August 30, 2007

Eva Interviews Sitelines' Nolini Barretto

Earlier this week Eva Yaa Asantewaa conducted an audio interview with Nolini Barretto, producer and curator of the annual Sitelines summer festival, a project of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

In addition to listening to Eva's interview, I encourage you to visit the 2006 Sitelines website. You'll find an excellent archive of pictures and videos from last year's site-specific dance performances.

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

August 29, 2007

Can Dancers Make a Living from the Internet?

Amanda Abrams wrote a post yesterday "How to Eat; or, Bringing Home the Bacon" that addresses a fundamental question about whether it's possible for creative people to make a living doing what they love:

We can all agree that actually making a living as a dancer is a ridiculous impossibility, at least in this country...

In the cases of the few dancers who do manage to make a living from their creative interests as opposed to supporting themselves from non-related jobs, it is usually done by "cobbling together a mix of teaching, bodywork and dance production."

Amanda believes that to earn one's livelihood solely from creative pursuits

...requires creativity itself, an openness of mind to brainstorming and combining potentially incongruent concepts. I love the idea of gradually developing a plan that is totally unconventional and unique to one individual, but figuring it out is a hell of a task.

Local dancers Kelly Mayfield and Daniel Burkholder follow-up Amanda's post with their own stories of the challenges that they have to struggle with in order to make it as artists.

The Internet as New Revenue Stream for Dancers

Amanda's post really addresses one of the underlying questions that I've been thinking about as I prepare to expand Great Dance in September:

Is it really possible for dance-makers to use the Internet in innovative ways in order to generate new and more reliable revenue streams, and, as a result, be able to devote more of their time and energy to their creative interests?

My answer is yes although lots of work and experimentation has to be done to make this happen. And as things stand now, the dance community is at the very early stages of developing different approaches to benefiting directly from the Internet.

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August 28, 2007

Eva Interviews Dancer-Choreographer Ashleigh Leite

We just posted audio interview that Eva Yaa Asantewaa did yesterday with dancer-choreographer Ashleigh Leite.

We also added YouTube videos of two works choreographed by Ashleigh including this one of Autopsy:

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August 27, 2007

Upgrading to Moveable Type 4.0

I just upgraded to Movable Type 4.0, the new release of the blogging software I use.

You may encounter some technical glitches or formatting problems over the next few days. Please let me know if you run into any problems.

Thanks,
Doug

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Immersive 3D Videoconferencing for Dance

The TEEVE Project (Tele-immersive Environment for EVErbody), a research project from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of California, Berkeley, is an immersive 3D video conferencing system with applications for dance.

From the site's video page, you can watch the video: "TEEVE: New Digital Options for Collaborative Dance in Geographically Distributed Tele-immersive Spaces." The video file is large - 266 MB. But definitely worth watching.

The clip gives you an overview of how dancers at two different locations can interact in real-time in a virtual landscape. The images of the animated dancers in this virtual space are not as good as I would have thought - I'm curious why this is the case. But the researchers give a good overview of how the process of capturing, streaming and rendering video works.

Screen Shots from Video

Tele-Immersive Applications for Dance

Toward the end of the video, the researchers share their thoughts about the value of this tele-immersive application for dance education and physical therapy. While I'm obviously an advocate for technology, I don't see how virtual, distributed environments can really play a significant role in dance education. I was thinking about all of the great comments to my post in which I seek suggestions on how to continue my dance education in NYC. At least for myself, I have no desire to learn about dance and movement from teachers who are not physically present in the studio with me.

But maybe in terms of different types of remote collaborations among choreographers and dancers who are working on upcoming performances, Internet-only dances and related projects, there will be more possibilities for this immersive environment.

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August 24, 2007

Expanded Great Dance Now in Production

In preparation for launching an expanded Great Dance blogging platform for the dance community in September, I'm now in the process of upgrading and redesigning my site.

I'm using the new version of Movable Type, which has better functionality and more features. One of the important areas that will be expanded on Great Dance are the different ways that readers can participate in conversations and track their comments and posts.

Over the summer, I've had great conversations with dancers, choreographers and others involved in dance about hosting their dedicated or short-term blogs on Great Dance. These new blogs will start to be introduced in September and then on an on-going basis over the following months.

I'll provide updates as we get closer to the new site. If you're interested in blogging, please contact me.

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August 22, 2007

Google to Launch New Video Ad Format for YouTube

Google has decided on a video ad format for YouTube videos. At first, this ad format will display on videos for members of YouTube's professional content network, according to NewTeeVee. The CPM is $20 and the revenue split with video producers has not been made public.

I think this in-line video ad format that I describe below works for both dance videos and sponsors who want their video commercials featured within these dance videos.

A transparent graphic ad will appear 15 seconds into a video and take up the bottom 20% of the screen. If you click on the ad, a pop-up window appears over the main video screen with a sponsor video. If you don't click on the transparent ad after about 10 seconds, the overlay converts into a small button on the bottom right of the ad that you can click any time to watch the commercial.

To see the video ads at this point, you have to watch videos on YouTube. Here's an example: How to: Create an evening look in minutes

And here are screen shots that show you what the ads look like:

The transparent banner ad appears 15 seconds into video:

If you click banner ad, you can watch sponsorship message:

If you don't click ad, a little carrot button at bottom right of screen can be clicked any time to watch ad:

This Google approach to monetizing videos makes sense to me. Pre-roll ads and post roll ads (ads that run before and after videos) simply do not work and annoy viewers. The overlay ad approach is the best balance for both viewers and sponsors.

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August 21, 2007

The Choreography of Soccer

Vanity Fair's James Wolcott characterized me as an "aghast bystander" in his post that references my review of last week's broadcast of the Mark Morris performance from Lincoln Center. He doesn't agree with my premise that it doesn't make sense for the TV to cut back and forth between the performance and the musicians.

I think my reaction to this live broadcast is in part a result to my constant annoyance at how US soccer games are produced for TV.

American sports are obsessed with individual effort and accomplishment. While we have popular team sports in this country, the TV producers and promoters are always looking to hype the extraordinary efforts of the superstars. This approach works in baseball, basketball and football--baseball is easy because only one batter is up at a time, and in basketball and football there are so many breaks in the action that replays of individual performances can be re-played endlessly.

But in soccer focusing too much on individual wizardry during a broadcast can really mess-up how TV viewers get to watch the game. I stopped watching US soccer games because the camera is always zoomed-in too close to the player with the ball and the players immediately around the ball. And in addition the camera is vertically too close to the ground so you end-up seeing individual players more than the action unfolding.

Soccer is similar to dance in that it's at heart about the offensive team creating and using space in unpredictable and innovative ways to help push the ball closer to the other team's net. So with the American obsession with individual action dictating the rules of TV coverage, viewers don't get to see space being created by players that don't have the ball. We only get to see the immediate source and vicinity of the current action separate from how the game is currently evolving - this was my main criticism of how Mark Morris' performance was covered by PBS--although it doesn't seem that anybody else shares my annoyance at an excessive focus on individual performers at the expense of the larger picture.

In addition, broadcasts of soccer games are always interrupting the action with replays. This bugs me to no end. I like seeing replays especially of goals. But I don't like to see the flow of the game interrupted by replays. Soccer doesn't have breaks in the action like American team sports. So there is very limited time to insert the replays without messing-up the continuity of the game. So the reason why I want the cuts to Emanuel Ax axed is because it just interrupts the flow.

I guess I like continuity and I'm not a huge fan of the gazillion TV shows and movies that cut from one scene to the next every 1/100th of a second.

So instead of watching US soccer games, which aren't really up to the level of other countries, I watch Latin American, English and Italian soccer--those are my choices on the channels I get. For the most part these non-US games are covered in a way that is much more in tune with the nature of the sport.

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August 17, 2007

Live PBS Broadcast of Mark Morris' "Mozart Dances" is a TV Viewing Nightmare

Last night's live TV broadcast on PBS from Lincoln Center of Mark Morris' "Mozart Dances" featured more cut-off body parts than a meat packing plant.

I was so annoyed by how this performance was produced for home viewing that I was never able to get around to enjoying the dancing.

From the opening seconds, the camera views, zooming, panning and cuts were disjointed, awkward and bothersome.

Mark Morris may have been too prescient when he wrote via email to dance writer Apollinaire Scherr prior to this broadcast:

...with the cuts from camera to camera breaking up the flow of choreography, TV can "drain dance of tension, gravity and dynamics..."

TV does not by definition have to sap dance of all its energy, but in this case the production unfortunately accomplished this result.

For starters, there was no establishing shot to set the scene. There were also way too many close-ups of heads, torsos and small gestures.

There were even 3/4 body shots which makes no sense at all when it comes to dance. Most of the 3/4 shots were from head to knees. But one of the 3/4 shots, I believe, was actually from toes to neck--pretty amusing to see headless dancers. What happened was that a switch was made to a camera that was about to zoom-out but the camera change was made too early and the shot ended-up being of the headless dancers. Did anybody else see this?

But when it comes to cutting-off body parts, I am dumbfounded. How is it possible for Lincoln Center to broadcast a dance program where legs, arms and entire sides of bodies are not in the frame? Was I watching a wide-screen broadcast on a regular TV?

And how can a TV broadcast of a dance program be made where there is no basic appreciation for the most basic elements of dance: movement through space, development of choreography over time, perception of depth, and overall use of the performance area?

This is just dance filming 101. A video camera cannot constantly pan at the same rate that a dancer or dancers move across the stage. The dancer will be centered in the frame and you can't get a feel for movement in space.

There were so many jumps from one camera to the next that it was impossible to get a sense for what was happening. I felt that I was just watching a disconnected series of movement phrases by different sets of dancers who happened to be on the stage at the same time.

Even worse, much worse, is that the producers felt this uncontrollable urge to cut back and forth to the the piano soloists Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki. I realize that is a Mostly Mozart Festival with world-famous musicians but does this really justify taking the camera off of the dancers while a performance was in progress? Personally, I think it's a terrible mistake.

Then there were problems with the camera angles and timing. Often for a fraction of a long second before dancers came in from the wings a switch would be made to the orchestra-level camera on the same side of the stage where the dancers were about to enter (for example, camera audience right filming entrance from stage left). In addition to switching too early to these side cameras, this is a very ineffective way to video entering dancers - the image is flat and the entrances end-up being too separate from the rest of the dance. Why not use a center camera or a camera on the far side so you have a diagonal shot of entrances and then can zoom out to capture the choreography developing on stage?

Overall, my guess is that the producers were too preoccupied with the idea of controlling and mapping out the viewing experience for an audience not experienced with dance. And, in the process, they removed everything that had anything to do with dance.

Also in Apollinaire's article, she quotes the director of PBS' "Live From Lincoln Center" series. Kirk Browning makes what I think is an overstated case for the need for lots of close-ups and cuts:

...the viewer will go to sleep if you don't give him something specific. The camera has to deal in specifics and continually break up the space...The camera needs to direct our gaze.

The odd thing is that Browning's instincts are to "stick a camera out front and let it roll." Leaning toward this simpler production approach would have been a big improvement.

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:18 AM - Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

August 16, 2007

Eva Podcast with Gina Gibney

On Great Dance Podcast, we just posted audio interview that Eva Yaa Asantewaa did with Gina Gibney, artistic director and founder of Gina Gibney Dance.

In addition to the podcast, you'll also find some pictures and a video clip from Gibney's current work in progress "The Distance Between Us."

Posted by Doug Fox at 10:44 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 15, 2007

Planning My Future Dance Education

I'm moving up to New York City in September.

One of the things I'm starting to do now is figure out how I'm going to move ahead with my dance education and which types of dance classes and programs I'll take in NYC.

After taking classes for the past two years--modern and jazz mostly--it seems like a good time to assess what I'd like to accomplish in terms of my long-term dance goals.

Two programs I took in June have definitely had an impact on my thinking about dance. I took a week-long institute, "Generating and Crafting Movement" at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange -- my write-up. And I took a contact improvisation class with Daniel Burkholder at Joy of Motion -- my write-up.

Both of these programs contributed to my desire to create and experiment with my own movement.

So here's a brief overview of some of my thoughts at this point and I'd be delighted to hear your ideas and suggestions.

My goals:

- Develop my own movement style

- Learn how to improvise

- Learn about movement analysis

- Stay healthy

Types of Classes and Programs I Might Take

These are my initial thoughts on the types of programs I'll take:

- Classes in creative movement and improvisation - other than contact improvisation classes, I'm not sure what types of classes I should be looking for.

- Modern/contemporary dance classes representing different schools and approaches.

- Workshops in Laban Movement Analysis or similar studies. I only have a very vague understanding of what these classes are about. But this general area of study seems intriguing. Are there other types of educational programs in this area?

- Later on, maybe classes in choreography and composition - at least the basics.

- Programs that help you better understand your body so you can stay healthy - I was reading about the Alexander Technique, which seems to address this issue.

Of course there are time constraints, but the above are my current thoughts on what I'd like to accomplish with my dancing.

I would very much appreciate suggestions and recommendations about the above.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:41 AM - Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (0)

August 14, 2007

How Do I Get There?

If there is one thing that really bugs me about many websites that promote dance performances and related programs is not being able to figure out where the venue is located.

It would seem like the easiest thing in the world for an organization (theater, festival, studio, dance company, etc.) to include complete address information, a map or a map link, and written directions on their website. But often I'm completely baffled by the address information that is provided and I have to take too many steps to figure out how to get there.

So here are my suggestions about providing website visitors with the information they need to get to a venue:

Address Information

The address for the venue should be written-out in its entirety:

full venue name (theater/studio and building name as well if necessary)
complete street address or names of streets at intersection
city, state and zip code

I've been to websites for festivals that don't even tell you in what town they are located in - so I can't even begin to figure out how to get there.

It is very important that the zip code is included. Many people, including myself, go to Google Maps and search for a location. Google Maps can get confused if you do not have a zip code.

Also, you do not want to embed the venue address in a graphic--this doesn't happen too often--because you can't then cut and paste the address for use in Google Maps or another application.

Finally, if the venue is on a campus or other setting with a lot of buildings, you should specify the full name of the building where the performance will take place. And this name should correspond to the name given to this building on any maps and diagrams:

"The performance will take place at the ABC theater in the DEF building, which is behind the XYZ building. See below diagram for location of DEF building."

Maps and Diagrams

Maybe it's me, but I'm always confused by the diagrams and maps that venues include about where theaters are located--this is especially the case with campuses and outdoor venues in parks and recreation areas.

The diagrams are often too small, I can't find the building/theater I'm looking for and I can't figure out where the venue is in the context of a city or town. For some reason the creators of these diagrams think it's sufficient to highlight the nearby streets, whose location I don't know in the first place, and not even indicate which way is north.

Even worse, I'm forced to open up a PDF file with diagrams, which is not something I want to waste my time with.

So my recommendation is to always include a link to Google Maps. This way visitors to your website will never be confused and they can see both a detailed view of your location as well as see where it's located within a larger geographic area.

To create a Google Map link, enter the address for your venue and then click on "Link to this page" toward the top right of the page. Then copy the link that is displayed in a pop-up box.

Even better, Google is about to make it easy to embed maps directly into your website--see story in Mashable. It has been possible for a while to embed Google maps like I did for this customized Washington, DC map of performance venues. But this embedding process is complicated.

Whether you link to or embed a map, you want to ensure that the marker that indicates the location of your venue is in the right place. In some cases, you might enter an address and Google will put the marker a block away from the actual location. If your venue is on a corner, the solution is easy to fix. In the address search engine for Google Maps, replace the street address with the names of the two streets at the intersection (e.g., Main street and Maple street).

Directions

Most websites do a decent job of providing written directions to a venue. The best approach is to write different sets of directions based upon the locations that people are likely to come from.

In addition to driving instructions, it's also important to provide public transportation details.

Printing and Reading

Addresses, maps and written directions should be easy to read and print. All of the necessary information should be on one or two easy-to-read pages that can be printed without any of the information being cut-off.

I thought about writing this post about how I get annoyed with venue maps and directions after reading Ilana's post on DCDanceBlog about her interest in finding good dance websites with accessible contact information.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:49 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

August 13, 2007

Licensing Music for Your Dance Videos

There are thousands upon thousands of videos on the Internet representing all styles and genres of dance. Yet what percentage of the sound tracks on these videos are legal?

My guess is that a very large percentage of these sound tracks are not legal. In other words, dancers, dance companies and dance instructors may not have secured the proper legal rights to use the included music in their videos. It is probable that the necessary rights were obtained for using the music during a dance performance, but music played during live performances is done pursuant to different licensing arrangements than music distributed on the Internet.

I don't believe that dancers and dance companies can continue to distribute Internet videos with music to which they don't have the appropriate legal rights. I'm saying this for legal, ethical and practical purposes.

The legal and ethical reasons are simple: Why would you want to use somebody else's work without proper authorization and why should musical artists not receive compensation for their work?

And from a practical perspective dancers, dance companies, instructors, dance filmmakers and others cannot experiment with monetizing their videos on the Internet if some of their content--in this case music--is not being used in a legal manner. Put simply, you'll get sued as soon as you start making any money or maybe even before you generate any revenue.

Am I wrong or right about my above contention? If I'm wrong, how are dancers going about the process of licensing the music that they use in their videos?

The High Cost of Licensing Music for Your Dance Videos

I am in the very early stages of learning about the process of licensing music for your dance videos. So what I write below is definitely not meant to be authoritative in any way--I may be flat-out wrong in some instances. I just want to point out what appears to be the astronomical fees involved in licensing copyrighted music in traditional ways. I'm about to do more research on this topic and if you have experience licensing music or are an expert in this field, I'd be interested in speaking with you.

Depending upon the music that you want to license for Internet use, the process of obtaining the appropriate rights can be complicated and expensive.

Let's take a piece of copyrighted music that you want to use in your video. For starters, you'll need two basic types of licenses:

1) The rights to the music composition--the lyrics and the notes, and

2) The rights to the sound recording--the actual music as recorded by an artist or group.

You may need other rights as well. For a detailed overview of this process, read this "Podcasting Legal Guide."

You'll first need the rights to reproduce and distribute the musical composition. You do this by going to the Harry Fox Agency. According to the "Podcasting Legal Guide," the cost for this license will be 9.1 cents per download per song. So if your song is downloaded 1,000 times, you would owe $91 (($0.91 x 1000).

You may also need the rights to publicly perform a copyrighted work, which can be done through organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. (I'm avoiding the definition of a "public performance" because I'm confused by this concept). In any case, ASCAP charges podcasters (continuing examples given in "Podcasting Legal Guide") 1.85% of revenue plus 0.06 cents per session. So for 1,000 downloads your cost would be $60 ($0.06 x 1000) plus 1.85% of any revenue.

So let's say you needed both of the above two licenses. Your cost for 1,000 downloads would be $150.00. That's an insanely high amount. Say tens of thousands of people watch your video with the licensed music? You could quickly owe thousands of dollars.

Pursuing Less Expensive Approaches to Licensing Music

Whether my numbers above are more or less accurate or not, it seems painfully clear that dancers and dance companies will want to seek alternative ways of finding and gaining rights to music that is used in their videos. These videos might be of performances, rehearsals, dance instruction or in dance-on-camera productions.

There are a number of approaches that you can take:

1) Work directly with musicians that are creating and playing their own work.

2) Use musical compositions/sound tracks that are in the public domain.

3) Use works that have Creative Commons licenses

4) Use inexpensive, royalty-free music.

Next Post: Online Music Links

Within the next few days, I'll write a follow-up to this post with links to websites that include libraries of low-cost/royalty-free/creative commons-licensed music that you can use in your Internet videos.

For starters, you can visit the Open Media Directory: A free resource for finding legal, podsafe music and video.

Questions

How do you license music for your regular dance performances?

How do you license music for the Internet distribution of your videos?

Have you used the Internet to find music from unsigned bands?

Have you used specific websites to find royalty-free, low-cost or Creative Commons-licensed music?

When you work directly with musicians, do you get the rights to use their music on videos distributed via the Internet as well as during live performances?

Posted by Doug Fox at 7:22 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

August 12, 2007

Heidi Latsky Video Interview

At the "Dances for deeAnn" benefit concert at Dance Theater Workshop on July 2nd, Heidi Latsky Dance performed an untitled work-in-progress with dancers Lawrence Carter-Long and Associate Director Jeffrey Freeze.

This was Lawrence's first dance performance. He lives with cerebral palsy and he speaks and advocates on behalf of those with this neurological disorder. I didn't even realize that this duet was a mixed-ability piece. Lawrence and Jeffrey both have great presence on stage. And even though Lawrence is forced to walk in an awkward manner, I just thought it was part of the performance. Maybe I should have realized this. But you have to give credit to Artistic Director Heidi Latsky and the dancers if I was responding to this work (and moved by it) on its own terms as opposed to thinking about it as the result of a mixed-ability collaboration.

Heidi choreographed this piece, which is part of an evening-length work "From the Limb" with dancer Lisa Bufano, a double amputee.

I conducted this video interview with Heidi in mid-July in which she talks about her work with Lawrence and Jeffrey:

Click To Play

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August 10, 2007

Clare Byrne's Video Dance Blog - Exploring Canada and the US

Starting last year, New York City-based choreographer Clare Byrne created daily dances in her living room. These extended improvisations were eventually incorporated into her "Weekly Rites" video blog, which she started this June.

Each post consists of a short video excerpt from her dances along with her written thoughts and reflections. Clare is just back from an 8,000 mile road trip through Canada and the United States with her companion Stefan and her latest videos are performed in New Mexico, Glacier Park and Lake Superior.

From "Chama Canyon, New Mexico":

Wednesday morning Stefan and I saw a fox from our adobe porch, and stalked it down silently, barefooted, to the river. It eluded us, so we sat in the new sunshine just coming up over the canyon walls. I'd already greeted the developing day three times by that point. I have been doing the hours, the daily office, the rounds, with the monks of Monastery of Christ in the Desert for these two days. It is an entirely different way of using time, slow and careful and filled with many parts. I'm dry of ideas, just a funnel for taking in information; I don't know how it will come back out.

When talking with Clare by phone yesterday, we were wondering what it means for individuals to experience dance alone while watching Internet videos. What types of emotional reactions might viewers have and how are these different than watching live performances?

And what types of dance videos engage viewers in new, meaningful ways? I like the tranquil feeling and beautiful setting of Clare's New Mexico video above as well as the sounds she generates as she plants her feet and turns.

Posted by Doug Fox at 6:03 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 9, 2007

I Am Baffled by Dance and Technology Community

Since starting Great Dance two years ago, I've always wanted to provide extensive coverage about the latest developments in the dance and technology (D&T) arena. Essentially, I wanted to learn about how choreographers, dancers, technologists, multimedia specialists and others integrated digital tools and technologies into their performance work.

But I've been constantly disappointed because just about nobody in the D&T field is using the Internet to share their work, research and experimentations. This is especially strange given that people who explore the intersection of dance and technology should be the ones most comfortable using the Internet to promote their work and educate audiences about their interests.

The end result is that I can never find good information, resources and insights about many different technologies, applications and environments that are used by dancers including:

- Motion tracking
- Motion capture
- Sensors
- Wireless devices
- Software for manipulating multimedia (including video)
- Responsive dance environments
- Multi-site performances
- 3D modeling and animation
- A range of computer/technology hardware, and
- Other tools and software

So where are the websites and blogs from academics and students in D&T programs? Can students get credit for sharing their work online? Are professors/instructors interested in educating the public about their research? Where are all the dance practitioners who experiment with the technologies I mention above?

There simply have to be answers to these questions because to me, at least, this lack of coverage does not add up.

On a Practical Note...

From a practical standpoint, what will it take to encourage more people to blog about D&T research and performances such as what Troika Ranch is doing?

Matt Gough and I have begun to discuss different ways that blogs can be used to cover the D&T field. And as Great Dance expands, I intend to have one or more blogs addressing these topics.

Your thoughts about how D&T topics can best be covered on blogs would definitively be appreciated.

Posted by Doug Fox at 9:16 AM - Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

August 8, 2007

Understanding Troika Ranch's "Loop Diver"

Update: Mark Coniglio answers my below questions on latest post to his MySpace blog. Matt Gough offers his thoughts about Mark's answers.

I have been very intrigued and a bit frustrated with Troika Ranch's blog on MySpace about a work of theirs currently in development called "Loop Diver."

I'm intrigued because I'm fascinated by works that explore the integration of dance, video and multimedia elements. In addition, Mark Coniglio is the creator of the Isadora software program, which is used for real-time manipulation of video during performances.

I'm frustrated because in their blog Mark and Dawn Stoppiello make references to their use of "loops," a center piece of their work, without giving me sufficient background to understand what they're referring to.

So I'm writing this post to encourage Mark, Dawn and others to provide answers and clarifications to my questions below.

But first, here are two videos from their current explorations. You can read their blog for background about these videos and visit the YouTube links to read the comments for the first video:

Title: "BKLYN" - YouTube link:
Title: "Shirt Loop":

I was also doing a little experimentation. I created a side-by-side video panel, using You3b, of the two above videos so that you can watch these clips at the same time. I actually was forced to add a third video - so you can just focus on the two videos on the left of the panel. Here's link for comparison videos.

My Questions about "Loop Diver"

In the following paragraph, how does a computer lock performers into a "strict rational pattern"? How do performers than "shatter the loops' structure"?

The performers, visuals, and sounds in Loop Diver will be locked into relentless and strict rational patterns dictated by a computer. These fugue-like relationships – as complex as they are oppressive – will be interrupted, reshaped, and renewed by loop divers – performers, visuals or sounds that shatter the loops' structure.

What specifically is this module created with Isadora? What do these loops look like? What would be two or three examples of a "rich and complicated loop structure"?

What we do know is this: we are starting with the notion of a loop. The inspiration came out of a little module I created in my software Isadora that allowed my collaborator Dawn Stoppiello to create extremely rich and complicated loop structures: standard loops, loops that grow or shrink, shift forwards or backwards in time.

What does it mean to "impose the looping structure using Isadora"?

...she (and with her, all of us) have really agreed that the notion of making choreography in the traditional manner is simply not going to work for this piece. With the looping process starting to come into focus (record an improve, impose the looping structure using Isadora, dancers learn the looped material) it simply has become clear that "steps" are not what is important. Instead, the movements that are most compelling when looped are far more offhand than that.

What exactly is a "shifting loop"?

A couple of days ago, we were recording (with the intention of looping) an improv with all of the dancers where they chose some movement to perform. Lucia chose to simply remove her t-shirt. I keyed into this, and asked the dancers to form a straight line in front of the camera, to remove their t-shirt and drop it to the floor. We then took this video and made a very simple shifting loop -- one of the loop forms where a loop of fixed length moves through the videotaped material, slowly revealing the entire movement. Everyone in the group recognized that the result was quite powerful, requiring patience to experience, and recontextualizing this simple act into something much much more.

What does it mean for dancers to learn material from "looped videos"?

In any case, the key theme that Peter, Dawn and I have identified is one of violence. This primarily came out of watching the dancers attempt to learn the movement material from the looped videos. The imposition of the relentless and inorganic loops of the computer onto the bodies of the performers struck us as a kind of violence. We were forcing them to move in impossible ways... the mental fatigue that we witnessed in them as the attempted to perfect this material seemed almost like a kind of artistic torture.

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August 7, 2007

The Interconnectedness Among Different Dance Forms

Two excellent posts about the benefits of learning multiple dance forms:

In a Time to Dance, Maria writes about how her modern dance and salsa training have each contributed to strengthening the other:

I have gained a lot of strength, control and a greater consciousness of my movements. Even the differences between modern and salsa enhance the other. In modern and ballet, we have to have a lifted, aligned core and relaxed but straightened, fluid upper body. In salsa, we are more grounded--our center is found by bending our knees and our shoulders and torso move in opposition to our hips and feet. While there is always the risk that too much modern and ballet will stiffen up my Latin motion, somehow the contrast between the two makes me more conscious of the unique characteristics of the way you should carry yourself in each style.

And in Addicted2Salsa, Dano writes "Thinking Outside the Box-step," in which he describes how swing, ballroom, Argentine tango and hip-hop have enhanced his salsa dancing. When highlighting the benefits of swing, Dano writes:

From Swing (Lindy Hop, East Coast, West Coast, Charleston, Shag, & Balboa): I learned the basic concepts of lead and follow. Leading with my body and not with my arms has helped me tremendously. I learned how to use a person’s momentum to help move or spin her faster. I learned about musicality and syncopations and how to play with the music. Were I to characterize this dance, I would describe it as smooth, jazzy, and relaxed half of the time, yet energetic and happy the other half of the time.

I especially like these two posts because they emphasize the interconnections among diverse dance forms and the benefits of being exposed to many dance styles.

I would enjoy seeing this topic explored more online both in written form and with video clips. If you start with salsa, for example, a mix of many traditions, as Maria explains, it would be fascinating to see side-by-side videos that show how different styles of salsa share commonalities with other social dance forms. By seeing these videos in relationship to each other, along with good text descriptions, viewers would develop a much richer understanding of how different dance forms influence each other.

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August 6, 2007

Five Strategies for Engaging New Dance Audiences

In Friday's post I wrote about how to produce content for your blog that will engage new dance audiences.

In this post I'll write about how to market dance blogs to both groups that are "pre-conditioned" to find dance compelling if given the right access point as well as more difficult to reach audiences.

Since Danciti expressed their objection so effectively and concisely to my premise that dance blogs can be used to reach new audiences, I'm also writing this post to refute their argument. Danciti writes:

I don't think blogs reach beyond the super dedicated dance devotee. You read blogs about things that you already have a strong interest in rather than stumbling across a blog and finding a new interest in dance. Blogs aren't a very good entry point because they are written for such a niche audience. It's hard to get interested in a blog that is about the subtleties of dance if you're not already highly interested in dance.

Marketing Strategies

Here's a brief overview of five online marketing strategies you can pursue to build new audiences for your dance blog:

1) Cross-marketing partnerships with artists and arts organizations: The best place to reach "pre-conditioned" audiences (those who go to galleries/museums, theater-goers, opera lovers, etc.) online is by getting as much exposure as possible for dance on the websites (and other Internet initiatives) of these non-dance artists and organizations. Everybody benefits from this reciprocal marketing: Dancers and the artists/organizations with whom they partner both build more traffic and exposure while nobody losses their audience in the process.

2) Targeted distribution of topic-specific dance content: Dance performances deal with hundreds of different topics - health/medical issues, spirituality and healing, science and technology, environment and sustainability, war and violence and many other issues. For just about any theme or topic you can imagine for a dance work, there are hundreds or thousands of websites that deal with this topic and have audiences that are highly engaged with this issue. By making your dance material available to these websites, especially in the form of video content, you can engage these targeted audiences directly with your dance material, which many will find quite poignant. And this can be done regardless of whether or not these audiences have any exposure to dance whatsoever.

3) Partnerships between dancers and presenters: As more dancers embrace blogging, there will be new opportunities for theaters, performing arts venues, festivals and touring organizers to promote performances by highlighting a dancer's/dance company's blogging activities. Some presenters receive large-scale website traffic that goes well beyond traditional dance audiences.

4) Dance education for newcomers: As things stand today, there is no online video material that is designed to help new dance audiences learn how to enjoy and appreciate dance. Yes, there are some dance instructional videos. But I have never seen a single online video that was intended to provide insight and analysis so that people with no dance background could actually learn about an upcoming performance. When this gap is filled, I believe that it will be easier to cultivate new dance audiences.

5) Join with charities and causes that are important to you: This suggestion in related to item two above. The theme of your work may address issues and ideas that are important to local charitable organizations. Why not partner with these organizations both online and off-line? You can perform at, say, a fundraiser and also make your dance video content available for the organization's website. In return, you get to support a cause that is important to you and to connect with an audience that comes to your work because of a commitment to an idea, hope or initiative not directly through movement.

Implementing Your Strategy

The above strategies represent a handful of the many different online approaches that can be pursued to grow your connections with non-traditional dance audiences. But none of these approaches, I believe, will be very successful unless considerable thought is devoted to the types of content you produce (see Friday's post with suggestions of questions to address in your blog).

If you produce a blog within the framework described by Danciti--an insider's blog by and for dancers only (or dance devotees)--then I don't think it's realistic to pursue the above strategies. But if you want to broaden the scope and purpose of your blog (or create a new blog along these lines), then I believe you can reach much larger audiences by implementing a number of the above outreach initiatives.

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August 3, 2007

Using Dance Blogs to Reach Beyond Traditional Dance Audiences

Wednesday night I spoke by phone with Chris Elam, whose Misnomer Dance Theater is in residence at Summer Stages Dance @ Concord Academy in Massachusetts.

Chris was kind enough to share his ideas about my plans to expand Great Dance into a larger blogging platform for the dance community.

One of his recommendations was that I work with dance bloggers to reach out to audiences not currently engaged with dance, but who are pre-conditioned to enjoy dance if given the right access-points.

Using blogs to foster conversations among dancers and others directly connected to dance is, of course, very worthwhile. But figuring out the best approaches to motivating people who don't currently attend dance performances to become regular audience members is invaluable.

Chris offered suggestions that fall into two main categories:

First, it's important to use blogging, and the Internet in general, to reach casual viewers by telling the human stories behind dance, offering accessible ways to "decode" performances, and constantly thinking about who is the larger audience with whom you wish to communicate.

Second, there are many creative people who are engaged with the arts who don't think about attending dance performances--museum-goers, theater fans, writers and many others. These people are already "pre-conditioned" to enjoy dance if they are given a way to "cross-connect" their current artistic interests with dance and movement.

Stephen Greco, the new executive director of Dance Theater Workshop, offered a similar perspective in the video interview I conducted with him. He discusses the core DTW audience devoted to the "forward edge of dance," and the importance of reaching out to another larger "concentric ring" of people who would be interested in dance if they knew more about it:

Dance is no less sophisticated, no less propolsive, no less important to American culture than the visual arts which are flourishing [in nearby Chelsea]...but I know that people who are smart enough to care about the visual arts would be as interested in the very sophisticated, amazing stuff that's happening on our stage.

Blogging Beyond the "Core" Dance Community

In the context of Chris' recommendations, I'd like to offer some of my thoughts about different approaches that dance bloggers can take to reaching out to and connecting with new and casual dance audiences.

Content and Stories:

For starters, my personal feeling is that dancers have great, fascinating stories to share, but, for the most part, they are not shared online. These stories, if told in a compelling, accessible manner, can play a major role in grabbing the interest of people who do not normally see dance performances.

Here are some possible examples of topics that dancers/choreographers can address in their blogs and on their websites:

- Why do you dance? What inspired you? How old were you when you started dancing? Were there one or two moments in your dance education/career that really stand out in your mind as pivotal in your formation as a dancer? Why did you become a dancer as opposed to becoming a different type of artist or pursuing non-artistic endeavors?

- How do you work to maintain/improve your skills and technique as a dancer? What challenges you to grow as a dancer? Do you take certain types of classes? Are there certain teachers that you enjoy taking classes with? Do you like to take dance classes in styles of dance that you have very little exposure in?

- How did you become a choreographer? How did you make the transition from dancer to choreographer? How would you describe your choreography? Does the choreographic process ever feel overwhelming or impossible? How do you get back on track after being uncertain how a dance should proceed? Do you seek out certain types of dancers to collaborate with? How would you describe the characteristics/qualities of these dancers?

- What was the source of inspiration for the dance piece you are currently working on? Was it an idea? A discussion? An emotional reaction? Music you heard? An artwork you saw? A result of experimenting with movement in the studio? Whatever the impetus was, can you write about (text) or discuss it (video) so that visitors to your blog who may not be familiar with dance can connect to your story?

- What is the process that you normally use (or use for a specific work) when you create dance? How, for example, do you specifically generate movement? What kinds of movement normally capture your attention and why? Once you develop the movement vocabulary for a work, can you shoot a video so that viewers can see the basic building blocks of your dance piece? When viewers see your performance, will they be able to see the basic building blocks of movement?

- How would you go about helping audiences to better understand or get inside your work? What should they focus on - rhythm, pacing, emotional connections (lack of connections), shapes, patterns, transformations, use of space, or other elements? Would you like audiences to be in a certain state of mind, receptive to certain things, stimuli, ideas, reactions? Would you like audiences to see a specific art exhibit before hand? Maybe see a play? Listen to an opera? Watch an online video? Read a book or article?

- What are new ways that you can share your work with audiences? For example, why not shoot a video of a rehearsal and put two versions of this video online? The first version would have the musical track and the second video would have audio commentary with choreographer and dancers.

- Specifically addressing Chris' recommendation about reaching out to pre-conditioned audiences, do you have ideas about how you would speak to different types of audiences? How would you use words, video or audio to reach visual artists? Opera goers? People who are very creative? I'm not exactly sure how I'd answer this question. But it seems that it's very worthwhile to explore how to connect with people who are predisposed to enjoying dance but don't really know where to start.

- If you integrate interactivity, technology or anything digital into your performances, how do you write about/cover these types of performances in a way that connects with audiences, and doesn't overwhelm or confuse them? Writing about technology can be very challenging. Finding a way to humanize and make more meaningful your explorations, however, is very worthwhile. How can you use pictures and videos in particular to simplify what you're working on a making your dance more comprehensible.

- Some dance works by their nature focus on esoteric topics and may have complicated theoretical underpinnings. Is there a way to give casual audiences a window into these works that will increase their understanding and enjoyment? How would you go about achieving this? Are there connections that you can make between your work and other art forms? Or connections with completely non-artistic things, projects or pursuits?

The above just represents a handful of different types of questions, that I hope, may serve as a useful springboard for thinking about how to communicate your work to casual and new dance-goers via the Internet. I don't in any way mean to suggest that the way you write about or talk about your work has to be dumbed down. What I am proposing is that considerable thought and energy is devoted to exploring new approaches to giving audiences access to your dance work.

Next Post: Marketing to New Audiences

In my next post, I'll discuss different possible approaches, especially those using the Internet, to reaching out to arts-going and creative audiences that don't usually go to dance performances.

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August 2, 2007

Adaptive Architectural Objects Perform Unique Choreography

Ruairi Glynn of Interactive Architecture blog writes about his latest project "Performative Ecologies" - his post and his project page.

In a nutshell, he has created adaptive objects with a light source and a twirling arm. Here are two pictures:

Each object has access to a database of stored gestural movements. (Watch short video and longer video to see examples of movements).

In performance mode, objects seek out human beings in the environment and then perform for them by pulling movements from their database. These objects are adaptive in the sense that they use facial recognition software to determine the level of interest of each audience member. The objects then select different stored choreography and combinations of this choreography to maximize attention levels of viewers. (They may also generate movements in real-time but I'm not sure).

Performing for an audience:

Using facial recognition software:

After each performance, the adaptive objects "convene." The objects with less success in the attention-grabbing arena acquire the "moves" of the more successful objects. Then there's another performance and the robots go back to work constantly modifying their choreography to have as wide an appeal as possible.

According Glynn, his project explores the nature of interactivity, not simply pre-programmed responsiveness, in architectural environments.

If I was to try and sum it up [his project] in a sentence, it is fundamentally about giving our architecture the ability to enter into dialog with us, rather than simply respond with fixed behaviours to fixed commands from us, to learm from its experiences and adapt its behaviours, to suggest new spatial configurations and see how we respond.

Very often I find that so called ‘interactive environments’ rarely enable the architecture to negotiate its behaviours, but rather follow pre-choreographed routines when triggered. More broadly, a great deal of misuse of the term ‘interactive’ is common in art, design and architectural discourse and I believe that this has diluted its true meaning and huge potential. [Read full post...]

Interactive or Responsive Dance Environments?

To what extent does Glynn's contention that the term "interactive environments" is often misused in art apply to similar explorations in the dance world? In other words, are some/many of the technology-based dance performances and installations truly interactive or are they primarily responsive?

Exploring the Nature of Dance

Following-up on Amanda's post this morning, "Dance and Film," on DCDanceblog, does this "Performative Ecologies" installation shed light on what makes the movement/dancing of human beings unique or not unique in the context of adaptive objects that can create, perform and share their own choreography?

I find it interesting that the adaptive quest of the objects in this project is completely driven by market forces. The only motivating question is how much attention am I getting and how do I get more of this attention. Could Glynn have used other objectives to drive the "creativity" of the adaptive objects? How about maximizing certain emotional reactions/states of human viewers? How about offending audiences? How about getting audiences to talk with each other? How about ignoring the humans all together and focusing on forming strong emotional ties with the other objects?

Vias taken:

- Networked Performance

- Rhizome.org

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August 1, 2007

Great Dance is Expanding

I'm in the process of expanding the Great Dance website into a large-scale blogging platform for the dance community.

This means that greatdance.com will host many dance blogs that cover a range of topics from different perspectives. Among the blogging formats that will be featured include:

- Dedicated and short-term blogs by dancers and dance companies

- Audio and video podcast interviews with dancers and choreographers

- Blogs from dance writers, students and others who cover dance

- Hot topic blogs for extended conversations about important issues, and

- Dance blogs dedicated to the Internet and technology, video and film making, dance instruction, improving dance literacy and other topics

Goals

I'm introducing an expanded website for the following reasons:

1) I would like to help dancers, choreographers and dance companies take full advantage of the Internet for creative, marketing, educational and community-building purposes.

2) To work with dance-makers to create new and expanded revenue streams from advertising and sponsorship, online contributions, increased bookings, larger audiences, and product sales and licensing (digital and packaged).

3) To provide dancers with on-going education and recommendations about how to use digital tools and technologies for both artistic and business purposes. And,

4) To develop an active online conversation that provides dancers and dance audiences with a compelling and meaningful forum for discussing a wide range of dance-related topics.

The Blogging Challenge for Dancers

In theory blogging offers dancers, choreographers and dance companies great opportunities for sharing creative work, reaching larger audiences, building active communities and developing new revenue streams.

But in practice it is very difficult for dance-makers to achieve these goals when working independently.

The Solution: A Large-Scale Blogging Platform for Dance

My approach to solving this challenge is by inviting dancers and dance companies to create their own blogs on Great Dance.

Participating dancers and dance companies are provided with:

1) A free blog on Great Dance. In some cases bloggers may join others in topic-specific blogs.

2) Free blogging support and guidance including how to add multimedia elements such as pictures and videos to blog posts and how to submit content via mobile devices.

3) An instant audience of readers and extensive on-going marketing to build more traffic for your blog. And,

4) Community development tools and promotion so that your blog readers are encouraged to become actively involved in your discussions.

New Revenue Streams

By building this high-quality, multi-blog platform, it then becomes possible over time to generate both direct and indirect revenue streams for dancers and dance companies.

Realistically, it is not possible to generate sufficient online advertising revenue from sponsors, or financial contributions from website visitors unless you have a large, loyal audience of dance fans and supporters who visit and participate in your website. The same holds true for using the Internet to build audiences for your performances and to increase bookings.

So an important part of what I'm ramping-up to do now is sell advertising and sponsorship for this extended Great Dance blogging platform. Participating dance bloggers will then receive a percentage of the advertising revenue resulting from their blog readership, or will generate advertising revenue in other manners. I'm now in the process of exploring different possible revenue models.

In addition, I'll be working directly with dance bloggers to develop and pursue other revenue streams such as from increased contributions and more bookings.

Overall, one of my major goals is to create new business models for dancers so that they can generate greater financial support to pursue their artistic interests. I've written about this topic for almost two years and I'd like to play a constructive role in making this happen.

At the same time, I don't want to oversell or over-promise the financial possibilities of an expanded Great Dance for dance-makers. What I've described above is what I plan to work toward in collaboration with the dance community. Also, in some cases, there will be potential revenue streams and in other instances there may not be. For example, a dance company with its own blog on Great Dance may have a broader range of financial possibilities than a dancer who posts occasionally to a topic-specific blog with multiple bloggers. These details will all have to be worked out.

Summary

This expanded Great Dance blogging platform will provide dancers and dance companies with the resources, know-how, marketing guidance, and technology infrastructure they need to take full advantage of the Internet. By aggregating high-quality dance blogs on a single website, it will be possible to reach larger audiences and help participating dance-makers develop new revenue streams to support their creative activities. This improved financial support will, in turn, make it possible for dancers to create more compelling content for their ever-growing online audiences.

Your Thoughts and Feedback

What do you think about any and all aspects of the above?

Your Participation

Are you interested in blogging on Great Dance?

If you would like to explore upcoming possibilities, please send me an email with a brief introduction about yourself and your involvement in dance. And, of course, include a description of the type of blogging that you'd be interested in pursuing and the subject matter that you'd like to cover.

I will soon post formal guidelines on how to submit proposals and how the evaluation process will work.

Advertising and Sponsorship Information

I'll soon be posting an overview of advertising and sponsorship opportunities for the upcoming expanded Great Dance site. If, in the meantime, you'd like to learn about these advertising programs, please email me.

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