April 28, 2006

Dance to the News

I was browsing the posts on the Springwise blog, a global network of "spotters" who identify the latest entrepreneurial trends, and came across a story about T-post, a Swedish company that offers a t-shirt subscription service.

Here's how it works: You subscribe to this t-shirt service and every 6-weeks you receive a new t-shirt with a news-specific theme. You can access the archive to review all of the news-themed t-shirts and on the bottom left of each page you can read about the news story that inspired the design.

I was thinking that this news-driven t-shirt concept would be great for a dance company. Why not create a new two-minute long dance work every couple of weeks or so that is based upon a current news event? Then videotape the performance and distribute it on the Internet. I think this type of video would generate a lot of traffic because many news websites and blogs would feature your video. Plus, there are probably ways to sell sponsorship and generate a new source of revenue.

The challenge, I think, would be to figure out what news stories to cover and how to stage your dance pieces in an optimal manner for video reproduction.

Technorati Tags: dance, marketing, news, video

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April 27, 2006

Monetizing Your Dance Videos

Brightcove, a commercial platform for distributing video content over the Internet, launches its public beta program today.

After watching the video tour and reading an overview of their service, Brightcove looks like an intriguing way for video content owners of any size to generate revenue through ads, sales and affiliate network distribution.

While popular sites like YouTube are a great way to get exposure for your dance videos, you end-up reaching a lot of eyeballs but you don't generate any revenue.

The concept behind Brightcove is to provide video publishers with a system that allows you to organize your videos into channels, determine how you will generate revenue and choose who will have access to your video content.

You could, for instance, create three video channels:

1) Dance performance previews

2) Performance videos for the web

3) Dance instruction videos

The first category you could distribute for free. The performance videos you might distribute as part of the Brightcove advertising network and video ads would be inserted each time your video plays. You would get a cut of this advertising revenue. And the third category - dance instruction videos - you might offer on a pay-per-view basis.

I think it's time to experiment with services such as Brightcove because there is clearly money to be made - the main question comes down to what the optimal business model is. Will Internet users pay for dance content? How much will they pay for different types of videos? Or is the advertising model the best approach for dance video distribution?

Technorati Tags: brightcove, dance, instruction, performance, ppv, tv, video

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April 26, 2006

Altarholics Spread the Word About Altar Boyz

Altar Boyz, the Off-Broadway musical comedy that spoofs boy bands along the lines of "Spinal Tap," launched what I think is a fascinating community website for its intensely loyal fans - the "Altarholics." (Read New York Times article to learn more about show's passionate fans.)

The Altarholics site, designed by word of mouth marketing company Affinitive, is by far the most engaging community-focused promotional platform I've ever come across in the performing arts world. I strongly encourage you to sign-up for free access so that you can explore the sites many interactive capabilities.

At heart, the Altarholics site is about encouraging fans to become active participants of the Altar Boyz community so that they will share their enthusiasm with their friends. If you write a testimonial, you earn "Communion Wafers" that let you win prizes - often involving interaction with cast members. Users are encouraged to email and IM (instant message) their friends as well as add banners to websites and post promotional copy to message boards - in all cases graphic banners, icons and complete code are provided to simplify this process. And the site has so far featured 23 different competitions that engage fans in countless ways - from designing an Altar Boyz decal for T-shirts worn by Altarholics at an upcoming AIDS Walk to encouraging fans who attended an Altarholics appreciation party to write reviews of the event in their own blogs.

There is also a message board and chat room so that fans can interact. And you can view a list of top members based upon the number of "Wafers" that they've earned.

There's a lot of good food for thought here and I'm sure a lot of these ideas can be transferred to promoting dance performances.

Technorati Tags: broadway, marketing, theater, word of mouth

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April 25, 2006

Take a Friend to a Dance Performance

Music blogger Drew McManus started a wonderful program last year that encourages classical music fans to take their uninitiated friends to the orchestra. The 2006 Take a Friend to Orchestra (TAFTO) month is just wrapping-up now and is a great example of how bloggers, musicians, classical music enthusiasts and administrators can join together through the Internet to spread their love of concert music.

Drew McManus, a musician, administrator and consultant, writes the Adaptistration blog, which is devoted to orchestra management. You can read his "All About TAFTO 2006" post to learn about this audience-building initiative. Then, you can read his post from yesterday, "TAFTO 2006 After Action Report," to read posts from bloggers and others who share their experiences of taking their friends to see an orchestra.

As I wrote in my comment to Drew's post, I think the TAFTO program is wonderful for two reasons. First, it's simply a fun way to get people who don't usually go to live musical performances to attend a classical music program. Second, I enjoyed reading the posts from the many music bloggers who participated in TAFTO. In the dance world, unfortunately, there simply are not that many bloggers writing about dance. And just about nobody is having blog conversations about the challenges facing the dance community. Edward McPherson in his Onward and Upward blog writes about some of the economic challenges facing dance and I cover similar topics, but that's about it. It would be great to see a more vibrant blogging community covering both dance performances as well as the business of dance.

I'm not really sure what it would take to expand the dance blogosphere, but it would be great if it does happen.

Getting back to TAFTO. Drew emailed me a nice message after I posted my comment last night and expressed my interest in pursuing a similar program for dance. One of his suggestions was that the dance community could create such a program that could take place the month before or after his April 2007 TAFTO program. That way both a Take a Friend to the Orchestra and a Take a Friend to a Dance Performance could be marketed together. I think that would be an excellent idea and plan to explore it. If you have thoughts on a such a program to build audiences for dance, I'd be delighted to hear them.

Technorati Tags: dance, performance, marketing, word of mouth

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April 24, 2006

Crossing Flash Mobs and Site-Specific Performances

What would happen if you crossed a site-specific dance performance with a flash mob? I'm not sure, but you'd probably generate a large, engaged audience.

A flash mob is when a group of people -- who may or may not know each other -- use the Internet to arrange a public gathering to perform a specific act that takes place at a specific time and location. A dance flash mob would be when a group of dancers agree to meet at a designated location to dance for a few minutes and then disappear into the crowd. Here's an example of an Argentine Tango flash dance mob in Vancouver:

Or a more recent example of a flash mob took place at the University of Florida earlier this month to recreate a banned Xbox TV commercial that never aired. Here's the bizarre video of this recreation on YouTube:

The above flash mob is based upon a commercial that Microsoft never ran probably because of the excessive simulated violence -- just about everybody in the video is pointing their fingers at others as if they are going to blow each other's heads off. You can watch the original commercial:

What I find interesting is that within 12 days almost 50,000 people watched this University of Florida flash mob, which gives you an idea of what types of videos are most popular on YouTube -- ones that are inane, silly and meaningless. But I still think that there is some value that can be taken from this video and its success.

What is it about flash mobs that intrigue people? Why do people participate in flash mobs? Why do others want to watch videos flash mobs? I think it has to do with the compelling nature of spontaneous collective action. It's also an intriguing premise to consider how digital communication tools can be leveraged to bring strangers together within a very short time-frame to act in unison.

I was thinking about flash mobs when I came across a write-up on the Networked Performance blog for the upcoming Sitelines 2006 series of site-specific performances that is organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. You can view a map mashup that shows the locations for all of the performances:

The program kicks-off in Early May with a performance by Benoit Maubrey's Audio Ballerinas, which features dancers that wear "electro-acoustic clothes and dresses that make sounds by interacting with their environment."

I haven't figured out the answer to my opening question about the end result of crossing site-specific dance performances and flash mobs. But there must be something fun and intriguing that can be created - especially when you start with an outside performance by a technology clad dance troupe. So I ask you: how would you add a flash mob component to this performance to get more people involved and build greater levels of excitement and interest around this event?

Technorati Tags: dance, flashmob, performance, xbox, youtube

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April 21, 2006

Build Buzz with Dance Event Photo Contest

I was just exploring the community-oriented events calendar Upcoming and I came across an event listing for the Bay Area National Dance Week, which starts today (link to National Dance Week website).

The Upcoming event tracking website, owned by Yahoo, is part of the Web 2.0 trend in that it allows users to tag events of interest and network with others who are tracking the same events. If you visit the profile page for Bay Area National Dance Week on Upcoming, you'll see a list of who's attending this event and whose watching this event (just a handful of people so far). At this point, nobody has added any tags for this event.

Bay Area National Dance Week

On the Bay Area National Dance Week site, you can explore all of the performances, demonstrations and classes that are taking place over the next 10 days. Sounds like a lot of fun.

As part of this dance event, the organizer is promoting an amateur photo contest. Participants/attendees can take pictures and submit them with the opportunity to win plane tickets and other prizes. I like the idea of a photo contest, but the way this contest is structured does not help promote this week's dance event or future Bay Area dance programs. Essentially, this is an old-school photo contest. You actually have to submit pictures by snail mail.

If I were organizing this photo contest, this is what I'd do:

1) I'd offer a competition for both videos and pictures.

2) Encourage all performers/instructors/lecturers to provide a blanket waiver that allows pictures and videos to be shot during any of their programs - no flash photography.

3) I'd include on the dance event website a listing all of performers who have signed the blanket waiver and who have not signed the blanket waiver. This way people who want to participate in the photo and video contest would know when they are allowed to take pictures and video.

4) I'd encourage everybody who participates to post their pictures and videos on high-traffic multimedia hosting websites.

5) I'd create an online submission form so that anybody who took pictures and video could submit their entries for the competition along with a URL for the location of their files.

For starters, my approach would get more people involved in the competition. It is too time-consuming to print pictures and submit them by mail. If participants can upload their pictures and video to any website(s) they wish, thousands of people can look at them and learn about this dance event while it's taking place, which is likely to build a much larger dance audience as this 10-day event progresses.

My approach instantly builds large-scale world-of-mouth marketing with zero investment on the part of the dance event organizer. The dancers get more exposure and more people get excited about dance.

Technorati Tags: calendar, dance, performance, upcoming, web2.0

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April 20, 2006

Last.fm and the Future of Dance Videos

I think that dancers and dance companies are missing out on such a wonderful opportunity to use the Internet to reach larger audiences, build excitement for upcoming performances and generate revenue from online sales. I've said this before, but what made me think more about this missed opportunity is the Last.fm website.

Last.fm is a social networking site for music fans. Users can tag and categorize songs, create customized radio stations, write their own journals and join communities with those who share similar musical tastes. You can also have your playlists automatically displayed on your Last.fm profile page for others to view, listen to the radio stations of your friends and see which songs and musical groups are the most popular.

Last.fm, like MySpace, is simply a great way for musicians to build audiences for their music within the context of community-focused websites -- the fastest growing sector of the web.

There's nothing comparable in the dance world. Dancers and dance companies don't post their videos to the web so there can be no community-driven marketplace where dance fans can watch dance clips, tag videos and form communities with others.

But imagine if there were thousands of dance videos online. Dance enthusiasts could create customized TV channels with their favorite videos, share their channels with friends, and meet others with similar tastes. Such a service would enable dancers and dance companies to build larger audiences and at the same time create an online marketplace for selling dance videos.

One thing in particular that I don't understand is that there are many dance on camera film festivals around the world. This obviously means that thousands of dancers already have their works in digital format. So what is stopping them from uploading their videos to the Internet? Why are they not using these videos for promotional purposes? Why are they not trying to sell them online through Google Video and other services?

And in the bigger picture, the online universe is simply so incredibly large that it just doesn't make any sense to ignore it any longer.

I used to watch the TV game show "Let's Make a Deal" when I was younger. Contestants had to choose one of three doors. If they picked the right one, they won some wonderful prizes. If they picked the wrong door, they would end-up with some meaningless gift.

But imagine that before choosing a door, host Monty Hall said, "Now, we want you to choose one of these three doors. Before you choose a door, I want you to know that there is one million dollars behind door number two. OK, go ahead and choose a door."

What does the contestant do? He says, "I choose door number one."

I'm not saying that dancers are going to make a fortune anytime soon. But I am saying that there is a disconnect of massive proportions that does not make any sense. If there are millions of Internet users behind door number two. It is not logical to pick door number one.

Technorati Tags: dance, last.fm, myspace, web2.0

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April 19, 2006

Random Stories and Links

Stories of interest:

- "The Future of Classical Music - Episode 5" - Greg Sandow posts fifth chapter to his work in progress about, as title says, the future of classical music. Greg is inspiration for me as I'm working on my upcoming publication on future of dance. I'm going to follow-up soon on comment I posted to Greg's chapter about Last.fm, a social networking site for music fans, and its relationship to dance.

- "The Skin Trade" - Jennifer Homans, The New Republic dance critic, trashes modern dance in New York - essentially Dance Theater Workshop and the critics who praise its performances. If you don't have subscription to New Republic, go to Google News and search for "new republic dance". Click on "Jennifer Homans on Dance."

- "All barre none" - brief history of ballet.

- Bill's Blog Update - Bill T. Jones posts latest entry to his blog.

- "Critic's role is not to be booster" - by Wilma Salisbury of Cleveland's Plain Dealer.

- "Dancers as Living archives" - Martha Ullman West on the transmission of dance knowledge.

- "The Wealth of Networks" - new book by Yochai Benkler (free download) about the difference between our new networked information economy vs. old industrial information economy. Deals with new modes of cultural production.

- "Marketers Jump on YouTube Bandwagon" - Jackie Huba in Church of the Customer Blog. Take a look at Dunkin' Donuts video ad. I like how they demonstrate their hand signals. I think this concept could be used by dancers, which I'll elaborate on in near future.

- Pinko Marketing Wiki - created by HorsePigCow blogger Tara Hunt. Video interview with Tara on NetSquared. I'm going to write more about NetSquared because I'd like to see similar website for those involved in performing arts.

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Dancing to the Sounds of the Earth

On April 4th, Principal Dancer Muriel Maffre of the San Francisco Ballet performed an eight-minute work to commemorate the centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

"Ballet Mori," performed at the War Memorial Opera House, is an improvised solo work danced to natural sounds generated from real-time seismic data. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by artist and engineer Ken Goldberg, measured the low-level seismic activity of the Hayward Fault and transmitted these recordings to the Opera House. Based upon this live streaming data, earthlike musical sounds were generated to which Maffre danced.

Resources

- Video clip of Ballet Mori [via networked performance].

- Weekend America audio interview with Muriel Maffre and Ken Goldberg.

- "Maffre, Ballet dance to amplified sounds from a fault line in a new work created in honor of '06 earthquake centennial" article in San Francisco Chronicle by Rachel Howard.

- "Shaking Up the Ballet" article in Wired by Jonathon Keats.

Technorati Tags: ballet, dance, earthquake, performance, technology

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April 18, 2006

Project Danceway

In a January 30th post, "If there was a modern dance reality tv show…," Rachel Feinerman proposes a dance series for TV along the lines of Bravo's Project Runway.

I think that this would be an excellent idea.

If you haven't watched Project Runway, this is what this reality show is about: Sixteen fashion designers who have gone through an audition process are chosen for this TV series. Each week the designers are given a project such as designing a garden party dress. During the show we get to watch the designers buy their materials, make their dresses, interact with the other contestants and deal with time pressures. Then at the end of the show there is a fashion show where models showcase the dresses and judges rate the outfits. At the end of each show one of the designers looses and is off the show.

What I enjoy most about Project Runway is that the creative process is exposed for all to see. You get to watch the designers as they create their outfits - sometimes struggling as they second guess themselves or have to work with the wrong materials. Plus you gain some insight into each designer's personality as they interact with each other and are forced to finish their work on time. So when the fashion show takes place at the end of the episode, you have an emotional connection with the designers and you probably have a favorite.

So if there were a Project Runway for modern dance, some variations would have to be made to the format but the overall idea would probably work. I think it would be a lot of fun to watch choreographers and dancers work together from start to finish to create a different dance piece each week.

There's no current format that I know of that provides dance audiences with access to the creative process at work. A Project Danceway would provide this access and make the experience of watching the performances at the end of the program more meaningful and enjoyable.

Technorati Tags: bravo, dance, fashion, tv

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April 17, 2006

Embracing the Inventive Spirit of the Internet

The dance community has a serious challenge on its hands:

If the Internet culture is marked by interaction and contribution, and the dance culture is marked by observation and passivity, how can dance presenters and dance companies expect to grow audiences for future performances?

My short answer is that it will be very difficult unless the dance community seeks new ways to engage audiences.

The Internet is a very vibrant form of communication. Millions of Internet users are creating content, building upon what others have contributed, and collecting and organizing their favorite movies, songs and pictures. On the other hand, audiences at dance performance sit in their seats as passive observers without any opportunity to contribute to a performance. Can the performing arts world survive this stark contrast?

A New Framework for Audience Participation

In last Friday's post, "Word of Mouth Marketing Builds Audiences," I wrote about two educational sessions that will be moderated by arts marketing and management consultant Alan Brown at the upcoming National Arts Marketing Project Conference.

Alan has written some very insightful articles and studies including a July 2004 report, "The Values Study, Rediscovering the Meaning and Value of Arts Participation" (PDF).

In this report he creates a new framework in which arts participation is divided into five types or modes.

Click for Larger Image

Here is how these five categories are described:

"- Inventive Arts Participation engages the mind, body and spirit in an act of artistic creation that is unique and idiosyncratic, regardless of skill level.

- Interpretive Arts Participation is a creative act of self-expression that brings alive and adds value to pre-existing works of art, either individually or collaboratively.

- Curatorial Arts Participation is the creative act of purposefully selecting, organizing and collecting art to the satisfaction of one’s own artistic sensibility.

- Observational Arts Participation encompasses arts experiences that you select or consent to, motivated by some expectation of value.

- Ambient Arts Participation involves experiencing art, consciously or unconsciously, that is not purposefully selected -- art that happens to you."

In the context of this arts participation framework, how would you describe the way in which audiences participate in the performing arts and other cultural events?

Andrew Taylor, in his September 14, 2005 write-up about this report, wrote:

I'd suggest that the predominant (perhaps disproportional) emphasis of professional cultural nonprofits is the fourth mode on the list (observational). Have we been ignoring or discounting opportunities in the rest of the spectrum?

To see how different types of arts experiences are plotted within this framework, click on the following graphic (dance is in the bottom right-hand quadrant):

Click for Larger Image

Contrast the observational nature of most dance performances with how the Internet is used today. To use Alan's framework, millions of Internet users are either inventors, interpreters or curators. Anybody who shares a video, a song or a picture is an inventor. Likewise, the large majority of bloggers are inventors. A person who creates a video mashup by combining two or more videos is an interpreter. And every user of Apple iTunes is a music curator.

Here's a chart the shows the increase in the number of blogs tracked by Technorati. Currently, 35.3 million blogs are tracked and the blogosphere is 60 times bigger than it was three years ago - that represents a huge increase in the number of online "inventors":

Click for Larger Image

And here's a chart from Alexa that shows the millions of daily users for YouTube, Flickr and MySpace - all highly participatory and interactive communities:

Click for Larger Image

So with the help of Alan's framework and Andrew's question ("Have we been ignoring or discounting opportunities in the rest of the spectrum?"), I think the path for dance and the performing arts in general is pretty clear:

If Internet users are active participants and contributors (in other words, they are primarily "inventors" and "interpreters"), they will expect nothing less when they participate in arts programs. Thus, arts organizations will have to explore ways to move the predominant mode of participation away from the outer layers of the circle ("observational") and toward the heart of the circle where everybody can contribute, share and have their voice heard.

I don't think this process of broadening the available modes of arts participation is easy, but it is necessary.

Technorati Tags: arts, marketing, web2.0

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April 14, 2006

Word of Mouth Marketing Builds Audiences

(Update 4/17/06: Julie Peel of Americans for the Arts, the producer of the National Arts Marketing Project Conference, pointed out to me that I missed an entire series of pre-conference educational programming that focuses on Internet marketing and the arts. You can read the agenda for the "Technology Boot Camp.")

I was just browsing the website for the Americans for the Arts National Arts Marketing Project Conference, which will take place at the end of April in Los Angeles, California. I was curious to learn if there were any presentations that dealt with online marketing strategies for arts organizations.

Unfortunately, there's no much. But I did come across two interesting sessions moderated by arts marketing and management consultant Alan Brown.

These workshops focus on "peer-to-peer" (P2P) marketing strategies that are based upon the idea of empowering influential and motivated customers to spread the word about upcoming arts programs. I happen to come across a slideshow presentation (PDF) from last November given by Alan Brown and Eric Haeker (Arts in Motion) that lays out the foundations for P2P marketing in the context of the arts.

Here's my summary of this slide presentation:

In a marketplace where customers want personalized offerings and the media is fragmented, word-of-mouth marketing is critical in determining how people spend their leisure time and money.

Given the importance of word-or-mouth (viral) marketing, it is important to identify your customer evangelists - the people who love your offerings - and provide these opinion makers, thought leaders and "activators" with the tools that will help them spread the word about your upcoming programs. Essentially, you want to build a free sales force that will get their friends, family members and colleagues to attend your programs.

Credit: Francois Portman

One of the peer-to-peer marketing examples in this presentation is for the October 2, 2005 performance of the Red Bull Artsehcro ("orchestra" spelled backwards) at Carnegie Hall that featured a fusion of classical and turntable music. "Influencers" were identified as the "resellers" who would promote this event on college campuses, printed materials were distributed to drive traffic to the website that featured a music mashup application, and other viral strategies targeted clubs, hip hop fans and extreme sports enthusiasts. That's my very brief summary. I encourage you to take a look at the presentation.

If you want to learn more about tapping into customer evangelists, you can read about "Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force" on Amazon.com and then link to books on buzz marketing.

The beauty of word-of-mouth marketing is that it's inexpensive and there are many online tools that can help you to empower your most enthusiastic customers. Essentially all of the social media and networking tools that I've been writing about lately are examples of viral marketing. If a customer creates a video mashup of a dance performance, they are going to send it to their friends without your involvement. All you have to do is provide the raw materials - video clips, audio tracks and a lot of encouragement.

Technorati Tags: arts, customer, marketing, mashups, viral, web2.0

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April 13, 2006

Google Calendar Not Worthwhile for Marketing

I saw a number of articles and blog posts this morning celebrating the new Google Calendar that just launched. (Click here for Google's guide to its calendar).

Given this praise, I figured it would be worthwhile to spend some time experimenting with this calendar application to see if it would be a good way to promote dance performances. After spending too much time tinkering with this calendar, my answer is that it's not ready for prime time and it's not a worthwhile marketing tool.

I'm very bothered with some bloggers and online publications. It could be that a number of the posts and articles about Google Calendar were written by people who had different ideas in mind about what type of functionality they thought was important in a calendar and ended-up exploring different features than I did. Or it could be that some people just rehash the claimed feature-set and have no idea how it works and haven't experimented with it.

I don't know what the answer is to the above but I do know that I'm not taking anything for granted anymore. (At the end of this post I include links to write-ups about Google Calendar so you can judge for yourself.)

Here are the mostly marketing-related features that I thought would be worthwhile but do not work that well or don't exist or are too difficult:

First, I was intrigued by a calendar feature that allowed you to add a button to your website so that users could click on it and save all of the event information for, say, an upcoming performance to their own calendar. Well, creating this button is much too cumbersome and is not worth the effort. Here is the help page that describes this process.

Second, once you add your events to your Google Calendar, you can't even generate a public URL that you can promote and email to your audience so that they can see a listing of all of your upcoming performances. Without a public web address to access your calendar, it's not much of a marketing tool. Although you can publish an RSS feed that only reaches the segment of online users that actually subscribe to feeds.

Third, I was really intrigued by the integration of Google's Gmail with its calendar application. Supposedly, if you receive an email about an upcoming event within Gmail, you can click on a button and the non-structured event data will be added to the appropriate date within your calendar. My problem is I couldn't find the calendar button in Gmail and neither could some other users who posted messages to the help board for Google Calendar. But from some of the blog posts I've read, it appears that this Gmail integration capability does work for some users. I can't explain this??

Fourth, with the "Quick Add" feature you should be able to enter free-form text about an event and Google Calendar will structure this data for you and create an event item. For example, if you type:

"Breakfast with John at Starbucks on April 30, 2006 at 11:00 AM at 100 Main Street, Washington, DC NW 20016"

the calendar app will organize this text into an event. It does a decent job, but it does not appear to recognize the actual address, which it appends to the event's title.

Google Calendar does include email and text messaging invitations and RSVPs as well as group calendar management and sharing capabilities among its feature set. But I wouldn't recommend spending much time with this application until it improves and simplifies its marketing features.

Blogs and Articles about Google Calendar

- "Google Launches Web Calendar" - Washington Post

- "Google Calendar is Live" - TechCrunch

- "Google Unveils Web-based calendar app" - News.com

- "Google Calendar Now Online" - Internetnews.com

- "Google Calendar Impresses" - Mashable

- "Google Calendar Makes an Impressive Debut" - SearchEngineWatch

Technorati Tags: calendar, google

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My Flickr Dance Pictures

I've bookmarked my favorite dance pictures on Flickr.

Following text sign created with "Spell with flickr" [via Lifehacker]:

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April 12, 2006

Drift, a Flash-Based Animated Dancer

Koert van Mensvoort, an artist and scientist from the Netherlands, created "Drift," an engaging Flash-based animation that features a dancer consisting of moving balls.

Watch Drift - "An interpassive Flash clip of a dancer without a body" - as Koert describes his creation.

Drift features the moves of dancer Nancy Mauro-Flude, which were captured via motion capture technology and converted into a Flash animation.

Koert van Mensvoort describes Drift as a form of interpassive cinema because users can experience the work as if it were either a movie or a computer game. In movie mode, a user simply sits back as a passive spectator and enjoys the animated movements and music. In game mode, the user moves the mouse and the bubbles and music react to the movements of the cursor.

You can read an interview with Koert van Mensvoort about Drift.

Technorati Tags: animation, art, dance, flash

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April 11, 2006

Union Contracts Limit Online Revenue for Dancers

During The Washington Ballet labor dispute, which has since been resolved, I read some of the contracts between dance companies and the unions that represent the dancers.

What struck me about these contacts is that there are so many prohibitions against shooting video of performances and rehearsals that unless changes are made to these agreements, some of the most established dance companies will never be able to generate revenue from online video sales and promotions.

If I were an executive director of a dance company or a union representative, the first thing I would do is renegotiate the contract sections that relate to digital reproductions of performances, rehearsals and other dance formats. The online world, as I've written about extensively, represents a huge opportunity for dance companies to reach larger audiences, generate more revenue and ensure the financial health of dance. But the online world cannot be exploited without first addressing these contractual issues.

Here is a list of union contacts on the website for the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), which represents a number of US-based dance companies including The Washington Ballet.

Here is a portion of the Atlanta Ballet contract, section 41, that relates to "Filming, Broadcasting, Television, Etc.:"

Except as provided herein THE ATLANTA BALLET shall not videotape, film, broadcast, record or televise, including marketing of video cassettes and/or in-theater closed circuit television, any performances, rehearsals, concerts or engagements in which the ARTIST appears by wire, wireless, radio, telephone wireless process or any motion picture, recording, mechanical, electrical or telephone device now in use or hereafter developed or any combination of such devices...

The rest of this section goes along in the same vein. I can't begin to say how detrimental this contract language is for all involved in a dance company. Essentially dance companies and dancers are prohibiting themselves from exploring ways to make money through online sales and promotion.

This prohibition is ironic given the many financial challenges faced by dance companies in cities throughout the US. Here are two stories from last week that illustrate these challenges:

- "Hard Truths about Ballet in Southland," by Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times, covers the cancellation of Ballet Pacifica's first season.

- "Strapped Ohio Ballet Cancels Spring Series," by Wilma Salisbury of The Plain Dealer, covers the cancellation of the reminder of the Ohio Ballet's season.

Technorati Tags: ballet, dance, internet, marketing, union, video

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April 10, 2006

Product Placement and E-Commerce Technology Offer New Career Opportunities for Dancers

PersonalScreen Media, a new producer of TV programming for the Internet, has introduced technology that enables viewers to get instant access to products, clothing and other items featured within a show. As you watch a show online, you can click on a dress, for example, get a pop-up screen that provides the details and purchase the dress through an integrated e-commerce system.

Click for Larger Image

I think that this type of integrated product placement and e-commerce functionality offers some great opportunities for dancers. Even though this market is very new, it strikes me that dance offers advertisers and retailers a quick and effective way to grab the attention of multi-tasking and easily-distracted Internet users.

You can learn more about PersonalScreen Media in an article in this morning's edition of ClickZ.

For more dance-specific possibilities for integrated e-commerce and product placement, read two recent stories I've written:

- "Nike Offers Marketing Campaign Featuring Hip Hop Dance Video" - Here's an impressive online marketing campaign that features a dance video, a breakdown of dance steps and the ability to buy the clothing worn by the dancers. ClickZ also has a recent article that provides background on the creation of this online Nike campaign.

Dance Video

- "Emerging Digital Dance Careers": In November I wrote about new career opportunities for dancers in the online world. One of the areas I discussed was product placement and a video ad from Nordstrom's that features the Go-Go's. Viewers can watch the video and buy the featured clothing and accessories.

Technorati Tags: ads, audition, career, dance, e-commerce, marketing, video

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April 7, 2006

New Dance Film Promoted Through Video Mashups

Today the Antonio Banderas "Take the Lead" dance movie opens in theaters.

While I haven't read any positive reviews of this film, New Line Cinema's marketing strategy has generated a lot of buzz for its unconventional approach.

At the heart of its pre-release promotional efforts has been the music mashup feature on the official website that I wrote about on March 29th. In addition Internet users have been encouraged to create video mashups (video mixes) that are actually sanctioned by the studio - although at this point the video mashups appear to be semi-official and done by video DJs. Three video mashups are featured in the video section of the official movie site. And you can also watch the trailer and mashups on popular video services such as YouTube and Google.

Here's the official trailer and mashups so you can watch examples:

Watch Official Theatrical Trailer

Watch Addictive TV Remix

Watch Eclectic Method Remix

Watch DJ 2nd Nature Remix

Technorati Tags: dance, mashups, marketing, video

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April 6, 2006

Video Mashups Offer New Possibilities for Dance - Part II

In Part I of what will be a four part story, I wrote that as a result of the introduction of a new type of online video editing software program:

dancers will be able to share, choreograph, document, learn, collaborate, analyze and create in ways that have barely been contemplated before.

In this second part of the story, I would like to describe the key features of this new crop of web-based video editing software. And in the next part, I'll explain why these features are potentially so important for dancers.

Introduction to Online Video Editing

Whether you use a video editing software program on your computer or a web-based video editing software program, the idea is the same: You edit a video clip by placing video sections on a time-line, trimming portions of the video, adding transitional effects and including introductory and other titles to your work.

A fast way to gain hands-on experience with online video editing is by visiting the Jumpcut website [via TechCrunch] . From the home page, click "Explore" to find a movie to watch. You will now be watching a video and the screen will look like this - click for larger image:

Click for Larger Image

On the above screen, you'll see that on the right-hand side there is a column with thumbnail images for each section of the video, in the bottom left there is a listing of "tags" that are created by users to categorize this video, and in the bottom right of the video screen there is a "Remix" button.

This "Remix" button is pretty radical. Click on "Remix" and you will be taken to the video editing area that looks like this - click for larger image:

Click for Larger Image

So even though you are not working with your own video, you can now remix the video, audio, titles and transitions in any manner that you would like. Then you can save and publish your work. I guess using the word "your" is a stretch. So I'll say you can now save and upload your remixed version of the original work.

Jumpcut does not appear to allow you to edit an existing video by adding one or more of your own video clips to the remix. So when I discuss in Part III specific applications for dancers, I'll assume that there soon will be or already are online video editing applications that allow video clips from any source to be used for remixing.

Tagging and Deep Tagging

In the first screen shot above, you can see the tags for this video in the bottom left-hand side of the screen. The tags are: "squished, funny, humour, faces, distortion." This video was tagged by users (or the original creator) so that all Jumpcut users can group videos that share specific characteristics. For example, show me a list of all videos tagged "funny." This is the essence of the concept of tagging. The owner of a website does not categorize information; the users of the website are the ones that categorize content - in this case movies.

But there are some richer possibilities for tagging and that's what is now known as "deep tagging." The reason why I talked about the video editing software program Motionbox in Part I was because it is the only program that I know of that will have this capability (it is not yet launched). In the context of video editing, deep tagging means that you can tag any section within a video clip.

So let's imagine that in the second of the two screen shots above that you wanted to tag this section of the video clip "racinggoggles." You would use the video editing tools of Motionbox to mark off this section of, say, 5 seconds and add the tag "racinggoggles."

Now users can conduct a deep tag search for the word "racinggoggles" and find any sections in any video clips that have this tag. This is clearly a lot more powerful than just tagging an entire video clip. You can now tag just 5 seconds of a clip (or any length you wish) so that other users can easily find it.

Wrap-Up

So for the sake of the upcoming Part III of this post, this is what we have:

1) An online video editing software program that allows us to mix multiple video clips from any source.

2) A software program that allows us to add video clips to a timeline, trim sections as needed, add transitions and include titles. And,

3) A software program that lets us add tags to any section of a video clip.

Technorati Tags: dance, education, mashups, software, tags, video, web2.0

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RunBot Has Uncanny Ability to Replicate Human Movement

Despite my enthusiasm for technology, I just watched a video clip (MPEG) of "RunBot," which I found eerie. For its size (30 centimeters), RunBot is the fastest walking computer ever created.

This robot, according to a New Scientist story, "is controlled by a simple program that mimics the way neurons control reflexes in humans and other animals." It's this partial replication of life-like movement that struck me as I was watching the video.

You can watch an additional RunBot video on the We Make Money Not Art blog where I first came across this story.

How good can computers actually get at replicating human movement? Will they dance one day with grace and dexterity? Is this threatening to dancers?

Here are three screen shots from the RunBot video clip:

RunBot initiates step

RunBot has large gait

RunBot falls flat on its face!

Technorati Tags: robot, technology

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April 5, 2006

A New Business Model for Dance Companies

Since starting my blog in September of last year, I've come across many depressing stories about the economic perils faced by dance companies. Some dance companies simply can't survive or their economic health remains tenuous.

In an article in today's New York Times [via Downtown Dancer], choreographer Bill T. Jones is quoted:

"You don't make a damn cent in dance."

That succinctly sums up the problem.

The question for dance-makers is the following: Given the constant financial challenges, what new approaches can be taken to improve the economic conditions of dancers and dance companies? Or, better yet, how can more dance companies ensure that they have a healthy and secure financial future?

I have a two-part answer:

1) Dance companies should broaden the sources from which they seek financial support, and

2) Dance companies should seek commissions for dance works that have both a live and online component.

Science and Dance - A New Partnership

Before providing an explanation of my two-part solution, I need to highlight a trend that has potentially wonderful ramifications for dance.

Over the past half year, I've noticed that a number of dance companies have been exploring scientific and technological themes in their works.

Here are just a few examples:

- Rambert Dance Company: "Constant Speed" (Physics)

- Australian Dance Theatre: "Devolution" (Robotics)

- Liz Lerman Dance Exchange: "Ferocious Beauty: Genome" (Genetics/DNA)

- San Francisco Ballet: "Ballet Mori" (Earth Science)

These dance works are very intriguing because they offer examples of how human movement can serve to give audiences a different and enhanced way of reflecting on science and technological developments.

There is also an economic component to the fusion of dance and science. Focusing on scientific themes makes good business sense for dancers. There happen to be thousands upon thousands of scientific, technological, medical and related companies that need to market and promote their products and services. And the art form of dance is already showing itself to be a compelling means of explaining, exploring and grappling with scientific and technological developments and changes.

So what better partnership could there be than for dance companies to seek commissions or other forms of financial support from private companies in the scientific and technological arena?

Plus, there is one more element that I want to point out about companies in the technology/scientific realm: They appreciate the importance of leveraging the Internet to reach their customers - I'll elaborate on this point in just a moment.

Back to My Two-Part Solution

As I just explained, dance is a wonderful way to explore and make vivid a huge range of scientific topics. So the first component of my plan is straightforward: Seek commissions/funding/sponsorship from companies in the scientific, technological, medical and related fields - or funding from associations, foundations and related entities that represent these companies.

The second component of my plan is a little trickier because it has not been done yet - but it represents a huge growth area for dance.

The economics of dance companies, which, as Bill T. Jones explained, is miserable, is not going to significantly change until dancers find financially profitable ways to exploit the Internet. The logic is simple. Even in the best of circumstances, you can have only so many people who are going to buy a ticket to watch a performance. The Internet, on the other hand, allows you to reach an audience of potentially unlimited size.

So in addition to seeking commissions from scientific and technological companies, you'll want to propose dance works to these corporations that are designed for the theater as well as the online world.

This dual-track approach to performance will be much more compelling to potential sponsors. Not only will they receive the traditional benefits of sponsoring a dance performance, but they will receive the many benefits that come with helping to underwrite the Internet-based version of your dance piece as well.

From your perspective, you'll be able to raise more money, there will be good synergies between your live performances and their online component, and you will be able to generate additional revenue from online sales.

But I'm leaving out one critical component: What is the structure and nature of the online component of your dance performance and how specifically will you make money from it?

To be continued...

Technorati Tags: business, dance, marketing, performance, technology

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Review of "InterPlay" - Another Language's Multi-Site, Internet2-Enabled Performance

This past weekend was the performance of "InterPlay," a multi-site dance and arts event that linked performers at different locations together in real-time via the high-speed Internet2. I recently conducted an audio interview with Beth Miklavcic and Jimmy Miklavcic of Another Language who created this program.

You can read a review of this weekend's performance in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Technorati Tags: dance, iternet2, performance, video

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April 4, 2006

Dance Audition Links - Part I

This is my first post about how to use the Internet to find dance auditions. In this post I provide my initial impressions of websites with dance audition listings that do not charge you a fee. In upcoming post I'll write about fee-based dance audition listing sites.

Please email me or post comment with your thoughts, additions or corrections.

To get started, I posted messages on three dance message boards saying that I was about to write about how dancers can use the Internet to find auditions. Here are my messages and the responses - Voice of Dance had the largest number of responses:

- Ballet Talk for Dancers

- Critical Dance

- Voice of Dance

Free Audition Listing Sites

(The below listings are not in any particular order - I just listed them as I wrote about each site.)

- Answers4Dancers: A few dance auditions for US East and West Coasts are listed on home page as well as in their free email newsletter. To access the large majority, you'll need to sign-up for their fee-based service. I'll write more about Answers4Dancers in my next post about audition listing sites and services.

- Article19: Page with up-to-date auditions in UK and other European countries.

- Dance Europe: Page of dance auditions in Europe - mostly updated. But some listings are for past events.

- Craiglist: random, scattered, limited number of dance auditions in different cities around the world. Here are sample listings from New York City.

- Pointe Magazine: Message board with audition section. But from my brief browsing, it seems like discussion about auditions and not listings of actual auditions.

- DanceArt.com: Select "Audition Notices" from drop-down list at top of message board. There are posts for auditions but the audition dates appear to have already past for the listings. So not very helpful.

- Dance Magazine: There is no listing of dance auditions - just wanted to include them since their magazine includes extensive audition listings.

- Voice of Dance: Message board with a large number audition listings with primary focus on US West Coast - as with most message board type set-ups, you can't easily figure out when audition dates have passed.

- Critical Dance: Auditions/Opportunities: They list a limited number of company auditions in a single thread, which makes it very tough to find relevant information - most auditions have already passed.

- Elitedance Broadcast Network: Includes links to a large number of audition websites - I should have written about them at the top of this list - but I'm not sure I agree with their rating system. They give Critical Dance a 9 out of 10. I like the Critical Dance message board, but not their audition listings.

- CastingAudition.com: Listings for "dance - live shows" and "dance - filmed/recorded". First searchable database I've come across, but you have to submit your email address and wait for a casting director to get back to you to learn more about a listing that you like - seems like a hassle.

- Dance.net: extensive listing of updated dance auditions in US and Canada with a clear indication of deadline dates.

Technorati Tags: audition, dance, performance

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Emily Johnson Interview about "Heat and Life"

This morning I interviewed Emily Johnson the director of the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based dance company, Catalyst Dance. She discussed her latest work "Heat and Life" which deals with the subject of global warming. The next performance of this work will be at the Dance Theater Workshop in New York City on June 28th.

Click here to listen to audio interview (MP3 format - Stereo - 7.12 MB - 15:32 Minutes)

Emily Johnson - Background

Emily Johnson is the director of the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based dance company, Catalyst Dance. Since its founding in 1998, Emily, an Alaskan native, has choreographed dance works for her eight-member company that are both thought-provoking and entertaining.

With the contributions of poets, musicians, sculptors and video artists, Catalyst Dance has performed on stage, in parks, at art galleries, storefronts and bars.

"Heat and Life," which focuses on the topic of global warming, is Emily Johnson's latest creation and is in the midst of a 50-state tour since its debut in October 2004. Heat and Life combines movement, video and sound into a work this is part dance concert and part installation.

Technorati Tags: dance, environment, global warming, performance, podcast

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April 3, 2006

Video Mashups Offer New Possibilities for Dance - Part I

A post by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch blog describes a soon-to-be-released video editing software program that has some compelling possibilities for the dance world.

With the online Motionbox application users will be able to edit video, tag sections of a video clip, and mix video clips and sections into mashups.

Click for Larger Image

Tag sections of a video clip with Motionbox
Credit: TechCrunch

By combing these features into one software program, dancers will be able to share, choreograph, document, learn, collaborate, analyze and create in ways that have barely been contemplated before.

In order to provide adequate coverage of this topic, I'm going to write four separate posts:

- In this first post, Part I, I just want to introduce this topic and give credit to Matt Gough (see below) for providing the theoretical framework for the dance applications I'll be discussing.

- In Part II, I'll describe the specific features and capabilities of Motionbox - as best as I understand them. Motionbox has not even been released to the public yet. But in the big picture whether Motionbox succeeds or not is not of critical importance. The important point is that we are about to see the introduction of new video editing software programs that will have far reaching benefits for all dancers.

- In Part III, I'll describe in concrete terms how dancers, choreographers, teachers, students, researchers, librarians, notators and dance enthusiasts will be able to use this new breed of video editing software. And,

- In Part IV, I'll highlight some of the potential challenges and limitations to the dance-specific scenarios I describe in Part III. Among the key challenges include: 1) intellectual property protection, 2) ensuring the wide availability of good quality dance videos, and 3) the creation of sustainable business models.

If it were not for dance blogger Matt Gough's post, "networked choreography - ii," I do not think I would have recognized the possibilities of a program such as Motionbox for the dance community. In his post Matt offers a theoretical description of how Web-based video editing and tagging applications can serve as the basis for a new type of collaborative dance art. I actually did not understand Matt's post - it's intended for an academic audience - until we talked about it for an hour by phone. Once I understood his premise, I was very enthusiastic about the possibilities for dance, which I'll elaborate upon in the upcoming sections to this post.

Technorati Tags: dance, education, mashups, software, tags, video, web2.0

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