March 31, 2006

New Strategies for Booking Dance Companies

Performing arts booking conferences serve to bring presenters and performers together for business, networking and educational purposes. In the world of dance, this means that presenters (performing arts venues, dance festivals, tour organizers and promoters) have an opportunity to see performances and book dance companies.

To explore an example of an upcoming performing arts booking conference, you can visit the site for Performing Arts Exchange, an event that will take place in Baltimore, Maryland from September 27-30, 2006.

While these face-to-face encounters and performance showcases, offer excellent opportunities for assessment, interaction and learning, they are just one component of what could be a much larger and richer collaborative endeavor to book performances for an upcoming season.

What these booking conferences lack is large-scale, structured input from audiences (or potential audiences) about the types of dance performances that are of greatest interest to them. And until the emergence of what is now referred to as the Web 2.0, there was not really a mechanism whereby dance enthusiasts could contribute in a meaningful way to indicating their preferences for specific dance companies and preferred types of performances.

For a good introduction to the Web 2.0, you can read this week's cover story in Newsweek, "The New Wisdom of the Web."

Here is my scenario of how the more collaborative culture of the Web 2.0 can play a role in helping presenters book performances that are appealing to larger, more diverse audiences:

- Imagine that all dance companies participating in an upcoming performing arts booking conference created a profile on a social networking site - I'll use MySpace as an example, although the young demographic profile of this site's users is not completely on target for the purpose of dance performances. On their MySpace profile page, dance companies can describe their upcoming performances and include links to performance video clips on YouTube and pictures on Flickr.

- In addition to or instead of MySpace, some dance companies may have their own blogs where they write about their dance company and performances.

- Now web surfers with an interest in dance start viewing the MySpace profiles and reading blog entries as well as watch dance videos and view pictures.

- Dance enthusiasts can respond to this dance company content in many different ways. Maybe a dance fan posts a message to his or her blog about one of the dance company's videos. Another dancer saves the link for a set of dance photos to the collaborative bookmarking site Del.icio.us. Another adds a MySpace profile of a dance company to their friend's list on My Space. Another saves a dance video to their YouTube favorites and posts a comment.

Tag Cloud from Flickr
Cloud show more popular tags by size

- Even more fruitful is that as dance fans explore, write about, comment on, save and evaluate the online dance content, they are constantly categorizing (tagging) the pictures, videos, links and other resources that they like. A video might be categorized, for example, by tagging it "moderndance" and "environment" - I'm assuming that a modern dance piece happens to deal with an environmental theme. Once this video is tagged, it is then possible to find this clip by using either tag as a search term. So if you enter "moderndance" into the video search engine, you'll see a listing for this environmentally-focused modern dance work.

And now to jump way too quickly to the end result: Let's imagine that the above collaborative activity has been taking place for two months preceding a booking conference. What kind of new insights would presenters and dance companies have?

- They could explore the social networks created around specific dance companies on sites such as MyFriends. Why are some dance companies very popular and have hundreds or thousands of "friends" while others do not? Is this just a popularity contest or are there meaningful insights that can be gleaned from these explicitly expressed connections? Are certain styles of dance, themes or creative intent more captivating than others?

- By accessing the blog search engine and analysis tool Technorati, they can find out what types of conversations have emerged around the blog postings of specific dance companies and dance fans. What are the hot ideas that are being debated? What do people like and dislike? What are the challenging, disruptive questions?

- On YouTube, videos can be searched by the number of views and comments can be reviewed to determine how viewers reacted to the dance clips. What are the most popular dance videos and why? Do the top 10 most popular videos share something in common? What key terms have been used to categorize different types of dance videos?

- On Flickr, as with YouTube, dance pictures can be considered by popularity and reviews can be scanned to understand viewer reactions.

- And on bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, saved links can be analyzed by what tags dance fans used to categorize their favorite videos, pictures and other resources. Do the tagging schemes of users indicate that there are specific themes that especially capture their interest? And which of these links have been bookmarked by the largest number of users?

Above I'm just scratching the surface in terms of the range of ways that Web 2.0 data and connections can be evaluated and analyzed to gain an understanding of what dance enthusiasts are looking for in terms of dance performances. But hopefully, it offers a glimpse into what some of the possibilities are in terms of the emerging collaborative web.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:50 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

March 30, 2006

Getting Started with Podcasting

On Tuesday I wrote about picture blogging for dancers. Today I want to talk about audio podcasting.

One of the benefits of photo blogging is that you can focus on sharing pictures of dance rehearsals and performances as opposed to spending a lot of time writing posts a few times a week for your blog.

The same time-saving benefits also hold true for adding audio messages to your blog. I think it would be great to be able to listen to dancers and choreographers talk about their work and other activities on a regular basis. Say, for example, I could go to Bill T. Jones' new blog and listen to him talk about what he's up to in the world of dance. Maybe he could record a five-minute audio message three times a week. I think that would be incredibly compelling. Of course, if hundreds of choreographers and dancers started to do this, we'd all have to pick the ones that we listened to.

The beauty of podcasting is that it's fast, cheap and usually easy. You can either record your audio messages through a microphone connected to your computer or you can pick-up a telephone and leave a voice mail that is converted into an audio message that can be listened to over the Internet.

Once you start your podcast, you can then make it accessible through your blog and services such as iTunes so that these audio programs can be transferred to iPods. I create my podcast in a much different manner than I'm describing in this post because I conduct interviews by telephone. But however you go about it, you can create a channel like I have on iTunes - you need iTunes software to view it or click this image for larger view:

Click for Larger Image

Here are some applications that you can use to create an audio podcast:

- Audioblog was one of the first (maybe the first) audio podcast services. Prices start at $9.95 a month. You can record audio messages by telephone or through a web browser. I've used this application. It works well and you can post your audio recordings automatically to your blog.

- Odeo also lets you record and share your audio programs. You can record messages by telephone or through a Flash application. You can even add an Odeo link on your blog/website so that visitors can leave voice mail messages for you. Odeo won the podcasting category of the Web 2.0 Awards. Odeo is free. I've used this service very briefly just for the purpose of sending a voice message from the home page of a blogger - a fun feature.

- Evoca is a very new audio recording and sharing service. I experimented with it for a few minutes yesterday. It's easy to record an audio message, but as of yesterday, you could only post your audio messages if you used Blogger. I'll experiment more once they support MovableType - my blogging software. Evoca is free for a basic account and $4.99 for a professional account.

- In addition to recording your own audio blogs, you can have the text from your blog converted into audio messages. Services such as Talkr and Feed2Podcast create synthesized voice versions of your posts. The voice on both of these services really annoys me. But for some of your blog readers it may be more convenient to have access to these audio transcripts.

- Here's a listing of more audio and podcasting services.

- And here's another listing of podcasting, audio and music services - they are at the top of this huge list under the "Audio" category.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:35 AM - Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

March 29, 2006

Liz Lerman Audio Interview About "Ferocious Beauty: Genome"

This afternoon I interviewed Liz Lerman of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange about her company's latest work "Ferocious Beauty: Genome." I'm fascinated by the intersection of dance and science so it was great to have an opportunity to hear what Liz had to say about her exploration of genetics through dance and movement. Below you'll find a bio of Liz and her dance company as well as links to recent articles about "Ferocious Beauty."

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - Stereo - 10.1 MB - 21:32 Minutes)

Still From "Ferocious Beauty"
Credit: George Ruhe for The New York Times

Background - Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

Liz Lerman is founding artistic director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. Her dance company features a multi-generational ensemble that creates, performs, teaches and engages people in making art. Throughout its 30 year history, Dance Exchange has defined dance as a multi-disciplinary art form that encompasses movement, music, imagery, and the spoken word.

Dance Exchange, which is based in Takoma Park, Maryland, has created over 50 innovative dance and theater works and has participated in thousands of performances and community encounters in the United States and around the globe.

Liz Lerman has received numerous honors, including the American Choreographer Award, the American Jewish Congress “Golda” Award, and Washingtonian magazine’s 1988 Washingtonian of the Year. In 2002 her work was recognized with a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, and she was recently designated for the National Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Achievement Award and induction into the University of Maryland’s Hall of Fame.

Background - Ferocious Beauty: Genome

Liz's latest work is "Ferocious Beauty: Genome," which premiered February 3rd at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. "Ferocious Beauty" is a multimedia performance that explores the latest developments in genetic science and the impact of this research on our own lives. The goal of this endeavor is to foster a long-term partnership among a national group of scientists, bio-ethicists, researchers, clergy and artists who will bring their best thinking to bear on the promise and threat of a new biological age.

Links for Ferocious Beauty: Genome

- "Liz Lerman Exchange connects science and dance" - The Wesleyan Argus

- "Connecting Bodies, Apples and DNA Through Dance" - New York Times

- "World Premiere of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange’s Ferocious Beauty: Genome" - Press Release, Wesleyan University - Center for the Arts

Posted by Doug Fox at 3:35 PM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

How to Offer Your First Dance Video Mashup

Last night I saw a poster in the DC Metro for the upcoming "Take The Lead" movie with Antonio Banderas. I tried to remember the site's URL but forgot about it until I saw the post about this dance movie in Edward McPherson's blog.

Mashup Music Maker from Take the Lead

It's interesting exploring this movie website to see how it compares to promotional sites for recent dance movies - and related online dance promotion efforts in general. I'm getting a little tired of these virtual dance games where you click and drag a series of dance steps into a time line and then record and share your dance creations - that's what you can do on the Take the Lead site. It's time to move on and innovate. What I did find interesting about this movie site is that they also have a Mash Up Maker where you can mix two songs and save the final piece. And you can listen to mashups created by other users as well.

So I was trying to figure out how dance companies could create their own dance video mashups on their own websites as a way to build buzz for upcoming performances. This is what I came-up with:

Why not take a camcorder and film a dancer or dancers against a bluescreen background. Put this video on your website and encourage visitors to download your video and mix it with an additional video that is relevant to the themes of your dance piece. Once a user finishes creating their mashup, they can upload it to a gallery on your website where all the mashups can be watched. Maybe you can add a competition component to this mashup offering as well where you pick the best mashups of the week.

Still from Heat and Life

Here's an example:

Take a performance such as "Heat and Life" from Emily Johnson's Catalyst Dance Company that deals with the topic of global warming. You could video tape a 2-minute segment from this work with the dancers performing against a blue screen (or green screen) background. (When you shoot video with a blue or green screen background, it is easy to remove this solid color background and drop the objects your are filming into another video - video editing software programs call this chroma-key.) You post this 2-minute segment on your website and visitors download this video clip.

Then site visitors would be encouraged to take the dancers and superimpose them on their own video clip that dealt in some manner with global warming. Maybe the video backdrop shows images of polar ice caps melting or something closer to home such as industrial plants pumping pollutants into the air. The mashup video clip could also include the creator adding videos of themselves dancing into the mix. Many possibilities - even making the entire backdrop completely abstract.

After the dance video mashups are submitted, they could be placed in an archive for anybody to watch and either the dance company or website visitors or both could vote on their favorites.

I think this idea would be a lot of fun and generate a lot of buzz. So definitely let me know if you decide to do something along these lines.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:15 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Importance of Generating Online Revenue

According to an article in today's New York Times, "3 Out of 4 Visitors to the Met Never Make it to the Front Door," by Carol Vogel, many millions more people interact with the Metropolitan Museum's website than step foot into the Met's building on 5th Avenue. 15 million people per year visit this museum's website and 4.5 million visit the physical museum.

While I would think that the ratio would be much higher - that say for every one museum visitor, there would be something like 15 to 20 website visitors - the point of the article is that the Met generates significant revenue through its website. According to the NY Time's article, $6.5 million is generated online through the sale of memberships, merchandise sales and fundraising.

While a certain percentage of this total online revenue would have been generated whether or not it was processed through the museum's website, the main point is that this website and the websites for more and more museums represent significant sources of revenue for these arts institutions.

In the dance world, unfortunately, dance companies - from large to small - have not yet taken any meaningful steps to generate revenue from their web presence. I think that this situation should be rectified. For starters, dance companies, like most artists and arts organizations, need to generate more revenue. But most importantly there are practical steps that dance companies can take today that will help them generate additional sources of revenue by exploiting the opportunities offered by the online world. Digital content can be sold in the form of videos, online fundraising campaigns can be launched and larger audiences can be attracted to upcoming performances.

I'll continue to write about these various online revenue generating opportunities for dancers and dance companies in upcoming posts.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:15 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 28, 2006

Picture Blogging for Dancers and Choreographers

Blogs can be a good marketing tool for dancers and choreographers. But it can be time consuming to write a few posts per week to ensure that readers keep coming back to your blog.

So instead of focusing on a text-based blog, you might want to consider creating a blog that primarily consists of pictures and brief passages describing your pictures. This type of visual blogging is ideally suited for the world of dance and once you get the hang of it, you can take pictures and place them on your blog fairly quickly.

The trick is for you to be able to take good pictures of your rehearsals and performances as well as casual shots of dancers hanging out. The problem is that it may not always be possible, from a legal or contractual standpoint, to take pictures of dancers - this is something that you will have to look into.

For example, I haven't specifically asked her, but on Kristin Sloan's picture blog, "The Winger," she takes very, very few pictures of dancers - Kristin is with the NYC Ballet. My guess is that she is not permitted to take pictures of rehearsals or performances and so takes pictures of other things.

So hopefully, you're in a position where you don't have similar constraints. I think a dance-focused picture blog would be a lot of fun and very captivating.

If you want to explore creating a picture blog, here's what you need:

1) A digital camera or a good quality camera built-in to your cell phone.

2) A blog.

3) A way to add pictures to your blog. There are two possible ways to add pictures: you can transfer a picture to your computer, edit it and then upload it to your blog, or you can take a picture with your mobile phone and email it to your blog.

I'll write more about the specifics of how this process works, but for starters, you can read my post from last week on how to create a blog with TypePad or Blogger. Both of these weblog software programs let you add your pictures. In addition, some bloggers add their pictures to flickr, and then pull the pictures from Flickr into their blog.

You can even set-up Flickr so that you email pictures from your phone to Flickr and then Flickr sends the pictures automatically to your blog. A similar service is called SplashBlog, which also automates the process of sending pictures from your cell phone to your blog.

If you have specific questions about creating a photoblog for dance, please let me know.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:05 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 27, 2006

Take a Tour of Jasmin Vardimon's Park

The UK-based Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company performs works of physical dance theater that even Article19 likes:

If the Lab [Article19] was picking favourites then this company would be one of them for the sheer inventiveness of the choreography and the quality of the performances.

On Article19 you can watch a 7-minute excerpt of "Park," a work of choreographer Jasmin Vardimon that just finished touring in February.

There's a dedicated website for "Park" that's worth exploring. It's colorful and engaging and reflects the mood of their dance piece. From a marketing standpoint, visitors are invited to participate in a competition to win an iPod, there's a subscriber update via email, there's a questionnaire to gather feedback and there's a press section with print-quality photos for download.

In terms of other features, you can access a video clip, listen to the eight performers discuss their characters and watch audience testimonials.

The only thing that bugs me about their site is that they embed scrollable frames in the middle of their pages, which I always find to be an annoying way to navigate website content.

Overall, a fun, engaging site that is far better than most dance websites - and an enjoyable video.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:20 PM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Virtual Bodyjam Dance Game

Take the Virtual Bodyjam dance workout game for a spin. This Flash game, based on the Les Mills dance workout, lets you choose and cloth your dancing avatar and then you're ready to replicate your instructor's moves. The game, which you can play alone or in challenge mode, is a piece of cake, but I always enjoy seeing how dance is brought to the web.

Posted by Doug Fox at 12:45 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Exploring Science Through Dance

One of the trends I've noticed recently is the increase in the number of dance performances that explore scientific topics. I think that it's great that dance is being harnessed to help illuminate developments in technology, biology and earth sciences.

Here are some recent and upcoming performances that explore genetics, energy conservation and seismic activity:

In "Ferocious Beauty: Genome," Liz Lerman Dance Exchange explores the impact of developments in genetic science on human development. Next performance April 28th in San Francisco. (New York Times article, The Wesleyan Argus)

Credit: Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group

The San Francisco Ballet performs Ballet Mori to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. Principal Dancer Muriel Maffre will dance to live to seismic data on April 4th. (Press release, Guardian Unlimited)

Credit: Prof. Alan Rosiene, FIT

Choreographer Emily Johnson of Catalyst Dance presents "Windfarm" in Minneapolis on March 19th. Windfarm explores the intersection of humans, machines and nature and the potential of windfarms to stop the degradation of our environment. (StarTribune.com)

Credit: University of Wisconsin-River Falls

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:46 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 24, 2006

Fundraising Through Text Messaging

I came across this fascinating story about the Sweet Relief Musicians' Fund that provides financial assistance for career musicians who are facing illness, disability or age-related problems. (via Textually.org)

One of the ways that this organization raises money is by encouraging people to make $4.99 donations via their cell phones. Donations are made by using your mobile phone's text messaging service and the charge is automatically added to your phone bill.

Justin Oberman of Mopocket blog has an excellent write-up about Sweet Relief Musicians' Fund and how the process of raising funds via text messages works (along with some of its current limitations). He also links to Mobile Accord, a company that has a service called mgive that creates mobile fundraising campaigns for not-for-profits.

Seeking donations via mobile phones has some major advantages over traditional fundraising strategies. The most important one is that you can potentially encourage large numbers of people to act instantly. In addition, just about everybody has a mobile phone and can send text messages.

This program for musicians sounds like a great idea for dancers as well. It might make sense to explore including this type of mobile fundraising capability with on-going fundraising efforts that provide financial support for dancers in need.

Posted by Doug Fox at 2:22 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dance Critics Don't Get It

In a February 28th article in The Village Voice, dance critic Deborah Jowitt asks dance writers at other New York publications how important it is for them to understand the intentions of a choreographer when reviewing a dance work.

Jowitt asks this question in the context of an "inside the dance-way" dust-up that started when choreographer Tere O'Connor had the audacity to criticize a review, a positive one at that, written by New Yorker dance critic Joan Acocella. Paul Ben-Itzak of The Dance Insider has an article that tells this story from the beginning with links to all of the relevant articles and letters.

I think it's amusing that some dance critics view themselves in such grandiose terms. This is the opening sentence of Jowitt's February 28th article:

When Tere O'Connor premieres his new Baby at Dance Theater Workshop on March 22, he'll be facing a New York audience for the first time since a letter he wrote to The New Yorker late last summer sent shocks through the dance community.

This is what his DTW performance is about? Talking back to a dance critic is such a big deal that all of the thin-skinned dance writers circle the wagon to protect their precious franchise so that other choreographers are on notice not to ever question their pronouncements? By the way, The New Yorker did not print Tere O'Connor's letter.

Here is what Jowitt's fellow writers (from just two publications) have to say about the role of the critic:

Joan Acocella, New Yorker dance critic:

I do not see my job as requiring me to go to artists, find out their intentions, report their intentions to the reader, and then talk about how they fulfilled or didn't fulfill their intentions. There's actually a word for that approach; it's the intentional fallacy in criticism (that is, you judge [a work] on its intentions). . . . I see myself as a member of the audience, so whatever the artist's intentions are, many of them—maybe most of them—I won't be able to discern.

Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times:

I don't think reviewers should have any inside knowledge; it seems to me very important to respond as an informed audience member. I hate the word critic; I like the word reviewer because I think that [what I write] is a second view, a re-view.

John Rockwell of The New York Times:

Even if [critics] think they're deeply involved in the birth of a work, they have to be seeing it from the outside—and not just as the audience's representative; the very nature of the perception of artwork places one at a distance from the creator, or indeed anybody else watching the artwork. To pretend otherwise is kind of futile.

Rockwell also puts forth the notion of criticism as a parallel art form: "Then the issue is not so much replicating the choreographer's thought processes and somehow analyzing the work in the terms that the choreographer himself would use; it becomes a parallel exercise in which some combination of intellectual analysis and poetic and tactile invocation are all used in an effort to create for the reader a vivid picture."

I should also add Jowitt's take:

There often seems to be a disconnect between what choreographers say they're doing and what actually occurs onstage.

I think that Acocella's "intentional fallacy in criticism" premise is a smoke-screen to justify not making an effort to understand a choreographer. And it's bogus for a dance critic to say that he or she is just a member of the audience - they are not! They got a free ticket and they ought to know a hell of a lot more than most audience members - about all aspects of the choreographer - including his or her intentions.

Dunning is equally not credible. What does it mean for a dance writer/critic not to have "inside knowledge"? If a one-hour video is made of a choreographer talking about an upcoming dance work, is Dunning not going to watch this interview until after the performance if at all? And even if she sees it after the performance won't this give her too much insight for the next work she sees from the same choreographer? Where do you draw the line between "inside knowledge" and "informed audience member"? Are you supposed to live in a bubble and not talk to dancers, choreographers or audiences? If Dunning does live in an artistic bubble and has no or very limited interaction with choreographers, dancers and other critics, then I will retract the above.

Jowitt seems to be saying that it's not worth understanding a choreographer because they don't have the capacity to describe their own work in an intelligent manner.

Rockwell appears more reasonable - at least he doesn't start by advocating ignorance or criticizing choreographers, but I don't necessarily agree with him. The process of perceiving art not does by definition put you at a distance from the creator or other viewers - it can just as easily put you in the same mind-set and bring you closer together.

But I find Rockwell's last line of greater interest: His goal is "to create for the reader a vivid picture." My answer is: not for long! The role that dance critics think they play and the expanding digital universe are on a head-on collision course.

Sooner or later - I hope sooner - choreographers are going to realize that they can reach-out to their own audiences directly. They can share their intentions, ideas, questions, struggles and experiences with dance enthusiasts through videos, blogs and other digital tools. Choreographers will not need dance critics to create vivid pictures in the minds of readers. Dance audiences can watch a video and see the real images for themselves.

So eventually dance critics are going to have to re-think what they do - there's still a very important role for the good ones because they bring insight, experience, sensibilities and other qualities that dance-goes can benefit from - but their work will be distinctly different and they will no longer play their cherished gatekeeper role. And critics are going to have to stop playing the fake-ignorance card because in the Internet age with massive amounts of information available to be consumed, you can't go around acting as if you don't know what's going on.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:35 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

March 23, 2006

Dance Europe Backs Down

Dance Europe, after receiving extensive criticism for its discriminatory policies toward Israeli dancers, dance companies and advertisers, has removed from its website its listing of dance companies, which did not include dance companies from Israel. Dance Europe has also removed links from all of its pages that linked to this listing of dance companies.

For background on this story, you can read my post and access additional resources. Also, Dance Insider ran my initial post with additional reporting and editing by Editor and Publisher Paul Ben-Itzak - I think the end result is much improved. And, Downtown Dancer includes links to the most recent coverage about Dance Europe's policies toward Israeli dancers.

This is the original link to the listing of dance companies. When you click on this link, you will receive a page cannot be found error message (HTTP 404-File Not Found).

This is the link for the list of dance companies on the Dance Europe website as cached by Google on March 16, 2006. You'll notice that there is a link on the navigation bar for "companies" that is no longer on Dance Europe's navigation bars on any of its pages. In addition, if you scroll down the cached Google page, you'll see that there is no listing for Israeli dance companies.

And here are two screen shots of the cached page on Google that shows what I just explained above (click for larger images):

Posted by Doug Fox at 4:20 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

News Stories for March 23, 2006

- Two wonderful 3D animation works on DVblog from artist José Carlos Casado that feature bodies in motion that merge and interact in captivating ways.

- Devolution Vs. Robot Dance Party: Why is it that popular culture is a gazillion light years ahead of the performing arts when it comes to taking advantage of the mind-boggling distribution opportunities of the online universe? In one corner you have performances such as Devolution from Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) and in the other corner you have a robot dancing at a party (via Boing Boing). Not an online video to be found of Devolution. But the video for the dancing robot was uploaded yesterday and has 1,715 views. It strikes me that the powers that reign within the performing arts world - dance companies, critics, promoters and arts organizations - are completely disconnected from the digital landscape and have no idea how to engage modern-day audiences. That probably sounds too harsh. But there simply has to be a way to explain this disconnect because dancers are flat-out missing a great opportunity.

Cover RealTime+OnScreen Magazine
Featuring Devolution Robot and Dancer

- Actor Colin Farrell performs ballet dance in the nude to calm the nerves of co-star Salma Hayek (via Onward and Upward). But I doubt that Colin Farrell can match the celebrations of the human body that are featured in the dance videos on the Impulstanz site.

"The Modesty of Icebergs“ © Jaques Grenier

- "The Wedding Crashers" embeds the viewer into the action. I got a kick out of this Flash presentation for the Wedding Crashers movie that allows users to add themselves to the on-screen action. Essentially, you upload a picture of yourself and become one of the characters in this film trailer. I uploaded a picture of Gene Kelley as my own - I could have done a better job with the picture selection - but you get the idea (see below). I think that a lot of this user interactivity that's taking place online and with games such as PlayStation's EyeToy, where a dancer's image is inserted in real-time into the game, points the way toward some much more sophisticated online dance programs that mesh a digital performance with high levels of user engagement. Here's my foray into the Wedding Crashers:

Click for Larger Image

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 22, 2006

How to Improve the Quality of Online Dance Instruction Videos

I did a search yesterday for dance instruction videos. What I found was pretty horrendous. So what will it take to improve the quality of online dance instruction videos?

My thoughts:

1) Create good quality dance instruction videos. I don't mean fancy - I mean that I can clearly see the dancer or dancers' entire bodies, the audio quality is good and the lighting is more than adequate so I can see the moves/routines. Don't waste my time with your promotional hype or slick video editing. Just start the video with a brief intro and show me the moves/routines you plan to teach. This can all be done very inexpensively.

2) It's important to break down the moves and routines in a coherent way. Show the moves at a slow pace from different angles, explain challenging parts and finally show the moves to music.

3) There are many types of instructional videos that will make for good online viewing. If you teach Jazz, show a portion of your warm-up exercises or a routine. If you teach Salsa, make videos available of moves and combinations for different levels of dancers. You can also create supplemental videos so that students can more easily practices moves, combos and routines outside of your class.

4) When you prepare your video for the Internet, make sure the video quality is good enough so that viewers can actually see the dancers. You can post the videos to your site, but it's more important to post your videos to the large video sites that host millions of videos.

5) Now for the tough part: Do you sell your instructional videos or give them away for free. Clearly, you want to make money. But first, you are better off making a limited number of videos available free of charge. If your videos are good, then you have the potential to reach a large online audience, which will help you get more students and help you sell more DVDs, if you offer them.

In terms of selling video clips online, my thinking at this point is that it is possible to do but we are just at the early stages of people getting used to the idea of buying videos online. I have to do some more research in this area, but I think that over the next 3-6 months it will become much easier for anybody to sell their videos, whether through iTunes, Google or other services. The opportunities here are potentially phenomenal. If you can build buzz for a single instructional video and you start selling thousands of clips at $2.00 a piece, you'll be doing pretty well.

6) You'll build buzz if the word spreads that you have a good video that's worth watching, whether it's free or requires a payment. How do you build buzz? Well, there is only so much you can do. In the end it's up to dance students to classify, evaluate and promote your video.

To elaborate: I've been writing posts lately about the Web 2.0 and social networking software programs. These applications represent the future of the Internet. What they are all about is groups of people with similar interests organizing and ranking the resources they like and don't like. Here's an example: Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. You can save and classify websites you like and see the websites that other people have saved. If you search for "dance," you'll see a list of links with the number of people who have bookmarked each dance resource. The higher the number of people who have saved a particular resource, the more popular the website/blog/video/picture/song is.

The same thing can happen on video sites. You upload a dance instruction video. Users come across it and start classifying it with "tags." For example, they may tag your video with "jazz" "dance" and "instruction." Then, when other users search for videos that are tagged "jazz," your video will be on the list.

Whether your video is at the top of the list of jazz dance instruction videos depends on how popular it is. If people save it in their favorites or give it great ratings, then it will be on the top of the list and people will watch it or buy it.

The bottom line is that the emerging collaborative web is turning the marketing process upside down. Users are in control and will create good buzz if you deliver good dance instruction videos.

Posted by Doug Fox at 3:45 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

News Stories for March 22, 2006

- "Heinz Poll Revisited: Dance master’s input helps Verb Ballet revive two works" in Free Times - When is the dance world going to figure out a relatively easy and inexpensive way to do multi-camera shoots of performances (stage or studio) and save/edit the video in such a way that the performances can be re-staged by future choreographers and dancers? While dance notation systems are too cumbersome, there must be a way to convert video into Matrix like 360-degree shots that won't break the bank.

- Huggable shirts transmit caresses at a distance. I think that this technology is phenomenal. The F+R Hugs project is the work of interaction design company CuteCircuit. Two people wear a Hug shirt, each of which is embedded with sensors and connected to a cell phone via Bluetooth. One person hugs themselves/touches their body and these physical sensations are transmitted over a cell phone to the other person wearing a Hug shirt. The Hug shirt of the second person than re-creates the physical sensations of the distant hugs. Some imaginative possibilities for additional layers of interaction amongst dancers and, for that matter, with the audience. (via We Make Money Not Art).

- "Dance is filled with a variety of personalities!" in Diary of a Dance Mom - Many types of guys waiting in line for dance auditions. Dance Mom tells you who they are.

- Riya's face identification photo application is now in beta. This new photo upload and management site offers intriguing possibilities for dance. Imagine that you can do a picture search and find all photos in which a specific dancer is included. (via TechCrunch).

- Soundbeam has a good video clip of how its sensor system can be used by dancers to create real-time sounds and visual effects in a dance performance.

- The Trocks: Classic Ballet in Drag in Reuters - Short video clip about 31-year old Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo - you first have to watch video ad.

- "Get Down with the People" in Micro Persuasion - I like this post by marketing blogger Steve Rubel. He talks about the rise of "mecosystems" whereby consumers are creating their own solar systems that revolve around themselves. I'll write soon about how the emerging "engagement" marketing strategy, which springs from the rise of "mecosystems," may impact dance and other performing arts. If this paragraph sounds like frontier gibberish, to quote Mel Brooks, I promise to clear this all up soon. But in the meantime, here's an example to wet your appetite. Smart Square (a Wendy's hamburger) has almost 100,000 friends on MySpace.com. Do you want to have a relationship with a burger?

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:03 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 21, 2006

1,000 Dance Bloggers in 2006

I think it would be great if more dancers, choreographers, dance companies, educators and others involved in dance would create blogs and start participating in the growing dance blogosphere.

It's not difficult to create a blog and the benefits make it more than worthwhile.

If dance companies or dancers create blogs that talk about their work in engaging, accessible ways, I'm certain that every dance blogger will support and promote their efforts. As things stand now, there are very, very few dance blogs from established dancers and dance companies that write about their work in a direct, meaningful way for their online audiences.

All I'm really saying you need to do is write short blog posts as if you are having a conversation with somebody about on-going projects or upcoming performances. Add some good pictures to the mix and you'll be on your way to creating engaging blogs. You simply want to stay away from adding boring boiler-plate marketing copy or using tedious press releases. Just write in your own voice and let dance enthusiasts know what you're up to and thinking.

And the best part is you can start a blog for no money - it's free!

To get started:

Visit TypePad or Blogger to create a free blog. Just answer the questions and check off boxes to create your blog's basic design and structure. Here's a screen shot from TypePad where you pick the layout of your pages - as you can tell (click on image for larger view), you click on a circle next to the layout you like and move on to the next section.

Click for Larger Image

Creating a Blog in TypePad

Blogger is just as straightforward. Here's a screen shot of the Blogger home page - you follow a few steps and your blog is ready to go live:

Click for Larger Image

Blogger Home Page

Once your blog is up, you can then add pictures, videos and audio messages. Both TypePad and Blogger have tools for adding pictures. Or you can upload your pictures to services such as Flickr. If you have dance videos, you can post them to YouTube, Google or other services. To add audio messages and podcasts, go to Odeo.

All of the above services are free. Some of these services do have professional level offerings for which you have to pay. But you can get started now and it doesn't cost anything. You can have a blog, pictures, videos and audio messages all without a grant, funding, donations, sponsors, writing lengthy applications, getting on your knees and begging for money, without having to consult a board of directors and without extracting a cent from your bank account.

OK - I'm going over the deep end today with my hype. But it's not really hype if something does not cost you any money and you can instantly reach out to a supportive community of dance bloggers (and a world-wide audience of Internet users) who will help promote and talk about your upcoming performances. Is it??

Posted by Doug Fox at 3:44 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks for the Comments

It's nice to see an increase in comments to the posts I write on Great Dance.

(By the way, you can view the latest comments by going to Great Dance home page, scrolling down a bit and looking for the comments section in the right-hand column.)

Here are two of the latest posts on topics that I'm especially interested in:

- Simon Fildes shares his thoughts on hyperchoreography in response to "Spreading Dance with Mashups"

- And Justin writes that distance dance instruction is more than feasible, but requires more research in response to "Is Remote Dance Education Possible?"

I appreciate your comments, trackbacks and feedback.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:49 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

News Stories for March 21, 2006

"An Announcement of Sorts" in Rachel Howard.com - Rachel who writes great reviews of dance performances in the San Francisco Bay Area is unfortunately cutting back on her dance writing both on her blog and for the San Francisco Chronicle. She'll be pursuing her other writing interests. Rachel is the author of "The Lost Night." Best of wishes to Rachel.

- "Skype + Outlook = Skylook" in Tech Crunch - Skylook might just be software I need for recording voice conversations over the Net with Skype.

- "The rise of clip culture online" in Picturephoning.com - The rise in sharing of video clips is growing like crazy and now moving from Internet to mobile phone. I'm going to start writing hundreds of posts about why dancers/dance companies can't be left in the dust. It's time to post your videos online!

- "Movie Trailers Come to YouTube" in MIT Advertising Lab - While I'm on my video proselytizing campaign for dancers, movie promos are now on YouTube. A trailer for "Scary Movie 4" was watched 437,000 times in 4 days - now up to 702,000.

- Instant Feeling Messages in We Make Money Not Art - Now mobile users can send digital bundles of emotional content. Will dance movement soon be fused with emotional meaning for the enjoyment of remote and live audiences?

- "GoMonkey - Gesture-Based Interface" in MIT Advertising Lab - GoMonkey (in German) is creator of gesture-based interface that uses 2 cameras to capture movement in 3D for the purpose of interacting and controlling computers - like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. This type of motion tracking is far ahead of current motion tracking systems used in dance - but points toward what's possible.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:23 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 20, 2006

Making the Web Dance Friendly

I would like to work with others in the dance community to improve both the way we use the web and benefit from the web.

I'd like to start by encouraging dance bloggers to experiment with a service called Rojo.

Click for Larger Image

Screen Shot of Rojo
Dance Blogs Listed on Left
Most Recent Posts in Middle

Rojo is what is called a blog feed aggregator. Instead of visiting every blog you want to read, you can track all of the blogs you like in a single web-based application.

If you visit the Great Dance Blog's home page, you'll notice in the right-hand column that I've listed over 20+ dance blogs. One of the buttons for each blog reads, "Rojo." By clicking on this icon, you can automatically subscribe to the selected feed. You do first have to sign-up for a free account, which you'll be invited to do once you click on an icon.

But you can actually save time. Once you finish the sign-up process for an account, add me to your "Contacts." (I'm "dougfox" or "doug@greatdance.com"). Then, you can automatically subscribe to the same dance feeds I subscribe too - both dance and others. I would recommend against signing-up for all my feeds during the initial sign-up process. If you do this, you may end-up with a lot of feeds that you don't want.

In addition to subscribing to blog feeds with Rojo, you can also categorize and rate blog posts so that others can quickly learn what is interesting.

To categorize a blog post, you "tag" it. Tagging means that you add keywords that help you organize posts that you want to save for later reference. Tagging is very helpful because you can go back to Rojo at any time and quickly pull-up all posts that you have tagged, say, "dancevideo." And very importantly, every time you tag a post, you make it easier for other people to find stories that are of interest to them.

To rate a post, you simply click on the "Mojo" button to the right of every post. So when you are reviewing posts, you can see at a glance which ones have the most mojo - the most votes in other words.

But one of the best features is the ability to access the blog feeds, tags and favorites of other Rojo users. As I mentioned above, you can automatically access all of the dance feeds that I subscribe to by adding me to your contacts.

So even though I think that Rojo has some weaknesses - the main one is that the interface and navigation tools could be improved to some extent - I think that Rojo's combination of features can be a good first step in improving how dance bloggers and dancers in general use the Web.

For instance, if all dance bloggers and say hundreds of dancers signed-up for Rojo, then there would be a great community of dancers who would be contributing to evaluating, organizing and sharing dance resources. Plus a very likely outcome would be that many more dancers would be encouraged to create their own blogs. When I say dancers, I mean everybody involved in dance: professional dancers, students, choreographers, dance companies, educators, writers/critics, new media artists, technologists and others.

Rojo is one of the many web-based applications that are part of what is called the Web 2.0. The Web 2.0 usually refers to social networking services that enable groups of users to upload/save, share, categorize, collaborate, communicate and rate items with each other.

By starting with a service such as Rojo, we are categorizing just one type of content in the dance world - that is dance blogs and postings. But there are many other types of content that can be organized such as pictures, websites, and video. And there are many Web 2.0 applications for these types of content as well. I've been using Flickr for pictures, YouTube for videos and Del.icio.us for bookmarking websites. In terms of the categorization of dance content, I'd say Flickr is the farthest along.

Posted by Doug Fox at 4:36 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Video Introduction to Contact Improvisation

Here's a 2003 video clip, "Contact Improvisation with Karl Frost," directed by David Olivari. His david-o.net blog (French) covers his multimedia dance work.

This clip features an interview with dance instructor Karl Frost about contact improvisation interspersed with video from a class he teaches. It's a perfect way to get introduced to this form of dance:

Here are David's photo sets from Flickr. You'll notice that there are a number of sets that cover dance and especially contact improvisation.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:57 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Second Position - Dance Documentary

Here's a preview of a dance documentary, "Second Position," directed by Richard Calvache. This video grew out of a high-school class project and ended-up being accepted by a number of film festivals.

I enjoyed watching this clip and I'd like to see the entire video:

Here's the brief caption for this film:

This passionate documentary follows a troubled teen living the street life of the South Bronx as he takes a chance on changing his path. As Andres faces the challenges of proving he can be a ballet dancer and earning the acceptance of his choice by his friends and family he learns there's never just one position in life.

Also watch "Second Position (Preview)" and visit
Rich Calvache's profile on YouTube.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:04 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 17, 2006

Projects for Dance and Technology Students

It's been nice to receive more emails lately from students at colleges and universities who are pursuing studies in dance and technology or are taking a class or writing a paper that relates in some way to the fusing of dance and digital tools. I'm happy to help answer questions, if I can, or forward your messages to others who can answer your questions or give you suggestions.

I was thinking that there are a number of projects students could work on that would be both worthwhile research endeavors and wonderful ways for dancers around the world to learn about the latest developments in interactive performances, new media tools and related technologies.

I would be delighted if you were working on any of the following projects (or related one) and could make your final research public for others to access:

- Annotated picture guides of interactive performance tools and technologies: Let's say that you are taking a class or doing research on motion tracking options for dance performances. What I think would be great is if you take pictures at every step of the process so that people who view your project could have a solid understanding of how motion tracking worked. You could take pictures of your camcorder, dancers, software screen shots and other elements and upload these pictures to a photo gallery such as Flickr. Then you could add annotations to each of your pictures so that viewers would understand every part of the process. I'd be delighted to link to these pictures or pull them into my blog for people to access.

- Annotated video guides to interactive performances: In this case, I have the same idea in mind as above except that now you would work with video. You could take video to show how motion caption systems (or other technologies) are set-up and then used to capture the movement of a dancer. Then, you could edit this video and add a voice over that describes specifically what is happening. Finally, you could upload this video to You Tube, Google Videos or other free video hosting services.

- Documenting dance performances: You can, of course, take videos and pictures of works in progress and final dance performances that you're working on. Then you can upload these videos to the web. One of the things that I haven't seen that I think would be very worthwhile would be if you upload two versions of each video. With the first video of a rehearsal or dance performance, you upload it with the musical track. With the 2 version you create an audio track where you and other dancers/choreographers explain what your performance is about - essentially this is like the second audio track on a DVD where you listen to actors and directors discuss a movie.

- Performance blogs with videos: I'd love to see more experimentation with weblogs where the choreographers and dancers start posting to their blogs from the day of the first rehearsal through the actual performance. I enjoy getting inside the creative process and understanding how a dance work is developed from the initial idea to the final result - your performance. So at every practice, you can take video clips and post them to your blog. These videos would let your readers follow your progress and also provide a forum where visitors who watch your videos can offer you feedback.

Those are my thoughts for now. I'm sure there are many other possibilities.

Please let me know if you are going to pursue any of the above projects or other ideas you have for sharing your experimentations, research and performances with an online audience.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:55 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Resource Guide for Yesterday's Story About Dance Europe

In my post yesterday about Dance Europe, I did not include a complete list of links to stories and blog posts about this topic. So here are the links that I know of - some of the posts include extensive comments with a range of thoughts about this topic:

- "Burn Baby Burn" in Stefanella's Drive-Thru.

- "Ugliness in The Pretty World of Dance" in An Unsealed Room.

- "Dance Europe's Policy of Bias and Censorship" in Downtown Dancer.

- "Still Dancing Around" in An Unsealed Room.

- "Prestigious Dance Magazine Digs in Deeper" in Canonist.

- "Dance Europe's Response" in Downtown Dancer.

- "Dance Magazine Out of Step with Israel" from London Jewish Chronicle and reprinted in An Unsealed Room.

- "Dance Europe and Israel" in Article19.

- "The Curious Case of the Covert Boycott" in Adloyada.

- "Anti-Israel Dancing about Architecture" in Kesher Talk.

Posted by Doug Fox at 3:31 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 16, 2006

Dance Europe's Unacceptable Discrimination Against Israeli Dancers

On March 8th I came across a post, "Dance Europe's Policy of Bias and Censorship" on Rachel Feinerman's Downtown Dancer Blog. Rachel linked to a story by journalist Stephanie Freid who publishes a blog from Tel Aviv, Israel. In this post Stephanie tells the story of what happened when she tried to pitch London-based Dance Europe magazine on writing a story about Sally-Anne Friedland Dance Drama Company of Israel.

Stephanie was told that Dance Europe does not write about Israeli dance companies or accept advertisements from Israeli companies because of the occupation. But the magazine will make an allowance if the dance company or sponsor makes a statement denouncing the occupation.

Dance Magazine's Editor Emma Manning, as quoted by the London Jewish Chronicle, said "as an editor, I am entitled to choose what to print. It is my perogative."

In addition to not providing editorial coverage or accepting ads (without disclaimers), Dance Europe will also not include listings of Israeli dance companies in its online directory.

I think that Dance Europe's blatant discrimination against Israeli dancers is pitiful and unacceptable. Dance Europe is clearly free to write about any topics it wishes and express its opinions as it pleases. But for a London-based publication that covers dance, supposedly in an unbiased manner as stated on its website, to single out one country in the entire world as the source of all evil and then punish the dancers of this country for the acts of its government is the height of absurdity.

CBS News team watches Joseph McCarthy
warn Americans of communist infiltrators

Dance Europe's demand of Israeli dancers to denounce the occupation if they wish to be covered in their magazine reminds me of the loyalty oaths that had to be taken during the red scare days of the McCarthy era. Last night I happened to watch "Good Night, And Good Luck" that tells the story of how Edward R. Murrow took on the fear-mongering of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In the opening scene CBS employees whisper to each other as they contemplate whether they will lose their jobs if they don't sign loyalty oaths.

But even worse than their demand for denunciations by Israeli dancers, is Dance Europe's complete lack of appreciation for what it means to be an artist and how art can serve to bring people together as opposed to pushing them apart.

There are many ways to answer the question: what is art? I would say that at its most basic level art is about individual creative expression. In this light, Dance Europe's discrimination against Israeli dancers is especially pointless and mean spirited. Dance Europe is delivering collective punishment against individual dancers who undoubtedly bring to their work a diverse range of perspectives and interests. Some may be inspired by political and social considerations while others may be motivated by a range of other issues that don't even touch upon politics.

Click for Larger Image

Digital Worlds Institute's global arts
programs breakdown cultural barriers
by bringing together artists in
real-time from around the world.

Art, at its best, is a wonderful way to bring people together from different countries, backgrounds and perspectives. If you listen to the audio interview I recently did with James Oliverio of the Digital Worlds Institute, you'll notice that one of the themes that ties the interview together is his description of how his multi-country events, which bring dancers and other artists together in real-time via high-speed videoconferencing, serve to breakdown cultural barriers in unexpected and delightful ways.

In one of my many emails to Emma Manning, most of which went unresponded to, I recommended that Dance Europe play a constructive role, instead, in the search for paths to resolving the many challenges of the Middle East. My main suggestion was that she embrace existing programs (or participate in the creation of new ones) that fuse the power of dance with inexpensive digital communication tools such as video and blogs. By using these tools, dancers of all ages from the Middle East (and beyond) can share, both online and in person, their perspectives, stories, differences and hopes in a worthwhile and creative manner.

Then this morning I was searching for dance videos on YouTube. I happened to stumble upon videos that had been uploaded just minutes earlier from a group called Nemashim based in Haifa.

Nemashim is a commune that consists of Israeli Jews and Arabs who have recently graduated from high-school. The goal is to promote peace and understanding through theater and Jewish-Arab dialogue and meetings. In the words of their website:

We are living together in the middle of a terrible, destructive conflict and we feel that a way out is by developing peaceful resistance to violence, realising the ideals of equality and co-existence in a mixed group and by using theatre to advance these ideals.

Here are two of the videos uploaded this morning by Uri Shani of Nemashim. The first "Contact Improvisation" and the second "Trust":

Posted by Doug Fox at 4:25 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

March 15, 2006

Is Remote Dance Education Possible?

Is it possible to teach dance classes remotely or do teachers and students really need to be in the same room? And to what extent can digital camcorders and high-speed Internet connections be used to bridge physical distances?

Jane Baas

Last year Case Western Reserve University and Western Michigan University teamed-up to teach a dance kinesiology class over the high-speed Internet2. (View posts in my Internet2 category). Jane Baas, associate professor of dance at Western Michigan University, taught this class via a video conferencing hook-up.

My guess is that teaching a class that focuses on dancer well-being, strength and the body is easier to do over an Internet connection than teaching an advanced modern class. And while the Internet2 has very low-latency (almost no time lag in sending and receiving the video feed) and excellent TV-like video quality, I don't see the Internet being a replacement anytime soon for traditional dance classes.

But that doesn't mean the Internet will not play a significant role in supplementing and improving dance education. I think that the Internet coupled with digital video will be invaluable. In my recent interview with Ann Doyle of Internet2, she talked about the innovative distance learning programs at the Manhattan School of Music that use the Internet and videoconferencing to bring together students with top artists and teachers around the world. The same can be done in dance education by linking students at universities and conservatories with leading choreographers, instructors, dancers and other artists located in distant cities.

In addition, digital camcorders are now inexpensive, it's relatively easy to edit video and there is no cost when uploading and sending video clips over the Internet. So sharing videos with distant instructors to seek feedback and critiques is easy to do.

Posted by Doug Fox at 3:15 PM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Robots Take to the Dance Floor - Part II

Transformer robot takes its first dance steps (via Gizmos for Geeks).

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:24 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Robots Take to the Dance Floor - Part I

Robots don't want to be left out of the dance action. Watch Sony Robot Dance (via Gizmos for Geeks). This is one fascinating video.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:14 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 14, 2006

Rough Draft of Outline: Chapter on Interactive Dance Performances

Now that I've started to interview dancers, choreographers, researchers, new media artists, software developers and others, I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to structure my chapter on interactive dance performances in my upcoming book "Dancing into the Future."

This is chapter 11 when you're looking at the Table of Contents. But I increasingly think that this chapter will actually be its own free-standing publication because of the many topics that I'll be covering. If it's a separate publication, I'm not sure how I'll sell it yet. I might just sell it in digital format through Amazon.com.

Before breaking down this chapter's contents, I'd like to thank everybody I've spoken with, emailed with and, in rare instances, met with for sharing their insights and experiences. As I attend more conferences, performances and other events I hope to meet everybody in-person soon.

Here's my first shot at this chapter:

Table of Contents

1) What is an Interactive Performance?
2) Types of Interactive Performances
3) Theories and History
4) Software, Computers and Technology
5) Interactive Performance Profiles and Case Studies
6) Your First Interactive Performance
7) Training Dancers and Choreographers
8) How to Watch and Participate
9) Research and Development
10) Directory
11) Terminology

Title: Interactive Dance Performances

1) What is an Interactive Performance?

What is an interactive dance performance? This is not an easy question to answer. But I can't proceed with this chapter without nailing down this concept. For the most part, when I use the term "interactive performance" I'm referring to a dance program where a dancer has direct control, with the help of digital technologies, over some element of a performance beyond his or her own body. Or, alternatively, a dancer responds in real-time to some non-scripted event or movement that is generated with the support of digital media and other technologies.

Just to offer one of many possible examples, if a dancer wears a flex sensor on his or her elbow and the movement of this sensor activates specific musical sounds that the audience hears, then this would be a type of interactive performance.

On the other hand, if a dancer is performing on stage and a video is projected onto a screen at the same time, this by itself is not an example of an interactive performance if the digital tools are not being used as the basis for choreographed or improvised creations or interactions that take place in real-time.

2) Types of Interactive Performances

There are many types of interactive performances and the range of possibilities will continue to increase at a dramatic rate as new software, computers and other technologies are introduced.

Here are some of basic performance types I'll cover:

- Telematic performances that unite two or more locations in real-time

- Embodied or dancer-controlled performances where a dancer through sensors, wearable computers, motion tracking and/or motion capture creates scripted or unscripted output in the form of audio, video and imagery.

- Collaborative performances between dancers and "independent-minded" virtual avatars and/or robotic machines that feature improvisation and spontaneity between the two.

- Immersive virtual environments where the movements of a dancer or dancers are captured in real-time and re-created in a virtual, possibly distributed, landscape.

- User-created, influenced or modified digital dance performances whereby Internet and/or computer users play an active role in determining the progression, mix or other elements of a performance. Such programs can be referred to as hyperchoreography or mashups.

There are many other possibilities and I'm sure I'll create new categories and redefine the existing categories above as I progress.

3) Theories and History

My goal is not to delve too deeply into the theories and history of interactive dance performances.

But for the purpose of clarifying these types of performances, I am going to explore some key concepts and historical influences that are important to understand in order to appreciate the integration of technology into dance performances.

For example, ideas such as embodied and disembodied as they relate to performances that rely upon technology are important to grasp in order to understand the choreographic and creative process. Hopefully I'll explain these ideas in a clear manner - even for those with no background in interactive performances or the theory of performance.

4) Software, Computers and Technology

In this section, I'll include profiles with pictures and screen shots of software and technologies that are often used as part of interactive performances.

Among the tools that will be covered include software for controlling interactive dance environments, motion tracking and motion capture technologies, camcorders and video editing software, sensors, wearable computers and many other tools.

5) Interactive Performance Profiles and Case Studies

Now that we've taken a look at the different types of performances and the technologies used, the next to step is to explore real world examples of interactive performances.

In this section, you'll find profiles and case studies of dance companies from around the globe who have created a range of interactive performances. My goal is to both highlight the people who create and perform in these programs and to illustrate as many examples as possible of different types of interactive performances. I'll include a good number of pictures in this section. And I'll try to include direct links to video clips so you can watch examples.

6) Your First Interactive Performance

If you've never incorporated interactive technologies into a dance and you're interested in doing so, where do you start?

What I'll do to answer this question is write about the easiest way to get started and the least expensive approach as well. For instance, it is a lot cheaper to start with