July 31, 2007

Thanks to Sydney Skybetter

I'll soon be posting a write-up about my plans to expand Great Dance into a large-scale blogging platform for the dance community.

While I was in New York City for the first few weeks of July, I met and brainstormed a number of times with Sydney Skybetter who provided some excellent ideas and recommendations about how I might go about growing Great Dance to best serve dancers and the dance community. Plus, Sydney is a great networker and he introduced me to a number of local dancers with whom I also had very helpful and productive conversations.

So I'm writing this post to thank Sydney for sharing his ideas and insights. Sydney is about to start the second and final year of his MFA program in dance performance and choreography at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Plus, Sydney consults for dance companies on a number of different fronts.

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Video Interview with Dance/NYC's Robert Yesselman

While I was in New York City earlier this month, I conducted a video interview with Robert Yesselman, the director of Dance/NYC.

Dance/NYC supports the needs of the New York City dance community and is a branch of Dance/USA, which is a national service organization for dance.

Click To Play

During the interview Yesselman discusses their latest research report, "Cenusus of NYC Dancemakers," advocacy on behalf of local dancers, the challenging funding environment, efforts to support individual dancers and dance companies with smaller budgets, healthcare initiatives, and Dance/NYC's professional development programs and town halls.

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July 30, 2007

New Dance Video Blog, Troika Ranch on MySpace and ENO's Carmen Micro-Site

Monica Gillette, a dancer from New York City, and now in Vienna, Austria, is a danceWEB scholarship recipient at Impulstanz.

Last month Monica started a dance video blog. I very much like the videos, although it's not technically set-up as a blogging application.

Troika Ranch Blogs Residency at 3LD Art & Technology

Brooklyn-based Troika Ranch just started a two-month residency at 3LD Art & Technology Center in New York City. To document a new work (working title "Loop Diver") they are creating, Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello have created a MySpace page and blog.

Mark writes in a post to the dace-tech list that they will take a number of approaches to documenting their work:

...through blogs from myself, Dawn, and the dancers; as well as photos and video clips of material as we create it. New material will be added almost daily. We look forward to you adding your comments and thoughts through this virtual forum.

Matt Gough in his quodlibet Tumblr blog wrote a post yesterday, "Shenanigans," that takes issue on a number of points with Mark's post "Abandoning Choreography in Search of the Killer Loop."

I'm glad to see an online discussion about dance and technology performances. Before I comment, I first want to follow-up with Mark to ask him about some of the specifics of his post including the choreographic approach that was used and the nature of a "shifting loop." It would be great to see videos of what Mark is referring to in his post.

ENO's Carmen Blog

A new production of Carmen, directed by Sally Potter and choreographed by Pablo Veron, opens in September at the English National Opera.

A dedicated Carmen site has been created for this production, which features a community blog. In addition, Sally Potter has her own blog, which features videos from auditions, including this dance audition clip (scroll to bottom of this page to read dance audition description):

Click To Play

This ENO Carmen site has promise, it may turn out to be very worthwhile and it's great to see a focus on creating collaborative content to support the performing arts. But I get the feeling that the creators and marketers of this micro-site think that that they are creating something altogether new and are the sole trailblazers along this path.An illustration is the post "Carmen 2.0," which includes a good amount of praise for their "innovative" undertaking and embrace of social media. They are early adopters in the big picture, but they are not the first organization to explore these avenues. I think what irks me is that they don't reference similar blogging/web 2.0 efforts or link to other initiatives to take you behind-the-scenes -- such as in NYC Ballet's Romeo + Juliet.

In closing, here's a clip from the upcoming movie The Tango Lesson, with Pablo Veron and Sally Potter:

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July 27, 2007

Video Interview with Stephen Greco, New Executive Director, Dance Theater Workshop

Last week when I was in New York City, I conducted a video interview with Stephen Greco, the new executive director of Dance Theater Workshop (DTW). (Here's the link to the announcement of Greco's appointment on DTW's site).

During this twelve-minute interview, Greco discusses a wide-range of topics including his initial reactions after being at DTW for just a few weeks, his decades-long connection to the dance community, upcoming plans for the Internet, supporting and working with choreographers and dancers, building audiences and branding, the funding landscape for the arts and future directions for DTW.

Click To Play

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July 26, 2007

It's a Draw: Mainstream Dance Media Vs. Dance Bloggers

Since a lot of dance bloggers have written about the Slow Dancing exhibit at Lincoln Center, it's interesting to see what the Google results look like for the following search

slow dancing lincoln center

As of Thursday afternoon, the mainstream media has the edge on the first page of results. But if you take into the equation the first two pages of results, then it's about a draw.

Plus, if you turn to blog search engines such as Google Blog Search, the mainstream media gets trounced.

Is this a watershed moment? If they haven't already, should dance companies, presenters and publicists begin to think about their relationship with dance bloggers?

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Should You Sell Videos of Your Dance Performances with a Second Audio Track for Commentary?

Tuesday night I saw Doug Varone and Dancers at Wolf Trap outside of Washington, DC.

It was great to finally see Doug Varone's company and I especially enjoyed Lux, which premiered last October at the Joyce Theater in New York City.

But every time after seeing a work I enjoy, I have the same reaction. I want to see it performed again - immediately. Or at least, I'd like a high-quality DVD version to watch at home. Even better, I would like the DVD to have a dual audiotrack. The first track would be for the music and the second audio track would be for commentary from the artists themselves or dance experts. That way I could watch the dance with the musical score, for Lux that would be Philip Glass' The Light, or watch the dance while listening to artist or expert analysis -- maybe the commentators could add a John Madden-type Telestrator for graphic overlays.

The Benefits of Dual-Audio Dance DVDs

From my standpoint, a DVD with the music and commentary would blow me away. If I could watch the entire Lux performance multiple times and hear Doug Varone talk about this piece for its entire length - maybe 15 minutes or so - it would give me so much helpful background in terms of thinking about his work and understanding how he approaches the creative process.

There really is nothing comparable to such an offering. It is possible that I could attend an after-performance talk, which would probably be fun and interesting. But it still is not the same as having a vocal guide describe what you're looking at while you're watching a recorded version of the actual dance.

Such a tool would be invaluable to dance newcomers who don't have a framework for thinking about or responding to dance. And it would be equally helpful, maybe more so, to people who never even go to performances because dance strikes them as an alien, inaccessible art form.

On top of these benefits, I think that there is money to be made for dancers and dance companies who produce these videos, whether they are distributed in DVD format or for are sold via the Internet.

Obstacles

But there are big challenges to launching such a project:

Licensing and Contractual Arrangements

Once dancers start selling digital dance content, a host of legal issues have to be dealt with to avoid problems down the road. First, the music has to be licensed so it can be included in the recorded video of the dance performance. And music rights must be obtained for both DVDs and online distribution. The use of royalty-free music would significantly reduce these costs.

Also, all parties to this creative process have to sign agreements or waivers of some type. Dancers, costume designers, lighting designers, set designers and even the venue might have to sign-off on this project. (When I was at the the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, I couldn't even watch some dance videos because I first needed written authorization from the venue where the works were performed - a real hassle, but a good illustration of the number of parties that can have a potential legal interest in an artistic project.)

Describing One's Own Work

Among choreographers and dancers there seems to be a lot of resistance or lack of interest in describing one's own work. I think many dancers take the understandable position that the dance should speak for itself. Last year I was at a performance of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's Small Dances about Big Ideas at DNA in New York City. After the performance, dance company members talked about the work with the audience. One guy in the audience was really adamant that Liz Lerman describe what the piece was all about. Liz refused and asked the audience member to share his reaction to the work. In the context, a post-performance talk, I think many performers would have responded the same way that Liz did. They just danced. Why should they have to explain what they did?

But in other contexts, I don't think that a reluctance to describe one's work benefits dancers and choreographers. In the end, whether you explain your work in a detailed manner or not others will do it for you. Dance writers and critics will assess your work, and people who see a performance will discuss your dance with their friends. So why be at the mercy of other people's interpretations when you can set the framework for how the discussion proceeds? And what better way to share your thoughts about your own work than on a dual audiotrack of a performance video?

Video Production and Technology Know-How

In order to produce a dance DVD with a dual audiotrack, many steps have to be taken that require specialized expertize.

A good quality video has to be shot of a performance using one or more cameras. Lighting has to be optimized for the video shoot or the resulting video could easily be terrible. The video has to be edited and then prepared for DVD and/or Internet distribution.

A separate high-quality audio track has to be recorded by the choreographer and/or dancers, or independent commentators.

For Internet distribution and sales of DVDs and downloadable videos, an e-commerce system has to be implemented along with a fulfillment process. Plus, a marketing campaign has to be developed and launched.

Costs

The folks at Article19 always say I should have more specifics when it comes to issues like costs. But I don't at this point without doing research for a specific project. But as with any other endeavor, you can spend a lot of money or, alternatively, take a guerrilla-budgeting/marketing approach.

If you collaborate with a group of artists who want to see such a project through to fruition. And among those artists are musicians who write and play their own music, you can minimize or reduce to almost nothing many of your costs. You can shoot a performance with a single camera and thus simplify the editing process, and turning-out basic DVDs is pretty straightforward these days. Then you need to take advantage of low-cost distribution approaches for selling your dual-audio track dance video performances.

Hmmm....

Well, upon reflection, that's a lot of work.

But the Internet is huge. If you sell your videos in downloadable format - put aside the DVDs for now, the numbers can easily add up. If your two-video package (for downloads you have to sell two videos as single unit - one video has music and the other has commentary) sells for $2.00, how many copies do you have to sell before you make a profit? If you sold 5,000, you'd generate $10,000.

The one element that I believe is often overlooked is the sheer size of the online audience. If part of your overall marketing strategy involves constant efforts to grow as large an audience as possible for your performances and other offerings, the economics are dramatically reshaped. Yes, it's true that in a small black box studio that only so many seats can be sold for any given performance, which means that there is a concrete cap on total box office sales. On the Internet there are no caps. Your just replicating digital content that can be sold again and again and again.

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July 25, 2007

Audio Interview with Dancer-Choreographer Nadine Helstroffer

Eva Yaa Asantewaa interviewed dancer-choreographer Nadine Helstroffer Monday evening about her dance films on Great Dance Podcast blog. Visit post and listen to interview.

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Multimedia Press Kits for the Internet Age

Eva Yaa Asantewaa and I are about to post another audio interview on the Great Dance Podcast blog.

As you can see in the post that includes an audio interview that Eva did with Japan Society Artistic Director Yoko Shioya, we included multimedia materials - pictures and videos - highlighting some of the upcoming performances for their fall 2007 season.

If it were not for the excellent media kit provided by the Japan Society, these pictures and videos would probably not have been included. Eva and I worked with two public relations specialists on this project: Shannon Jowett of Japan Society and Meg Own of The Karpel Group.

Media Kit Contents

In addition to the printed press releases, the media kit included a CD-ROM with a large gallery of high-resolution pictures of dancers and dance companies who will be performing as part of the Japan Society's Fall 2007 Performing Arts Season. In addition to the pictures, a master Microsoft Word document included thumbnail images of all the photos along with all of the important information for each photo - name of performer, name of photographer and other details.

So it was easy for me to grab the pictures I wanted, downgrade the resolution for the web, and copy and paste the captions for each photo.

A DVD included video clips that were shown during the press conference we attended. I ripped a couple of the videos from this DVD, converted the files to Flash format and uploaded them to the web.

From my standpoint, the Japan Society's media kit was very helpful and thorough. In particular this media kit was web-publishing friendly in its inclusion of digital pictures and video clips.

Putting Together Multimedia Press Kits

I would like to encourage all PR people who promote dance to think about how your media materials can be used by others outside of the traditional print press. And to consider how you can prepare materials in a way that it will make it relatively easy for online writers to add your pictures and videos to their stories.

Last year I wrote a post about social media press releases that addresses the issue of how multimedia materials can be offered to writers in new ways. I'll expand on this post soon and offer specific suggestions on how dance photos, videos and audio programs can be packaged and distributed via the Internet.

If you know of examples of web-friendly media kits for dance, please share.

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July 24, 2007

Is the Internet Ineffective in the Dance World?

I watched parts of last night's CNN/YouTube democratic presidential debate. Like all political debates over the past few decades in this country, I thought it was pointless. Some of the questions submitted by YouTube users were more blunt and hard-hitting than the usual innocuous questions posed by professional newscasters. But the time alloted for answers was ridiculously short - it seemed that the longest response was about a minute to a minute and a half. Often candidates were forced to give very abbreviated answers of about a sentence or two.

I don't know how a real debate can take place unless candidates are willing to participate in a format where extended amounts of time are devoted to each topic. This way we can actually see how the candidates think and engage in political discussion--but even this more serious approach may not be that helpful either. Plus, simply by adding user-generated videos submitted by YouTube users is not inherently better than traditional debates just because average people submit authentic questions. I would rather have questions submitted by independent-minded experts (academics, consultants and others), whose voices are underrepresented or not included on TV news programs, on a range of important topics. But, of course, this will never happen. Neither CNN or the candidates have a vested interest in discussing issues in a substantive way that is sure to make their owners/supporters/advertisers squeamish.

(For the record, I'll vote for Hilary Clinton in the primary--largely because I think she has the best chance of beating a Republican.)

That was a political digression to get to my point. Over almost two years (my blog turns two in September!), I've been writing about and promoting the value and benefits of user-generated media, mashups and related interactive media. But what has come of all these possibilities for the dance world - especially concert dance? I would answer by saying no that much.

Has the way that audiences engage with dance, think about dance or attend dance performances been influenced or changed in any significant manner as a result of the Internet? Do people feel more connected with dance because they could make their own dance videos or mashups - or simply watch dance videos online? Are there larger audiences for dance? Do more people take dance classes? Do dancers make more money?

I'd say no across the board, even though there must be some exceptions. All these great technologies have not been put to good use. In terms of my contribution, I'd say I've focused too much on the specific technologies and Internet applications more in the abstract than in the context of how dancers can actually use these tools in the context of the environments in which they live and work.

So just because the questions at a presidential debate are posed by YouTubbers instead of journalists does not mean that the nature of a presidential debate will change in any way whatsoever. And the same is true for dance. Just because there are all of these wonderful digital tools available does not mean that their mere use will magically solve all the challenges of the dance world.

I'm not criticizing everything I've written, by the way--I'm also not criticizing the technologies themselves. I'm saying that for the Internet and technology to be integrated in a meaningful way within the dance world that many factors have to be considered and understood including the culture, economics, values, comfort level with technology and many other issues that shape dancers and dance companies.

So I hope that through my dace classes, the many performances I've seen, my research and reading, and my many conversations, both online and in-person, with dancers, I have a much better sense for what dance is all about. And as a result of this increased knowledge, I think I'm in a better position to explore and implement different approaches to fusing the possibilities of the Internet with the needs of dancers to help enhance dance and the careers of dancers.

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July 23, 2007

Dance Blog Map - Create Your Own Blog Diagram

Here's a first draft I created of a dance blog map. You can click following screen shot to see a larger image:

My goal was to create a visual diagram that highlighted the key characteristics of dance blogs. I used an online application Bubbl.us to create this map.

If you want to modify my dance blog map, you can create a free Bubbl.us account and then import this XML file (click "menu" option on bottom right of screen once you log-in): download xml file to your computer.

Please share your thoughts? What changes/additions would you make?

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July 19, 2007

Podcast Overview with Eva Yaa Asantewaa

As I mentioned, it has been great working with Eva Yaa Asantewaa over the past few weeks on the launch of Great Dance Podcast. We've published two podcasts so far and more will be coming.

She just recorded an introductory podcast to share her plans:

Listen to podcast (MP3 format)

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

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July 17, 2007

Moving to New York and Expanding Great Dance

I'm heading back to Washington, DC this weekend after spending about three weeks here in New York City. I've had a great time meeting and talking with dancers, choreographers and others in the local dance community.

And it has been especially enjoyable working with Eva Yaa Asantewaa on the two audio podcasts that we've produced - many more to come.

So I'm about to make some big changes. First, I'm moving back to New York City as early as the beginning of September.

Second, I'll be significantly expanding Great Dance well beyond my blog that primarily covers the intersection of dance and the Internet. Over the coming month, I'll be writing much more about my plans as well as the many people with whom I'll be working.

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July 16, 2007

Upcoming Video Interviews

Last week I interviewed Ellis Wood of Ellis Wood Dance.

This week I'm interviewing:

- Heidi Latsky of Heidi Latsky Dance.

- Stephen Greco the new executive director of Dance Theater Workshop, and

- Robert Yesselman of Dance/NYC.

I might not edit and post videos until after I get back to DC this Saturday - I'll see how this week goes.

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July 14, 2007

New Dance Blogs

I just added or recently added the following dance blogs to my blogroll on the left:

- American Dance Festival

- A Time to Dance

- Behind the Scenes @ Summer Stages Dance

- Joffrey Ballet J-Pointe

- Radical Acts of Movement

I also added above blogs to dance blog search engine at the top of Great Dance's home page.

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July 13, 2007

Video of Opening Night of "Slow Dancing" at Lincoln Center

Here's video of opening minutes of "Slow Dancing" exhibit at Lincoln Center last night. My hand was very shaky as you'll see. The background music and noise was from an outdoor event that wasn't related to this exhibit.

Watch video

Video in Microsoft Windows Media format - 15 MB.

Tonya sent this photo to her blog from her cell phone during opening seconds:

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July 12, 2007

Article19 Review of My Blog is Perplexing

In a review highlighting both positive and negative elements of my blog, Article19's Michelle Lefevre writes:

Sometimes the posts [in Great Dance] can go off on an esoteric tangent, such as "Capturing the Essence of Movement" and "Dance Is No Longer an Ephemeral Art Form". When I showed these particular posts to some dancers they rolled their eyes and immediately lost interest. That type of writing has a place but for many, within the profession, it takes them back to the days of dance theory and dance history and for many it's not a place they want to be.

This assessment strikes me as perplexing and off the mark.

First, my post, "Capturing the Essence of Movement," is a description of a dance workshop I took. How it reaches the level of an "esoteric tangent" is beyond me. And what's wrong with "esoteric tangents" in the first place - more about this question below.

Second, my post "Dance Is No Longer an Ephemeral Art Form," is about the future of dance and how traditional perceptions of dance can prohibit us from taking advantage of new approaches to preserving and distributing dance performances.

So once again, I don't see how this second post is going off on an "esoteric tangent"? Isn't it beneficial for the dance community to explore new ways to capture and share dance using the latest digital tools? Isn't it worth exploring how our unexamined assumptions about the world may close us off from exploring new avenues? Is my crime quoting Doris Humphrey?

I'm biased, but I especially enjoyed writing this post.

But to the larger question: Wasn't the initial notion behind blogging to have a platform where you got to choose how you wrote and what you wrote about? So even if I do enter the realm of the esoteric, I fail to see the problem there. Some people will find my posts interesting and others will not.

Maria from the new dance blog, A Time to Dance has a post, "What do you read about," in which she addresses the the passage I quoted above from the Article19 review:

The whole point of blogging is that each person has a unique point of view and they can share it with no editorial filtering. The above comment comes across as stiff and condescending to me, as if every dance blog were supposed to fit some sort of mold. Honestly, the stuff that Doug writes about theory, history, and personal introspection about the process are often the most interesting to me because I am at a similar place in my own dance journey, where I’m still learning a lot and having revelations about things that I’m sure have already occurred to a million dancers before me. The difference is that I don’t have the luxury of being guided through that by a structured dance curriculum or constant study with one company. I came to dance having already completed my academic studies and having already grown into an adult body and it is more of an uphill struggle for me to fit all those things into my life and still have time to learn about theory and history and technique.

Thanks, Maria!

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"Slow Dancing" Internet Videos Don't Do David Michalek's Project Justice

After a two-day delay, photographer David Michalek's "Slow Dancing" installation opens tonight at Lincoln Center. This exhibit consists of stunning 40-feet high video projections featuring a roster of internationally known dancers. Each super-high-definition video, which lasts about 10 minutes, is a very slowed down version of a 5-second movement sequence performed by each dancer. So you get to see the most minute details as a dancer transitions from one move to the next.

While I thought seeing the actual videos that Michalek produced was a stunning experience (see my earlier post), the online promotional videos that have so far been made available are real let downs. The beauty of "Slow Dancing" is that yet get a very concrete sense and detailed understanding of how dancers make movement happen -- and until this project, I don't think this was really possible given the speed at which dancers move. The three elements of this exhibit that give viewers these new insights are the use of very high-definition video, the slow speed of the playback and the large size of the video images.

All three of these elements are lost with the available online videos.

Here's a screen shot of the two videos now available on the "Slow Dancing" site of Herman Cornejo and Wendy Whelan - click for larger image:

I found no value in watching either of the two above videos. You get none of the insight or sense of wonder that you get - or, at least, that I got - compared to seeing the real thing. The detail is just not accessible with such a small video frame. And why is the Wendy Whelan video so short?

And the New York Times has a video of Herman Cornejo from this project - click for larger image:

The NY Times screen shot is especially grainy because I took the frame grab in full-screen mode. But even in the default screen size, the NY Times video is even less helpful than the two above videos.

Here's my question: Why would a project devoted to the idea of making the beauty of movement accessible to the naked eye through high-definition video do such a poor job of delivering this video experience online?

There are a number of possibilities:

- From a technical standpoint, maybe they thought it was not worth the effort of uploading very large high-definition videos that users would have to download to watch on their computers or transfer to a hi-definition TV.

- From a marketing perspective, they may have wanted to provide only a glimpse of what this project was about in order to motivate lots of people to see the actual Lincoln Center installation and future exhibits. Or,

- They might not have put much thought into how they would use online video in the first place.

From my perspective, I think that they missed a golden opportunity. I would have made the videos of 2-4 dancers available in many different formats - including top quality high-definition formats that would dazzle viewers when watched on a Hi-Def TV. I would have posted these videos on popular sites such as YouTube (obviously lower-quality versions) as well as on emerging hi-def video hosting sites. I would also have encouraged Apple TV owners to download these videos for viewing on their wide-screen TVs. Finally, I would have targeted online technology publications and given them embedable videos so that they could feature videos on their site and write behind-the-scenes articles about the technology used for this project.

The end result would be more people would come to see these exhibits live and when the producers started to sell a HD-DVD or Blue-Ray versions of this project, a large audience would be ready to buy them.

And in terms of the overall connection that the general public has with dance - or does not have with dance - a better presentation of this material online would serve as a fun and engaging way for people to think about the experience of movement in new ways.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:23 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

July 11, 2007

Multimedia Preview of Japan Society's Fall Performing Arts Season

We just posted audio interview with Yoko Shioya, artistic director, Japan Society, and multimedia preview of their upcoming Fall performing arts season.

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The Art of Real-Time Digital Choreography

Misnomer Dance Theater shows how it uses digital video in real-time to enhance the process of creating dance. Read their blog post, "Rehearsals at The Yard," and watch this video:

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July 10, 2007

Upcoming Podcasts

I went with Eva Yaa Asantewa this afternoon to a press event at the Japan Society announcing their centennial fall performing arts season. Afterwards, Eva conducted an audio interview with Japan Society Artistic Director Yoko Shioya, who conducted the presentation. In addition to posting the audio interview tomorrow, we'll also upload pictures and video highlights of their upcoming fall season.

I'm going to be doing a number of video interviews in the coming week. Tomorrow I'm interviewing Ellis Wood, founder and artistic director of Ellis Wood Dance. And next week, I'm interviewing Stephen Greco, the new executive director of Dance Theater Workshop.

More to come on the interview front...

Posted by Doug Fox at 5:16 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

July 9, 2007

New Dance Podcast from New York City

You can listen to the first audio interview on the new Great Dance Podcast.

This afternoon, dance critic and journalist Eva Yaa Asantewaa interviewed tap superstars Ayodele Casel and Jason Samuels-Smith who will be performing at this week's Tap City.

It's a real pleasure to be working with Eva on this project. She brings a wealth of insight and knowledge about the local dance community. Here's Eva's brief post about the interview.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:35 PM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

July 8, 2007

Dance Movement Converted into Renewable Energy

How do you convert the motion of dancers into a renewable energy source? Watch this Sustainable Dance Club video from Sustainable Rotterdam [via Switched]:

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:53 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Article19 on Shooting Dance Videos

While on the topic of Article19 (see previous post), Martin French has good piece on shooting videos of dance performances. The article covers camera positions and ideal number of cameras, the importance of full-frame shooting and avoiding close-ups for the most part, lighting, sound and other topics.

One thought about lighting. Martin writes:

Lighting for dance, for the most part, is rubbish. It's too dark, too murky or at the other end of the scale, to harsh and over saturated with colour.

No question that lighting is a major obstacle for shooting good dance videos.

And he suggests:

If you are shooting during a tech run then ask your lighting designer to adjust the light to compensate for the cameras if any of the above issues are present when you are setting up. Making the light as even as possible will ensure a good shoot and you can simply reset the lighting levels back to their theatrical requirements for the show.

Two questions:

Wouldn't it be better to work with director/choreographer well before tech rehearsal or performance to encourage a lighting design that is more accommodating to the needs of digital video? By the time a tech rehearsal comes around, doesn't the lighting designer want to work on perfecting the lighting and getting the cues right for the performance that is just hours away?

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:39 PM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Article19 Review of Great Dance and Other Dance Sites

In "Danger, Danger, Danger," Michelle Lefevre of Article19 reviews Great Dance, The Winger and other dance sites.

Good food for thought. I want to think about this before commenting. If you have suggestions, criticisms or ideas for how I can improve Great Dance, please post comment or email me.

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:25 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

July 1, 2007

In New York City for July

I drove-up to New York City at 6:01 this morning. It was a piece of cake - no traffic and beautiful weather.

I'll probably be here through much of July. I'm also going to take some excursions to see family and dance festivals/programs in upstate NY and Massachusetts.

I plan to see performances, meet dancers/choreographers and probably do some video interviews while I'm here in NY. If you have thoughts or suggestions or would like to get together, please email me.

I'll be blogging a bit less than normal over the coming week.

But I will write an overview of the incredible week I just had taking the Crafting Dances program at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. I say this without exaggeration: This week was a revelation for me in terms of learning about dance, experimenting with movement, creating a dance piece and thinking about how I want to move ahead with my dancing. The Dance Exchangers who ran the program - Liz Lerman, Peter DiMuro, Elizabeth Johnson and Martha Wittman - and all of the participants in the program were wonderful and I learned a tremendous amount from everybody.

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:14 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)