June 28, 2007

One More Post Before Class...

Matt Gough linked to this YouTube video:

Here's video caption:

Draft video material as part of a collaborative process. Expect a response up here sometime soonish. Real-time choreography, performance and editing by David Corbet.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:58 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Improving Great Dance Comment System

First, thanks for all of the great comments on a number of recent posts - especially, "How Do You Generate Movement?" I'll catch-up on posting follow-up comments to this and other posts in the next few days as the week-long dance program I'm taking wraps-up tomorrow.

Jaki Levy, a writer, designer and administrator for the Misnomer blog, recommended earlier in the week that I add an email notification tool to my comment system. That way when you post a comment to a post, you can get notified when others post comments to the same post.

I think that's an excellent idea. Over the summer I'll work on revamping the comment system so that:

- Once you register on Great Dance or on 3rd-party service, you'll be identified as a trusted commenter and your comments will appear automatically. (I currently review all comments manually before they are posted - I do this to avoid comment spam).

- I'll implement Jaki's idea and make it easy to subscribe to comments to specific posts so you receive email notifications.

- I'll create an RSS feed for comments. So if you prefer to read posts along with comments in your favorite RSS reader, you'll be able to do this.

- Also, Movable Type is now beta testing version 4 of their blogging/content management application. As soon as MT 4 is out of beta, I'll install it. Read/WriteWeb in a post about MT 4 mentions that this new version will included enhanced community features:

In effect this means that readers can become members of a website, with rights to post alongside authors - including sharing photos, videos, and audio. There is also a new ratings framework and later in the beta period more community features are promised.

I'm interested in exploring these new community features - especially multimedia posts by readers - to see what new functionality I can add to Great Dance so that there are new and expanded ways to share and contribute.

To digress a bit, there are a lot of excellent posts on a number of dance blogs that I haven't had time to write about. If you visit this post on Great Dance, I included instructions on how to subscribe to a large list of dance blogs.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:17 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Capturing the Essence of Movement

Elizabeth Johnson , associate artistic director at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, taught part of the "Generating and Crafting" program yesterday.

She started with mirroring exercises. We broke up into to pairs and then one person's entire body would follow the movement of the other person's hand. Then we transitioned to free-form mirroring where we mirrored the exact movements of the other person. Finally, we did a time-delayed mirroring. I found following in this exercise very challenging because at any given point, your movements were the ones performed by your partner a few seconds ago and you had to keep watching your partner to see what she was doing in the present. But I really enjoyed the leading in this exercise. For some reason my improvised movements seemed to come very easily.

Next we worked on what Elizabeth called an Essence-ing exercise -- essentially, a way to both generate movement and edit movement in very quick order while working with a partner.

We partnered again. The first person would improvise for about 15 seconds. The next person would then dance what they just saw as best as they could. Then the first person would do the same for what they had just seen the second person dance. The second person might have done this one more time.

Then continuing to work with our partner, we converted what we had just created/edited into a short routine.

Next we repeated this entire process so the second person started improvising a new piece and then we followed all of the steps above.

At the end, we had two short routines - one's own and that of the person we were working with.

Next, working alone each person in the class created their our dance by combining and editing the two routines we had just created.

Finally, we got back with our partners and created a duet based upon the solo works that we had just made.

This essence-ing exercise is an excellent way to generate movement very quickly and to start editing a piece more out of necessity than actively thinking about what you want to remove - this especially is the case when you watch your partner improvise and you have to replicate what you just saw. I was only able to remember a handful of basic movements that my partner danced so I was editing simply by not being able to recall.

The duet section at the end of this exercise was interesting because you first got to see how your partner took the two routines you had made together, and integrated and edited them. Then, once we danced our own routines at the same time, it was intriguing to see overlaps and variations of the same movements that we had worked on when we created our two initial routines. Then we continued to work on our duet and perform them for the class.

In the afternoon Liz Lerman focused on creating form and structure for a dance work we are each creating based on the movement we've generated over the past three days. I'll write about this section of the institute in the next few days. I want to get a better grasp on how to go about creating a form for your dance piece.

Posted by Doug Fox at 5:00 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 27, 2007

Make a Dance on Me? -- Not a Chance

The first time I heard the expression "to make a dance on me" - as in George Balanchine made a dance on me, if you're Suzanne Farrell speaking - I cringed.

The sense of passivity I feel in this phrase is overwhelming. Why would I want a choreographer to make a dance on me? Are they going to force me to wear it like prison fatigues? I recall two references one in Suzanne Farrell's "Holding on to the Air: An Autobiography" and the other in the DVD "Paul Taylor: Dancemaker." In the Paul Taylor video, one of his dancers talks, I think, about the privilege of having Taylor make a dance on himself.

(BTW, I saw Paul Taylor last night at Wolf Trap last night -- more about that in the next few days).

I realize that many dancers have no problem with the phrase that annoys me and are more than happy to work with choreographers in the traditional manner and be instructed in how to execute a specific piece of choreography. But this approach is the antithesis of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange methodology of creating dances that I'm learning this week in their Generating and Crafting Dances program.

In the first two days of this institute, we've learned and experimented with a huge number of tools from their Toolbox (free registration required) that are used to generate movement. It's a fascinating experience - one that is very new to me. I just never imagined that there are so many ways to attack this issue of how you go about creating new types of movement while working by yourself, with small groups or with the entire program.

Toward the end of yesterday's class, we were in a circle talking about "ownership" -- as in when do we feel that movement is truly our own and represents ourselves in some way. From my perspective, the difference between creating movement for myself and being taught a routine in a dance class is worlds apart. While I enjoy my regular dance classes, there's no substitute for dancing what you create.

If you'd like to share, what is your approach to choreography or as a dancer what is the way you prefer to work with a choreographer?

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:19 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

June 26, 2007

How Do You Generate Movement?

How come more dancers and choreographers don't write about their approach to generating new movement ideas?

How come more dancers and choreographers don't write about how they edit and shape their work?

How come more dancers and choreographers don't write about their dance styles, and the types of movements and ideas they are exploring?

Or, alternatively, why don't dancers and choreographers address the above issues by putting a video camera on themselves in the studio and show how they create movement, how they experiment with different ideas and how they edit/shape their work?

I'd be especially interested in seeing or reading about dancers who have created unique movement styles and their own dance vocabulary.

Am I the only one who wants to read/see this? There's definitely not enough of this type of exploration on the Internet.

On Sunday, I saw a captivating performance by Italian-born Swedish dancer Cristina Caprioli at the Swedish Embassy - I almost didn't make it because Google Maps let me down by misidentifying the new embassy building's location. Her performance was really a showcase of how she creates movement, which was followed by her describing her creative process. It was fascinating to learn about her creative process, although as Amanda Abrams wrote in DCDanceblog, it was challenging at times to understand exactly what she meant. I wish I could have interviewed her there so I could have encouraged her to give specific movement examples of the points she was making.

But even with those hurdles, these are the types of programs that I love to see: the artist in her studio (or imaginary studio) creating movement and then talking about this process. Too bad they didn't videotape it and make it available online.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:13 AM - Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

June 25, 2007

The Body as Verbal Memory Recorder

At the Dance Exchange program I'm currently taking on "Generating and Crafting Dance," one exercise we did was called equivalence. We transformed a spoken phrase into a movement phrase where each word was expressed through a specific gesture or movement.

Toward the end of the day we broke-up in groups of three and recapped the day. We were trying to recall a spoken phrase that was used to generate movement in the equivalence exercise. I couldn't remember it until I expressed the phrase through the movement I created. As soon as I started the movement, the words came back to me: "I came into the world."

There must be lots of research on the relationship between dance and language. I find it intriguing that physical motion can help the brain recall specific words.

When I took tests in school, I used mnemonics but I never thought of using movement to recall important information. Can movement be a mnemonic or is there a different word for describing the use of physical movement to recall ideas? Would a teacher object to your standing-up in class and dancing during an exam so that you could remember the answers?

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:09 PM - Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

June 24, 2007

I Want to Dance Like William Forsythe

I just want to dance like William Forsythe - is that too much to ask?

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:59 AM - Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

June 22, 2007

"Engaging Art" is Awesome! Live Blogging from American Symphony Orchestra Conference

Check out the "Engaging Art: A Public Conversation" blog that Douglas McLennan of ArtsJournal created and moderated.

Live blogging at yesterday's American Symphony
Orchestra League Conference in Nashville, TN

This very active and thoughtful blog conversation, which focused on the future of the arts with a strong emphasis on concert music, started on June 14th and culminated yesterday with a live blogging event at the 62nd National Conference of the American Symphony Orchestra League in Nashville, Tennessee.

I think that the integration of an extended pre-conference dialog via the "Engaging Art" blog with a face-to-face program that builds upon this initial conversation is a great model to follow. Even better, during the program yesterday, people around the world interested in the future of concert music could post questions, which were answered by speakers and others blogging from the conference.

I would definitely like to create something similar for the dance community as a way to address some of the issues that were discussed in a recent post, "Exploring the Economics of Dance and Creating New Business Models." There are many directions in which such a project could go. It could focus on:

1) The business, strategic, funding and marketing side of dance,

2) The future of the Internet, video and technology for dancers and dance companies,

3) The choreographic and creative side of dance, or

4) A combination of two or more of the above.

It would be great if you shared your thoughts about such a project for the dance community.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:18 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Contradiction Dance This Weekend in DC

I'm going to see Contradiction Dance this weekend. Kelly Mayfield is the founder and artistic director of this new Washington, DC-based dance company (2006). Among the dancers is dance blogger Boris Willis who shot this video of dancers hanging out after a long rehearsal. The performance is at The Jack Guidone Theater at Joy of Motion.

Click To Play

The studio in above video I know very well. They are at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange where I'll be participating in their week-long institute "Generating and Crafting Dances."

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:22 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 21, 2007

My First Contact Improvisation Class

As I wrote yesterday, I took my first Contact Improvisation class last night with Daniel Burkholder at Joy of Motion. It was fun and interesting and I'm going to continue to take Contact Improv classes.

Daniel started the class by having the 8 or 9 students lie on our backs. Then, at his prompt, we slowly moved from one position to the next of our choosing and held the position. As the exercise progressed, the transition period increased in duration and each position was only held for a fraction of a second. Then, we progressed from our fixed location to moving around the floor in any direction as we continued to make one shape after another.

What I liked about this exercise is that it's the first time in any dance class I've taken to have a chance to improvise and there's something to the relaxing nature of this warm-up exercise that made me very comfortable exploring any type of movement while not being self-conscious about it.

Next we worked with partners. In the first exercise, we had to maintain contact with some part of our bodies at all times. One person would move and the other person would stay stationary. Once the first person found a position of rest, the other person would then initiate a move. Part of this exercise is to experiment with the type of contact you have with your partner. I think I was trying to respond in a natural way to the pressure and movement of my partner but at the same time initiate movements that sometimes went against the grain of the current pressure against my body. It seems like part of the experience is to figure out a good balance between directing your partner and responding to movement while at the same time exploring new positions and movements for your body.

Then additional variables were added including both partners being able to initiate movement at any time and pausing at any point, as well as adding locomotion across the floor.

Event though this was my first class, I didn't spend that much time watching the other students. I pretty much focused on my own movements, tried to find different ways to move while in contact with another person, and responded to my partner. I think I should try to slow down next time and think more about movement at any given point instead of trying to rush things.

Next, we lined up on one side of the room, and Daniel demonstrated what I think he called contact bootcamp. The idea was for each one of us to move across the floor while imagining their there was a 2-foot high ceiling as we moved from one side of the room to the other - hopefully without simply rolling the entire time. Imagine soldiers crossing under barbed wire as machine-gun shots roar overhead. I found it challenging to come up with a lot of variations to propel myself across the floor.

The following two exercise were very similar. In the next one we moved across the floor at mid-height level. We were allowed to place our palms and feet on the level while our bodies went no higher than about waste level. And finally, we could navigate the room at a standing height. These exercise were then combined so that we would cross the floor in any combination of these three possibilities.

In the final portion of the class. The exercises that we did were combined into any combination of our choosing. So while working with a partner, we could place our weight against each other as we moved or paused. Or we could have no contact. In addition throughout these exercises, we could be at any of the three-horizontal levels from the floor exercise as we moved across the floor or stayed in a stationary position.

I found that the more variables that were added, the more awkward I felt. Since I'm very new at this, the exercises that involved just one or more possibilities made it easier for me to experiment in a more comfortable manner. But with lots of choices, it felt a little overwhelming.

I like the feel of contact improvisation. It's relaxing and engaging and it puts me in a different mindset than the jazz and modern classes that I've taken. I didn't have the same focus on trying to get my technique right or getting frustrated because I'm struggling with a routine - not that I mind these characteristics of these other dance classes. It's just different and fun. And I plan to continue with contact improv and to learn more.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:09 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

June 20, 2007

Contact Improv Tonight with Daniel Burkholder

I'm taking my first contact improvisation class tonight. Daniel Burkholder is the instructor. I'm looking forward to this class and I'm sure it will be much different than the modern and jazz classes I've been taking.

Here's Daniel's latest post to his "My ocean is never blue" performance blog.

I grabbed this "Free Jam Contact Improvisation" shot from david-o.net's dance blog:

Posted by Doug Fox at 12:58 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

June 19, 2007

Metro DC Dance Awards Video - Finalist Announcement

This evening at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, Dance/Metro DC announced the finalists for the 2007 Metro DC Dance Awards.

Here's printed version of the finalists.

I shot the following video of this event, which includes the announcements for each award category - click image to watch video::

Click To Play

The Metro DC Dance Awards will take place Monday, September 10, 2007 at the Kennedy Center. Upcoming ticket information will be available from this Kennedy Center page.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:20 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks for Comments on Post About Conversation About Exploring New Business Models for Dance Community

Much thanks to everybody who has commented on my Saturday post, "Exploring the Economics of Dance and Creating New Business Models." You can read the comments at the end of the post. Also thanks to the bloggers and others I referenced.

In a nutshell my post is about my recommendation for creating an extended online conversation for the dance community about new Internet-based business models that can be created to support dancers and dance-making. The comments were particularly helpful because they helped to expand and re-frame how the dance community might go about addressing these issues, and brought up additional questions and recommendations for us to consider.

If would be great if you contributed your thoughts to this conversation.

Thanks to the following bloggers, commentors and others:

- Borris Willis

- "Engaging Art: A Public Conversation" on ArtsJournal

- Michelle Lefevre, Article19

- Tonya Plank, Swan Lake Samba Girl

- Kristin Sloan, The Winger

- Jonathan David Jackson

- Nejla Y. Yatkin, "You Think You Know Dance?"

- Terrence Taps, Tap Dance Blog

- Danciti

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:55 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dancing Again!

I took my first dance class last night in about 4 months. It's great to be dancing again. The next time I get injured I'm going to ignore the pain and just keeping dancing. More realistically, I'm going to try to be smarter about stretching and how hard I push myself in class. I really don't want to spend a portion of each year unable to take classes.

Last night I took Helen Hayes' modern class at Joy of Motion.

And next week I'm participating in Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's week-long Institute, "Generating and Crafting Dances."

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:32 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 18, 2007

Carolyn Brown's Merce Cunningham Book and Digressions

I've been reading and enjoying Carolyn Brown's "Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham." Brown danced with Merce from the beginning - from the early 50s through the early 70s.

Here's Merce Cunningham and Carolyn Brown in Variations V (1965):

I was struck yesterday when I viewed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company website by the challenges of the early days in the 50s in comparison to the bountiful e-commerce offerings of today:

Here's Carolyn Brown describing the early 50's - Earle Brown is her husband:

In our first year in New York, Earle and I had met many artists, made many friends. Almost everyone we knew was poor, some poorer than others--it was only a matter of degree. The grants machines hadn't churned into being yet. Artists survived without the government and corporate funding, which began to flourish in the seventies and eighties. Tenacity and willingness to work for work's sake--that's what kept artists alive, that and the undercurrent of excitement and enthusiasm shared with fellow artists and friends.

I'm 1,000% supportive, of course, of dancers and dance companies creating profitable online business models. And the Merce Cunningham website is one of the best dance website I've come across. It was just the stark comparison of these two worlds that hit me.

On DCDanceBlog, John Lanou quotes a passage from Brown's book, which records the words of John Cage during a speech he gave before a Merce performance:

We are not, in these dances and music, saying something. We are simple-minded enough to think that if we were saying something we would use words. We are rather doing something.

Lanou then writes:

I was so excited by this comment, because it fits with why I like Merce so much and why I have trouble watching message-oriented dance. It distracts me and detracts from the movement.

Merce Videos

Merce is having an impact on me. I've watched so many videos about Merce lately that I'm praying for red lights at intersections so that I can see on what leg pedestrians place their weight as they wait for the light to change. Here are the videos I've seen:

- Merce Cunningham - A Lifetime of Dance (2000)

- Points in Space - Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1986)

- Cage Cunningham (1991)

Actually, it's not really Merce alone. I've been reading lots of books about dance -- everything from biographies to books about the choreographic process and books about dancers from the 60s and beyond. Which has given me an idea for a new dance I'm going to choreograph called "Marionettes and Minorettes." It has to do with a consumer society's false sense of control coupled with a shop-'till-you-drop giddiness against the backdrop of the ravages of war waged on a whim. I looked up these images after watching customers handing over their credit cards to pay for items at Borders Books yesterday afternoon:

Merce Cunningham Exhibit at the Library for the Performing Arts

Tomorrow a new exhibit is opening at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center: "Invention: Merce Cunningham & Collaborators." You can read write-ups about this exhibit in The New York Times and Time Out New York.

Merce Cunningham Multimedia Guide

I've updated my multimedia guide to Merce Cunningham that I created in January of this year. I added two videos:

Merce Cunningham Beachbirds for Camera part 1:

Merce Cunningham - Biped:

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:40 AM - Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

June 16, 2007

Exploring the Economics of Dance and Creating New Business Models

Boris Willis writes in comment to my post "Dance Is No Longer an Ephemeral Art Form":

I am very confused about it all. So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars and Youtube's thousands of videos including its most popular video, The Evolution of Dance are very popular while as an artist I have to struggle to raise money to perform in a theater where I may make a very small profit or as usual lose a lot of money. So, I don't want to do that anymore. I want to find a new way to get people interested in seeing movement art just as they see other kinds of art... continue reading

I have a similar question. We know that dance videos are popular on the Internet. We know dance is popular on TV. But we need to find or create new ways for dancers to generate money to support their craft. I've always believed that the Internet was part of the solution. But we still don't have any proven business models for how to do this.

So how do we create a framework for thinking about what new business models will work for dancers and dance companies? And how do we tackle the industry-wide issues that will inevitably be part of this equation?

For example, we can generate lists of specific online, video-based revenue opportunities for dancers and their associated distribution and infrastructure costs (see comment by Michelle from Article19 to this post. But there are a number of potential obstacles such as music licensing that may have to be addressed, or at least studied, by industry organizations.

One of the things I had in the back of my mind was creating a dedicated, short-term blog -- to follow my own suggestion from last week and along the lines of the Arts Journal's Engaging Arts blog that's taking place now -- devoted to the issues of new Internet-based/enabled business models for dancers. And in addition to discussing how dancers can support their creative efforts, we'd also discuss what obstacles have to be addressed and what industry-wide support is required - as I mentioned above.

For such a blog conversation, I'd invite people who bring a very broad range of experience and expertise from within and outside of the dance community:

- Dance bloggers, of course.

- Dancers, choreographers and dance companies.

- Dancers/dance companies that have generated revenue online.

- Dancers/dance companies that have experimented with new business models.

- Dance and technology practitioners.

- Video sharing sites with different approaches to monetizing content.

- Other relevant technology providers.

- Funding and grantmaking organizations.

- Dance video editors/producers and dance-on-camera producers.

- Dance associations including associations of dance video/film makers.

- Dance critics/writers.

- Dance professors.

- Music licensing organizations.

- Internet-based music companies/organizations that offer royalty-free music (or offer music in non-traditional ways)

- Intellectual property and contact attorneys.

- Presenters - especially ones who have experimented with using Internet in new and innovative ways.

- Dance union representatives.

- Dance archivists and researchers.

- Dance booking representatives and agents.

- And representatives from other parts of dance world.

The above list might be overwhelming. But I think it's important to bring together a diverse range of people who can start asking key questions and explore how to move forward. The economics of dance in the US - especially in the world of concert dance - often do not work. And the best way to explore these challenges and grapple with these tough issues is to bring everybody together and see what happens.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:47 AM - Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

June 15, 2007

Dance Benefit Concert for deeAnn Nelson at DTW in NYC

DANCE/ BENEFIT CONCERT

On May 20th, 2007, Tisch MFA Graduate in Dance deeAnn Nelson suffered a tragic fall in a performance and fractured her spine. She has since come through surgery with flying colors, and a full recovery is expected, though the rehabilitation is going to be long and arduous.

While all of her medical expenses are covered, she will need resources for rent, bills, living etc until she is back on her feet. She will be in pins, rods, screws and a brace for the next 6 months then will face an intense program of rehab. As a fierce and talented dancer deeAnn gave her all for her art, now, she will need all of the support from her community that she can get.

And the dance community has turned out in droves asking: "How can I help?" What better way than through a dance concert to bring us together? An evening of Established and Emerging Artists coming out to help raise funds for an amazing performer. "Dances for deeAnn: A Benefit for a Broken Back."

Monday July 2nd, 7:30pm
DTW: DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP
219 West 19th Street
Tickets: $40 All Proceeds go to deeAnn Nelson towards her recovery.
Box Office: 212.924.0077
http://www.dtw.org

FEATURING BRILLIANT WORK BY:

Gus Solomons
Heidi Latsky
Niles Ford: Urban Dance Collective
Jody Oberfelder
Laura Peterson Choreography
Ellis Wood
Hartel Dance Group (Oklahoma)
The Wonder Twins
A Dance Video from Jonah Bokaer/Michael Cole/Christian Marclay
Nathan Phillips
Jo-anne Lee
Gabriel Forestieri: projectLIMB
Lobby Video by Nadine Helstroffer
More!

Raffle Prizes!

Visit http://www.deeAnnNelson.com for further info and updates.

DTW graciously donated the Theater for the performance.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:51 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Babelgum TV, New Distribution Channel for Quality Dance Videos

Babelgum is another contender in the battle to deliver full-screen, streaming video over the Internet. I've written previously about Joost, which offers a similar service.

Babelgum, which is now in open beta, uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver video to its users. My initial experience was good. Streaming video worked smoothly without hiccups. And the required free video player download for Windows PCs was more or less easy to use once I experimented with the control buttons for a few minutes. I don't believe a Mac version is available at this time. (You do not have to have a beta account to download the video player).

In this post I will give an overview of Babelgum with a focus on its currently small dance offerings. Then I will explain why I think that the Babelgum offering is of particular value to dancers and dance companies that are seeking new ways to generate online revenue for their videos.

Babelgum Video and Dance

Once you launch the Babelgum video player, you can choose content from different channels or search for specific types of video programming. I did a search for dance and found a small number of ballet and bellydance instruction videos along with flamenco dancing.

Here's a screen shot of the New York City Ballet Workout program. Click on the following image to see a larger image and the screen controls for this video application:

As you'll see in above image, whether you are viewing in a window or full-screen mode, there are video controls for jumping from one video to the next, pausing, viewing the channel guide and searching for videos. You cannot fast forward or backwards while watching a movie clip.

I also came across flamenco dance with Joaquin Cortes (click for larger images):

And belly dance with Jillina:

To learn more about the Babelgum technology, you can view a comprehensive introduction on WebTVWire: "BabelGum | Internet TV Start-Up to Contend With Joost." This post included the following video, which I found informative. You have to watch some non-related introductory material and then a representative from Babelgum talks about this new video offering and the peer-to-peer technology that supports it:

Babelgum Seeks Independent Video Producers and Distributors

What differentiates Babelgum from Joost is the type of video programming each company is looking to line-up for their streaming video offerings. While Joost is signing-up branded video content from the largest and best known TV, cable and documentary producers, Babelgum is seeking out independent video producers and distributors. The new Babelgum market is thus potentially of much greater interest to dance companies, dancers, dance instructors, dance-on-camera producers and others in this market segment. Unlike sites like YouTube that focus largely on user-generated, amateur content, Babelgum wants professional quality videos that serve many different niche audiences including dance. Although at this point, the only way to find dance videos on Babelgum is through its search engine. I couldn't find "dance" videos by browsing the channel directory - maybe this will change once there are more dance videos.

To learn more about the types of videos that Babelgum is seeking and their revenue model, you can visit their "Content Owners" section.

At this point, Babelgum says that for its initial testing it will pay video producers US$5 for each 1,000 unique views of a video. That would be $50 for 10k views, $500 for 100k views and $5,000 for 1 million views. As Anaheim Ballet has shown with its videos on YouTube, getting a million views is not out of the range of possibilities. Once Babelgum's advertising program is fully operational, video producers will receive 50% of advertising revenue connected with each of their videos.

Assuming that Babelgum is successful moving forward, an unanswered question is how dance videos would be distributed via Babelgum. Would dance companies upload their videos directly or would dance companies and other dancers work in conjunction with video producers and distributors?

For another comparison of Babelgum and Joost, you can read this TechCrunch post.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:16 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

June 14, 2007

Short-Term Dance Blogging

There's excellent post on Influential Marketing Blog about success strategies for short-term blogging.

Why I didn't think about this idea for dance bloggers before is beyond me - it makes a lot of sense.

Here it is:

Full-time dance blogging is not for everybody. Many dancers and dance companies move from one project to the next, and for time and other reasons maintaining a single blog over a long period of time just doesn't make sense.

So why not create a blog that is intended to be a short-term initiative with a clear beginning, middle and end. This way your audience has a clear expectation of what to expect from your blog, and you and collaborators have a more manageable project of a set duration for which you can prepare.

Another advantage is that short-term blogging, unlike full-time blogs that cover many topics, offers a good opportunity for dancers and presenters to work together to promote this blogging endeavor to their respective audiences.

How-to Guidelines

Building on and modifying recommendations from Influential Marketing Blog post:

1) Plan you blog endeavor well before the actual launch of your blog. For example, if you plan to blog a dance work (rehearsal through performances and aftermath), prepare 3 to 6 months before. Timing depends largely on when the marketing and publicity materials will be prepared. You want to add to all online and offline marketing collateral that you'll be blogging about your performance. You'll also want to describe the nature of your blogging in this promotional literature - video, text, pictures? Behind-the-scenes look at the creation of? Or whatever else you plan to blog about. Whatever you decide, your blogging will probably be devoted to a single topic/project.

2) Register domain name if necessary at sites such as GoDaddy.

3) Set-up your blog. If you're doing it on your own without technical help, the easiest way to get started is with sites such as Blogger, TypePad and WordPress.

4) If you plan to take pictures and videos and upload to Internet and you have no idea how to do this, make sure you have time to experiment, learn how to use equipment and spend time with photo and video software. Feel free to post questions here if you'd like.

5) Think about community. Will visitors be encouraged to post comments? And who will respond in a timely way to these comments? This is really critical. If you're working with team of bloggers, this is much easier to manage.

6) Map-out your time commitment to blogging up-front. Dancing can be all consuming. If you don't set aside specific times during the day and week to blog, it probably won't get done. Another reason why it's good to blog with other people.

7) Market you blog from the beginning. Contact me and other bloggers so you can get your blog listed on as many sites as possible. Within your blog configuration panel, you can automatically have your blog "ping" blog indexing sites that help increase profile for your blog on search engines.

8) Post your multimedia content to popular video and photo sharing sites. This will get you more traffic. Plus, bloggers and others can embed your content into their sites.

9) Prepare people for the end of your blogging. Make sure blog followers know when you're blog will end. And let everybody know what you'll be doing next in terms of dancing. This way your fans can follow you to your current or new website or blog.

10) Try not to make promises that you can't keep when it comes to blogging. I've made this mistake many times and I try to keep this in mind when I'm blogging.

If you know of project/performance-specific dance blogs or you have upcoming plans, please let me know.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:44 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

My First Intensive Dance Program

In two weeks I'm participating in the week-long "Generating and Crafting Dances" program at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, Maryland - just outside of Washington, DC.

Here's the description of this Institute, which takes place June 25-29:

This institute will provide multiple ways of approaching composition, concepts and content. We spark inspiration, move beyond traditional tools and learn to form, structure and edit using Dance Exchange methods. Bring your own ideas or work in the context of current Dance Exchange projects to discover how subject matter can offer both a guide and goal to help make your dance YOUR dance.

I'm excited about this upcoming program, but also apprehensive. I've been taking dance classes for less than 2 years. But Peter DiMuro, producing artistic director of Dance Exchange, says not to worry. There will be students in the program with different levels of dance experience.

I'll try to blog about my experience on a daily basis.

Here's rooftop view of where I'll be during this program - or click here for Google map link:

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:05 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dance Magazine Launches New Website

This morning Dance Magazine launched its new website. It doesn't look very impressive. I read about this upcoming redesign in their email newsletter a couple of months ago and I was hoping for something more exciting, more community-oriented.

The new site includes two blogs that aren't very "bloggish." One is from Editor In Chief Wendy Perron and the other is from Managing Editor Hanna Rubin. There are no links, no RSS feeds, and no comment functionality.

When I went through site a number of links didn't work but they are probably fixing these problems as I write this post.

Follow-up:

Danciti doesn't agree with me.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

June 13, 2007

Anaehim Ballet Gets Hit with Unwaranted YouTube Take Down Order

Evan Rosenberg, producer of the innovative video podcasts for the Anaheim Ballet, gave me permission to post this email he sent me yesterday:

Hey Doug,

Thought you might find this interesting...

Our video, "Dancer Profile: Sachi Arai" has been disabled by YouTube due to a claim of copyright Infringement.

The video had over 150,000 views.

The claim was filed by an individual who as far as I can tell by a google search, is a musician. Though YouTube hasn't specified what copyright we are being accused of infringing on, I would speculate it is music.

The claim is amusing as the music for the video is made up of digital instruments and royalty free loops using the computer program, Apple Soundtrack Pro.

YouTube offers a means to dispute the claim (after the video has already been disabled mind you) which obviously, we are taking full advantage of, and I am confident we will be vindicated.

As online video becomes a more and more popular medium for ballet/dance companies (we've had over 2.5 million views on YouTube alone), problems/annoyances such as this will become more common.

I'll let you know how this turns out.

Peace,
Evan

Evan Rosenberg

My thoughts: I agree with Evan. There are many issues and challenges that have to be addressed by dancers and dance companies - both those that concern their rights and intellectual property interests, and the rights of other artists with whom they work. The claim that Evan discusses in his email appears unfounded and a definite hindrance for him and the Anaheim Ballet.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:20 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Joy of Motion's Doug Yeuell Video Interview

I recently conducted a video interview with Doug Yeuell who is the artistic and executive director of Washington-DC-based Joy of Motion Dance Center.

And Doug happens to be my first jazz instructor as you can tell from the opening of this video interview.

Click To Play

During the interview, we discussed a wide-range of topics:

- Joy of Motion's four studios in DC area and their classes and performance offerings with a strong emphasis on adult students.

- Doug Yeuell's background with Joy of Motion, which goes back to 1982 when he first started teaching there.

- Doug's passion for teaching dance to adults.

- Why guys tend not to take modern/jazz/ballet as opposed to social dance classes.

- The "Helen" I refer to is Helen Hayes, who's my modern dance teacher. I'll soon be posting a video interview I did with Helen and one of her student's from her Youth Dance Ensemble Program. And,

- other topics about JOM and dance.

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

Dance News and Links

- Chicago Symphony Orchestra has excellent program Beyond the Score Video - I encourage readers to watch video. This provides dancers with good model of how to provide behind-the-scenes look at the making of dances. Not that there aren't already examples from dance world - NYC Ballet's Romeo and Juliet.

- Natalia from Bellydance: Experiences says that on Bhuz there is project where song is chosen and belly dancers are encouraged to upload their own choreography on YouTube - sounds like great project but I can't find videos on Bhuz???

- Benoit Beauchamp in Recycled Space praises social networking site Facebook, which has been on a roll, especially since it opened its API. This means that a huge number of developers are building customized applications for Facebook. Here's write-up on Mashable about a large number of new apps for Facebook. The importance of these developments is that you might want to consider creating profile on Facebook for your dancing or dance company.

- Stefan Kolgen of Da...ce, in its latest iPod Filling Station X post, links to Dario's Tango Guide, which is an excellent Argentine Tango video podcast.

- DC-based dancer/choreographer Daniel Burkholder is re-working his "My Ocean is Never Blue." His performance piece blog is the first one I've come across that delves into the choreographic process with text and videos.

- Studio28, a new Italian-language blog, writes about "Open Source Dance Framework." To quote from OSDF website, "Open Source Dance Framework is a proposed framework for creating, reusing, licensing, and distributing a dance creation. It is inspired in part by the Creative Commons licensing system and the Open Source software movement." This sounds intriguing and I'm going to go back and spend some time reading about this.

- Writers are turning to Web 2.0 tools to create collaborative narratives. In this post from Read/WriteWeb, you'll find a number of group-writing applications. Are there parallel possibilities for distributed choreography?

- New dance blogger Nejla Y. Yatkin writes about the "State of Dance." A good, interesting read.

- FeedBlitz soups-up email distribution and subscriber options for blog publishers. I'm going to experiment with this new offering. I want to offer more and better options to readers who want blog updates by email. [via Mashable].

- Everyzing, formerly PodZinger, uses its speech-to-text technology to allow users to search for audio content within audio and video files. Do an audio search for "Merce Cunningham," and you will get a listing of matches. When you click on a specific match, you can then jump directly to the section in the audio program where the name "Merce Cunningham" is spoken. [via The Next Net and NewTeeVee].

- Jamglue is a web-based audio mixer. I used it for a few minutes. It looks like an easy and convenient way to mix two or more audio tracks and loops.

- I've been trying to find a way to record high-quality IP-phone conversations while using Skype. A new service from Evoca may provide the answer.

- Well if audiences can't figure out the emotional states you are trying to convey in your dance piece, you could try a Hug Shirt to clarify meaning. "When touching the red areas on your Hug Shirt your mobile phone receives the sensors data via Bluetooth (hug pressure, skin temperature, heartbeat rate, time you are hugging for, etc) and then delivers it to the other person which wears a Hug Shirt as well." Imagine everybody in the audience wearing these emotionally-responsive shirts that would ensure that that they would truly feel as you feel. Learn more about Hug Shirts. [via Textually.org].

- And in an unrelated project to the above story, here's an academic paper (PDF) from 2005, "The Telematic Dress." Written by Johannes Birringer and Michele Danjoux, this paper, quoting from Network Performance write-up, "...explores new ideas for movement technologies and garment design in an arts and digital research context. The 'telematic dress' project, developed at the DAP Lab in Nottingham, involves transdisciplinary intersections between fashion and live performance, interactive system architecture, electronic textiles, wearable technologies, choreography, and anthropology."

- Bilboard and mobile phone make LG are teaming-up for summer concert competition. About 30 contestants will be given press passes to top concerts. Each winner will receive an LG picture-enabled mobile phone, which they will use to do on-site reporting with text and photos. I always like these programs that invite amateurs to be reporters of entertainment and arts events. [via Picturephoning.com].

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:34 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

June 12, 2007

Comprehensive List of Dance Blog RSS Feeds

Here's monthly list of feeds for dance blogs. The file is in OPML format, which can be used to quickly upload all of the feeds into your favorite feed reader.

To the above list, I've started to add dance blogs in French, Italian and Spanish - if you know of more, please let me know.

To learn about OPML files, you can read this earlier post.

Also, Mashable has a post from yesterday "The Ultimate RSS Toolbox - 120+ RSS Resources.." In this listing, you'll find an excellent round-up of feed readers for different operating systems as well as web-based feedreaders.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:28 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 11, 2007

Dance Is No Longer an Ephemeral Art Form

In "The Art of Making Dances" (published in 1959), Doris Humphrey identified the unique artistic challenges faced by choreographers:

The one inescapable condition surrounding the choreographer in his chosen art is the hard realism of "now." All other arts can wait for the verdict of history if they are rebuffed by the contemporary world--the choreographer not so. To keep faith with himself, he cannot pander to popular taste; he must choose his subject and the means to body it forth from his total convictions about values in art and life. If his work happens to be stimulating to audiences in their current state of development, he is very lucky indeed; but if not, he must resign himself to abandoning his dream child. Not for him the consolation of hanging his creation on the wall in all its original freshness, and waiting hopefully for perhaps posthumous appreciation. There must be hundreds, possibly thousands of dances--some of which were probably masterpieces--completely lost because of this tragic ephemerality. In contrast, one only has to think of painting and music, so often savagely rejected in their day, which a grateful world finally comes to accept and admire. This painful reality of the choreographer's "now" is a powerful temptation to abandon conviction and the most extreme flights of fancy in the interest of survival and prosperity. The wonder is that there are still so many choreographers who will not compromise, and who hug their ideals to their hearts in spite of failure and adversity.

For the era in which Humphrey wrote her book, which was published posthumously one year after her death, she captured both the ephemeral nature of dance and the unavoidable constraints of having to serve audiences in the "now" and not, possibly, more endearing fans in the future.

But despite what dance writers of recent times may claim, dance is no longer an ephemeral art form that is as fleeting as the closing curtain.

In a March 2005 review of two biographies about George Balanchine in The New York Review of Books ("George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker" by Robert Gottlieb and "All in the Dances: A Brief Life of George Balanchine" by Terry Teachout), Toni Bentley incorrectly assesses, I believe, the ephemeral nature of dance and the limitations of capturing dances with video technology:

[Dancers] are...in a way the noblest and most fragile of artists, knowing as they do that their work will not only not outlive them, but will not even outlive that performance, on that evening, in that theater, in that city. At best their work exists as a memory —and we all know how reliable that is. A dancer will never even see himself, or herself, dance. (Videotape, while technically useful, is a distorted, backward, two-dimensional, miniature rendition of a dance that inevitably erases complexity from any performance. It records, at best, steps, but never depth. Even other live performance—singing and acting—can now be accurately preserved on digital disks.) While dancers' "narcissism" is also frequently noted with snide superiority, it is really generosity that dancers demonstrate with their practiced grace. The evanescent nature of the form is haunting and Balanchine, in his own generosity, gave us this ephemeral gift.

And in a dance review in this morning's New York Times, "Suzanne Farrell Ballet: With Her Own Company, a Former Dancer Reunites Elements of Her Past," Claudia La Rocco writes "posthumous reconstruction is a thorny issue...This is especially true in dance. The fragility of choreography and the lack of a definitive record to follow make for a hit-or-miss state of affairs."

The Emerging Non-Ephemeral Art Form

In the 1950s, Doris Humphrey was more or less correct: dance was ephemeral and could only take place in the now. But the notion that dance in the Twenty-First Century is fragile, ephemeral and can't be captured via a two-dimensional medium is for the most part wrong. While I understand the historical legacy of these ideas, those writing about dance - at least Toni Bentley and Claudia La Rocco - are simply perpetuating unexamined notions that have lost much of their validity.

I encourage readers to visit the Dance Documentation site of Professor Tim Glenn of Florida State University. He provides an extensive overview of how he and his students use video to document all aspects of dance performances. This dance documentation site specifically addresses and disproves Bentley's contention I quoted above:

Videotape, while technically useful, is a distorted, backward, two-dimensional, miniature rendition of a dance that inevitably erases complexity from any performance. It records, at best, steps, but never depth. Even other live performance—singing and acting—can now be accurately preserved on digital disks.

Glenn has been using these video documentation techniques for the "Paul Taylor Repertory Preservation Project" and for works from other choreographers.

You can also read the latest publication from Washington, DC-based Dance Heritage Coalition (DHC). "Documenting Dance: A Practical Guide" (PDF format), written by Libby Smigel, is available as a free download from the DHC website. I wrote two posts about this publication - Part I and Part II.

Dance is more difficult to document, preserve and recreate than other art forms. And traditional methods of transmission - from dancer to dancer and choreographer to dance - will remain invaluable. But at the same time, new approaches have been developed and will continue to be developed that make it easier and less expensive than before to preserve every element and nuance of a dance performance.

Overall, I believe that the widely-held notion that dance is ephemeral is a major roadblock on the path to freeing dance from the proscenium stage. While live performances are wonderful and in some ways unique, they also can be replicated - with important changes and accommodations for each medium. But if most people in the dance community never question whether dance has to be a fleeting experience, there will be very little incentive to explore and invest in new approaches to preserving these performances for future generations.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:11 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

June 8, 2007

Update for Dance Blogs, Feeds and Search Engine

I'm updating dance blogroll, RSS feeds and dance blog search engine (top of my home page).

Do you know of new dance blogs I should include? Please email: doug@greatdance.com.

Thanks!

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:26 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dance News and Links

- Washington Post's Sarah Kaufman reviews Suzanne Farrell Ballet at Kennedy Center. "The Suzanne Farrell Ballet may not boast the most accomplished dancers...But, under the sensible direction of the former New York City Ballet star, the company consistently nails something more elusive than ballet technique. It gets the tone right."

- NY Times article and audio slide show about Bill T. Jones' Tony award nomination for choreography in "Spring Awakening." Definitely listen to audio program.

- Video interview with blogger and tap dancer Terrence "Taps."

- "Black Grace: From Cannon's Creek to Jacob's Pillow," will be on PBS on June 21st. Documentary is about dance troupe of Pacific Islander and Maori men that fuses native Samoan traditions and contemporary dance. Watch YouTube video.

- CityDance Ensemble performing at Strathmore next Friday, June 15th. The program "CityDance Celebrates: Women in the Arts," includes "Dust Bowl Ballads," choreographed by Sophie Maslow in 1941 "to remember and honor the American experience during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s." Picture of Sophie Maslow in "Dust Bowl Ballads" in "Stepping Left: Dance and Politics in New York City" by Ellen Graff in Google Books.

- Choreographer Meg (Anatomy Riot on MySpace) created this customized Google map for dance in Los Angeles area.

- Choreography of colored water drops. I like this one of ballroom couple. [via Nabeel's Cosmos].

- HI NRG, a vodka-based energy drink has launched a Dance Responsibly website that highlights dangers of illicit dancing. You can upload your own irresponsible dance videos and vote on your favorites. [via Adrants]

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:49 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 6, 2007

Bill T. Jones Tony Awards Nominee for "Spring Awakening"

Bill T. Jones is a best choreographer nominee for Spring Awakening at this year's Tony Awards, which will be broadcast this Sunday, June 10th on CBS. [via Fame or Famine]

Here's an excerpt from "Spring Awakening":

Multimedia Content and Viral Marketing

"Spring Awakening" makes extensive use of multimedia content, viral marketing, social networking and user-generated content.

In the "Spread the Word" section of this show-promotion site, you can grab the code for for banners and videos and embed them in your site or blog:

And there's also a remix tool on the video editing site EyeSpot. But not that many people have created their own videos based on the official show videos. It could be that my past praise of the idea of encouraging your audience to create their own mixes is off the mark, and audiences don't want to create mashups. They either want to enjoy the video and other multimedia content you post, or they want to upload their own creations.

I'd like to know what type of metrics the producers of "Spring Awakening" use, if any, to measure the success of their online marketing efforts. For example, do they count the number of friends on MySpace and Facebook? Do they count the number of embeds for their multimedia content? The number of times the email-to-a-friend functionality is used? The number of times their videos are watched on YouTube and other video sharing sites?

Lots of possible elements to track. But the tough part is generating actual conversion numbers. In other words, what percentage of MySpace friends, for example, actually buy tickets. And without these conversion rates, which are hard to determine, it's tough to figure out the value of your online marketing dollars and the real cost of acquiring a single customer via the Internet.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:38 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 5, 2007

Apple iPhone TV Ads

You can watch ads for the soon-to-be introduced Apple iPhone.

The user interface and product design of Apple products are always ingenious. I'm especially interested in experimenting with watching videos and viewing pictures on the new iPhones.

I think it's easy to predict that the roll-out of the iPhone will encourage many dancers to make sure that their videos look good on these hand-held devices.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:55 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dissecting San Francisco Ballet's New Branding Campaign

As part of its upcoming 75th anniversary celebration, the San Francisco Ballet has introduced a new branding campaign and website featuring this logo:

The re-branding was done by MetaDesign. And the press release can be read here.

Plus, you can read an extensive conversation about the pros and cons of this new branding identity on the Brand New blog.

From the Press Release

The new brand identity is a dynamic expression of SF Ballet's unique agenda of promoting new works by today's acclaimed choreographers and introducing new interpretations of classic productions...The new logo redefines the definition of "ballet" by highlighting the dance company's sophisticated, diverse international repertory and establishing "ballet" as an exciting and vital cultural destination. The logo combines elements from "Didot," a nineteenth century typeface and "Galaxie Polaris," a typeface that was created in 2005. The result fuses the spirit of modern choreography with the tradition of classical ballet.

"The new SF Ballet logo takes the concept of ballet as a traditional art form and brings it to a new, contemporary place that represents the company today," says SF Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson. "The new logo also takes the word 'ballet' and gives it a renewed vitality."

The elements of the new logo are choreographed as if on a stage: A vibrant snapshot of an energized performance. The letters are orchestrated to suggest the dynamic nature of the ballet art form, while highlighting the dramatic production lighting and shadows created on-stage through the use of a sophisticated gray color palette.

My Thoughts About SF Ballet Branding Campaign

After reading comments on Brand New, these are my initial thoughts and questions:

- Why is much of the emphasis placed on the word "ballet" as opposed to the SF Ballet? Very few branding campaigns from long-established organizations focus on a generic term as opposed to the identify of the organization. The press release clearly indicates a desire to transform how the general public thinks about ballet, but this is dangerous territory when you're forced to promote a category over your own brand.

- Why did they get fancy with the initial "B" in the ballet logo and make it look like the number "3"? This seems unnecessarily risky to me. Will some people not even know that this word is indeed "Ballet"?

- I do not like what strikes me as the subdued colors of the logo, graphics and navigation system on the new San Francisco website. It creates too conservative a feel for me.

- The idea of seeing the logo as a vibrant snapshot of choreography unfolding on stage is beginning to grow on me.

I'd be surprised if SF Ballet and their branding company haven't thought about the issues I raise - I'd like to learn more about what they're thinking.

[via danciti]

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

June 4, 2007

Dance Critics Association Conference with Audio Overview

The 33rd Annual Dance Critics Association Conference takes place this month, June 16-17th, in New York City at Dance New Amsterdam. The conference brochure is available as a PDF file.

I recently spoke by telephone with Naima Prevots, a member of the board of the Dance Critics Association, about the focus of this year's conference: "Katherine Dunham and Lincoln Kirstein: American Critics and Creators."

Listen to Naima Prevots discuss the contributions of Katherine Dunham and Lincoln Kirstein (MP3 audio file).

Conference Overview and Resources

Among the DCA conference's highlights:

- Martin Duberman, the author of the new biography, "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein," will discuss his research along with author and lecturer Nancy Goldner. (Here's link to this book on Amazon and link to review by Alastair Macaulay in the New York Times.)