What does this mean? It may soon be possible to create mashups that pull dance videos, pictures and upcoming performance listings from multiple sources (YouTube, Upcoming.org and Flickr, for example) and then plots these performances automatically on a map. The resulting application would allow users to use a map interface to review in-depth, multimedia details about upcoming performances.

Imagine that this map I've been experimenting with for dance venues in the Washington DC area was automatically generated and featured videos, pictures and event details for each performance - click on the markers on the map for more details.

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Dance Links from Around the Web

- Tonya Plank continues blogging at a prolific pace. See "Belly dancing Lessons For Paloma!: ABT’s Bayadere," with some excellent comments.

- Kristin Sloan finishes-up the ninth and final episode of the "Behind the Curtain" video series for Peter Martin's new production of Romeo + Juliet. (Or see videos here).

- Ranting Details on Romeo and Juliet. Oberon's Grove on R + J. And Tobi Tobias too.

- Amanda Abrams muses about building audiences for modern dance and the challenges of creating a non-verbal arts form.

- Dancing to your brainwaves: Dirk Platzek in post about Neurofeedback links to video of a brainwave dance performance by Sarah Morrison of MorrisonDance. I wrote about this performance back in 2005, but I didn't have a video clip.

- A week-in-the-life of Merce Cunningham as told to Lyndsey Winship of Telegraph. Merce's eyeSpace at Orange County Performing Arts Center and description of this iPod-enabled dance performance.)

- Praise for Luna Negra Dance Theater in "A Life Less Examined." I saw Luna Negra at Alvin Ailey in NY (their new studios/theater at 54th and 9th Ave - nice place) in January - I thought they were wonderful.

- "Who has emerged in the last 20 years as a choreographer of note?" Boris Willis says nobody.

- I like how Rachel Howard writes about dance: "Muriel Maffre's adieu at SF Ballet--my review in today's Chronicle."

- Terpsichore Musings shares this shot from Steve L. Romero:

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May 18, 2007

Video Interview with Dana Tai Soon Burgess

I conducted a video interview with Dana Tai Soon Burgess Wednesday evening immediately following the performance of his dance company, Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co., in the Washington Performing Arts Society's "In The Works" program at the Atlas Performing Arts Center here in Washington, DC.

In this interview, Dana discusses his dance company's participation in the "In The Works" program, which gives artists an opportunity to discuss their work and answer audience questions in an informal studio setting. During the Wednesday performance, Dana's company showed excerpts from six works and a conversation with dance writer George Jackson followed each piece. (You can visit this link to read bios of the dancers).

Click To Play

In addition, he shares his thoughts about the choreographic process, how he likes audiences to respond to his work and his dance background. He concludes this interview with the details about his company's international travels and Fall performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

A Note About This Video

I'd like to thank Dana for participating in this first of what I hope are many video interviews with choreographers and dancers. He was kind enough to set aside time to conduct this interview even though he was traveling the next morning to Cairo, Egypt.

From an editing and production standpoint, I'll be doing a good amount of experimentation to figure out the best way to interview choreographers and dancers. So I definitely appreciate your feedback and suggestions. If you have thoughts about this new video interview series, please share them. My email address is: doug@greatdance.com.

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May 17, 2007

Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co. and Upcoming Video Interview

I saw Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Co. perform last night at Atlas as part of the Washington Performing Arts Society's "In the Works" program.

To put it simply: they were wonderful and if you can see them, I highly recommend that you do. They'll be back in DC to kick-off the 2007/2008 modern dance season at the Kennedy Center in October.

After the performance and discussion session, which was moderated by local dance writer, George Jackson, I conducted a video interview with Dana. I'll try to edit this video by tonight and upload it tomorrow. This video is the first in a series of audio and video interviews I'll be conducting with dancers here in DC and around the world.

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May 16, 2007

Live Mixing of Dance Videos

The torrent of new video tools for the Web continues unabated.

Mogulus, currently in private beta, is a video application that lets you mix live and recorded video feeds in real-time. The resulting mix is then broadcast over your own channel, which can be embedded into your own site or blog. [via Mashable]

Essentially Mogulus is offering the same tools used by producers of TV news shows. A TV anchor in the studio will switch live to a reporter in the field. The reporter will recap the news piece and then a pre-recorded news segment follows.

With Mogulus you start by creating your own storyboard by adding all of the video sources you'll be using. For example, you might be pulling feeds from 3 different webcams and 4 pre-recorded video clips. Then, once you are broadcasting live, you simply push a button to determine which of the videos gets distributed through your video channel. Here's image of broadcasting tools - click for larger image:

You can also add screen graphic overlays in real-time. And remote producers can collaborate on the same video broadcast.

What Live Video Broadcasts Mean for Dance

Last March I wrote about two examples of multi-site dance performances that were connected in real-time via hi-speed Internet connections:

- Listen to audio interview with James Oliverio of Digital Worlds Institute.

Multiple Video Feeds at Digital Worlds
Click image for larger picture

- Listen to audio interview with Beth Miklavcic and Jimmy Miklavcic of Another Language.

In both of the above performances, the Internet2, a very high performance Internet infrastructure which is used by research organizations and academic institutions, brought together dancers and musicians at multiple locations. And, in the case of Another Language, the video feeds from the different sites were mixed along the lines of what you can do with Mogulus.

But there is a major drawback with Internet2, it's very expensive and can't be used by people outside of academia and research.

With Mogulus and the new crop of live broadcasting applications, the entry price is very, very low. So just about anybody who wants to experiment with live video dance broadcasts can go ahead and do it.

A 24-hour Global Dance Channel

Why not create a real-time broadcast channel for the global dance community? Every day at say 12 noon (EST), I could do a daily show featuring news, commentary and dancing from around the globe. I'd start off with a live webcam feed with the highlights. Then I'd switch to my London correspondent to share late breaking dance news from across the pound. Then we'd jump live to our correspondent in California who is in the studio with Merce Cunningham Dance Company as they rehearse for their Saturday performance at Orange County Performing Arts Center. And in a final segment, one of our dance newscasters is doing live audience interviews as they leave a dance performance in NY. No limit to the possibilities. And you only need to line-up a moderate number of sponsors to make this work.

Real Time Feedback and Commentary

Two weeks ago in "Video Headcams and the First Person Dance Experience," I wrote about how webcams worn by dancers could be used to broadcast video from the dancer's perspective over the Internet. Now with the ability to mix video feeds, the choreographer and dancers can receive real-time video feedback during rehearsals and performances. Choreographers, dancers and critics around the world with a webcam connected to their computers would be asked to participate. The live video feed of each webcam participant could be projected in the studio or theater so that the dancers could get live commentary from many perspectives. Actually, this might drive people crazy, but it would be interesting to see what happened.

Global Dance Competitions

Why not invite dancers to participate in weekly dance competitions that are broadcast live? All dancers would need would be a webcam and a way to connect their webcam to a high-speed Internet connection. Each week would feature a different style of dance. Dancers would apply to participate by submitting audition videos. The top 10-15 would be selected. And the show would consist of switching the video feed from one webcam to another. Viewers would vote on their favorite and the winner would receive thousands of dollars in cash.

The Creative Process at Work

Or a less competitive approach could be taken by featuring a behind-the-scenes look at how different dance companies create choreography. Maybe during an hour broadcast, four different choreographers with very different approaches to contemporary ballet could be featured.

Then during those times of the day when live broadcasts aren't being created, the recorded versions of previously created programs could be broadcast over this 24/7 dance channel.

Mogulus Has Glitches

As I was learning about Mogulus, I was watching their introductory video. The video was very choppy, which is odd for a company that wants to be a player in broadcasting live video feeds. Plus, the video player doesn't even have start, stop and pause buttons. Hopefully these are short term problems. But I don't care so much about the specific Mogulus application. What I find intriguing is that video production tools which used to cost a fortune to use are now accessible to a huge global audience.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:33 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

May 15, 2007

A New Business Model for Dancers

There's a wonderful, must-read story in Sunday's New York Times Magazine about musician Jonathan Coulton.

Coulton left his full-time job as a computer programmer and devoted himself to becoming a professional musician. The way he launched his new music career is what's so compelling. He decided that he would write a new song every week for a year and post it to his blog for free. He's built an impressive audience since starting this endeavor and the Internet now serves as a direct communications link uniting him with his global fan base.

And if you visit Coulton's website, you'll see that he is now selling his music individually and in collections through many different channels. He's become so popular that his fans email him links to the mashups they've created based on his songs. A fan made this music video, which features his "Code Monkey" track:

The reason why I think that this is an important story is because it offers a case study of how an artist can build a successful business by embracing the Internet. Dancers and dance companies devote much of their non-dancing time to seeking funding, securing bookings, and worrying if they'll get good reviews or will receive any coverage at all. But as Coulton demonstrates, the world of a dancer does not need to revolve solely around the kindness of funders, presenters and critics. Dancers can build their own audiences and communicate with their fans directly. Dancers can also create dance videos that can be sold over the Internet.

Creating a Real Conversation with Your Audience

What sticks out in my mind from the NY Times article is the way that Coulton communicates online with his audience in order to share, learn, gather feedback and generate revenue:

- He spends hours a day emailing to his fans. "He discovered a fact that many small-scale recording artists are coming to terms with these days: his fans do not want merely to buy his music. They want to be his friend. And that means they want to interact with him all day long online.

- When he struggles with a new song, he asks for help via his blog. And readers have sent back recordings of his song to offer him guidance on possible ways to play it. When he's looked for new ways to generate revenue, fans have posted suggestions on his message board.

- And the most compelling illustration of the power of building your own audience online is the following:

Normally, a new Brooklyn-based artist like him would trek around the Northeast in grim circles, visiting and revisiting cities like Boston and New York and Chicago in order to slowly build an audience — playing for 3 people the first time, then 10, then (if he got lucky) 50. But Coulton realized he could simply poll his existing online audience members, find out where they lived and stage a tactical strike on any town with more than 100 fans, the point at which he’d be likely to make $1,000 for a concert. It is a flash-mob approach to touring: he parachutes into out-of-the-way towns like Ardmore, Pa., where he recently played to a sold-out club of 140.

The Numbers

The NY Times article does not say how much revenue Coulton makes, but it does say this:

In total, 41 percent of Coulton’s income is from digital-music sales, three-quarters of which are sold directly off his own Web site. Another 29 percent of his income is from CD sales; 18 percent is from ticket sales for his live shows. The final 11 percent comes from T-shirts, often bought online.

So I can't wait for the day when we see a "Coulton" in the dance world. One dancer or dance company is going to pioneer this new turf and show the rest of the dance world that they don't have to be at the mercy of the traditional pillars of the dance establishment.

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May 14, 2007

Weekend of Dance Performances in NY

I just got back from New York City. I saw three performances over the weekend.

- On Friday night I saw a dress rehearsal of “Dancing-On-View” choreographed by Sara Rudner at Baryshnikov Arts Center. I saw it with Tonya Plank who wrote a post about the performance. And Tony Schultz also has a write-up.

- Saturday night, I saw The Ad Hoc Ballet's "The Lucy Poems" at the Rose Building at Lincoln Center. Deborah Lohse is the artistic director and I'm going to follow-up with her this week to see if I can do an audio interview with her about this moving and compelling work.

- And on Sunday I saw Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Ragamala Music and Dance Theater at The New Victory Theater on 42nd street. Ragamala is "rooted in Bharatanatyam, a classical dance form from southern India." I didn't enjoy this performance that much. I thought the movement vocabulary was very limited and repetitive, although the music was fun to listen to. (But I don't have much exposure to Indian dance forms - so it could be that I simply don't have enough of a background to appreciate it.) What I was hoping for was something more along the lines of the performance I saw by Preeti Vasudevan at Dance New Amsterdam in NY a few weeks ago. Vasudevan is the artistic director of Thresh, a contemporary dance company that fuses classical Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) with modern dance forms. As part of the OB.ject ob.JECT program at DNA, Vasudevan choreographed and performed "Waiting for the Fifth Arrow" danced to Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 7 played live by Isabelle O'Connell. This was definitely my favorite performance of the program and I especially enjoyed the fusion of traditional Indian and contemporary dance forms.

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May 11, 2007

Voice of Dance Launches Video Content

Popular dance website Voice of Dance launched a dance video contest that pays $1,000 to the winner. Dancers are encouraged to upload original videos to YouTube to participate in this contest, which runs through May. The winner will be announced July 2nd.

The voting results for each week's best video and the grand prize winner in July appear to be determined solely by the vote totals not by the creator of this contest. And during May, you can vote three times each week for the same or multiple videos.

Voice of Dance could have implemented a better registration system - once you sign-up, you only need your name and email address - there's no password, which means that you could log-on to the competition site, sign-in using my name and email address and vote on my behalf. Most voting systems can be messed with, but this one more than most.

One thing I don't understand. The rules say you should upload your video to YouTube in "private" mode. But then, you're supposed to tag your video "voiceofdance." How can Voice of Dance search for a tag if the video is marked private? Maybe I'm missing something.

In the rules for this contest, VOD is very clear that you must upload your own videos and you cannot infringe on the rights of others. So while VOD is covering itself from a legal perspective, I wonder what percentage of the videos in this contest will actually be "legal." In other words, if the video is of a dance performance, have all the dancers and other artists (costume, lighting, set design) signed agreements/waivers providing permission for their work to be featured in this video which is competing for a financial award? And do they have permission to use the music that is included in their video. These questions follow-up on the post I wrote earlier this week about intellectual property and ownership interests. My guess is that in many cases the people who upload their videos will not have received all of the proper authorizations and licensing to submit their videos to this contest.

While I think this video competition is a great idea and I'm sure we will see similar initiatives in the near future, this is one more reason why the dance community has to start getting serious about IP and other legal issues surrounding the sharing of dance videos online. The bottom line is that it will be very difficult for dancers and dance companies to take advantage of the emerging online revenue streams without addressing these sometimes complicated legal issues.

Posted by Doug Fox at 2:37 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 10, 2007

Dancing to the News

DC dance blogger Amanda Abrams wonders why dance coverage in newspapers and other media is shrinking and whether modern dance is too inaccessible to too many people.

Well, I've uncovered the secret to reclaiming the power and popularity of dance!

The Boston Globe just introduced "Singing Editorials," a new web feature starring local musician Jake Brennan. Each day Brennan creates a new music video based upon stories in the the Boston Globe. Plus, others with musical inspiration are encouraged to share their own music videos as well. [via Lost Remote]

Yesterday's video right below "My duct tape prom queen" is based on the news story "Prom is a wrap for pair garbed in duct tape." Brennan blogs about this news selection and includes song lyrics. (The Boston Globe's layout of this music feature is horrendous. Also, you may have to register to get access to some of these pages.)

My variation of this music video program is to dance to the news. Maybe we could have daily video dances to the latest stories in the Washington Post? Each day one or more local dancers could do a short dance to the news item of their choice. Then people could subscribe to these videos in an RSS reader, in iTunes or in many other ways. Plus this news-focused dance content would make a great addition for the large numbers of people who are creating their own customized home pages on sites such as Google, Yahoo, NetVibes and others - it's a lot more engaging to watch the news danced than to read many of the articles about the news. Overall, I think it would be a fun and different way for people to connect to dance.

So who's ready to create their first dance video based upon a story in their local paper?

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:41 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

May 9, 2007

More Marketing Fun With Google Maps

I made a larger customized Google Map for dance venues in Washington, DC - plus, I added more venues. Click the link right below to continue reading this post, then on large map, click on the only blue pin. You'll see a pop-up windows for Dance Place with an embedded YouTube video of Daniel Burkholder's "My Ocean is Never Blue" which was just performed at this venue.

What I think would make an excellent marketing tool for dance in DC is if for each dance venue there was an embedded video where the director spoke for about a minute about the dance performances they hosted. That way each time you clicked on a different pin, you would be presented with an engaging, short video. A similar map could be created for dance studios in the area.

In addition, the above map overlay could be imported into the 3D mapping tool Google Earth to create automated tours of dance performance venues in DC.

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Seizing Opportunities: Exploring How Global Dance Community Can Profit from the Internet

Anna Brady Nuse wrote an excellent comment yesterday in response to my post "Are Your Online Videos 'Legal'?" I figured I'd address the issues she raises in this new post.

- Dancers and dance companies need access to a large, diverse range of high-quality music that does not cost a fortune to license whether it is used for live performances or Internet distribution (via videos). What steps can be taken to compile an online database of such music that will make it easy for dancers/dance companies to find and license it? And how can such a database include listings of composers and musicians who are especially interested in working with dancers and dance companies?

- Given that both musicians/bands and dancers/dance companies want videos for marketing and promotional purposes and, possibly, to generate direct revenue, how can musicians, dancers and videographers be connected with each other to create such videos? If some type of online matchmaking service could be created, these three groups could find the right partners for future video projects. Social networking sites seem like a possible avenue for making these connections.

- What is the best way to create an industry-wide forum for addressing these topics that revolve around licensing, intellectual property issues, contractual matters, marketing and revenue-generation? Anna suggests keeping things small, using blogs, and focusing on grassroots efforts to highlight success stories and move things forward. Along those lines, maybe creating a topic-focused dedicated blog would be a good starting point.

Such a blog might consist of 10-20 primary contributors. These contributors would represent all sides of the issue. Among the contributors would be:

* Dancers (union/non-union, professional, competitive, amateur and others)
* Directors, choreographers and dance company managers
* Unions representing dancers/dance companies
* Associations or groups representing dancers and dance filmmakers
* Musicians and composers
* Musician or music-focused associations and groups
* Mainstream and alternative music licensing organizations
* Internet-based video and technology application providers
* Videographers and organizations representing videographers
* Intellectual property attorneys and other legal experts
* Others that may shed light on this topic

So each of the main participants in this forum would write posts to this dedicated blog for, maybe, a 4-week period of time. All posts would address the challenges raised above, in my post "Are Your Online Videos 'Legal'?" and in my earlier post, "New International Dance Association Needed." And, of course, everybody would be encouraged to participate via comments and trackbacks.

The end result of this online forum might be to:

- Clarify and better understand the main challenges that revolve around music licensing, online videos, IP and contractual issues, and how dancers can create new revenue sources. And,

- Determine what steps can or should be taken to address these challenges.

Conclusion

There are literally millions of dollars riding on how the dance community moves forward or does not move forward in addressing the above issues. I believe that the global dance community should start addressing these challenges in an organized and focused manner to figure out the best way to move forward.

Just to close with one illustration: Over the past week, I've been praising The Washington Ballet's "7x7: Shakespeare" program and saying how much I enjoy contemporary ballet. But how, for instance, would The Washington Ballet move forward in making videos of these performances available for Internet distribution so that all involved might benefit in financial or other ways? Yes, The Washington Ballet shot videos of these performances, but they can't just post these videos to the web. There are a huge number of complicated issues that have to be dealt with including music licensing, contractual issues (especially between the dance company and the union representing the dancers) and agreements with costume and lighting designers. Then once these issues are resolved, specific issues have to be addressed that relate to how to distribute these video online, how to promote them and how to monetize them.

The reason why it is in everybody's interest to address these issues head-on is because of the sheer size of the Internet audience. A properly created and implemented Internet video campaign can reach literally millions of dance fans around the world. If just a small fraction of this distribution can be monetized, we are talking about a significant new stream of revenue that benefits everybody involved in this project.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:04 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

May 8, 2007

Joost Needs Some More Juice

The much hyped upcoming video service Joost is now in beta mode. I gave this video service a spin this morning to see what the full-screen video quality was like.

Here's a screen shot I took of MTV's "Laguna Beach" - click for larger image:

While the streaming video delivered over this P2P network loaded quickly, the video quality was not as good as I anticipated. Some of the videos I watched in full-screen mode during my 15 minutes of experimentation were pretty choppy - I've seen better quality Flash and QuickTime videos, although in smaller windows. And I don't think that the Joost videos are as good as the streaming DivX-encoded videos I've seen - take a look at this post from April where I embedded a DivX video of Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie". Right-click on this video and you can watch in full-screen mode.

So I'm disappointed with Joost because after all the promotional buzz, I thought they would be offering a new delivery mechanism that would offer high-quality video to huge audiences.

That said, I think community-enhanced video services like Joost hold promise for reshaping how video is consumed by the general public. In the screen shot below (click on image for full-screen view), you can see the interactive features that Joost offers. You can chat with friends and send instant messages while watching a video. You can also read screen text about the videos and rate them as well. More of these interactive tools will be added over the coming months.

I'm very interested in seeing what will happen when you integrate real-time community tools with high-quality, streaming dance videos. But it looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer until that happens.

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

May 7, 2007

Weekend Dance Performances in Washington, DC

I saw four performances over the weekend:

- The Washington Ballet's wonderful "7x7: Shakespeare," which I've already written about. [Map Location]

- "In the Works" from Washington Reflections Dance Company at the Dance Institute of Washington. Two young choreographers, Lauren Putty and Derrick Speak, showcased works and then discussed them in conversation moderated by Andrea Snyder of Dance/USA. I should really videotape Putty and Speak - the way they talk about their creative process and their enthusiasm is infectious. I particularly like these programs where you get to hear directly from the choreographers and dancers. [Map Location]

- I went back to George Mason University to see the GMU Dance Company May 2007 Concert, which featured works by current and recently graduated students. All of the performances were fun to watch. I especially liked "Falling From Grace" choreographed by Jenn Ruhl Kubilus who will be graduating this year with a BFA in Dance. (I still have to get back to "Susan Shields Ballet Cocktail, an Evening of Contemporary Dance" which I saw last weekend at GMU. [Map Location]

- And yesterday I saw "Fieldwork for Mixed Disciplines Works-in-Progress Showing," a combination of dance, theatrical and multimedia performances at Dance Place. I hadn't heard about Fieldwork before, you can learn about their work and approach to feedback on the website for Laura Schandelmeier & Stephen Clapp. I liked the first dance piece, "Excerpt from Portals," in particular, which was choreographed and danced by Schandelmeier and Clapp. [Map Location]

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:15 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Google Map for Dance Venues in Washington, DC

I created a customized Google map that shows the locations of dance performance venues in the Washington, DC area and I embedded the map in this post right below.

You can click on any of the purple markers to see a pop-up window that has a logo for the venue and links that take you to the venue's website. You can drag and resize this map as you would a normal Google map.

You can view the complete customized map on Google. The advantage with viewing it on Google is that there is a legend in the left-hand column that lets you jump to any of the venues by name.

I think that customized maps are an especially good way to promote dance throughout a specific region or to promote city-wide dance events.

If you'd like your DC-area performance venue added to this map, please let me know.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:47 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

May 4, 2007

I Love Contemporary Ballet - And the Rest of the World Should Too!

Update II: DC-based dance writer Lisa Traiger wrote a review of "7x7: Shakespeare" in Danceview Times.

Update: Reviews of The Washington Ballet's "7x7: Shakespeare" program in Washington Post and Washington Times.

No more modern, jazz, contact improvisation, tap, hip hop or anything else - I'm sticking with contemporary ballet!

Last night I saw The Washington Ballet's "7x7: Shakespeare" program at their Wisconsin Ave. location. And last Saturday I went to "Susan Shields Ballet Cocktail" at George Mason University Center for the Arts.

I enjoy contemporary ballet so much more than the traditional, story-telling ballet programs with their corny plot lines, elaborate sets and ornate costumes. I just want to watch captivating, engaging dance from a diverse range of choreographers with great music and with minimal or no sets. And I like visually appealing costumes - as long as they represent a more modern take on fashion.

I'm not really writing-off traditional ballet or their contemporary updates - I was wondering what the New York City Ballet's Romeo + Juliet would be like after watching Kristin Sloan's excellent behind-the-scenes video series about this Peter Martin's production. In her review of opening night and the performance, dance blogger Tonya Plank shares her initial impressions:

It was pretty and sweet and cute and overall a lovely little ballet. It didn’t take my breath away, it didn’t make me cry, it didn’t move me, it got long in parts, I got bored, with the exception of one scene I was nowhere near the edge of my seat, and with the exception of two dancers...my heart didn’t stutter.

I recommend reading Tonya's entire post about opening night - the dialogue she captured about the difference between ABT and NYCB fans is hysterical. Plus there are a huge number of comments.

Back to The Washington Ballet: Another reason I loved last night's program was that it took place in a small studio setting, the England Studio Theater. I was sitting in the front row just a few feet away from the dancers at times - nothing beats that. And I even liked that the piano sounds from nearby classes occasionally seeped into this performance space.

This annual program is called "7x7: Shakespeare" because seven different choreographers worked with the members of The Washington Ballet to create seven-minute pieces based on Shakespeare's plays. The choreographers included Stephen Petronio, Karole Armitage, Cathy Marston, Brian Reeder, Trey McIntyre, Matjash Mrozewski and Matt Neenan - as you can see, I didn't find good links for all of the choreographers. And here's a link to the dancers of The Washington Ballet.

I wish I could do a competent job of describing each work, the dancers and the choreography - but I really don't have the ability to do this - at least yet. More and more I'm appreciating the underappreciated talents of dance critics who can magically make sense of the most ephemeral of arts forms and produce