October 30, 2007I Don't Want Just a Mental Toehold on a Ballet; I Want a Full-Body ConnectionIn her New Yorker review, "The Newcomer," of Christopher Wheeldon at City Center, Joan Acocella focuses on how Wheeldon and his company Morphoses are determined to make their performances more accessible and comprehensible to audiences: As each dance opened, its title was projected on a scrim in front of the stage. When the lights go down at a ballet performance, you often hear people asking each other frantically, "What's the next piece?" They spent intermission socializing and forgot to look at their programs. Wheeldon knows this, and is helping them out. In the evening's central section, a series of short dances, he made matters easier still by introducing each piece with a short film, maybe a minute long, of the cast rehearsing that number. The films (by William Trevitt and Michael Nunn, a.k.a. London's Ballet Boyz, who also danced during the season) were very good: sexy, sweaty. But their purpose, I believe, was to give the audience a toehold on the ballet before the curtain went up, and also to give them the pleasure, as they watched the piece, of recognizing steps. ("Oh, that's the passage they were working on in the film.") No art, not even opera, is more clad in snobbery than ballet. These little movies were an attack on that, and God bless them. (Thanks to Anna McDonald for pointing out this New Yorker article.)
I like this idea of giving the audience a mental "toehold on the ballet." But what I really want is a physical body-hold on the dance. Two weeks ago I took a jazz class with Maurice Johnson at Joy of Motion in Washington, DC. I didn't know this at the time, but the routine he taught during the class was a snippet of a work that he was performing that weekend at Dance Place, which I happened to see. As Acocella writes, there's a pleasure one gets from seeing steps/movement with which you're familiar during a performance. She's definitely right. But there are different levels of pleasure when it comes to seeing movement. At least in my case, I derive much more enjoyment seeing movement on stage with which my body is familiar than seeing movement on stage with which only my mind is familiar. 
Maybe this preference on my part is because I relate to dance more in a physical than mental manner. And also explains why I like this editorial so much in the New York Times "Dancing in the Seats" by Daniel J. Levitin. The author, a professor of psychology and music, explores the historical indivisibility of music and movement (many languages that are spoken today have a single word that means both music and dance). And he points out that from an evolutionary perspective the professionalization of performances which has led to a separation of performers and audience members is, essentially, unnatural. Our biological circuitry has not been trained over thousands of years not to move when we hear music that MOVES us. [via Amanda Abrams in DCDance Blog]. Full-Body Connections - A New Audience Development Strategy for Choreographers This is what I'd really like dance companies to do during the weeks leading-up to a performance: Take a section of your work--maybe a minute or so in length--and create a routine for students of different levels. Essentially, a choreographer would shoot a video of this routine in two versions (beginner and intermediate/advanced). This piece of choreography would be shot from different angles so that nothing is missed. And on the video the choreographer would talk users through the routine. Then these videos would be posted to the web. Now anybody could download them. I could download the beginner routine and learn it on my own. Or a teacher could learn the routine and teach it to students in a dance class and promote the upcoming performance in the process. The dance company could even provide downloadable music files for use in dance classes - assuming they had the rights to do so. It would also be helpful if the choreographer created an additional companion video that highlighted the basics of the technique that would be required to properly do the routine. I have no idea how much of a market there would be for these types of videos. All I can say is that if you produce them and I can make sense of them, then I'm definitely going to your performance. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:25 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0) October 29, 2007New "Open" Technology-Focused Dance Blog in Partnership with Dance/NYCI'm delighted to announce the initial launch of a new dance blog that will focus on answering technology and Internet questions related to any and all aspects of dance. You can visit the Dance Goes Digital blog to take a look. This blog is being produced in partnership with Dance/NYC, a branch of Dance/USA. This blog is a continuation of last week's Dance/NYC Townhall that focused on how the Internet and technology will impact the dance world. The Dance Goes Digital Blog has a straightforward focus: The goal is to provide a forum where members of the dance community can post their questions, answers, recommendations and insights about the Internet, technology, software, video and other offerings related to dance. Questions might be very specific in nature or, alternatively, address strategic and broader issues - it's up to you. By calling it an "Open" forum, this is what I mean. This blog is structured differently than other blogs on Great Dance. The main difference is that everybody is invited to write their own posts. if you visit the following form, you'll see that you can write your own post. After it is reviewed, it will be published to the Dance Goes Digital blog and readers can then add comments in response as they normally would. During the Dance/NYC Townhall meeting, I was furiously writing notes about the technology and Internet interests of the participants. I'll seed this new blog with questions based upon the interests expressed by audience members. And, of course, everybody is encouraged to post their own questions and offer answers and recommendations as well. If the questions are not that easy to answer, I'll do my best to find somebody who has the answer. If you have thoughts and feedback about this new blog, please share. Posted by Doug Fox at 2:30 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) Mastering The Rhythms of Salsa - The Unlikely Salsero to the RescueI would love to be out on the dance floor Salsa dancing. There's just one major problem. I can't for the life of me hear the beat in Salsa music. And I don't like the idea of leading if I can't hear the music. But I now think I can solve my Salsa rhythm challenges. About two weeks ago Don Baarns of The Unlikely Salsero blog emailed me to let me know about his blog and share some kind feedback about mine. I encourage you to read his blog - he has excellent posts about all aspects of Salsa. In any case, I shared my frustration with him about my inability to hear Salsa music. He said that he's taught many people "to listen" to Salsa music and he was confident that he could help me if I put in enough time in over the next few months to half a year. So I was delighted to take him up on his offer. Salsa Never Ends  You can read Don's post Finding "One" Over the Wires about our pending collaboration. We will both be blogging about the process as we move ahead. So I'm delighted that Don will be helping me so I can hit the Salsa clubs again. Posted by Doug Fox at 11:10 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) October 24, 2007My Notes for Panel Discussion Tonight at Dance/NYCHere's draft of my notes for panel discuss tonight tonight at Dance/NYC. I figured I'd share, but my notes might be too abbreviated in some places to make sense. Feel free to share your wisdom before session. How is technology impacting the dance world? Is it good? Is it bad? How can we use it to grow our audiences? How does live dance compete? These are all questions that will be discussed at our first town hall of the year. Please join us! Initial Thoughts For most part, presenters & dance co's >> Internet as traditional marketing >> inform audiences and sell tickets. Limitation >> Internet and tech developments transforming expectations of audiences. + Internet audience mil. x larger than theater audience. Key Technology Trends - Home entertainment systems - wide-screen/videos/games - Faster, more versatile Internet - large resources/new forms participation - Wireless and mobile devices - match Internet/real-time sharing/friends - Growth in social networking tools and applications/myspace, facebook, blogs...first person comm. Networking w/ people similar interests. How do users act - What do users want result of trends: - Multi-tasking and short attention spans - Easy access abundance content and info. - Instant access to advice - soc. Networks - Spur of moment planning - always connected - People expect to b more engaged/involved in pursuits - Users don't want to feel marketed to Will these traits & tendencies build audiences? Challenging! They are opposite of sit quietly 90 min, be engaged and absorbed So what approaches can/should be pursued: - Dance delivered multiple platforms: live, Internet, hi-def and mobile - Dance shared different points creative process w/ feedback - More content/resources/videos about specific performances - Audience given direct access to choreographers and dancers - Dance integrated into larger cultural, social and political context What do dance-makers do to realize these approaches: - New approaches: marketing, communication and community-building functions o Advertising Specific ideas and possibilities I've been blogging - Integration /w environ. Blog Action Day - 15 bloggers/millions readers - Replicate depth coverage/resources classical music - Alex Ross - Tap into amateur dancers - people who do are ready to watch - soc. Net. - New models for Internet-based works-in-process - Inquisitive Owl blog Conclusion We're in chicken and egg quandary: - Internet, rich opportunities, larger, more involved audiences, unlimited video distribution, more bookings, new $$ streams. - But time, energy and financial resources needed to kick things off - And dancers have hectic schedules the way things are and funding far from ideal. - So few courageous souls needed to jump start process Posted by Doug Fox at 2:23 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) October 23, 2007Dance/NYC Townhall - Part IV: Improving the Quality of Dance -- Let's Get VulnerableUpdate: Matt's detailed response to this post. Matt Gough, in his post yesterday "Product or Packaging," offers a critique of my posts about tomorrow's Dance/NYC Townhall on the future of dance and the Internet. His main point is that the dance community should spend a lot more time thinking about how to improve the quality of dance performances and less time on how to use the Internet to enhance marketing efforts: Most of my peers and friends in the dance sector think that the quality of danceworks (in general) is poor. There is plenty to engage with when you are new to dance, but the quality quickly trails off. And then Matt offers what he thinks ought to be the real question: Surely the question should be: « how can we use the internet and its various platforms & media to improve dance praxis? ». Then, when we have something of consistent quality and interest[, we can] think about how and what we try to market. Matt makes a very important point and asks a good question - I would like to know how Matt and others would answer this revised question. But I think that Matt is way too dismissive of the value and possibilities of Internet marketing and his statement that The internet is just a form of communication, technologies have always existed alongside dance. is completely off the mark. The distributed digital "conversation" that Matt, I and others are currently engaged in, for example, would be difficult to replicate offline. In addition, the Internet is not just a communications tool as it relates to dance. It is also a significant distribution medium, one that many dance-makers have already turned to to promote their work, seek feedback, build and involve audiences and, one day soon I hope, monetize their work either directly or indirectly. And once successful online-only business models are created, the way that dancers pursue and share their creative work will change significantly. But back to Matt's main point: Is dance any good? And if it's not good enough, how can we use the Internet and new media to improve the quality of dance? That is one tough question: I'll offer one possibility - I was going to write about this idea before reading Matt's response to my posts. But it ends up being better, I think, to share this idea in the context of Matt's question. I came across the new Inquisitive Owl blog when reading a comment on the new Dance Theater Workshop blog. Inquisitive Owl blogger and co-founder/artistic director of THROW Sarah Maxfield wrote an excellent post "I'm gonna THROW this out there." The gist of her post is that there are a number of forums in New York City that in theory are supposed to offer dance-makers an opportunity to showcase their works-in-progress. But in the end artists never show their WIP. The venues inevitably host ...pre-performance programs, rather than [being] true places for experimentation and exploration. This is what happens: Artists are so starved for an opportunity that might lead to their big break, that they'll seize anything as a "showcase." Call it whatever you want, someone is going to swear that his/her project is a work-in-progress, just to put another line on their resume and hope some big curator is in the audience. Here's my question: Is there a way to leverage the Internet so that artists feel more comfortable sharing real works-in-process. How can we create online forums coupled with real world equivalents where being vulnerable is not a terrifying? Where artists can seek feedback in a safe way from both dancers and dance enthusiasts around the world. I think this is one way to answer Matt's question. This hybrid (live/online) performing/sharing of works-in-process means that dance makers can get very diverse feedback on all aspects of their work and, as a result, get a lot of good ideas that they can think about and incorporate as they finish their work. While I like this idea, I see it as potentially risky from the perspective of an artist. Posted by Doug Fox at 2:55 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) October 22, 2007Dance/NYC Townhall - Part III: How Does Live Dance Compete? Embrace Amateur DancersI'm continuing my posts in preparation for this Wednesday's Townhall meeting at Dance/NYC titled "Dance Have a Future? Implications of a Technological World." In January of this year, I attended an educational session, "Professional Presenters and the Amateur Arts," at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference in NYC. This session, which I wrote about, was conducted by the students of Andrew Taylor (his blog) at the Bolz Center for Arts Administration. The focus of this session was on how presenters should respond to the growth of participatory and amateur art-making. In addition, the students explored whether this explosion in non-professional art-making represents a competitive threat or possible partnership opportunity for presenters. I believe that the Internet is contributing to the growth of amateur art-making and I think that this increase in the number of non-professional artists who are actively involved in the process of creation is a very positive development for performers and presenters intent on sustaining and growing their audiences. The Internet has benefited amateur art-makers because it provides anybody with any interest under the sun with quick access to the resources, expertise and, most importantly, others who share the same hobbies and passions. So whether you're interested in scarpbooking or virtual jamming with musicians around the globe, you can easily find the people and guidance you need. Be Like Mike or Buy Pavarotti CDs In the on-going discussion on the Foot in Mouth blog about whether the dance world needs its own Pavarotti, Apollinaire Scherr offers a perspective that is alien to me. In her post, Apollinaire publishes a comment from Natalia of Bellydance: Experiences. Natalia suggests that what the dance community really needs is a Michael Jordan and not a Pavarotti. Natalia writes: There's another issue here, which I haven't seen addressed: Do we want shows to turn people on to watching dance or to doing it? It's not the same thing, and although it's not an either/or proposition, if I had to choose I would hope shows inspired people to get off their couches and shake their tail-feathers a little bit. ;) Apollinaire responds to Natalia's recommendation: But what makes me leery of just saying, yes, let's ditch the Luciano model and go for Michael Jordan, is that we've hit this moment in the culture when everyone wants to do. No one wants to absorb what others are doing and have done. I find it difficult to accept Apollinaire's perspective on just about any level. For starters, the idea of a professional class of art-makers is a a very new one. The culture and art-making developed and created over thousands of years has always been amateur in nature and highly participatory. The idea of discouraging amateurs from pursuing their creative interests would have, until recently, been an unimaginable notion. Before radios and records, people use to gather around the piano or guitar, play music, sing and have fun. So why this type of enjoyable art-making became unacceptable is a very strange development. More Amateur Art-Making Leads to Larger Audiences If anything, the opposite of what Apollinaire writes is true. The more people do, the more they want to see. The more people write books, paint, play an instrument, sing, dance or engage in any other creative endeavor, the more they want to see or enjoy the work of "professionals." And these amateur art-makers probably are more observant audience members/fans than the non-doers. In terms of my own experiences learning to dance over the past two plus years, one of the most gratifying experiences for me has been the process of developing muscle memory. In other words, learning how to see a dance teacher show a routine and for me to be able to replicate it. Even though my technique has a long way to go, my ability to remember movement has gone from zero to a decent level in two years. When I started taking dance classes, my body simply could not remember and replicate anything that an instructor did - movements, changes of direction, synchronization with the music or anything else - my mind was just blank and my muscles were clueless. In my remaining days in DC, I've been using up my class card from Joy of Motion. One of the classes I took was a jazz class with Maurice Johnson on Thursday night. The routine at the end of class was a little too fast for me. But the next day, when I was practicing on my own, I had just about 100% of recall of the routine and was able to replicate it. This may not sound like a big deal to experienced dancers, but for me it represented a lot of progress. And this ability to remember and re-create movement definitely makes a difference in terms of enjoying and thinking about the dance performances you attend. Just to offer one example, if you attend a performance with little ability to remember movements and patterns, it is very difficult to make sense of the overall structure of a dance work. So if the hope is as Paul Parish writes (his comment is published in Apollinaire post) for spectators to become ...real audience members, people who would pay deep attention and lose themselves in the vicarious experience [of dance performances] then more amateur art-makers are needed and not fewer. Natalia's "Be like Mike" recommendation makes a lot of sense. Tapping into Amateur Art-Makers The Internet is flat-out a great way to reach amateur dancers -- especially if you define "amateur dancers" in very broad terms: students of concert dance forms, social dancers, ballroom dancers and competitors and dancers and students of world dance forms are all audiences to pursue. And one of the fastest and easiest ways to tap into these audiences is through the social networking sites, message boards and blogs that cater to dancers and dance students with very diverse dance interests. This targeted social-networking-focused approach is especially worthwhile for dance-makers who already bring an eclectic approach to their choreography. Anna Brady Nuse (see her Move The Frame Blog) wrote the following in a recent comment she wrote in response to one of my posts: You are absolutely right that cross pollination doesn't happen enough between different dance styles and genres. However, there are plenty of exceptions to this, and I'm always encountering new choreographers and companies who like to mix it up: Nicholas Leichter, Doug Elkins, Parijat Desai, Merian Soto/Pepatian, just to name a few in my circles. I think that enough exceptions like these exist that have made a substantial impact on the art form. If enough of these types of artists learn to market themselves effectively in web 2.0, I think major change could come rapidly for dance. A popular marketing strategy is to go after the "low-hanging fruit." In other words, market to the people who are already receptive to your message. If your upcoming dance work combines elements of Lindy Hop, doesn't it makes sense to embrace swing dancers who are already hitting the dance floor one or more times a week? Posted by Doug Fox at 11:15 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0) October 19, 2007Dance/NYC Townhall - Part II: Is the Internet Good for Dance?I'll be a panel participant in Dance/NYC's Townhall meeting next Wednesday on the topic of "Does Dance Have a Future? Implications of a Technological World." (Dance/NYC RSVP, my initial post and "Part I: Dancing for the Environment and 15,861 Bloggers.") In this post, I'd like to discuss the success of classical music on the Internet, offer my thoughts on why it is successful and share what I think are some of the key obstacles in concert dances' efforts to replicate the online energy and richness of the concert music world. The Internet is Great for Classical Music New Yorker music critic and blogger Alex Ross has a column in this week's New Yorker: "The Well-tempered Web: The Internet may be killing the pop CD, but it's helping classical music." I strongly recommend reading this article because of the parallels with the dance world. He writes: The anonymity of Internet browsing has made classical music more accessible to non-fanatics; first-time listeners can read reviews, compare audio samples, and decide on, for example, a Beethoven recording by Wilhelm Furtwängler, all without risking the humiliation of mispronouncing the conductor's name under the sour gaze of a record clerk. Likewise, first-time concertgoers and operagoers can shop for tickets, study synopses of unfamiliar plots, listen to snippets of unfamiliar music, follow performers' blogs, and otherwise get their bearings on the lunar tundra of the classical experience. Chris Bell, the director of worldwide product and music marketing at iTunes, happens to be a classically trained violinist, and he has closely monitored the progress of the classical division. He told me, "An interesting fact I recently uncovered is that, when you look at different genres in terms of sharing and cross-pollination, there's more dabbling going on than you might expect. We sell almost as much hip-hop to classical buyers as we do jazz. We've made iTunes a safe place to try classical music. It is easy to sample and the buying is low-risk." Bell talked about the serendipity of listening on the Internet, where someone might come to the site looking for a souvenir of Pavarotti and end up with the Kronos Quartet playing pieces by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. In these two paragraphs, Ross captures some of the elements that have helped break-down barriers to learning about and enjoying concert music on the Internet. In the rest of his article he offers specific examples of websites, musicians and business models that have helped revive the classical music world. Key Contributors to Classical Music's Online Success The Internet, according to Ross' column, has helped grow the audience for concert music in the following ways: - Lots of good, diverse content that is easy to find and is very accessible. - Internet users have anonymity and don't have to feel embarrassed because of their lack of knowledge - this fear on the part of newcomers definitely has parallels in the concert dance world. - Concertgoers can make sure that they are very well-informed before walking into a concert hall. - There is an abundance of high-quality audio recordings available at affordable prices. - Music fans do not limit themselves to a single genre of music - there is a lot of "sharing and cross-pollination." How Can Concert Dance Replicate These Resources and Offerings? I would like to say that the answer is easy, but it is not. Classical music on the Internet starts with a number of advantages over dance - this despite all of the complaints of classic music fans that they can't build new audiences and the economics don't work. - More people (including musicians, composers, critics and others) write, blog and communicate about classical music on the Internet than they do about concert dance. - The quality, scope and diversity of music-focused content is better than that for dance. - There are millions of high-quality audio recordings that can be listened to and purchased online. The quality and scope of dance videos on the Internet, however, is fairly poor overall. - In the dance world, there does not appear to be that much "cross pollination." In other words, I think there is a tendency for dance-makers, dancers and dancegoers to limit themselves to specific styles or genres of dance and to not interact with or market to dancers in other dance spheres than themselves. For example, have you ever seen printed postcards at a Salsa dance promoting an upcoming modern dance performance? Here's one example of the challenges faced by the concert dance community: Let's say I'm going to see a performance of a classic work of a 20th Century modern dance choreographer. How do I learn about, watch and ask questions about this dance piece before going to the performance? The answer is that I can't in almost all cases. I'd like to be proven wrong. But pick any of the 100 most famous dance works of the 20th century and try to put together an educational and viewing kit for somebody about to see one of these works. Can you find sufficient background materials? Is video available? Is the quality of the video any good? Now in some cases, classic ballet is in somewhat better shape than modern dance, but not by much. And it's often difficult to find good quality video of these ballet performances. And even if you find good quality video, it's probably a short segment and posted illegally. So what should the concert dance community do? I think next week's Dance/NYC's Townhall is a good starting place to discuss and brainstorm about these challenges. And maybe we can set-up a dedicated blog to continue thinking about and discussing these issues after this program. Please share your thoughts and reactions. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:20 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0) October 18, 2007From Washington, DC...Dance Classes and New BloggersI'm in DC for a few days - packing-up my stuff and getting ready to move everything to NYC. One of the things I'm doing is getting together with DC dance bloggers - especially ones I haven't met - while I'm down here. I also have a number of dance classes left on my Joy of Motion class card so I'm taking classes while I'm down here. Last night I took Daniel Burkholder's contact improv class - see his blog on Great Dance. I found last night's class fun and challenging. Daniel led us through a series of exercises where we were supposed to let the movement follow its own energy and direction, but I find it very difficult not to play a significant role in trying to force movement when in contact with my partner. For example, toward the beginning each of us was with a partner. We closed our eyes and pressed our index fingers against each others. We were just supposed to follow the natural flow of any movement generated. But it's hard to let things just happen naturally and I have to constantly stop myself from trying to achieve a specific outcome. We did similar exercises with our heads and also with a single point of contact as we were dancing. The class was real small - only 4 students. I really don't understand why so few people go to Daniel's contact class. He's an excellent teacher and his classes are always thought-provoking and offer much to reflect on. Most people seem more interested/comfortable going to the regular technique classes. Tonight I'm going to take Maurice Johnson's jazz class, which opens with one of the more rigorous one-hour warm-ups that I've ever taken in a class. So if I survive all the plies and ab work, I'll know I'm back in shape and pretty much injury free. More bloggers... I'd like to welcome three new bloggers to Great Dance that I'll write more about: - JoAnna Mendl Shaw, the artistic director of The Equus Projects, started blogging earlier this week. JoAnna choreographers works for dancers and horses. I find her work fascinating. - And Misnomer Dance Theater started blogging last night. I've written a number of times about Chris Elam and Misnomer. They have been in the forefront of using the Internet and video to engage audiences with their work in new and different ways. - And within the next few days, Tom Pearson of Third Rail Projects will start blogging about an upcoming site-specific work in Hong Kong. It's great to be working with new and current bloggers! Posted by Doug Fox at 1:44 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) October 15, 2007Dance/NYC Townhall - Part I: Dancing for the Environment and 15,861 BloggersLast week I wrote about my upcoming participation in Dance/NYC's October 24th townhall on how the Internet and technology will impact the concert dance world. One of the questions that will be discussed during this forum is: How can we use [the Internet] to grow our audiences? (Here's the complete description of the townhall and an RSVP form). I'd like to offer my first answer to this question: Dance-makers (choreographers, dancers and dance companies) should actively pursue ways to integrate their dances into the causes, interests, organizations and activities about which they are passionate. For example, if you make a dance about the environment and put an excerpt from this dance on YouTube, why not encourage all bloggers who cover global warming and related issues to embed this video on their blogs? You're offering bloggers engaging, captivating content, which will help them connect with their audiences and you are building a larger audience for your upcoming performances. Why Not Reach 15,861 Bloggers?
Today is "Blog Action Day." The goal of this initiative is to raise awareness and encourage action on behalf of the environment. If you visit the list of participants, you'll see that 15,861 bloggers, with a readership of 12,697,713, have agreed to write a post today about the environment. Natalia of Bellydance: Experiences is one of the participating bloggers. You can read her post, "8 Little Things Bellydancers Can Do For The Environment." Let's say you're creating a dance piece about the environment. Three months before the next Blog Action Day for the environment, you approach the organizer of this outreach effort and offer the following proposal: You will shoot and edit a dance video specifically for the next Blog Action Day. With heightened interest in dance as a result of popular TV shows, your video on the home page of their website will encourage even more bloggers to participate in this event. In addition, you will add a brief clip before your dance of the organizer of this event talking about this initiative and encouraging more people to join the effort. Then the organizer will conclude by saying: "Now stay tuned for a dance video about the environment and our Blog Action Day." So the video will be viewable on the home page of Blog Action Day, and all participants will be encouraged to embed this video on their own blogs. A nice and simple way to reach tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands or millions, of new fans in a single day. On top of that, you will likely reach individuals, corporations and grantmaking organizations who will be interested in providing financial support for your choreographic work. All you have to do is create one great, engaging video! Posted by Doug Fox at 1:02 PM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) My Path to Learning How to Improvise and Create MovementI think I finally figured out what type of classes and dancing I ultimately want to take and pursue so I can develop my own personal approach to movement. What I want is a mix of elements that I've come across in different dance programs I've taken: - A rapid way of disconnecting myself from my intellect and my inhibitions so I can more comfortably explore a much wider range of movements and possibilities without judging or limiting myself every step along the way. - The use of a diverse range of structured exercises that makes it easy to generate new phrases, rhythms and fundamentally different approaches to how I move. This more rational approach might conflict a bit with my desire to let go and disengage from my rational side. - Find classes and dances where participants have extensive training and much more experience dancing than I do. That's it - the above will give me exactly what I'm looking for and here's some background on where I'm going with this:
5 Rhythms: Letting Go on the Dance Floor Last Friday, I went to another 5Rhythms program - this one was called "Night Waves" and it was hosted by Tammy Burstein. I would describe this two-hour program as a place where people can come to let go and experiment with movement in a non-judgmental, non-critical atmosphere. There were about 25 people in last week's program and the class consists of light guidance and a few exercises to get us to the point where we're comfortable in our own skin and not burdened with our doubts and insecurities. There's nothing really fancy about the class - it just works, at least for me. At the beginning, you warm-up and start to move at your own pace - some people stay in a fixed spot while others move across the floor. I felt self-conscious beyond belief and I couldn't stand moving to the mellow sounds of the '60s playing over the sound system, but the music got much better. So, everybody is moving about in their self-contained world. Then, at one point, Tammy said, "If you're emotionally tired go in this corner, if your physically tired go in this corner and if your intellectually tired go in this corner." I didn't really feel like going to any corner, I was revved-up and had tons of energy; I ended-up going to the intellectually tired corner. Then in our three different groups we formed circles. What surprised me is how uninterested some people in my circle were in connecting to the people right around them. When I'm in a circle, I tend to watch other people dance and often start replicating the movements of others. Maybe some people just come to these 5Rhythms programs to be by themselves and experience their own dancing without having to deal with anybody else. I like dancing alone part of the program, but I have no interest in spending all my time in isolation. But after awhile, I started dancing with one women in my circle and we had a very connected, high-energy dance together. A little later during the class, Tammy had us break-up into two groups. She said that everybody who wanted to dance with a partner should go on one side of the room and everybody who wanted to dance solo should go on the other side of the room. Well, guess what happened? Me and the woman who had just danced together were on the partner side and everybody else went on the other side of the room - this struck me as very odd. 95% of the people who went to this program wanted to be by themselves? In any case, the two of us started dancing like crazy, most of the time facing all the other dancers - I'm not sure what we were doing - maybe it was something like a fast-paced aerobics dance - we were dancing all out. So eventually some of the solo-people came around to our side and tapped into the energy. I'm not sure where my stamina on the dance floor has come from lately. I guess it's from the gazillion dance classes I've taken. My energy has gone through the roof and I'm probably in better shape than I've been in many years. One more exercise, a bit later in the class, consisted of our forming a large circle. And one person after another would do a solo improvisation dance in the middle. By this time, I had burned so much energy and I was so unconcerned by just about anything that I went for broke when it was my turn - except for a few moments when I felt awkward - I'm not sure where that came from. Finally, the music become softer and more mellow, we were dancing slowly alone or with partners. And as the music came to an end, we were all relaxing on our backs winding down from an intense two hours. Do you know when I read the 5Rhythms website, it sounds incomprehensible to me and I don't know what they're talking about. For me the class on Friday was a great experience. Partly it was the fun of dancing, it was feeling connections with other dancers and it was progressively feeling more comfortable in my own skin. While all that is very positive, I'm not sure what specifically it is about how the class was gently directed, the music or anything else that actually led to this experience - maybe that's the point. Liz Lerman Dance Exchange: A Structured, Creative Approach to Generating Movement I've written many times about the "Generating and Crafting Movement" workshop I took with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. Their methodology is covered in-depth in their online Toolbox that you can access after completing an online registration form - there's no charge.
Their methodology for developing choreography is suitable for both experienced and newcomers to dance. After taking the 5Rhythms class, the additional point that I'd make about the Dance Exchange methodology is that it is for the most part a rational, logical approach to dance making. The goal, unlike 5Rhythms, is not to give you an instant avenue to break down your inhibitions, but to provide a set of creative tools that offer a comfortable path to generating a large variety of movement ideas that can then be shaped into a finished dance piece. In Search of Experienced Dancers - Combining All Three Elements There's one thing that 5 Rhythms does not have: trained, experienced dancers participating in these programs - of course, I'm among those untrained dancers. What I'd like to do is find a group of people that got together on a regular basis that in some way combined the three elements I described at the opening of this post: A combination of the rational and the non-intellectual, ways to break-free of my intellect while still using structured exercises, and the opportunity to learn from dancers with much more training and experience than myself. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:11 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) October 12, 2007I'm Participating in Dance/NYC Town Hall on Future of Dance and the InternetOn Wednesday, October 24th, I'll be participating in Dance/NYC's first Town Hall of the season. The title of this program is close to my heart: Does Dance Have a Future? Implications of a Technological World
How is technology impacting the dance world. Is it good? Is it bad? How can we use it to grow our audiences? How does live dance compete? These are all questions that will be discussed at our first town hall of the year. Please join us!
Since this is a town hall format, my guess is that each of the presenters only has a brief amount of time to talk and most of the program will be devoted to an open discussion relating to the future of dance and the impact of the Internet on the concert dance community. So what I'll do is write a post or two next week with my thoughts on these and related issues. And it would be great to get ideas and feedback from readers as well. I'll include your comments in my handout so participants can get a diverse range of views on these issues. I'm delighted to be participating in this Town Hall. And if you're in New York City, it would be great to see you/meet you at this event - it's free! Here's the RSVP form. The event takes place at Dance/NYC offices: Dance/NYC View Larger Map Posted by Doug Fox at 8:31 AM - Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0) October 11, 2007In Art and Business Fluidity Trumps ClarityIn my beginner modern dance class last night at the 92nd Street Y, my teacher Susan Cherniak made the point during one of the exercises that she wasn't interested in our arriving at the right point in sync with the music, but was more interested in the process of our getting there. This is simply another way of saying that the quality of movement or the process of moving is more important than the goal of reaching a specific destination. This need to focus on the fluidity of movement as opposed to the desired outcome might be a good metaphor for many of the conversations and developments that I've been following on the Internet. An emphasis on process, I think, forces us to be more aware of change over time in all spheres of our life, and limits the tendency to become glued to fixed notions about the way things work or ought to work - maybe I'm pushing this point a bit, but here are some examples of what I'm trying to get at. Here's a TV ad from Zurich Financial Services that I've always liked - it's part of their series of ads with the tag line "Change Happenz": The point of the ad is straightforward: Don't get locked into fixed ways of thinking because if you do the world will pass you by. So the only survival strategy that makes any sense is to accept that we live in an ambiguous world and that we can't become too attached to specific ways of living and working. TED Talks Blends PR and Advertising Last week I received an email from Natasha Dantzig a PR representative with Galloway Media Group that represents the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Conference. She emailed a number of dance bloggers encouraging us to embed and promote the following video of hip-hop dancer Kenichi Ebina who performed at a TED event this past March: You'll notice even before watching this video that it's sponsored by BMW and once you click "play," you're presented with a brief BMW video ad followed by a longer one after the dance performance. So Galloway Media Group is in part a public relations firm that builds awareness and audiences for its client, but it's also building an advertising distribution platform for TED at the same time - a nice synergy at no extra cost. In essence, they are encouraging bloggers and others at no financial benefit to themselves to host ads from their sponsors. TED is using the VideoEgg platform to host, distribute and, I assume, monetize its video content. I think the blending of the PR and advertising functions is an interesting one - something that is not possible to replicate in the same way in the offline world - especially the part about encouraging the embedding of viral videos with sponsorship messages. Publicity in the Dance World - Pursuing a Traditional Path I continue to be surprised by how few publicity people in the dance world make personalized pitches to me and other dance bloggers to write about or feature either stories and especially online videos in our posts. I do get an increasing number of press releases. But there seems to be no basic understanding or interest in how bloggers "see" the world. There's not much we can do with press releases in most instances. But if you write us a short personalized email and say, "We just put up this new video that I think you'll like. If you find it of interest, you might want to include it in an upcoming story or yours," we'll be happy. You don't really have to say much more than that except to provide a bit of context for the video and making sure you include links to the video. What I'm recommending that dance PR people do is really simple, but almost nobody does it. This to me means that many PR people are stuck in a time-warp with very traditional notions and inflexible definitions about what publicity means. Or, to be fair, maybe their clients or bosses are in the time-warp and have very fixed ideas about how to measure PR success. If getting bloggers to write about dance performances doesn't provide concrete benefits to PR people, why should they waste their time pursuing this type of exposure? In the Dance World, We Can't Even Define Dance Even when we're creating and discussing dance, nobody is certain how to categorize and define what we're doing any more, even though this is not really a recent development. At the beginning of July, I had just taken a week-long workshop, "Generating and Crafting Movement" with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (my write-up). So I was inspired to create a dance with my 6-year old nephew. So I asked him what he had done over the past week. He said he took a karate class. So I made a karate movement with my arms. He protested and said that karate wasn't dance. I then told him about Paul Taylor's famous "Duet" that's performed in complete stillness. That seemed to put an abrupt end to our artistic collaboration. The next morning, my nephew pointed to a curtain and proclaimed, "That's not dance!". I figure I must have made an impact. There are two current blogging conversations that highlight the continued uncertainties about how to categorize dance. In "Viva la dance dance revolution!," Anna Brady Nuse considers the popular Dance Dance Revolution game and ponders whether it is indeed dance - read comments on this post and Matt Gough's response on his blog as well. In another post, "What's in a Name," Anna highlights the many terms that are used to try to define what I'll call for now videodance. In a nutshell, there are a huge number of different terms and many people describe this art form in different ways. A Final Thought... Of course, we've probably been deluding ourselves for decades and centuries. There's never been as much order as we imagined and all our neat little, seemingly-logical categories were simply created to convince ourselves and others that we lived in a sensible, coherent world. That said, I advocate reinstating the Great Chain of Being:  OK, scratch the Chain of Being idea. We do live in a very fast moving and rapidly changing world and maybe our challenges in defining what happenz around us and our difficulties in creating usable frameworks in which to operate and do business will create new ways for dance, with its fleeting and fluid qualities, to speak to these uncertainties in tangible ways??? Posted by Doug Fox at 8:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) October 9, 20078 Dance Classes in 7 DaysFor some reason I've been obsessed with taking dance classes lately - I'm not sure what's gotten into me. Maybe I'm frustrated that I'm not at the point where I want to be in terms of my dancing. So that might be motivating me. This past Saturday I took a Skinner Release Technique (SRT) workshop in SoHo that was facilitated by SRT instructors Karl Anderson, Pamela Knowles, Mary-Clare McKenna and Laurel Tentindo. (They don't have a website - you can email Karl to learn more). I find it somewhat difficult to describe various movement techniques such as SRT and the Feldenkrais Method, which I recently took a class in at Movement Research. You can go here to learn more about Skinner Releasing Technique. For myself, I would say it is an approach to better understanding your body and making your movements freer and more efficient. A central focus was on isolating and relaxing different joints/body parts so you were both more aware and more comfortable using that part of your body while dancing. For example, we might start by doing exercises that concentrate our energy on our shoulders and then release tension in this joint. This would be followed with improvised movement where the idea was to concentrate on loosening the shoulders and arms while dancing. The last hour of the workshop was devoted strictly to improvisation with some warm-up exercises to help us get our free-form movement bearings. What I'd really like to find in New York City are open improvisation sessions with some limited exercises and warm-ups that help participants develop and explore different types of movements. For example, shadowing and delayed shadowing might be used to get dancers to experiment with new movement patterns and approaches. (Shadowing is when one person replicates the movements of another dancer. Delayed shadowing is when you replicate the movements of your partner with a few second delay.) There are many different exercises that could be used to get the ball rolling. In any case, I haven't found anything like this yet. And if anybody knows about something similar, please let me know. There are contact jams, but that's not really what I want. For my purposes at this point, I find contact improv too limited a sub-set of the general types of movement that I want to explore. Simonson at DNA I've also taken a couple Simonson Technique classes at Dance New Amsterdam - these are essentially jazz classes. I took a real beginner class with Chris Heller and a regular beginner drop-in with Te Perez. I'm conflicted about whether to continue with a regular beginner drop-in class. It just moves so slowly that I'm about ready to go out of my mind. I like fast pace classes even if I feel overwhelmed at times and I like to get a good cardio workout and leave with abs that have been pushed to the brink, especially now that I'm almost recovered from a very long back injury. But at the same time, I really need to continue taking beginner classes so I can get constant help with my technique and form - it seems to be taking forever for me to learn how to hold my body, drop my shoulders, position my pelvis and do the many important details of dance in the correct manner. And I need instructors to push my body repeatedly in the correct position so that I'll finally remember how to do everything right. Plus, the routines in beginner classes are perfect for me so I really shouldn't complain. So the only solution I can think of is to take a good number of beginner classes and a bit more advanced ones as well so that I can get everything I want. I've also taken Horton modern classes (click and scroll down to "Intro Horton") and West African classes at Alvin Ailey. I've been taking a beginner modern class with Anne-Rene Petrarca every week at DNA - I especially like this class and I try to take it every week. And I continue to take an Erick Hawkins modern class at 92nd Street Y. Posted by Doug Fox at 3:08 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) October 5, 2007Discarding My Inhibitions on the Dance FloorI've been taking a good number of dance classes here in New York City. And I'm finding the suggestions to my post "Planning My Future Dance Education" very helpful. Since I only have so much time to take classes and go dancing, I'm trying to focus on what I think I'll enjoy the most and benefit the most from. 
One of the things I'm starting to do is explore classes/dancing where I can simply experiment with movement and improvisation in an environment that feels comfortable and non-threatening. I like taking my two modern classes every week, but in the end, I want to feel comfortable moving in my own skin and I want to get rid of the inhibitions I often feel on the dance floor. So this past Tuesday I went to one of Gabrielle Roth's 5Rhythms classes "High Vibration Waves." Here's their description: In this class we dance hard, we dance bold, we dance deep. Jonathan [Horan] takes us to the place where the soul of hip hop, the catharsis of rock and roll, the trance of techno and the heart of house collide into the world beat. And in this beat, we get together to reinvent ourselves, to discard last week's fears and move into this week's dreams. This is our practice. 
Before you walk into the room where the dance takes place, you're told you can't talk for the two-hour class. On Tuesday, maybe there were around 80 people or so. At times we're dancing by ourselves, at other times dancing with a partner. The music ranges from a strong, fast beat to more tranquil, reflective sounds. I felt it was a very comfortable place to move, experiment, dance with others and, once in a while, just let go. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:36 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) October 3, 2007Introducing Great Dance BloggersAs I start to expand Great Dance, I'm delighted to be working with fellow dance bloggers who are sharing their insights and experiences about the dance world. So I figured I'd provide this introduction to the initial bloggers on Great Dance: 
Washington, DC-based dancer, choreographer, improviser and teacher Daniel Burkholder will be blogging on act/re/act. This new blog will be a continuation of his "My ocean is never blue" performance blog. I met Daniel in DC where I've seen performances of his "My ocean..." in both tiny art spaces and on traditional performance stages. While I've only taken Daniel's contact improv class twice, I thought they were excellent - my write-up of one of them here. 
Since July dance critic and journalist Eva Yaa Asantewaa has been conducting audio interviews with choreographers, dancers and presenters in what is now the Body and Soul blog (previously Great Dance Podcast). Eva is a wealth of knowledge and insight about the dance world here in New York City and she's given me a lot of great recommendations about who to see perform and who to talk with as I expand Great Dance. Eva also writes the InfiniteBody blog. 
Over a year ago, I had lunch with Peter DiMuro, producing artistic director of Takoma Park, Maryland-based Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, to discuss a new work of his Funny Uncles, about which he is now blogging. During our initial lunch and in future conversations, we brainstormed about how the community-oriented and interactive nature of the Internet and blogging could be embraced in order to encourage people to share their stories in video and other formats related to the themes of this work that revolve around non-traditional families and the feeling of outsiderness. At first, we set-up a free-standing blog for "Funny Uncles." Now Peter will be blogging about this work on Great Dance. 
For maybe a year or so, videodancemaker, choreographer and dancer Anna Brady Nuse has been posting excellent and insightful comments on a number of posts I've written, which eventually led us to start discussing setting-up a blog for Anna, which you can access at Move The Frame. Anna has already posted a handful of stories that center around topics relating to the intersection of dance and the camera. I especially enjoyed reading, "Philippine Prisoners Resurrect Busby Berkeley." Even though Anna is here in NYC, we still haven't met, a problem which we will rectify this Friday when we get together to discuss dance, blogging and related topics. And just so you know, since the entire site is now referred to as Great Dance, my blog's name has been changed to "Dancing into the Future to convey one of the themes of my blog which is the intersection of dance, the Internet and technology. Posted by Doug Fox at 11:40 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) October 2, 2007DC Improv Festival - Spontaneous, Grassroots Framework for Bringing Dance to the InternetI unfortunately didn't make it to this year's Washington, DC Improvisation Festival that took place last week, but participants and audience members in a non-orchestrated, collaborative manner have shared their experiences, comments, pictures and videos through their dance blogs and websites. 
I've explored the Internet many times to learn about dance festivals and other events, and I don't recall a similar experience of being able to instantly enjoy unfiltered, non-promotional content from many different voices about a single program. I'm not sure why this happened but I think that it's great to see this type of uncoordinated grassroots Internet effort to bring a dance festival to people within the DC area as well as to audiences around the world. Actually, I'll speculate about the causes. First, there are a number of dance bloggers in DC who write about dance in a direct, experiential way and not as outside observers - see links below. Second, a number of dance bloggers are technically proficient so it's not a big deal to create and post videos. Third, to generalize, people involved in an improvisation festival bring a certain openness and spontaneity to what they do and are not going to worry about filtering out all the inevitable imperfections before sharing their thoughts and content with the online world. Is there a reason that this type of dance content along with comments from readers is being created for the Internet in Washington, DC as opposed to, say, New York City? I don't know; I'm just curious. But I do think that it's worth reflecting on how this community dance event was brought to life online and how other festival organizers in different cities might go about trying to replicate the feel and collaborative nature of this event. Posts and videos about DC Improv Fest: - Amanda Abrams, organizer of this year's event, in wrap-up post shares her reflections and requests comments and feedback on her DCDanceBlog. - In a new dance blog I didn't know about, "Moving Space and Time," Shallom includes a video of Daniel Burkholder's company performing "My ocean is never blue" outside of the main DC Library. And you can read Daniel's thoughts about the piece on his new Great Dance blog, act/re/act. - Liz Lerman Dance Exchange was on the road during the Improv Festival so they participated by submitting a video, "Offsite & Insight," which you can watch and read about on their site. - Maria in her "A Time to Dance Blog," has two posts, "Library Dances - DC Improvisation Festival" and "More dispatches from the DC Improv Festival." - And Boris Willis in his Dance-A-Day blog has a number of videos that he shot of the festival: "My Ocean is never blue," "Objects of Hope," "Fall Girl" and "Capitol City." Posted by Doug Fox at 6:20 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) October 1, 2007Dancing for a Better World and Commissioning Dance in New WaysThere are three important trends that I think the dance community should be avidly following and embracing: 1) TV dance shows are big hits. 2) Internet-based cause marketing and fund raising are growing by leaps and bounds. 3) Online video consumption continues to grow.
The importance of these developments is that choreographers and dancers now have new ways that they can support worthwhile causes and be commissioned to create new dances. Plus, additional revenue streams can be created for dancers while pursuing either of these two paths. Let's first take a quick look at these three trends: First, despite some grumblings in the concert dance community (read compelling posts on Foot In Mouth), the success of Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, represents a great development for everybody involved in dance. More people are excited about dance and energized by movement - that's an excellent start. As Clare Byrne said to me last Friday, these TV shows could potentially end-up having an impact on the concert dance community. Second, Internet-based fundraising is one of the hottest trends out there. Read Wall Street Journal article by Rachel Emma Silverman, "A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy: Blogs, Social-Networking Sites Give 20-Somethings a Means To Push, Fund Favorite Causes." There are many software applications and a range of strategies that not-for-profits can implement online to seek both small and large donations. On the popular social networking site Facebook, you can see a list (once you register) of different causes and the amounts of money that they have raised.
Third, Internet video continues its stellar rise to the point where it's now a mainstay of how web users expect to follow their favorite interests and past times. Plus, video is becoming part of fundraising campaigns as well. Take a look at YouTube's new "Broadcast Your Cause," which lets not-for-profits use this popular video service to seek donations from viewers. [via TVover.net and Watching TV Online]. New Avenues for Dance-Makers These three trends lead to two major opportunities for choreographers and dancers: Fusing movement with causes: At any given time, choreographers around the world are making dances that deal with every topic and issue imaginable. Works are being created that either in a concrete or abstract form deal with global warming, human rights, health care and many other pressing issues of our time. So why shouldn't these advocacy groups and dancers partner - online and offline - to expand and enhance their efforts on behalf of social justice and other initiatives? If millions of TV viewers are engaged with dance, they are more open than ever to dance as a medium of communication and emotional connection. So if advocacy groups start featuring dancers in their online videos and in-person fundraising efforts, they are likely to connect with their audiences in new and compelling ways. Plus, from the position of dancers, they now have the opportunity to dance about what is meaningful to them, reach larger audiences and maybe benefit financially in some way from their involvement. For example, some fundraising efforts may serve both to raise money for a particular cause as well as to provide financial support for the participating artists. New approaches to commissioning dance: There is also a more commercial ramification to the trends I highlighted at the beginning of this post. If more people are watching dance on TV and on the Internet and thus increasingly value movement as an important form of engagement and communication, why wouldn't more corporations, trade groups and associations commission dance works that deal with specific themes and ideas that are important for their companies and organizations? I realize that this may be a bit far-fetched in some instances, but I think it's worth considering. Many meeting and conference organizers invest considerable financial resources in booking speakers and entertainment for their events. Why shouldn't they commission, instead, dance pieces that will help their audiences think about, grapple with and discuss pressing issues that need to be addressed? Wouldn't the kinesthetic energy of a performance open new avenues for viewers to approach and respond to these topics? I don't know if a gathering of tax attorneys can be encouraged to commission a dance performance to help them explore the ramifications of creating tax shelters for their richest clients, but I'd wager that there are thousands of other groups who might be amenable to the idea. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0) |
| ||||
|
© 2007. All rights reserved. |