should be fun.

One of the things I like about it is that an important performance, story or development can take place anywhere in the world and I can get on the phone and interview the people involved. Then, within a very short period of time, I can make the audio interview available to a global audience via my blog or my podcast channel on iTunes (You need free iTunes software to access).

So who would you like me to interview? What topics would you find most interesting? What have you wanted to know about dance but never found out? Please let me know your thoughts.

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January 15, 2006

Washington Ballet and Dancers Still at Impasse

The disagreements between The Washington Ballet and its dancers have still not been resolved and no progress has been made on this front. (I created a resource guide to articles and blog entries about this on-going saga in a recent post).

You can read an article in last week's Washington Post, "Ballet Rejects Offer By Michael Kaiser To Mediate, Returns To Bargaining Table".

And Dance Insider has published an article, which includes a letter from Alan Gordon, executive director, American Guild of Musical Artists (the union representing The Washington Ballet dancers) to Frank Loy, the treasurer of the board of directors of The Washington Ballet.

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January 14, 2006

Dancers Share Their Challenges

Here are two stories, directly from dancers themselves, that offer painfull insight into the precarious nature of pursuing a dance career:

- In the December 2005 edition of Dance Magazine, Rosalynde LeBlanc, a freelance performer and teacher in New York City, writes "Turning point: inside the mind of a 30-something female modern dancer". Rosalynde LeBlanc tells a compelling story about the financial challenges faced by modern dancers who want to make enough money to support a family. She eventually gets an Equity card to audition for Broadway shows, but her heart isn't in it. She writes:

... what does ignite my spirit is the impoverished world of modern dance. Since childhood, when I took the Ballet/Modern/Jazz class, (in which all three disciplines were offered in one swoop like a cross section of Neapolitan ice cream) my affinity for modern was obvious. I was a shy, day-dreaming tomboy. The sophistication of jazz and the proprieties of ballet were ill-fitting on me. Modern dance--with its celebration of the individual, its emphasis on expression, its patient successes, and its androgyny--captured my heart. Now, after 20 years the rhythms and principles of modern dance are infused in my being. And some of their strongest indications are in my criteria for seeking work. "Who's choreographing?" is habitually my first question. I have to force myself to ask, "How much?" I am well trained to have the lowest monetary expectations and have learned how to make do in the direst circumstances.

Thanks to Rachel Feinerman of Downtown Dancer for linking to Rosalynde LeBlanc's story. In Rachel's post, "Taking Up Space," she contrasts the constant financial struggles faced by dancers with an upbeat story in the New York Times about the recent growth in new dance venues in Manhattan. She writes:

I’m not one to dismiss all these great new buildings but the crisis on the ground is that dancers at the top of their training, at the peak of their professional life, are poor and without health insurance and leaving the arts world in droves to finally make some money on Broadway or with Celine Dion in Vegas. The crisis is that when you accidentally slip and fall in one of these nice, new buildings, you have no insurance with which to see a doctor nor any money to pay for the cast on your wrist. The crisis is that you have to retire at age 35, not because you can’t dance anymore, but because you can’t afford to dance anymore. Its wonderful to have new buildings. Just don’t dismiss the dancers.

- The second article, published by The Dance Insider, is from an unnamed dancer with the Indianapolis, Indiana-based Ballet Internationale, which shut its doors on November 9, 2005. The dancers, without any warning, were told that their ballet company was being shut down and they were out of work. No Nutcracker. No performances. They had one and a half hours to collect their things and get out of the building. The anonymous dancer continues:

You can imagine everyone's shock to be left jobless with no future prospects of the company getting back together. It is not easy, even mostly impossible, for a dancer to find a job mid-season. Most of the company is foreign, which means some face the risk of being deported, and some may even have to go into the army if sent back to their home countries.

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January 12, 2006

Double Your Dance Audiences

Here's how to double the size of the audience at your next dance performance:

1) Let's say you have a dance piece that's 15 minutes in duration. Take a camcorder and videotape the entire dance work.

2) Put the entire video on your website or blog. Make two versions available: one with a musical soundtrack and the second with an annotated audio guide. This second version would be the same as listening to an interview with the director or actors as you're watching a movie DVD. But in the case of a dance performance, the artistic director, choreographer and/or dancers would describe the piece as it unfolds.

3) Promote the two video versions of your dance piece like crazy. For instance, list your videos on Google Video, Yahoo Video Search, YouTube and Revver. And also create a podcast channel for your video so you can distribute it through iTunes. Finally, email every dance blogger and tell them what you're doing - you are sure to get a lot of exposure.

4) Make sure that both versions of your dance video include ample promotional information about your next performance so that viewers know where to buy tickets and see the event.

5) In addition, make the audio annotation guide available separately on your website also for free one week before your performance. Encourage your website viewers to transfer this audio guide to their portable music players and take it with them to your performance.

6) At your performance, perform this dance piece twice. The first performance is so that attendees can listen to the annotated audio guide while watching your performance. The second time so that viewers can enjoy the performance that much more because they will have significantly more background about the piece.

The notion that you can't give away video of dance performances because your audience will decrease in size is an unproven myth. More people go to musical concerts specifically because they have already listened to the music and/or watched a groups' videos.

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January 11, 2006

New Technology Guide for Presenters of Hi-Tech Performances

Jo-Anne Green, co-founder and contributor to the Networked Performance blog, just wrote The Digi-Presenter Manual (PDF). (Read story about this publication).

This guide helps performance venues, promoters and organizers understand and secure the proper technologies for the increasing numbers of performances that rely upon the Internet, PCs and other digital tools. This manual describes the required technical infrastructure at a performance venue, the questions that presenters should ask performance groups with hi-tech needs, and provides a glossary of performance terminology and general computer terms.

By the way, if you haven't visited the Network Performance blog, I highly recommend it. Jo-Anne and the other writers provide summaries and links to stories about cutting-edge performances.

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Supplemental Instructional Dance Videos

I think that dance classes would be significantly enhanced if instructors created supplemental videos that covered the same material as in their classes.

I've been going to about 2-3 jazz classes per week. Just by going to the same instructor's class a number of times, I pick-up the warm-up exercises, moves, floor exercises and routines. And part of learning to dance is developing the ability to see moves and reproduce them on the spot.

At the same time, if I had video clips of many elements of an instructor's class, I would have more time to master each move or sequence at my own pace. That way when I went back to class, I could focus a bit more on form and style as opposed to just trying to figure out the basics of the move.

One thing that would be nice would be for the instructor to make a video of the routine available to students after the class. That way you still have to learn the routine during the class, but you could also keep working on the routine at home and practice it until you master it. Then during the next class the instructor could spend a few minutes to let the students perform the routine from the last session.

Since it's no longer difficult or expensive to make video clips, it would be easy for either an instructor or student to make videos and post these clips to the web. Or, an instructor or studio could create a series of supplemental videos, burn them to a DVD and charge an extra $10 or $15 or other amount for it. This would especially make sense for an enrollment class, where you could charge a student a set fee for the class and slightly more for the class and the supplemental instructional DVD.

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January 10, 2006

Video Options Proliferate - Untapped Opportunity for Dancers

Cable TV with its hundreds of channels offers very limited programming variety compared to what's coming down the pipeline. Online video distribution options are proliferating and the Internet will increasingly be the source of programs that are watched on home entertainment systems.

Internet-based TV services (TV shows that are distributed via the Internet Protocol - IPTV) are in their early test stages and will enable users to record multiple shows at the same time and access content that incorporates video, text and pictures. Essentially, we'll no longer think of TV, whether cable or satellite, as separate from the Internet - all of these media tools will be considered part of one video search engine and distribution network. We are not there yet, but we are not that far away either.

For more about the emergence of IPTV, read John Markoff's column in New York Times, "Coming Soon to TV Land: The Internet Actually" (registration required).

In terms of exclusively online video distribution, Google just launched an expanded video service that, like Apple's iTunes, allows users to purchase video content. See "Google Entering Video-On-Demand Business" by Elinor Mills in News.com. And visit Google Video to see what video content is available for sale.

An interesting feature of the Google Video Store is that content owners can set their own prices. A drawback with the Google video system, however as Wired News points out, is that a proprietary encryption system is used for videos that are sold in the Google Video Store and these videos cannot be transferred to portable devices.

There is also Yahoo Video Search, which allows you to distribute videos for free and similar services such as YouTube and Revver that can be used by content creators to make their videos available on the web at no charge as well.
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All of these video distribution networks, both the free and pay-per-view services, offer marketing and revenue opportunities for dancers and dance companies. I've done searches for dance videos, and all I have come up with so far are amateur videos and nothing to exciting or professional. I'd really like to see professional dancers post videos of performances, dance on camera productions or instructional programs to these video hosting and marketing services. Just from the marketing side, if your video is among the most popular or best rated, you can end-up with home page exposure on these video sites and potentially attract thousands or, possibly, tens of thousands of viewers. These viewers can then link to your site and learn more about your upcoming performances.

The pay-per-view possibilities for dance have not yet been explored. I will write more about this soon, but I think that selling videos online can eventually be a significant source of revenue for dancers, dance companies and dance instructors.

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January 9, 2006

More Dance Bloggers

A number of dance bloggers and dance writers have added descriptions about their dance coverage and links to their blogs and sites this year on the Open Thread: Dance and Blogging.

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Yesterday's Jazz Class

Yesterday I managed to take my third jazz class of the week. I took the class at Joy of Motion's Dupont Circle location with Vincent Williams. That was one cardio workout. If I hadn't been taking a lot of classes and working out a lot, I would never have survived that class.

What I especially like about Vincent's class, it's Level I Jazz, is that he must have had us do 15 or so different floor exercises. It's nice to get that type of variation and get exposed to as many basic jazz moves as possible. One of the advantages of having to do different moves each time you go across the floor is that there is no time to think, there's lot of energy in the class and I end-up just going all out even if I'm not close to having the move down. I figure if I go to Vincent's class for a few month's I'll get the hang of most of these moves.

One thing I'm certain about is that I have to take some ballet classes. I'm learning a lot of the basic ballet positions just from taking a lot of jazz classes. But it would probably make life easier for me if I'd just take an intro to ballet class and get all the basics along with the vocabulary.

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Upcoming Podcasts

I decided to change how I record interviews that I'm doing for my upcoming audio podcast. So I'll probably start posting interviews starting later this week or first thing next week.

At first I had this ambitious plan of conducting many of the interviews using VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services - essentially making telephone calls over the Internet - and then recording these calls on my hard drive.

But my experimentation with setting this up with Skype ended-up being too much of a hassle and a waste of time. I like Skype and the voice quality is often excellent and the price for computer-to-computer calls is perfect - it's free. But I'm tired of trying to record high-quality interviews via Skype.

So I've gone back to the regular telephone. First I got the lowest rates I could get for International calls - I already have flat rates for all US calls. It's less expensive than I thought. England is $0.08 per minute, Germany is $0.10 and Japan is $0.10. And most interviews will be less than 10 minutes any way, which means that the cost will often be no more than $1.00.

Also, I have to buy a piece of equipment to improve the quality of interviews recorded by phone. If you've ever recorded a phone conversation, you'll have noticed that your voice is significantly louder than the person on the other end. If you want to broadcast this recorded interview, the results will not be very professional. What you want is for the sound levels of each person's voice to be the same.

So I'm buying a device from JK Audio called an Inline Patch Telephone Audio Interface. Once I connect this device to my telephone line, I can then independently control the sound levels for my voice and the caller on the other end of the phone, which means that the sound levels will be identical and the interview quality will be much higher. Then I'll output the voice to a portable digital audio recorder that I have or directly to my hard drive.

I should have this audio device this week and then soon start uploading interviews.

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Dance Article in New York Newsday

About two weeks ago Patricia Kitchen, a staff writer at New York Newsday, interviewed me about a post I wrote about emerging digital dance careers. She asked a lot of good questions about how dancers could embrace the Internet to develop new career opportunities.

She wrote an article in yesterday's paper, "Keep your interests in mind," in which she makes brief reference to my post about new careers for dancers.

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January 6, 2006

Washington Ballet Labor Dispute - Comprehensive Internet Resource Guide

Last month The Washington Ballet canceled performances of the Nutcracker due to a serious labor dispute between the dance company and its dancers, who are represented by their union, American Guild of Musical Artists.

In this post, I include a large number of links to news stories, blog postings and community board discussions about this unfortunate, on-going dispute which poses serious challenges to the short and long-term prospects for both The Washington Ballet and its dancers.

Statements from Washington Ballet and American Guild of Musical Artists

In a December 12, 2005 statement on its website, the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) describes what it calls a lock-out by The Washington Ballet of its dancers and the cancellation of the Nutcracker.

In a December 14, 2005 statement (PDF file) on its website, The Washington Ballet announces the cancellation of its December 15th performance of the Nutcracker due to what it calls a strike by its dancers.

While you will not find the specific agreement that Washington Ballet and its dancers sign, you can find on the AGMA site many of the complete agreements that are signed by dancers represented by this union and dance companies throughout the US.

Articles in News Publications

I added some additional articles about The Washington Ballet that are not about the Nutcracker feud but provide additional background information.

-- May 3, 2005 - Washington Post - "Washington Ballet's Italian Faux Pas De Deux" (Free registration required for all Washington Post stories)

-- August 31, 2005 - Washington Post - "Going Toe-to-Toe: A Ballerina Charges the Washington Ballet Fired Her for Union Activism"

-- September 16, 2005 - Washington Post - "Washington Ballet Settles With Union Over Firings"

-- December 15 - Washington Post - "Tonight's 'Nutcracker' Canceled In Dispute"

-- December 16, 2005 - Washington Post - "All Toes Point to the Picket Line"

-- December 17, 2005 - The American Observer - "Creating a Legacy, One Step at a Time"

-- December 17, 2005 - Washington Post - "Washington Ballet Cancels 'Nutcracker' Run"

-- December 17, 2005 - The Washington Times - "Labor Battle Ends 'Nutcracker' Run"

-- December 22, 2005 - Washington Post - "Dancers, Ballet Out of Step in Pas de Deux"

-- December 22, 2005 - Washington Post - Letter to the Editor - "Ballet's Battle, Children's Loss"

-- December 24, 2005 - AP - "Washington Ballet to Cancel 2006 Shows"

-- December 24, 2005 - UPI - "Washington Ballet Dispute Escalates"

-- December 24, 2005 - Washington Post - "Ballet Announces '06 Cancellations: Dancers, Who Say They Would Lose About 3 Months' Pay, Seek Injunction"

Dance and Theater Publications

-- December 12, 2005 - Dance Insider - "'Nutcracker' Held Hostage in Washington"

--December 14, 2005 - PlaybillArts - "Labor Dispute Threatens Washington Ballet Nutcracker"

-- December 19, 2005 - PlaybillArts - "Washington Ballet Cancels Entire Nutcracker Run"

-- December 20, 2005 - The Dance Insider - "Yes, Virginia, Dancers too have Rights"

Blogs

-- December 15, 2005 - DCist - "Washington Ballet Cancels Tonight's Nutcracker"

-- December 15, 2005 - Metroblogging DC - "Striking Dancers"

-- December 15, 2005 - The View from 16th Street - "No Cherry Blossom Fairy?"

-- December 16, 2005 - DC Baby - "Bah Humbug! & Weekend Watch"

-- December 16, 2005 - Onward and Upward - "Washington Ballet Cancels Nutcracker"

-- December 17, 2005 - DC Arts Jobs - "Washington Ballet Cancels Entire Nutcracker Run"

-- December 17, 2005 - NET workers - "Washington Ballet Dancers Locked Out!"

-- December 17, 2005 - Newsrack blog -"'Nutcracker' on ice: dancers locked out"

-- December 19, 2005 - The Princess and the Pen - "Nuts to the Nutcracker"

-- December 21, 2005 - Drunken Reveries of a Cynical Mind - "Strikes Everywhere"

-- December 22, 2005 - DC Arts Jobs - "Ballet Remains Dark"

-- December 27, 2005 - Onward and Upward - "Struggles at Washington Ballet Continue"

-- January 2, 2005 - Angel's and Kris' Place - "Holiday Season"

Dance Community Boards - Discussion Threads

-- December 14, 2005 (first post) - Ballet Talk for Dancers - "Labor Pains at The Washington Ballet"

-- December 15, 2005 (first post) - Critical Dance - "Strike/Lock-Out"

Labor Advocacy

-- American Rights at Work - "Take Action - Washington Ballet Dancers Need Your Help"

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January 5, 2006

Audio Podcast Feed Now Available

I just added a feed for my new audio podcast. You'll see it located toward the bottom of the right-hand column under "RSS Feeds".

RSS feeds make it possible for people to subscribe to all posts included in a blog without having to visit the actual blog everyday. There are a number of software programs - some free - that are called news readers or aggregators that let you subscribe to whichever blogs you wish. Once you install such a software program, you can subscribe to a blog such as Great Dance and automatically receive all of the latest posts within your news reader.

I'll write more about news readers in the near future.

If you'd like to see a list of available news readers, here's a link that lists available applications in the Yahoo directory.

One of the reasons that I created a dedicated news feed for my audio programs is so that people who are interested can have a way to automatically download these audio programs to either their computers or handheld devices.

For example, once I created my podcast newsfeed, I launched Apple's iTunes software, clicked on "Podcasts" and then submitted my podcast newsfeed. My podcast is not listed yet on iTunes but I'm hoping it will be in the next day. Once it's included, then iPod users can download these audio programs to their music players and listen to the commentary and interviews at their convenience. I'll also write more soon about setting-up podcasts and listing them on iTunes.

What's interesting is to go to the Performing Arts section of the available podcasts on iTunes. There are virtually no listings for dance related podcasts. People in the dance world are simply not taking advantage of this free distribution channel to reach larger audiences.

The only dance podcast - actually a dance video podcast - is the Video Sketch Book of the Sys-Org Dance Collective. If you have iTunes installed on your computer, click this link and you'll be taken directly to the podcast for the Video Sketch Book.

To see a large screen shot of what the Video Sketch Book podcasts look like on iTunes, click on the following image and a larger image will open up in a new browser window.

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January 4, 2006

Listen to First Audio Podcast

Today I launch the Great Dance Audio Podcast.

In the first audio program, I introduce myself and give an overview of current and upcoming Great Dance offerings.

Click here to listen to podcast

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January 3, 2006

Thinking about Dance in New Ways

Here are my suggestions on how dancers and dance companies can be more successful in 2006.

A number of these recommendations are based on the two white papers I wrote toward the end of 2005:

- Embracing Blogs: A New Blueprint for Promoting Dance on the Internet

- Building a New Dance Economy: Expanding Opportunities for Dancers and Choreographers

14 Suggestions for 2006:

1) Build exciting and compelling websites that focus on achieving specific economic benefits. Unfortunately, most websites that promote dance companies and dancers are just not very good. But there are relatively simple steps that can be taken to improve these dance websites.

2) Embrace blogs. Weblogs (or blogs) offer a low-cost, highly effective way for dancers, choreographers and dance companies to build their own audiences and communicate directly with donors and patrons. Blogging within the dance community is in its very early stages and I hope hundreds of new dance blogs are introduced this year. One of the very important positive benefits of blogs is that they can contribute to preserving the artistic integrity of artists. If dance companies take responsibility for building their own audiences by sharing their vision directly with likely theatergoers and donors, dancers and choreographers will be less beholden to others when it comes to deciding what will and will not be staged - more to come soon on this connection between blogging and artistic freedom.

3) Take and disseminate digital pictures and videos. Performing artists have been traditionally and understandably reluctant to take pictures and videos of performances and rehearsals and make them publicly available. But this reluctance is causing marketing challenges for dancers. In order to get wide exposure for upcoming dance performances, it is important that dance companies make quality digital pictures and digital video clips available on their own websites and available to other websites that wish to promote these performances.

4) Pursue new online sponsorship opportunities for donors and supporters. There is no reason that your financial supporters cannot have video and pictures about their products and services promoted through your website. Instead of just giving a listing for a financial contributor in your program guide or on your website, why not conduct a video interview with the CEO of a company and put that video on your website or blog? Nobody does this and this is a great way to give invaluable exposure to your best supporters. It is very prestigious to be associated with the arts and if an executive from a company can talk on camera about why they support you and what they do for the arts community in general, you'll have the opportunity to reach many more sponsors.

5) Raise more money from small donations. If you improve your website as described above and launch a blog, you will have a more compelling marketing presence for reaching larger audiences. At the same time, your enhanced digital marketing efforts will also make it significantly easier to solicit donations from people who visit your website. For example, if your blog provides engaging first person accounts of upcoming performances from dancers and choreographers, blog readers will be more likely to support your on-going efforts through small contributions.

6) Develop and sell digital dance assets. In most instances, dancers and dance companies make money from performances, grants, sponsors and donations. The amount of money that comes in from these revenue sources is usually not enough. I think now is the time for the dance community to start creating, distributing and selling digital assets in the form of dance on camera offerings, performances, routines and class instruction. Here's just one example: millions of people are already purchasing TV episodes of leading shows from Apple's iTunes and downloading them to their iPods. There is no reason that dancers cannot sell content in the same manner.

7) Form new partnerships. In many cases, dancers and dance companies will not be able to implement the above six suggestions without partnering with new media companies, Internet marketing firms or independent contractors/companies that provide these design, marketing, digital distribution and fundraising services. I think it is important for the dance community to start exploring new business models and partnerships that will enable dance companies to work with these different types of experts and organizations in order to improve their financial picture and implement successful digital marketing campaigns.

8) Educate young dancers about emerging digital dance careers. Digital tools, technologies and environments are creating unprecedented opportunities for dancers to seek challenging new paths and outlets for their talent and creativity. From digital dance on camera productions to interactive gaming environments, the opportunities for dancers have never been greater. Read my November 22, 2005 post about "Emerging Digital Dance Careers." I think there is a need for directors of dance associations and dance programs at colleges and universities to get together to explore these emerging careers and to develop a game plan for sharing with dance students what these digital dance opportunities are all about. At the same time, as some of these new career options grow in importance, there may be a need to offer new types of dance classes to educate students about these new career possibilities.

9) Create a universal dance notation language. Yes, there are dance notation systems such as Labanotation, but there is no widely used and recognized notation language. Without such a widely embraced notation system, dance will never reach its full potential. Please read my white paper, "Building a New Dance Economy: Expanding Opportunities for Dancers and Choreographers," which explains why I believe that the lack of a universal notation language poses a big challenge for the dance community.

10) Embrace motion tracking systems on a large-scale for recording dance routines, classes and performances. Motion tracking systems are used today within the dance world on limited scale. But motion tracking systems should be embraced on a global basis to record dance performances in the new universal dance notation language described immediately above.

11) Open motion tracking-based dance notation studios in cities around the world. If there is a universal dance notation language, then it becomes economically feasible to build dance recording studios around the globe that record dance routines, classes and performances with motion tracking technology. Motion tracking technologies will come way down in price because of heavy demand for these tools.

12) Get serious about protecting the intellectual property rights of dancers. Dancers for the most part are not seeking intellectual property protections for their creative work. The bottom line is that dancers and choreographers are losing an opportunity to make money through sales and licensing because they don't have such copyright protections. By following the three recommendations above, dancers will be able to submit their routines and performances in a universal dance notation language in order to receive copyright protections.

13) Support the creation of innovative independent dance websites. Partly as a result of creating a universal dance notation language, improved intellectual property protections, the rise of blogging and the increased use of digital video and pictures tools, it will become possible for a wide range of new dance websites to emerge. Some possibilities: A community blog where people call-in to leave an audio review of a performance they just saw. A video search engine that advertising agencies and corporate marketing departments can access to find dance companies whose work they wish to license for an upcoming ad campaign. A video search engine that meeting, convention and special event organizers can access to find dancers for a performance showcase and class at an annual conference. These are just a few of the possibilities. There will be many more such sites as dancers increasingly embrace the digital world.

14) New advocacy, educational and support organization for dancers, choreographers and dance companies. The Internet is underused by dance associations. Given the low-cost, incredible reach and instant nature of the Internet, there is no reason that dance professionals should not have an equally low-cost membership organization to join that looks after there interests on a national and/or international level. Consider what the possibilities would be if a large percentage of dancers could join an Internet-centric dance association for say $35 a year that provided professional support, low-cost health and other benefits, constant advocacy on their behalf, cutting-edge, timely education and compelling online community resources.

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Great Dance in 2006

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

I look forward to continuing to learn about and cover dance around the world with a strong focus on technology developments and Internet marketing.

Plans for 2006:

- Write and research a workbook with the title "Dancing into the Future," which will offer extensive coverage of all aspects of technology that relate to dance. I posted the initial outline for this book in December. You'll see in this initial outline that I was first thinking of writing a series of publications - the first focusing on dance companies. But in the end, I've decided to write one larger publication that covers all aspects of technology that relates to dance.

- Launch an audio podcast for the dance world, which I'm starting this month. Many of the interviews will be for my upcoming publication, but I'll also be interviewing people who are making news and have interesting insights about different aspects of dance. I'm hoping that I can do many of the Interviews using Internet telephony software such as Skype and Vonage. These Voice over IP programs (this is term for software that allows you to make telephone calls over the Internet) are much better than I thought. I've been using Skype to talk to a friend of mine in England. If both you and the person you're talking with have Skype installed, there is no cost for the call - - not bad for making international calls. In addition, with Skype you can host conference calls as well. So if I interview people that are using one of the Voice over IP programs, I can record the interview directly to my hard drive and then quickly post it to my blog.

But I also have a digital recorder for interviewing people over the regular telephone system or in person. My guess is that I'll probably start by conducting informal interviews with dance bloggers to test out different recording approaches and to figure out what people are interested in listening to.

Please don't hesitate to make suggestions of people I should interview for upcoming audio interviews.

- Develop a series of seminars that cover how dancers can use the Internet and other digital technologies to build audiences, sell products and enhance public relations efforts. I've conducted Internet and technology educational programs for many years. I love conducting these programs. I've always enjoyed explaining and demonstrating how new and emerging technologies can be used for marketing, promotional and educational purposes. The first educational program that I develop will probably focus on how dancers and dance companies can develop websites, publish blogs and conduct Internet marketing campaigns.

- Take more jazz dance classes. Right now my legs feel like rubber. I took a class last night with Maurice Johnson at Joy of Motion here in DC. The class was fun and challenging. I never took a class with Maurice before. Last semester I took a 13-week Intro to Jazz class, also at Joy of Motion, with Doug Yeuell who is the dance center's executive director. Doug is a wonderful instructor. I'm going to try to take at least two jazz classes a week. As I conduct interviews and research for my upcoming book, I think I'll be spending a lot of time in New York so I'll probably take jazz classes there as well. If you have suggestions for where and with whom I should take jazz classes, please let me know what you think. I'd like to be exposed to as many instructors and teaching styles as possible.

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