March 30, 2007

Annotate Top Dance Videos from YouTube

The YouTube Video Awards were just announced and the most creative video is OK Go's "Here it Goes Again" - the very popular music video featuring band members dancing on treadmills.

The second most creative video on the list is also dance-inspired - sort of - "Where the Hell is Matt?" Definitely not one of my favorite videos.

Annotating Dance Videos

What can you do with the most popular dance videos?

Take a look at video annotation tool Mojiti. Here is a user-annotated version of "Here it Goes Again":

In the above video, a user has added text notes and highlighted sections of this music video to provide background and information about the band and music. You can access the "Here it Goes Again" video on Mojiti to watch all 25 of the annotated versions of this video. Mojiti refers to each annotation as a "spot."

If you don't see the "spots," click on the "+" button to the right of the video where it says "Spot Organizer."

Mojiti Adds New Features

According to post in Yesterday's Mashable, "Mojiti Lets You Edit YouTube Videos, on YouTube!", you'll soon be able to add audio and video annotations to videos as well.

With these multimedia additions, dancers, writers, educators, students and others will be able to add their thoughts, feedback and critiques to any video. I think this is great, but I can see some people having mixed feelings about these annotation tools.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:56 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 29, 2007

Can Ballet be as Popular as "Dancing with the Stars"?

In a post earlier this week, "WHOA," Tonya Plank of Swan Lake Samba Girl blog writes about the massive audience for ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" in comparison to the relatively miniscule audiences for concert dance.

I had no idea there was this degree of difference between a popular TV show and ballet. I no longer think that the Internet is the be-all and end-all right now, the best way to reach out to people and gain new audiences. If the Internet is the future I don’t think it’s the present. The present is still the good old fashioned TV. Obviously the Internet is a good aid for promoting dance, through blogs and message boards, but there needs to be more ballet on TV. I don’t know how — commercials maybe? A full-length ballet once in a while like the Met Opera is doing. Except it needs to be on a basic network and during prime time...Tharp’s ballets are so modern, so fun, and so relatable. Certainly the same audience who gets so in to ballroom would be into her, right?! Or, Alvin Ailey’s The River or Pas de Duke, or Revelations even — they all contain some elements of Samba and Jive, etc. Anyone who takes any interest in DWTS would simply be blown away by those dancers and choreographies.

Tonya raises some good questions:

1) If DWTS is so popular, why aren't ballet and modern performances?

2) And given that there's already a huge audience for DWTS, how come these loyal fans don't become part of the audiences for concert dance performances? And,

3) Quoting from Terry Teachout's column, "Ballet, Never Head of It," in the Wall Street Journal that Tonya references,

...therein lies the challenge of reviving dance in America: Anyone who seeks to launch a new company, or revitalize an old one, must start by figuring out how to make large numbers of Americans want to see something about which they no longer know anything--save that Emmitt Smith does it [Smith won last year's Dancing with the Stars].

I think that there are a number of reasons why many dance forms are hugely popular in the US (by popular I mean people either watch or dance) but concert dances often are not:

1) The perennial difference between "high culture" and popular culture

2) Lack of exposure to and knowledge about ballet, modern and many other concert dance forms

3) Lack of an easy entry-point into some dance forms. In other words, the dances are inaccessible to the uninitiated

4) The embarrassment factor of believing that you will not understand what you're about to see

5) Some concert performances are boring and bewildering

6) The inaccessible way that dance reviews are written

7) The separation of concert dance from popular dances in the way the media covers (primarily writes about) dance. When did you ever read a review of a ballroom dance competition?

8) The unimaginative ways that some ballet and modern dance companies promote themselves and explain their works

9) The lack of industry-wide initiatives - especially on a national level - to build new audiences for dance

10) The historical elitism of the ballet. To quote from this morning's Baltimore Sun:

Classical ballet...emerged from the tradition of court dance in 17th-century France. It was dance done by and for aristocrats - and ever since, traditional dance has had difficulty defeating the perception that it is elitist and that a specialized knowledge is required to appreciate it.

Possible Answers

It would be great as Tonya suggests to have ballet or modern performances on broadcast TV. But I think that would be very difficult from a commercial standpoint unless you featured a dance company such as Pilobolus, which always sells out. Or maybe there is a variation of Dancing with the Stars for modern dance companies that could be on Bravo - but is there a large enough audience and this isn't broadcast TV?

For starters, many writers mischaracterize the state of dance in the US. In an article in the Los Angeles Times this week, "Ballet Pacifica Lacks Funds to Stay in Business," Mike Boehm writes about the soon-to-close Ballet Pacifica and its impact on the local dance community:

Ballet Pacifica's demise would deepen a widespread belief that Southern California is not fertile turf for dance; Los Angeles has not had a major ballet company since the Joffrey Ballet's Music Center residency ended in 1990.

Boehm is clearly referring to concert dance not dance in general. But writers are constantly doing this: They start with the very elite and condescending premise that there is only one kind of dance - concert dance - and all other forms of dance are not worth acknowledging. Because when you think about it, it is absurd to say that "Southern California is not fertile turf for dance" - there are many styles and types of dance that are incredibly popular in Southern California.

I make the above point about the use of the word "dance" because unless the performing arts dance community views itself as part of the larger dance community, it will be very challenging for ballet and modern dance companies to be more successful from an economic and audience development standpoint.

Take ballroom dancing. It is very popular in the US - partially spurred on by the success of Dancing with the Stars. There are many ways to enjoy ballroom dancing. You can watch or participate in professional or pro-am (professional-amateur) dance competitions. You can take American or International-style ballroom classes. And, of course, you can go ballroom dancing throughout the year - In DC alone there are many places to do this.

The question I take from Tonya's post is what is stopping these ballroom dancers from becoming fans of ballet and modern dance? These audiences - consisting of millions of people - are either avid fans of ballroom or are already ballroom dancers. The bottom line is that they are already engaged with dance.

What specifically would it take to convert some of these millions of ballroom dancers to frequent attendance at concert dances? How could you implement marketing campaigns and the Internet in particular to build this cross-over audience?

Making Dance More Accessible

Earlier this week I wrote about the new video series that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the New York City Ballet's Rome + Juliet. The second episode was just published. This second episode focuses on weapons training - a brilliant theme if you want to make dance more accessible to a wider audience. Anybody whoever mocked dance or dancers would sort of have to be in awe of the skills of the dancers who not only have to master realistic sword-fighting techniques, but they have to do it to the rhythm of the music. It's time to sell season tickets to the millions of NRA members.

Ballet Isn't for the Elite

I've already mentioned a number of times the new video podcast series from the Anaheim Ballet that flat-out mocks the notion that ballet is an elite art form in its very enjoyable profiles of its dancers.

High-Quality Dance Videos on the Internet

Also, while I think it's tough to get ballet on TV networks, there are a number of important developments taking place in the world of online video distribution that will offer some compelling ways for all forms of dance to reach a larger audience. With the introduction of services like Joost, which will distribute high-quality video programming and the roll-out of devices like Apple TV, which connects your computer to your wide-screen TV, there are an increasing number of distribution outlets for dance videos.

I'm going to leave it there or I'll spend the entire day writing this post!!

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:16 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

March 28, 2007

Motion Capture Transforms Dancers into Compelling 3D Animations

The current issue of BusinessWeek has a cover story about the latest developments in motion capture technology and how it's being used for commercial and entertainment purposes.

The BusinessWeek article uses the term "motion capture" in a very broad sense to encompass any system that can track, capture and respond to the motion of people and objects.

The Nintendo Wii computer game system is a good example of a popular motion sensing device that monitors the movements of the game controller in space as it's manipulated by a player. Here's a good video that illustrates how the Wii system works - if you watch the entire clip, you'll see how it is used to play different types of games.

But from a dancing perspective, motion capture is especially intriguing when the 3D coordinates of a body in motion are converted into animated dance sequences.

Here are four videos that are based upon using motion capture technology to transform the movements of real belly dancers and a flamenco dancer into 3D animations.

Belly Dancers

Nice detail in this first example. I'm curious what belly dancers think about the quality of the captured movement:

There's no audio for this 3D computer rendering:

Here's another example of a belly dance animation - I can't embed it in my blog. The movement feels very fluid but I wish they got rid of the horizontal band of bright light in top third of image that makes it difficult to clearly see the dancer.

And an impressive flamenco dancer:

In upcoming posts, I'll include videos and pictures that show how the motion capture process works from a nuts-and-bolts perspective. If you know of good links to pictures and videos of different motion capture systems - especially ones that show examples of dancers, please let me know about them.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:17 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

March 27, 2007

Chunky Move's "Glow"

Australian-based dance company Chunky Move just wrapped-up its performances of "Glow" at the Sydney Opera House.

"Glow," a solo work choreographed by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek, incorporates a real-time video landscape generated via motion tracking technology and designed by interactive software engineer Frieder Weiss. Performances alternate between dancers Kristy Ayre and Sara Black.

You can visit the following page on Weiss' site to watch extended excerpts from "Glow." (You have to click on the link for the "Glow" performance underneath the video player). Here's a screen shot from the video:

From Weiss' home page, you can watch more videos of his work. These are among the better dance and technology videos that I've seen.

"Glow" Reviews

Blog write-ups:

- Jhuny the Boy in "Possessed by Technology."

- Chris Boyd reviews "Glow" in his "The Morning After: Performing arts in Australia" blog. (I'm confused by when he saw this performance.)

- David Williams writes review in "The dance of the screen savers...."

Newspaper reviews:

- "Moving to the algo-rhythm" in The Sydney Morning Herald.

- Article from Sydney Stage - this can't really be a review - it's a bit over the top with its praise.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:52 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

March 26, 2007

Behind the Scenes Look at NYC Ballet's Upcoming Romeo + Juliet

In a post yesterday, Kristin Sloan of The Winger and New York City Ballet announced the launch of a behind-the-scenes video diary of the upcoming Romeo + Juliet - world premiere on May 1st.

On the Romeo + Juliet site, you can watch the first episode of this weekly series where Kristin introduces the program.

I think we are at the early stages of an important trend as more ballet and modern dance companies introduce innovative video applications for the Internet. Recently I wrote about "Anaheim Ballet's new video podcast series," and Chris Elam of Misnomer Dance Theater wrote about his company's use of videos via social networking and video sharing sites.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 23, 2007

Sharing Works-in-Progress and Seeking Feedback Online

Sometimes dancers and dance companies participate in showcases of their works-in-progress. This way they can perform their unfinished pieces in a safe environment and receive helpful feedback and critiques from a live audience.

There's no reason that this concept cannot be ported to the online world so that dancers can receive feedback and reactions from fellow dancers, critics and dance enthusiasts around the world.

Here's a possible model for Internet-based showcases of works-in-progress:

1) Communication mediums must be selected. The obvious choice is video in conjunction with text, pictures and audio. Since many dancers already shoot video of rehearsals, this shouldn't be difficult in most cases.

2) All participants (dancers and those giving feedback) need a private environment in which to share videos and provide critiques. If a public platform is used where all Internet users can participate, then the goal of creating a safe environment to showcase and discuss works-in-progress is defeated.

3) Following-up on the item above, only people who are personally invited get to join-in this online discussion.

4) Ground rules must be set in terms of how invited guests participate and how content (primarily video) can be used or not used outside of this private online setting. For example, dance writers might be invited, but in terms of their writing these forums do not exist.

By creating this safe environment for conversation and feedback, I think that dancers from around the world will benefit in significant ways. Most valuable is that it becomes possible to share works with dancers around the globe with whom you would probably never have collaborated. And in the process, you'll probably hear a diverse range of reactions that may prove very helpful in the on-going development of your work.

Tools and Applications

Here are some thoughts on what software applications and tools could be used for this project.

In terms of video, it is necessary to use a web-based video application that allows you to decide who can and cannot access your videos. YouTube has this functionality other video sharing applications probably do too.

Here's a screen shot from one of the video upload screens on YouTube. There are two important features here. First, you can set a video to "private." And you can also indicate whether your video can be embedded in other websites. For this project you want privacy and the ability to embed. Click for larger image:

Next, we need a group bloging platform or social networking site where it is possible to determine which people get access to this online discussion and video content. Once again, there are probably many options. I was just taking a looking at the Vox blogging platform that touts its privacy settings.

Finally, a lot of thought has to be given to how to structure and conduct the discussion about each work-in-progress. This is new territory because there has been little discussion about the art of sharing constructive criticism in the online world. For example, what types of feedback are the most helpful? What types of feedback do choreographers and dancers actually want? And at what intervals should these on-going discussions take place?

In terms of building a blueprint for these facilitated discussions, I think that a good place to start is with a publication from Liz Lerman Dance Exchange called "Critical Response Process," which is written by Liz Lerman and John Borstel. This book provides a framework for how to facilitate conversations about art in a meaningful and productive manner. So I think this publication would be a good springboard for thinking about how to facilitate these discussions online. (I do Internet consulting for Dance Exchange).

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March 22, 2007

Village Voice Dance Coverage Not Ready for the Internet

A dance review from yesterday's Village Voice by critic Deborah Jowitt provides a good illustration of the problems with the way that newspapers and writers cover the dance world.

I am using a review, "Me, Myself, and I: Technology creates multiple partners," to make my points. This review and the way it's presented online point out what I think are a series of ironies.

The first part of the review is devoted to a performance by choreographer and dancer Philippe Decouflé who is, as Jowitt explains, "an expert in media mania." Decouflé integrates a range of media into his performances, which can serve to "amplify or counter movement."

Well, here we have an article about how projected video and other uses of technology are integrated in the performance environment but no thought has been given to how online newspaper readers and fans of dance use technology - in this case the Internet - to learn about and enjoy online dance content.

If I were writing a review, the first thing I would do is include a link to Philippe Decouflé's website. His website is Flash-based and annoying, but there is some good video content. When you get to the home page, click "cliquez pour entrer" and then select "La Galerie" and then "Des videos." (That's the problem with Flash. You can't link directly to specific content).

On his video page, you can access video excerpts from "Le Solo" which he performed in New York at the Joyce Theater and is the work that Jowitt reviews. Plus, you can watch three video excerpts from his film "Abracadabra" that Jowitt references in her review:

New Yorkers who saw his film Abracadabra at the Walter Reade Theater in 2000; Shazam!, performed at BAM by his Compagnie DCA, in 2001; or Tricodex, presented by the Lyon Opera Ballet (also at BAM) in 2004 know how skillfully he manipulates imagery.

You can also watch the following two performance videos on YouTube, which overlap with the videos on Decouflé's website:

Here are my questions for Jowitt and The Village Voice:

1) How come you don't link to these videos so that online readers of your newspaper can see with their own eyes excerpts of the films and performances that you reference in your review? When it comes to dance, doesn't the visual take precedence over the written word? (Many dance bloggers already embed videos into their posts. But The Village Voice and just about all other newspapers I know about do not do this).

2) More broadly, what is the social context in which you write your reviews? Jowitt writes as I quoted above "New Yorkers who saw..." What if you didn't see? What if you aren't in New York? Does your publication not work from an economic (or any other) perspective to the extent that your readers do not consist of theater-going New Yorkers? And, in any case, whether they saw or did not see the films or performances, why not give them direct access to the video content anyway?

3) And why not write your review by referencing these online video materials directly? Don't you think your review would be more interesting and engaging if you could point your readers to specific sections of these clips to help dance fans better understand and appreciate the work of Decouflé? I enjoy watching the above videos, but I'd enjoy them a lot more if I had a dance expert provide background and insight.

Social Networking without the "Network"

What makes The Village Voice's lack of links to relevant content and its lack of interest in incorporating available video content directly into the context of its articles amusing is that it has already embraced the concept of Web 2.0 and social networking.

If you go back to Jowitt's review, you'll see that you can subscribe directly to the newspaper's RSS feed - click on the little orange button to the right of "printer friendly version." You can email the article to a friend and submit letters to the editor. And there are a number of social bookmarking buttons for saving this review.

I interpret The Village Voice's embrace of Web 2.0 as either a phony effort to be on the cutting-edge or simple ignorance about the optimal way to put the Internet to work. Essentially, The Village Voice (like many other online publications - even many in the technology arena) is offering tools so that readers can save and share their articles, but they are taking a closed-wall approach where the only content that matters is their own content. And if good helpful materials exist outside their website - such as dance video, they are not about to link to it.

If multimedia in the dance environment can "amplify" our understanding of movement, why can't incorporating multimedia into our dance reading experience "amplify" our knowledge of dance?

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:02 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

March 21, 2007

Lisa Bufano's "Five Open Mouths"

Monday evening I heard a captivating segment on NPR about artist and dancer Lisa Bufano who has been performing a solo "Five Open Mouths," which is her story about coming to terms with being a double amputee. I was in my car when I heard the story. So I pulled over and wrote down Bufano's name on my mobile phone so I wouldn't forget to learn more about her work when I returned home.

Here's the segment on NPR: "Artist Takes Inspiration from Amputation." On this page, you can also watch video segments from "Five Open Mouths."

Here's one of the segments from YouTube:

And here's a clip of Bufano stilt dancing last summer at an arts festival in Union Square in NYC:

You can learn more about Lisa Bufano and her work on her website. And she has a podcast, "Lisa Bufano's Morphology," with more video of her work.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:10 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 20, 2007

Tips for Creating Promotional Dance Videos for the Internet

I strongly recommend that dance companies create good-quality promotional videos for the web.

A good promotional video can:

- Motivate more people to attend your performances

- Improve fundraising efforts, and

- Increase bookings

As I write my publication on producing dance videos, I've watched hundreds of videos - mostly on YouTube. Most of these dance videos are simply not good enough and this does not have to be the case.

My Tips

So here are my initial tips on creating good promotional videos specifically for the Internet:

1) Optimal Video Length

3-5 minutes is a good video length.

2) A Good Tripod is a Must

Use a tripod to shoot your video. You'll end up with a much smoother image, which can make a big difference when you convert your video file to a compressed format for the Internet.

3) Use Semi-Professional Video Camcorder or Better

If at all possible, use a semi-professional video camcorder. The recorded image will be better than that of consumer camcorders.

4) Videographer Should Know Choreography Upfront

The videographer should have a good idea of the choreography upfront - they usually don't. And the videographer should know which sections of the dance piece you want to include in your promotional video. The problem with many dance videos is that the videographer is always guessing what will happen next. This approach leads to many bad videos. The most common mistake is that a videographer zooms in for a close-up and then says "Ops" as the dancer raisers her arms, and her limbs are cut out of the shot. Then the videographer zooms back out in a hurry and the final result looks amateurish.

5) The Perils of Theatrical Lighting

Theatrical lighting is a major contributor to making dance videos look terrible. If at all possible, videotape your performance when there's no audience. Increase the stage lights, limit spot lights and limit multi-color gels. Just simple even lighting that is bright enough for your camera but not too bright. Since shooting in audience-free theaters is not usually possible, work with lighting designer to see if you can make slight changes in lighting to improve video quality. And also experiment with exposure settings on your camera. (I'll be writing about exposure, focus, zooming, white balance and other important camera settings in detail in my publication).

6) Get Full-Frame Shots of Dancers

You'll probably want a combination of a) full stage shots and b) full-framed dancer shots. For example, you'll want a wide shot of the stage to give viewers the big picture. But when it comes to the Internet, you want a lot of video shots that feature a dancer or dancers taking up a large percentage of the video image. Video on the Internet is usually watched in a small window. If dancers only take up a small percentage of your video clip, then they will appear like ants when they are watched on the Internet. So full body shots are ideal as long as you're not cutting-off any limbs - although cutting-off limbs is a creative choice and I've seen some good creative videos that don't always capture entire arms and legs.

7) Close-Ups Can Work Too

Close-ups of specific parts of a dancer's body can work in certain circumstances. For example, doing a close-up of a dancer's legs will easily work for Celtic dances. It just depends upon the type of dance and the choreography.

8) Make Introductory Text Short and Sweet

Keep introductory text slides or overlays real short, real simple and include a soundtrack from the beginning of the video. Of course, you can ignore my advice and be more creative. But if you decide to be creative, it ought to be very compelling to avoid problem in following item.

9) Get Right to the Action

Don't go for the slow build-up when editing your video. Internet users have itchy trigger fingers. If they're bored they'll stop watching in a fraction of a second. So start your video with some energy and show your dancers having fun (if appropriate).

10) Intro Video Interview with Choreographer and Dancers

Better yet, do simple video intro of choreographer and/or dancers talking about what viewers are about to see. This could be 15 to 30 seconds. There's nothing like personal touch when it comes to the Internet.

11) Don't Make Shots Too Short

There seems to be a tendency in the promo videos I've watched to cut very quickly from one shot to the next. For example, a video may include 2 seconds of one performance and then 2 seconds from a different performance. I find this very irksome. Why not let me see at least 15 seconds or more of each performance so I can enjoy the dancing just a bit?

12) Skip the Transitions

Don't use corny transitions in between each shot. Just edit your video so the viewer is taken from one shot to the next without any fades, wipes, page peels or other transitions. And definitely, don't do any split screens - this very rarely works on the Internet where viewing space is at a premium.

13) Use One Sound Track and Cut on the Beat

Whether your promotional video includes footage from one or multiple dance pieces, most video clips I've seen include only one sound track. This makes for a less jarring viewing experience. And on the subject of music, cutting from one shot to the next while synched to the rhythm is often a pretty good idea unless there's some creative reason that you don't want to do this. (This only applies to performances with more than one video camera or when you're editing a video that features multiple dance performances.)

14) Upload Videos to Popular Video Sharing Sites

Upload your videos to popular video sharing sites such as YouTube. YouTube offers three important benefits: 1) It gets a huge amount of traffic, 2) you can embed your YouTube videos on your own site or blog, and 3) other people can embed your video on their own websites and blogs, which means you'll get more exposure for your video.

15) Convert Your Videos Properly for YouTube

It is very important that before uploading your video to YouTube and other video sharing sites that your video is properly converted to the appropriate file format. For example, YouTube has specific recommendations for how to convert your videos that you can read here. If you follow these guidelines, your online videos will look significantly better. I've just started experimenting with YouTube. I uploaded some dance videos pretty much following the YouTube recommendations and there was usually very little degradation in the quality of the videos.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:09 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 19, 2007

New Blog for Dance Videos

There are so many online videos of performances and topics related to dance that I needed a place to put all of the interesting videos I came across.

So I created a new blog: Great Dance Videos.

Saying that these videos are all supposed to be "great" is a bit of hyperbole on my part - but that's the name of my blog. But I really should just say that I link to videos that I like and find interesting.

I'll probably add a handful of videos a week. So far I've embedded five. Here's the first one I added of a recent interview with Twyla Tharp discussing the importance of video to dance - it seemed like a good place to start:

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:04 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Injured Again

I haven't been able to take dance classes for about a month or so. I actually shouldn't have been taking classes for a month before that.

In February 2006 I injured myself more seriously and couldn't take dance classes for about seven months. I injured both of my adductor muscles and the tendons in each of my hips.

Returning to the present: At about the beginning of last December I hurt my back overdoing it on the crunches. I was doing the crunches where you're lying on your back with your feet straight-up in the air perpendicular to the ceiling. I increased very slightly the number of reps I was doing. Then I felt this shot of pain running through my back.

I didn't do much at first except take Advil and use a heat pad and go back to dance classes - except I stopped doing the ab work. It's stunning how fast the abs lose strength if you stop working on them.

But my back didn't improve. So I eventually went back to the orthopedic doctor and he referred me to a physical therapist.

So I went to the physical therapist for about two weeks and they taught me some very helpful back stretching and strengthening exercises. But they seemed to insist that I work with a different PT each time I went. So I just stopped going. I'd prefer just to work with one PT who knows what my problem is.

But the exercises they taught me have been very helpful. I do them every other day. And the most helpful advice was that I start using a workout ball.

I now think that workout balls are the greatest invention ever. I think all of the exercises I'm doing to strengthen my core and back are beginning to help too.

I've been using a book "Ultimate Core Ball Workout" by Jeanine Detz. The author does an excellent job of describing and illustrating hundreds of different ball exercises for your abs, back and other parts of your core. For me this is great because I still can't do regular crunches while lying on the floor.

I'm hoping that my back as well as some pulled muscles I have are in good enough shape for me to go back to dance classes in three weeks. On Saturday I ran into Helen Hayes my wonderful modern dance teacher. She's starting a new routine today and the next one will start in three weeks. So if I'm better in three weeks the timing would be perfect - but realistically I think it's only 50/50 that I'll be healthy enough.

I saw Helen at the "Winter Performance Class Showcase" at Joy of Motion. It's always fun to see other students perform - I take classes with a number of the students who were in the program. After another year or so of dance classes, I think I'm going to sign-up for a performance class.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:34 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Perils of Widgets

Last week I wrote about the wonders of widgets that let you embed content from one site into another. I mostly wrote about widgets in the context of embedding listings of upcoming events and multimedia content in your website or blog.

The problem is that some of these widgets really messed-up how my home page loaded. So I've unpublished a number of these widget-containing posts and I'll add them back once they're off of my home page.

So while I still think using widgets as a way to take advantage of the reach and distributed nature of the Internet is an excellent strategy, you do have to be careful about which widgets you use, not include too many on one page and make sure they all work so that your site/blog readers don't encounter any page-loading errors.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:09 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 16, 2007

"Trouble with Turnout" Performance Video

Watch this dance video about the history of turnout in ballet:

Title: "Trouble with Turnout" from "Intersections"
Choreographer: Suzanne Oliver, San Jacinto College, Houston, Texas
Dancer: Leah Bauer
Date: Spring 2006

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:02 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

March 15, 2007

Dance Blogger Round-Up

I started this round-up last Thursday. I might keep doing it. I'll see how it goes. Please let me know what you think.

- Early dance blogger Rachel Feinerman returns after a long hiatus. Rachel talks about life, marriage and the challenges of a dancer's life.

- French bloggeurs (Images de Danse, Un Soir ou un Autre, Le Tadorne and Clochettes) have joined together to review and rate contemporary dance and theatrical performances. I'm actually a bit confused by what this project entails - my French is pretty bad and Google translator is even worse. You can access their new initiative named Scenes 2.0 and read an overview here.

- Second Life Modern Dance Theatre was founded by architecture students from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden in collaboration with The Stockholm Modern Dance Theatre. The dance performance with eight avatars is a hybrid event that takes place in Second Life as well as in the real world in Stockholm - video clips available. I definitely plan to learn more about SL Life Modern Dance Theatre and their performances.

- Chimene in A Life Less Examined writes in "Before and After Photos" that "I totally love my abdominal area."

- Kristin Sloan at The Winger has been working on a secret project - soon to be announced. And continues to work at physical therapy. I don't really understand what the "torture device" she has a picture of from her physical PT is for.

- In "Shared Transcriptions" Anais Janacek writes that improvisational responses to technological partners are not really different from the physical ones (humans).

- Miss Tango in Her Eyes asks Mr. Norway if he's taken classes with milonguero Carlos Gavito.

- In "Who/What is a Disabled Dancer?" and "More on Dance and Disability," Wheelchair Dance grapples with defining the nature and scope of physically integrated dance. To paraphrase: How do you dance your disability without making your disability the subject of your dance?

- Ariel of The Stranger in Seat Twelve thinks the article and video story by New York Times writer Harry Hurt III about his efforts to become an instant dancer at the New York Ballet is "hilarious." I'd like it too if it wasn't one of the only dance-focused videos on the NY Times site. This is a story from a writer in the business section who writes an "Executive Pursuits" column. Earlier this month in the theater and dance section there is a video piece entitled "Praise Dancing Hits Manhattan" - but that's about all I've seen.

- Shan Monster was not thrilled with a recent tribal and fusion bellydance workshop she attended. She published a letter in her blog that she sent to the event organizer and sought feedback from her readers - lots of comments. Her main complaint was the indifference shown toward her when she explained that the smoke machine could aggravate her asthma.

- Leigh Witchel is busy writing dance reviews. But in the meantime links to video of Broadway singer and cruise ship performer singing "Femininity."

- Tonya Plank of Swan Lake Samba Girl works on her lifts and did her "first fish." (I don't know what that is). She includes picture of herself from her last showcase and is now watching video of her choreography to memorize it.

- Patty Rose talks about the right way to breath and provides excerpt from book "Conditioning for Dance" by Eric Franklin.

- Judith Mackrell writes in her Guardian Unlimited blog that many dance performances are too long and are just wasting time. "Wouldn't it be better to have a shapely, well-crafted 45 minutes of dance rather than a flatulent hour and a half, whose length has been determined by the financial and political agendas of programmers?"

- Natalia of Bellydance: Experiences posts next blog carnival topic for March. The theme is "Dancing on a budget." You can post story about this topic on your blog and then email link to Natalia by end of this month.

- Marcy Mendelson of Root Magazine posts article from essay contest winner Jalila A. Bell about her 2006 participation in the 74th Annual Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival. Bell performed three works with Vissi Dance Theater that dealt with the "themes of slavery, fear, oppression, transcendence and freedom." Bell writes:

Performing these pieces in this venue was overwhelming for me, both physically and emotionally. For most of the bumpy-curvy three-hour ride home, I huddled in my seat of the caravan, sobbing uncontrollably. As a dancer, I felt wholly unsatisfied by my failure to achieve the unobtainable perfection, the precision of technique, the liminality to overcome my numerous costume malfunctions. As a woman of color and a descendant of slaves, I was humbled and overcome by a profound bone-deep sadness.

- Joe Grohens in Topic is Tango links to two tango videos on YouTube with Homer and Christina Ladas.

- Art Williams of Wandering Salsero recommends linking to this Salsa rhythm tool that allows you to turn on and off different instruments such as the clave to develop a better understanding of Salsa music. I have to say that I don't think it's a very helpful tool. It lasts for only 8 beats and it features only one possible rhythm.

- Matt writes in the The Ranting Details of a Life Uncharted: ABT dancers burn off steam with some dirty dancing after performance in Miami - a good way to ensure the arrival of "dead swans" the next morning.

- Tina in Seguendo Il Mio Cuore from Buenos Aires channels her inner Sophia Loren on the dance floor and brushes aside undesired invites to dane.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:00 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

March 14, 2007

You're Not in My Sphere

The way that many people - especially younger people - use the Internet is fundamentally changing the marketing landscape.

Essentially the broadcast model is dying and it is being replaced by what I call customer-controlled spheres of influence.

To give you a concrete example:

If you have a dance blog, I probably read or skim all of your posts on a daily basis.

If you have a website for promoting your dancing or dance company and you do not have a blog, it is very unlikely that I have any idea what you're up to.

Why do I follow dance blogs and not websites?

My answer is that I subscribe to the "feeds" of every dance blog that I know about. I'll explain what "feeds" are below. But for now, here is a screen shot similar to one that I included last week of Google Reader - an online application that allows me to easily read all blog posts in a central location. I don’t have to visit every blog individually to read the latest posts. Click for larger image:

So Google Reader acts as my customized sphere of influence. I choose which blogs to read, and I can add or remove feeds any time I wish.

To exaggerate the point a bit, if you don't have a dance blog, you don't exist in my world or my sphere. You can have an informative, engaging and helpful website but websites are not the primary way that I gather information and communicate with others. And there are millions of other Internet users out there who consume content in the same manner as I do.

Feeds Described

All software programs that are used for creating blogs automatically create what are called RSS feeds or syndication feeds (See popular blog platforms: Blogger, TypePad and WordPress). One definition for "RSS" is Real Simple Syndication. But just about nobody refers to this definition.

The important thing to know about RSS feeds is that they offer a great way for you to syndicate the content of your blog. Just as a newspaper might syndicate an editorial column by one of its writers to hundreds of newspapers, an RSS feed lets you syndicate your blog to a large Internet audience.

On most blogs and Internet browsers, you'll see a variation of this button:

This icon means that you can subscribe to the RSS feed for the blog or web page you're currently viewing.

If you are using a Firefox browser and you visit my Great Dance blog, this is what you'll see at the top of your browser window:

In the above screen shot, I clicked on the orange icon and a pop-up window opened with three options representing different types of feeds. It really does not matter which of the three options you click on to subscribe to my RSS feed. If you do select the "RSS 2.0" feed, this is the page you will see. You are now viewing my feed. At the top of this feed page, there are instructions that you can follow to subscribe to this feed.

You may choose to collect and organize the feeds you subscribe to in many ways. You can subscribe within your browser ("live feeds" for Firefox), use a feed reader such as Google Reader, or use a customized home page application such as NetVibes.

Once you start subscribing to RSS feeds, you will always be presented with the most recent posts automatically.

If you create a blog and want to improve and publicize your feed, a good place to start is with FeedBurner. Actually, if you sign-up for a free account, one of the FeedBurner tools under "Publicize" is called "Chicklet Chooser." In this Chicklet Chooser, you'll see a list of the many different ways that people can subscribe to your feed. Here's a screen shoot of these options - click for larger view:

The number of subscriber options gives you an idea of the popularity of RSS feeds and how important it is to have a feed and encourage people to subscribe to it.

I'm going to write a number of posts about the importance of being in the customized spheres of influence of your customers. In these posts, I'll discuss social bookmarking, social networks, multimedia content, embeddable widgets, online fundraising tools, and other important ways to promote yourself online.

At the heart of all these marketing strategies is the importance of entering the world or sphere of your customers and not forcing your customers to enter your world - more to come.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:40 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

March 13, 2007

Anaheim Ballet Launches Video Podcast Series

Thanks to Gray at Fame or Famine for pointing to new video series posted by the Anaheim Ballet.

The Anaheim Ballet has embraced social networking, video sharing sites and iTunes. I think that this is a great development and I'm delighted to see it. I also like their sense of humor - they don't take themselves too seriously and their having fun. In the second video below, you'll notice about half way through that the camera switches to a dancer's view of a pirouette.

Mocking the notion that ballet is just for the elite, the Anaheim Ballet recently launched a series of short entertaining video podcasts that will have wide appeal.

Watch "Anaheim Ballet Dancer Profile: Samantha Bell"

Watch "Ballet: Spin Cycle"

You can access all of the Anaheim Ballet videos on YouTube. You can also visit the Anaheim Ballet MySpace.

Plus, you can visit their podcast page on iTunes to subscribe to their channel and download the clips to your iPod. (iTunes software required.)

Here's screen shot of what their podcast channel looks like in iTunes - click for larger image:

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:12 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 12, 2007

Photo Widgets from Good Widgets

And, in terms of photo widgets, you have many choices. Yesterday, I came across Good Widgets which offers a variety of visually compelling and flexible photo widgets - but I did encounter some technical errors when configuring them.

For the following two examples of Good Widgets, I used the contact improvisation photos of David Olivari on Flickr. Here's his blog. I especially like the second widget.

As with other widgets, you can embed them in a blog post as I have hear or you can post them anywhere else on your website or on social networking sites.

Click the continue reading this post link that follows to see the examples of these photo widgets.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

March 11, 2007

Promote Dance Performances with Google Calendar

The free Google Calendar offers many ways to promote your upcoming dance performances.

To illustrate its features, I created a Google Calendar for dance performances in Washington, DC. To add upcoming performances, I went back to Eventful and clicked the Google Calendar link next to DC area dance performances. Once I clicked on this link, performances were automatically added to my calendar. (I wrote about Eventful over the last few days - both here and here.)

On each event page within Eventful, you'll see the following links that allow you to save and share events:

Once I added these upcoming performances in my Google Calendar, there are a number of ways that I can now promote my calendar.

- With a link to my public calendar with upcoming dance performances. I made my calendar public so I could do this.

- With a link to the RSS feed for my calendar so that users can subscribe to it using their favorite news reader.

- A button that my blog or website readers can click on that allows them to important all of the listed dance performances into their own Google calendar. You'll have to sign-up to use Google Calendar for this feature to work:

- By adding a Google Calendar widget to my blog or website that lets me display my Google calendar. Google uses the word "gadget" instead of "widget." But it means the same thing: Taking data from one source (in this case Google Calendar) and embedding it in another source (in this case my blog). Click on dates with red boxes to see description of performances for that day:

You can create your own customized Google Calendar Gadget.

There are a number of ways to use Google Calendar for marketing purposes. Overall, the best reason to use this calendar tool - as well as other popular calendar applications - is because you get your performances in the calendars of potential audience members. And once your event is listed, calendar owners are not going to forget about your performance. Plus they can send themselves event reminders in many different ways. Google Calendar can be configured, for example, so that reminders are sent via SMS (text messaging) to your mobile phone.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:53 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 10, 2007

Dance Films by Ludovic Jolivet

I mentioned that I interviewed choreographer and filmmaker Ludovic Jolivet earlier this week for my upcoming publication on dance, video and the Internet.

He just uploaded two of his videos to YouTube:

Posted by Doug Fox at 5:09 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 9, 2007

Adding Upcoming Event Badge to Your Blog or Site

Following-up on my post this morning about Upcoming.org and Eventful: Below I've included an Upcoming.org badge that displays the next 5 events that I'm tracking in Upcoming.org. I'm using this as example of how the DC dance community can promote its upcoming performances. If all dance companies and venues in the area listed their performances on Upcoming, then I'd add your performances to myevents and then they would be added to this badge below.

Anybody can create this type of badge. One of the main benefits is that it's very viral and many people might place this badge on their own blogs and websites.

Upcoming.org Events

More of dougfox's events

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Should You Use Upcoming and Eventful to Promote Dance Performances?

I was curious how good two popular social calendar applications were for finding and tracking dance performances in the Washington DC metro area. I explored Upcoming and Eventful to find out.

As a baseline I used the online dance performance calendar that is managed by Dance/MetroDC. If your goal is to find a well-organized, up-to-date listing of upcoming dance performances in the Metro DC area, this calendar is a very good place to go. It is comprehensive and includes most dance performances in the area. Here's a screen shot of their calendar - you can click for larger image:

Outside of the local dance community - dancers, students, teachers and those with a very close connection to dance - I'm not sure how many people visit the calendar on the Dance/Metro DC website. So my recommendation is that all local dance companies and all venues that offer dance performances in the area take full advantage of Upcoming and Eventful. They are both popular calendar applications that offer good functionality and multiple ways to track events.

The main problem at this point is that neither of these calendars has comprehensive listings of local dance performances that are regularly updated to reflect the latest changes. If all local dance companies and venues, however, did add and update their listings regularly, then more people would know that they could turn to these calendars to find upcoming performances. There's no charge for listing your events.

Here's a screen shot from Upcoming that reflects a search that I just conducted for dance performances in the Greater Washington, DC area. You can visit this link to see the search, but, I believe, the calendar will default to whichever metro area you are currently in. Here are the results I found:

You'll notice on the results page that you're not presented with a lot of summary detail about each performance, the Dance/Metro DC calendar lists more performances for the month of March, and not all the listings are really for dance performances - the first listing I saw was for a movie that had dance in it. But the performance listings are better than Eventful that I discuss below.

Here's a screen shot of a dedicated event page on Upcoming for this weekend's performance of Edgeworks Dance Theater at Dance Place, which I'll probably go see:

You'll notice on the right side of the above screen shot (click for larger image) that the number of Upcoming.org users who are attending or watching this event is listed. This mean that once you log-in to your Upcoming account, you can track your own events. The events you're tracking can be accessed from the "My Upcoming" link at the top of the page. Plus, you can also track the events of your friends. But from the perspective of dance companies and venues, these social bookmarking tools are only helpful if a large number of people know that they can track dance performances in the area on Upcoming - I'll return to this idea below.

And here's a search I did on Eventful for dance performances in the Washing DC metro area for March 2007 - I had to specify March 2007 because I was having trouble getting a good listing of results. And I sorted the results by "Venue" instead of "Date" because the date-ordered sort was confusing:

Another reason the search results for Eventful are annoying is because all dance events are merged together. I tried to search for dance performances, but as you'll see, there are dance classes and all kinds of MeetUps among the results. Plus, it appears that not as many dance performances are listed as on Upcoming.

But I do like the dedicated event pages on Eventful. Here's the page for this weekend's "Teen Dance Project" at the Jack Guidone Theater at Joy of Motion.

On the above screen shot on the right of the page, you'll see that there are a number of ways that you can share this event with others and post to social bookmarking sites. Plus, you can save the event directly to different online calendar applications or import to your calendar software on your computer.

Recommendations

My recommendation is that all local dance companies and venues list their events in both Upcoming and Eventful. They are both popular services so they offer a good way to attract audiences. Plus, the more comprehensive the listings for dance in the area, the more people will turn to these online calendars to learn about upcoming performances.

Plus, as more people use these calendars to find dance performances, more people will use the "MyEvents" and "MyFriends" functionality to track their own events and those of their friends. This type of online community-sharing of events is a great viral tool for building audiences.

I also think it might be helpful if local dance companies/venues decide on a tagging nomenclature. In other words, the tagging systems in Upcoming and Eventful are not always helpful for people who specifically want to find dance performances as opposed to other dance events such as classes or workshops. It might be helpful to create a tag such as "danceperformances". This way when people search specifically for dance performances by using this tag, they will usually only see the desired results.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:50 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

March 8, 2007

Interviews for Dance and Video Publication

Here's update on interviews I've just completed and will soon conduct for my book on dance, video and the Internet.

- This past Tuesday I met with Ludovic Jolivet in Arlington, Virginia right outside of DC. Ludovic is a choreographer, videographer and dance filmmaker with a wealth of expertise and insight about the process of producing videos of dance performances, creating video for projection purposes, and directing dance on camera productions. I recorded our interview, which I think lasted well over an hour. I'm going to transcribe and summarize our discussion and post it soon.

- This afternoon I'm interviewing Tim Glenn, assistant professor in the Department of Dance at Florida State University. Tim has an excellent site on Dance Documentation that I'm reading right now. It provides a very comprehensive guide on how to videotape performances for the purpose of study and recreation.

- This weekend I'm interviewing Matt Gough who is visiting the US. Matt is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and dance and technology expert. I've gone to a couple dance performances with him here in DC and it's great getting his insights about the performances. A number of the topics I've covered in my blog that deal with dance and video have resulted from conversations I've had with Matt. Matt is an occasional blogger and everybody should encourage him to blog more so that he can share his thoughts about dance and technology.

- And I'll soon be interviewing Matt Mahaney, a dancer with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, when he returns from performances in Japan. Matt has a lot of experience with dance videography and video editing and he's going to give me an overview of his work. (I do Internet consulting work for Dance Exchange.)

How come I interview only guys??

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:33 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dance Blog Round-Up

- More on appointment of Alastair Macaulay to be new chief dance critic at New York Times: Rachel Howard writes about Apollinaire's "overheated reaction" and also writes about my post on this topic. Judith Flanders in Guardian Unlimited is amused by the "stirred tempers" in the US. Brendan McCarthy discusses "otherwordly discussion." And Apollinaire Scherr responds to Flanders.

- Natalia in Bellydance: Experiences wraps-up February blog carnival with the theme of "Through a dancer's eye" where dance bloggers write posts about this topic.

- Wheelchair Dancer writes two-part overview of recent symposium on dance and disability: Post about conference, Part I and Part II.

- Tony Schultz describes creation of a "choreographic interface" for generating different variations of Twyla Tharp’s "The Fugue," which was recently performed by students at Sarah Lawrence College. Screen shot of software interface included.

- Tonya Plank in Swan Lake Samba Girl writes post "You Made Me a Monster" about bringing a non-dancing friend to an "audience participation" dance event.

- La Planchadora shares her favorite Argentine Tango video of the week from YouTube.

- ShanMonster attends her first pole dancing class and includes pole dancing video that she can't quite do yet.

- Lorna of BellyLorna provides a multi-part history of belly dancing starting with Part 1.

- Flailbox links to preview of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, a half opera, half dance performance that is partly submerged in big fish tank at Sadler's Wells. Watch video clip.

- A Life Less Examined is thrilled that American Ballet Theatre is coming to Chicago.

- Miguelito in his DC Flamenco photo diary writes about his Tuesday evening experience seeing a Flamenco performance at Strathmore Music Center.

- Terpsichore Musings has a photo shoot - details in "Close-up."

- Soleilisme is in the zone during contemporary dance class.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:02 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

March 7, 2007

Needed: A Better Way to Visualize Dance Videos

The number of dance videos on the Internet is proliferating like crazy - this is a great development. But there is, for the most part, no convenient or easy way to find:

1) the dance videos that are of interest to you (e.g., show me specific types of Flamenco dance videos),

2) good quality dance videos, and

3) links to similar or related dance videos

Yes, you can go to YouTube and search for videos and link to similar videos. But how often do you really find what you're looking for? Most of the videos you'll find through this type of search won't be that good or interesting - at least that's what happens to me.

And even when I do find interesting videos on blogs and other sources, there's no easy way to find related videos that I'll find worth watching.

So I think that the dance community needs a better way to rate, organize and visualize dance videos for all styles and forms of dance.

Here are some initial thoughts on how we might create such a visualization framework:

I came across this online brainstorming application called Bubble.us [via Mashable]. Here's a screen shot of a sample brainstorming session generated with Bubble.us. Click this image to see a larger picture:

If you experiment with Bubble.us, you'll see that it's pretty easy to create boxes and draw lines connecting different ideas.

I think this type of brainstorming visualization might be a good starting point for dance. If you take Salsa dancing, for example, there are many different styles of Salsa that are connected to each other in different ways. So you need a flexible tool for linking these styles and showing their interconnections.

I came across this video of "Zouk" salsa dancing on the Wandering Salsero blog. Art Williams says it's probably related to Cuban Salsa. I think you would need a brainstorming-style application to show how this "Zouk" style is related to other Salsa dancing styles around the globe. Here's the "Zouk" video:

A related visualization tool would be a search engine such as Quintura [via Read/WriteWeb]. When you conduct searches with Quintura, the results are displayed in a visual cluster format so that you can see the connections among related terms. As you drill down through these related terms, the results are updated in the right-hand column. Here's an example of a search I did for "dance, ballet and classes." Click on this image to see full-size screen capture:

A different way to represent dance styles and their relationships could be through a more structured approach such as a genealogical tree such as that offered by Geni [via The Next Net]. I think this structure would impose too much of a straight jacked because dance styles and forms are much more fluid. But what I think is worthwhile about genealogical trees is that it's time-based and it may offer ideas about how to view dance connections in terms of how different dance forms from earlier decades and centuries influenced the dances of today. Here's a screen shoot of Geni from The Next Net:

And finally, you'll find three visual examples of representing connections - in this case online social connections - in a 2006 post on the RP Thoughts blog. In the third example, you'll see social connections in the form of linked webpages where the most popular websites are closer to the center of the image (this image comes from a service that is no longer active). Here's the screen shot of this visualization:

So there's a number of possible ways to visualize the connections between and among dance videos and styles, there are different ways to visualize which videos are the most popular and different approaches to searching for these videos.

By combining these capabilities a range of new possibilities are created for browsing for, searching for and exploring different styles of dance. Imagine combining the last image above (the screen shot of many websites encircling a website in the middle with the Quintura search results. The result would be that you could click on any one video, which would then become centered in the display and you would instantly see how all of the other videos connected to the one you just selected. Then, you could continue navigating this flexible visual tree of interconnected dance videos.

Then you could add the capabilities of the Bubble.us brainstorming software and build your own layer of connections among any subset of videos. You could save your personalized layer, and you as well as others could then return to your layer to explore it or build upon it.

Then a time-based visualization tool could be incorporated - inspired by Geni, the genealogical software - to generate a new viewing angle that displayed all connections and dance videos based upon the influence of different styles on each other over decades or centuries. This type of visualization approach would probably require a 3D component.

But for this model for visualizing dance videos and their interconnections to really work, one more capability would be needed and that would be the "trust" and or "friend" factor.

As large numbers of people contribute to this visualization project, there would be some great opportunities to explore dance videos in new ways. But this completely public version has the downside that you may not trust the judgment of everybody who contributes to this project. What you'll probably want is a way to only see the visualizations of dance videos either created by your friends or by people who have been rated very highly by other community members.

For example, you might create a list of 100 friends who contribute to this project. At any time, you can choose to view this visualization of dance videos only in terms of the contributions made by your friends.

In terms of "trust," there's probably a way to implement a Technorati filtering tool that lets you view blog results based upon the "authority" of the blogger. Take a look at the search results for "dance." You'll see toward the top of the page that there is a pull-down window where you can select "any authority," "a little authority, "some authority" or "a lot of authority." If you choose the most restricted category "a lot of authority," you'll see fewer results but these results should, in theory, be more valuable. "Authority," in the case of Technorati, is an indication of how many bloggers link to your blog. It's assumed - whether right or not - that if you have more links from fellow bloggers, then you are more trusted.

So that's the beginning of my dance visualization project.

Posted by Doug Fox at 12:46 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 6, 2007

Interview with Article19's Neil Nisbet about Producing Dance Videos

This past Sunday I conducted a telephone interview with Neil Nisbet the editor of Article19, a UK-based online publication that covers contemporary dance. Neil