January 27, 2008Internet Wrap-Up for Dance and the Arts: Marketing, Mobile, Video, Music, Games and Funding- Review with photos of New York City Ballet new branding and advertising campaign - also read comments [via Danciti]. Promotional write-up about City Ballet campaign here. City Ballet website updated with new logo, color scheme and videos. - What does rise of creative cultural consumers mean for the arts? When Internet users, especially Generation Y, create online content reflecting their artistic and entertainment interests, should marketers be considering new approaches to engaging these more involved and influential audiences? My answer is obviously yes. Read post in The Cultural Consumer. - Apple ad campaign breaks borders. Read about and view latest anti-PC banner campaign from home of the Macs. The idea seems so simple upon reflection but captivating in execution. Write-up on Lost Remote and 360 Digital Influence. See screen shot on 360 Digital Influence - seeing actual Flash-based video ad is more effective, but campaign doesn't seem to be on Yahoo any longer. - Mobile game in Madrid, called QR-Kill, consists of players using cell phones with cameras, and each player wearing a QR Code (two-dimensional bar code) on his or her back. Objective of game is to take picture of competitor's QR Code, which includes the person's name and SMS address, and then texting them. Once you text person, they are "dead" and out of game. That's it. These urban, mobile games are increasing in popularity. Any possibilities for dance? [via Smart Mobs] - Toyota and Arthur Murray have teamed-up to create a reality-type dance competition as part of the car manufacturer's exhibition at this past week's auto show in Washington, DC. Contestants were partnered with ballroom instructors from the dance studio chain in an effort to win a Toyota. You can watch Arthur Murray ads and dance competition videos. [via Free to Dance] - Add hotspots with links and text to your videos with Asterpix. Watch video of how this works here. Then, you can embed video or specific section of video on your site or blog. These types of video annotation tools have range of applications for dance, especially in dance writing and education. Also, take a look at Overlay.tv. [via Mashable] - Qik and Livecastr are new applications for live video broadcasting from mobile devices and camcorders. [via TechCrunch] - YouTube ramps-up mobile offerings making large percentage of videos available for high-end mobile devices--visit YouTube mobile page. While this development will accelerate delivery of video content to small screens, there are still limitations and roadblocks as pointed out by Last100. - ReadWriteWeb on latest news from popular Last.fm music site, which will be streaming large number of full-length tracks. Since music sites get much more traffic than dance website, why aren't all types of dancers doing more music videos that are then featured on these (and other) sites? Here's Last.fm profile of neo-tango group Gotan Project and their video page. - TechCrunch on the "YouTube" room at Davos conference. It would be easy to set-up something comparable at dance and arts events and a good way to encourage bloggers and amateur/professional media creators to conduct video interviews, take pictures and write about performances. - Through Beth Kanter's blog, How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, I came across America's Giving Challenge. This fundraising program gives $50,000 to good causes based-upon online voting. It seems that dance companies and especially their outreach efforts would be good candidates for such programs. America's Giving Challenge only has five days left, but I'm sure there are other similar upcoming programs. - Is digital sharing of creative content legal or illegal? Or should it be legal or illegal? A huge question. Do artists and arts organizations work to protect their creative work from unauthorized YouTube distribution or do they work on premise that the more video that is out there the better? A video posted to Creative Commons blog that takes position that copying is fair. I think answer is more challenging than video portrays. - I'm intrigued by experimentations and diverse approaches to funding the arts and creative endeavors. Adam Forest Huttler on Fractured Atlas blog writes about San Francisco-based "The Thing." Essentially, you pay annual subscription of $120 to receive 4 artworks from contemporary artists. - New report, "Best Practices for Non-profits in Second Life" (PDF), by Rik Panganiban. Read about report. - Robin Good's Internet Video Publishing: A Beginner's Guide offers comprehensive overview of creating, editing, publishing and monetizing video. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:10 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 25, 2008What Is It About Argentine Tango and Bellydance Bloggers?Why is it that Argentine Tango and Bellydance bloggers are the most active, numerous and passionate dance bloggers? Why do they write more about their actual dancing, what it feels like to be dancing and generously offer guidance and support to newcomers to their dance forms? Is it the people that are attracted to Bellydancing and Tango or is it something about the dance forms themselves and the culture that surrounds these dance forms? Or, a combination of these different elements? There have to be answers to these questions. I'm just not sure what they are. Here are some Argentine Tango blogs I've been following - I started taking Tango classes this month and there's a wealth of helpful information and insight on these blogs: - Tangologue And yesterday, Lorna of BellyLorna posted a comprehensive listing of bellydance-focused blogs. There are obviously bloggers who are passionate about many different dance forms. But as a collective, Bellydancers and Argentine Tango bloggers do stand out. How do you explain this social/cultural phenomenon? I would like to know. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:40 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) January 24, 2008Why Don't Site-Specific Performers Embrace Flash Mobs?I've been curious for awhile about why I've never seen a hybrid event that was part site-specific performance and part flash mob. It always seemed a good, fun way to not just build an audience but also to get people involved in a Web 2.0-ish, participatory manner. The end result would incorporate a dance flash mob such as this one that took place at the Tate Modern last October. The idea of a Flash mob is very simple. A group of people, usually organized via the Internet, agree to get together at a specific location at a designated time and do something. In the case of a dance flash mob, people obviously dance. But what would happen if there was a performance component during a flash mob? Here's aerial dancing, choreographed by Noemie Lafrance, with Frank Gehry Architecture: Upcoming Flash Dance Mob in Boston Banditos Misteriosos is hosting a dance flash mob on February 23rd called the "Boston Silent Dance Experiment!" Before the event, everyone is invited to download an MP3 track for their music player that includes music as well as instructions. So audiences who don't know what they are witnessing, will see a group of people moving as well as carrying out highly synchronized group exercises without any apparent direction. There's a Facebook page for this upcoming flash mob. Banditos Misteriosos link to a similar use of MP3 audio recordings for flash mobs that was hosted last summer by Improv Everywhere in Battery Park in Manhattan. Here's a video of this performance that shows you how it worked: Overall, I think there are two particularly interesting elements of such a hybrid event. First, flash mobs simply work from a marketing perspective. They are fun and people like to participate. Second, there are many different approaches that dancers and dance companies can take to teaching their choreography to audiences both online and in-person. So you could end-up with a large flash mob doing your moves! In April 2006, I wrote about the same topic in "Crossing Flash Mobs and Site-Specific Performances." Posted by Doug Fox at 6:11 AM - Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0) January 23, 2008The Importance of Social Media Press Releases for DanceI've always been intrigued by "Social Media Press Releases" (SMPR) and how they can be used to enhance publicity within the dance world. In a nutshell, a SMPR is a relatively new press release format that aggregates 1) summaries of key information, 2) multimedia content and 3) relevant links while removing the extended editorializing that bogs down traditional press releases. (By "bogs down," I mean overwhelms or is irrelevant to non-traditional writers and journalists). Finally, anybody can subscribe to a SMPR feed to be automatically notified about any updates. A key advantage with SMPR is that they can be used to reach a much larger number of content creators--not just traditional journalists. Dance and presenter SMPR, for example, could be used to reach both dance and non-dance audiences and appeal to anybody with a blog or social networking page--a potentially huge audience. In this post, I'd like to offer some suggestions of how dance companies could create SMPR for their upcoming dance performances. But first some background: Background About Social Media Press Releases Maggie Fox (no relationship) of the Social Media Group wrote a post on Monday "The Social Media Press Release - Digital Snippets." In her post, she includes links to SMPR that her company has created for Ford (here are more Ford SMPR), and a Social Media Press Release Template (PDF). Multimedia section from Ford SMPR
If you browse through the Ford SMPR, you'll quickly get an idea of how this new take on press releases is constructed and how easy it is to find the types of content you're looking for. My Posts About SMPR and Dance Publicity I've written a number of posts since 2006 about new approaches to publicity and how to transform the publicity function in order to increase the number of content creators who are covering and discussing your work and performances: May 2006: Revamping Press Releases for the Arts December 2006: Increase Dance Coverage with Multimedia Releases and Open Rehearsals March 2007: What Strategy Should Drive Dance Publicity? July 2007: Multimedia Press Kits for the Internet Age Thinking About Dance and SMPR There are two important trends to keep in mind when it comes to dance publicity: 1) Dance is now back and part of American popular culture. Just consider the popularity of on-going and new dance shows (Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, Dance War and more), viral dance videos (Evolution of Dance, Soulja Boy and others) and the number of upcoming Super Bowl promotions that feature dancing, including the inane KFC Chicken Dance contest. 2) A huge number of people, especially young people, have social networking pages and profiles--which means that just about everybody can and does create content. So in light of a huge dance audience and the huge number of content creators it does not make sense to keep producing traditional press releases that only appeal to a small sliver of your potential audience. What Do Dance SMPR look like? I think that Dance SMPR would look very similar to the one created for Ford and more or less follow the SMPR PDF template I linked to above. You'd essentially be including videos, pictures, facts, interview quotes, links and recommended tags. ("Recommended tags" would be tags that you recommend content creators use when writing about your dance rehearsals, performances, workshops and similar programs. In the end, an SMPR is very similar to a blog except that you'd really be creating and aggregating content so that other people could cover what you're doing and the emphasis wouldn't be as much on telling your own story directly to your audience--although you could do that to. Finally, as with any blog, anybody who wished to could subscribe to your SMPR feed. As things stand now, if a dance company does not have a blog, I have no way of following what they're doing on a regular basis. By creating a SMPR with a feed, I would always be in the loop and so would thousands of other people be as well. Posted by Doug Fox at 11:59 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) January 22, 2008Videos of Merce's Weekly Company Classes to be Distributed OnlineThis past Saturday, Julie Bloom wrote in the New York Times about "Mondays With Merce," an upcoming web-based video series that will feature extensive video footage from Merce Cunningham's Monday morning company classes, which he teaches at his studio in the West Village. On the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) website, you can read more about these educational programs and watch a short clip of a class, although it's not taught by Merce.
I think it will be fascinating to watch videos of Merce teaching his classes. MCDC has received significant grant money, $250,000 according to the NY Times article, to allow them to create a four-camera shoot of each 90-minute class. Here's a diagram from the New York Times of what the video recording configuration will probably look like.
The funding will go toward the creation of this project as well as the equally important task of preserving these important video recordings. According to the MCDC website, videos of sections of Merce's company classes interspersed with rehearsal footage and interviews will be available starting in September of this year. These online videos will be available for free. If universities, dance companies and others want the full company classes, this material has to be licensed for an unspecified fee. MCDC has negotiated a new union contract with the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents the Merce dancers, so that company members participating in these video recording sessions can receive compensation. I think that this new union contract is an important step forward in terms of figuring out how dancers will be compensated for their work when it is distributed through new distribution channels. In April 2006, I wrote about the need for these types of new media contracts: If I were an executive director of a dance company or a union representative, the first thing I would do is renegotiate the contract sections that relate to digital reproductions of performances, rehearsals and other dance formats. The online world, as I've written about extensively, represents a huge opportunity for dance companies to reach larger audiences, generate more revenue and ensure the financial health of dance. But the online world cannot be exploited without first addressing these contractual issues. After writing "Rethinking Master Classes to Engage Larger Dance Audiences," on Friday, I'm curious how Merce and the participants in this video project envision who their online audience is and how viewers will interact with these materials. When I first read about the upcoming videos of Merce's company classes, I thought that it was a great idea. I get to watch and follow along an entire master class--even though I knew it would be way too difficult for me. But then I realized that the online videos would feature sections of the master classes interspersed with video footage from other sources as I mentioned above. So it strikes me at this point that MCDC is creating an online, on-going documentary for those interested in learning about and observing dance. And the goal of the Internet portion of this project is not really participatory in nature along the lines of what I wrote about on Friday. I'm not saying that critically. Here is just one more approach that dance companies can take to using online educational videos to engage with larger dance audiences in new ways. This Merce Cunningham video project is definitely an important development for the dance world. I think that many more dancers and dance companies will begin to explore how to capture classes, rehearsals, interviews and other process-oriented and behind-the-scenes activities. And there will be a related effort to explore different approaches to funding and monetizing the creation and distribution of these video programs. It would be nice to have $250k in funding for similar video projects. But the truth is that experimentation along the above lines can be done very inexpensively. I'd be delighted to hear about similar initiatives. Posted by Doug Fox at 5:20 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0) January 18, 2008Rethinking "Master Classes" to Engage Larger Dance AudiencesIn "LEVYdance performance and masterclass," Maria writes about taking a masterclass with Artistic Director Benjamin Levy and then seeing his company, LEVYdance, perform at Dance Place in Washington, DC. Maria points out that "The masterclass was a wonderful prequel to the performance, particularly in retrospect as I thought about the things we'd focused on in the class that showed up in Levy's work."
She also writes about why she never attended a masterclass before: I have never been to a modern masterclass before because it always sounds so intimidating. One of the last few I looked at required an advanced level of training. Another had an audition immediately following the class, and I didn't really care for the sort of cutthroat environment that might result in. I wouldn't attend a masterclass because my first reaction is that I don't have enough training. But I love the idea of taking a class with a choreographer whose work I'm about to see. I think it would be a great way to get inside the work and develop a much stronger feel for and connection with what I see on stage. So maybe there is an opportunity here to go beyond traditional masterclasses and create a new type of workshop environment that reaches out to dancers, maybe non-dancers, with a much broader range of dance experience. What I would personally like is to first watch an online video of a choreographer discussing his or her work. Then, the video includes a technique section for beginning and intermediate students who want to have some exercises and choreography to experiment with on their own. Then after watching this video, I'd attend a basic-level masterclass before going to see the company perform. I'm pretty certain that this beginner-focused master class coupled with the instructional video would transform the dance-going experience for me. I like having a very physical connection with performances I see and I think this approach might work for many others as well. The video might end-up being very viral in nature. If a dancer teaches a routine in the video, a lot of people might post their take on the routine to YouTube. Add-ons: For a good video about Benjamin Levy and his dance company, visit this link. I like the large video on the opening page of the LEVYdance website. This is what I recommended that more dance companies do in this post. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:05 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) January 17, 2008News, Videos and Commentary- Misnomer Dance Theater wins $10,000 prize from Ideablob to develop Internet tools for dancers. Here's their thank you post. And on related note, here's Misnomer documentary on Sundance channel: - Andrew Taylor has excellent post "Rules of engagement" (with good comments) about ways to improve Arts Presenters conference that took place this past week. But he doesn't name names, which sessions were good and not good? Should we critique sessions the way we critique bloggers and dance companies? I think yes - why shouldn't we hold session panelists and moderators accountable? When I make statement on my blog that's not accurate, I ought to be corrected. For example, Jennifer of Saturday Matanee modified my premise, in a comment of hers, about Cedar Lake Ballet being first arts organization to reach out to bloggers. - TechCrunch's 60-second long Steve Jobs keynote from Macworld 2008 - this is the length most presentations out to be: - Two effective video promotions of dance performances and installations: Chunky Move's Glow (click video link) [via Networked Performance] and Cedar Lake's Glassy Essence video [via Danciti]: - Big Art Mob is a growing collection of photos of public art throughout the UK [via Mashable]. This would be interesting project for dance world - maybe collecting and mapping videos of site-specific performances along the lines of what I did for Three Rails Projects using Google Maps. - Dance critic Claudia La Rocco discusses Miguel Gutierrez on WNYC radio [via DTW blog]. - Hey, pictures of my ballet teacher, Finis Jhung. Well, slight exaggeration. I've only taken one of his classes at Alvin Ailey. Here are pictures of Jhung teaching posted by Veronica Moretti Niebuhr on The Winger. Take a look at the Finis Jhung website to see how they present and sell ballet DVDs. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:28 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 15, 2008The Artistic Explorations of Dancers Should Speak for ThemselvesFor modern and contemporary dance to grow and prosper over the coming decade, there needs to be, I believe, a rethinking of how the Internet is harnessed to achieve such a successful outcome. There are two overriding strategies at the heart of this re-evaluation:
Posted by Doug Fox at 11:30 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 14, 2008Subscribe to 150+ Dance BlogsI use Google Reader to track dance, art, technology and not-for-profit blogs. In this post I'm including two files that you can download and then upload to blog reader software applications such as Google Reader. This way you can easily and quickly follow the latest from dance and other blogs without wasting time jumping from one website to the next. The files are in OPML format and can be uploaded to your favorite feed reader software program without modification. It's a bit stunning how many dance blogs there are. When I started blogging in 2005, there were maybe a handful of dance blogs. Dance Feeds The first OPML file is for dance feeds. In this file there are over 150 dance feeds. About 20-30 of them have not been updated since before last November. But I track them anyway because sometimes people start posting again. In this file, I've also included feeds to the dance-focused social networking sites. Here's the file that you can view and download. All My Feeds The second OPML file includes all 200+ feeds that I read on a regular basis. This file includes all the dance feeds from above. Here's the file that you can view and download. If you have questions about which feed readers to use or how to upload these files, please post comments. Did I leave out dance feeds? Please email me. In the near future, I'll also create a list of all dance blogs so that you can link to them directly. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:27 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) January 13, 2008SpeedLinks for January 13, 2007- "What's The Egg That Needs To Be Cooked Now?" - Choreographer/dancer Aynsley Vandenbroucke writes about Dance Forum on curation that took place this past Friday morning as part of Arts Presenters conference. - Audience reviews of Miguel Gutierrez on the Walker Art Center blog - always good to see performing arts venues encourage reviews on their own site. - "What is Physically Integrated Dance: II" by Wheelchair Dancer. - On-going discussion on dance-tech.net social networking site about "Internet. Market. Choice. Dance. Industry. Sell. Buy. Process." a wide-ranging discussion, nominally about impact of Internet on dance, with some interesting points. - Teens are big content creators - girls more than boys. "The survey found that content creation is not just about sharing creative output; it is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content." Quote strikes me as important for arts marketers looking to embrace social media. [via SmartMobs] - What would optimal dance-tech performance space look like? Matt Gough offers suggestions. But who will pay for it he asks? - Good, straight-forward post on how to set-up an easy to use and manage website that you can quickly update. [via Chromatouch] - Watch screen dance video for planetarium projection - from Chromatouch. - Choreographer Makeda Thomas from Port of Spain and Back again "In the Place of Silk Cotton Trees." - Tonya Plank's photos from Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet dress rehearsal last week. Write-ups of this blogger event from Arial, Evan, Taylor, and CounterCritic. It struck me - the one thing missing from the night was talking with the dancers after performance. - Eva Yaa Asantewaa reviews Cedar Lake performance. - Add video widget to your webiste/blog to quickly add latest displayed videos - from Beet.TV. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:00 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 10, 2008SpeedLinking for January 10, 2007- Maria, A Time To Dance, on taking master classes and their relationship to then seeing performances - I'll definitely get back to this post. - Tom Pearson of Third Rail Projects blog posts videos of recent Hong Hong site-specific performance. - Choreographer and dancer Joe Goode in conversation with fellow choreographer Jess Curtis on different cultural tendencies when it comes to accepting/giving criticism - and related topics. [via Daniel Burkholder's act/re/act] - I've always liked Carlos Saura's dance films. Argentine Tango Videos has clips from the Spanish director's "Tango." - Tangobliss points out that DC-based Tango dancer and teacher Sharna Fabiano is one Dance Magazine's Top 25 to Watch and links to PDF file of Dance Magazine article. - In-depth interview from Barry's Arts Blog about the need for "comprehensive restructuring of how arts organizations interact with youth" audiences. I just skimmed it - looks interesting. - 36% of American consumers use their cellphones for entertainment purposes. What does that say about how dancers should embrace mobile distribution options? From Orbitcast. - Would you like to see dance on 150-inch high-definition plasma display? Images from CES show in Las Vegas on Reel Pop blog. - Online video traffic doubled in 2007 - from Mashable. Add-up these trends in video, mobile and high-def, and it simply has to be an imperative to create great videos - but how to pay for them? More to come... Posted by Doug Fox at 8:43 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Reaches Out to Dance BloggersLast night I attended a dress rehearsal for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet to which local dance bloggers were invited. The event was a lot of fun and it was a real pleasure watching the company's talented dancers perform works from three very different choreographers. Philip at Oberon's Grove is first out of the box with a write-up of this event and the performances. And Tonya just wrote this event wrap-up about famous-people sightings as I'm about to push the publish button. It was great to see and meet fellow dance bloggers - there were about 10-12 of us - more on this topic coming soon along with a list of bloggers and a group photo. I really appreciate Cedar Lake reaching out to dance bloggers. This type of event is the first of its kind and my guess is that more dance companies and presenters will more actively include bloggers in their future publicity efforts. After the performance, we talked with Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer. He has a very positive attitude about the value of the unfiltered, personal writing style of bloggers, and expressed his appreciation for the diverse ways that bloggers go about covering dance. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet Caleb Custer last night - he was sick so he didn't attend. He's an intern with Cedar Lake and he helped put together this dance blogger event. Caleb definitely shares my interest in exploring how dance companies can leverage the Internet, blogs and videos to connect with audiences in new ways. So I hope to meet with him soon to discuss dance, the Internet and related topics. Does This Event for Dance Bloggers Have Real Significance? On one level, you could say this event is not a big deal. Cedar Lake was just smart to invite bloggers to a dress rehearsal, treat them to wine and cheese and host a post-performance talk with the artistic director. And in return get some good, quick coverage in the dance blogs - it's already happened. All true. But, how come nobody else has done this before? My answer is that many marketing people in the arts have a fairly traditional way of thinking about publicity, audience development, audience engagement and fundraising. There's still a huge emphasis placed on getting coverage and great quotes in the prestigious and mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times. These quotes are then taken and inserted into advertising/marketing campaigns and funding proposals. I'm not actually discounting the importance of these favorable quotes to the financial health of dance companies. What I do believe, though, is that the emerging blogging outlets for dance ought not be ignored and offer many possible benefits to dance companies. Bloggers are part of the community-oriented, participatory spirit of the Internet. And I think we will see many more dancers and dance companies exploring how to use blogs, social networking sites and related offerings to engage audiences in extended conversations about their work. We turn around stories quickly, which means that you'll get coverage before the last curtain goes down. We include multimedia so that our readers can see videos of your work and make-up their own minds. Collectively, dance bloggers, especially in New York City, get a good amount of traffic. Dance blog readers tend to be avid dance fans and are probably more interested in dance than the average reader of dance reviews in traditional newspapers. Finally, dance blog posts can easily show-up toward the top of search engine results. Do a Google search for "Cedar Lake Ballet" and see what happens. A link to a story I wrote about Cedar Lake is right under the links to the Cedar Lake website. The same thing happens if you do a search for this week's "APAP conference" or "Arts Presenters Conference." Great Dance is very high in the search results listings. What do these Google search results mean? They mean that if publicity people considered how Internet users searched for information about their organizations and performances, then they would reach the conclusion that dance bloggers are important. And, in addition, that it's worth the time and energy to support bloggers in their efforts so that they will hopefully offer positive coverage of your programs. This post probably sounds like I'm going overboard patting myself and other bloggers on the back, which is somewhat true. But I do believe that there is a large discrepancy between the way in which marketing and publicity people in the arts see the world, and the way the world actually is. Posted by Doug Fox at 12:34 PM - Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0) January 9, 2008SpeedLinking for January 9, 2007- Artful Manager on new fascinating research report, "Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance" - full link to report. I'll definitely be writing about this. - PDF of "Youth Dance: Towards Best Practice" from Quodlibet. - Possible photo editing apps for dancers - send online postcards and create scarpbooks - from Read/WriteWeb. - Oberon's Grove on Parsons at Joyce and NYC Ballet "Dance for Joy." - "Bricks vs. Spaghetti vs. Feathers" metaphors for maintaining good dance frame with comments - The Dance Primer. - PayPal and other payment apps want to help non-profits - Mashable. - DNO Dances on "Jacques Tati 'Jour de Fete'" at Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center. - Tonya Plank on New York City Ballet dancer Jock Soto film documentary - also part of Dance on Camera Festival. Posted by Doug Fox at 1:58 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) My Upcoming Internet and Technology Speaking ProgramsI'm going to be speaking about the Internet and technology at the following workshops and conferences for the dance community. I hope to see readers there: - Dance/NYC is hosting a session on Technology Basics. The focus of this program is to offer artists an introduction to creating an effective website, posting videos to YouTube and implementing an Internet marketing campaign. This program will take place at Dance/NYC on Tuesday, February 26th. - This spring I'll be conducting a session on web marketing as part of the Joyce's "Free Advice" educational series for members of the dance community. The program will focus on blogs, video, social networking, online marketing and related topics. "Free Advice" programs take place Monday evenings starting in March at Joyce SoHo. Date of my session to be determined. - The Dance Critics Association Conference takes place June 13-15th in Washington, DC. On Sunday, June 15th, I'll be participating in a roundtable on "New Media & Dance - Opportunities & Obstacles" that will explore the latest Internet developments and trends related to dance writing and criticism. If your organization will be conducting Internet and technology workshops and educational programs for dance and other arts audiences, I'd be delighted to discuss my possible participation in your program. You can email me at: doug@greatdance.com - Thanks! Posted by Doug Fox at 9:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) January 8, 2008Ballet Nouveau Colorado Chooses Three Finalists for Its 21st Century Choreography CompetitionSometimes I look back at posts I've written and wonder what on earth I was thinking. Back to that thought in a second. The Ballet Nouveau Colorado (BNC) has just selected its three finalists for its 21st Century Choreography Competition. The first stage of the competition consisted of choreographers uploading their dance videos to BNC's YouTube channel. There were 28 video submissions and the three finalists were chosen from these videos. You can access the bios of the finalists on the following BNC page - I've embeded the three videos of the finalists below. The finalists were chosen by allocating 25% of the vote to YouTube voting and 75% to the artistic staff. Now each of the finalists will have a nine-day residency at BNC where they will create their work - this process will be videotaped and documented for the web. The performances of these three works will take place April 11-13 and "celebrity" panelists will choose winner. Reevaluating My Initial Criticism I wrote this post last September when this competition was just getting started. I don't really understand why I was being so critical of a project that appeals to me on just about every level. In any case, it looks like BNC did a good job of encouraging choreographers to submit their videos to YouTube and there were a good number of views, comments and votes cast. I think that it was a good idea to limit the weight of the YouTube voting to 25% because it is very easy for friends to skew results without too much work. Now it will be fun to get a peek behind-the-scenes as the choreographer finalists create their work. And it will be especially interesting and enlightening to see what the audiences are like for these performances. Will new audiences be attracted to ballet as a result of this open, YouTube-enabled, participatory process? More on APAP and Curating Yesterday I wrote a post Dance Forum on Curation at Dance Presenters Conference. In this post, I expressed my hope that the panelists and audience members explored new approaches to curation that used the Internet during this forum Friday morning. The BNC 21st Century Choreography Competition is an excellent example of new frontiers in curation and would be, I believe, a good springboard for discussion and analysis. Finalist YouTube Videos Heather Maloy: Ma Cong: Alex Ketley: Posted by Doug Fox at 2:42 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) SpeedLinking for January 8, 2007- New media artist Jessica Thompson's "Give It Up" features breakdancers battling at 2 different sites with the aid of video chat software. Performance January 12th. [via Networked Performance] - Watch "Christopher Walken Wants Your Pointe Shoes!" [via The Intermission] - Dorian Nuskind-Oder's Tenuous Points in her DNO Dances blog. - When Tango Cultures Clash in Sallycat's adventures. - Dance bloggers don't like new ABC show Dance War. Bellydance: Experiences, Swan Lake Samba Girl and BSYTYCD. - New Research on Arts Audience Attitudes and Behavior - Americans for the Arts blog. - Blueray wins HD-DVD battle on TechCrunch. Will this matter in long-term with rise Internet video? - Bad Acting in HD from Article19's Evil Imp. - Explore alternate reality games. ABC's Web Adventure for Lost - The Future of Entertainment in Read/WriteWeb. How might dance be incorporated into ARGs? - New Parkour Video from K.K's World, Duly Noted. - Marlon Barrios Solano mentions crowd-sourced user-contributed video/performance project from Ashley A. Friend's The Contemporary Dance Core. I'm very interested but don't understand at this point. Will follow-up. - More On Salsa Mambo Festival from Don Baarns' Unlikely Salsero. - Solo Charlestons hot at swing competitions. Carl's Dance Blog. - Continued developments in how audiences can watch live music performances online - even controlling desired camera angle during concert. See video on DeepRockDrive - from TechCrunch. - A Clever Kind of Family Concert - Gene Carr's Patron Technology Blog. Web Video Promotion: Online Video Distribution Goes Pro With The New Hey!Spread - Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond from Read/WriteWeb. - Culturebot on recommendations of what to see during this week's APAP conference. - What do high-def, live broadcasts of opera, classical music and ballet performances mean for performing artists in non-first tier cities? For 25 cents More You Get A Large Coke And Opera Glasses in Butts in Seats. - Matt Gough on Youth Dance - Safe Touch in Quodlibet. - Arial in The Arts Et Al asks "why couldn't major ballet or contemporary dance companies generate buzz by letting their patrons learn choreography via You Tube?" That's my question too. Posted by Doug Fox at 12:02 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 7, 2008Advertise on Great DanceThe new Great Dance ad specifications and pricing are available - you can view them here. I think that advertisers who want to reach dancers, dance audiences and others in the dance community will find these introductory rates very cost effective and will also find that advertising on Great Dance provides excellent value. So if you're thinking about being an introductory sponsor, I'd be delighted to talk with you and answer any of your questions. Please email me. Posted by Doug Fox at 2:09 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) Dance Forum on Curation at Dance Presenters ConferenceThe Association of Performing Arts Presenters 51st Annual Member Conference from January 11-15th here in New York City. There are lots of dance performances to see and educational sessions to attend. One of sessions I'm looking forward to is this Friday morning's "Dance Forum: Curating Dance - Ideas and Innovation." Visit this page and click "Dance Forum" to read complete description and see list of panelists. And here's part of description: The Dance Working Group (DWG) hosts an open forum on the somewhat perplexing subject of curating dance. Artists, companies, peer mentor networks and presenters all engage in a challenging process when curating a dance season that can strongly impact audiences and communities. I'm hoping that some of the speakers or at least audience questions address the issue of the Internet and its impact on the curatorial process. In other words, the Internet is obviously a participatory medium and online users are very much accustomed to being at the heart of the action. Internet users can vote, discuss and let their voices be heard. This participatory inclination is even stronger among young people. When it comes to dance, I think the two biggest examples of large-scale online involvement have been on the discussion boards dedicated to popular TV dance shows (here's just one example of a forum dedicated to "So You Think You Can Dance.") and the viral nature of the Soulja Boy "Crank That" instructional video (see my post). In the case of the latter example, this dance video has been watched by millions of people and hundreds of fans have uploaded videos of their own take of this dance routine. I do start with the premise that the concert dance community cannot really ignore what's happening in the popular and social dance space as they explore current and new developments in curation. My simple answer is that the public (dance enthusiasts) simply have to be a bigger piece of the equation. So my question for presenters and dancers is how specifically are you now or planning in the future to develop new approaches to curation that incorporate, in some manner, the online public? And what specifically will these new approaches to curation look like? It strikes me that there are many possibilities as well as challenges: - What types of risks are established performing arts venues and dance companies willing to take in terms of opening-up the curatorial process to online dance enthusiasts? Would you present on your website a list of dance companies who you are considering presenting and allow website visitors to vote on their preferences? Would a dance company allow online voters to determine which of their works are performed? What are other variations of this idea? And how can such programs be implemented that protect the artistic values and approaches of your organization? - What are new ways of presenting dance altogether that rely heavily or entirely on online audiences? For example, how would you go about curating a series of site-specific works that featured dancers and dance companies selected by Internet users? How would such programs be structured and implemented? - How could you go about creating a completely open-ended curatorial process that started with a simple question to Internet users such as "What pressing world issues do think need to be addressed? And then based on the issues that are determined to be the most pressing, a dance program could be built around these ideas with lots of user involvement. - And, finally, curation can be very much connected with audience engagement. If online audiences know that they are in some way part of the equation when dance programs are being developed, they will also enjoy taking advantage of other ways to be part of the dance program. Take the Soulja Boy "Crank That" video above. How can more dance programs give audiences a way to actually learn parts of the choreography and then enable users to upload their videos if they wish? Is this something that you'd value? There are many opportunities and challenges when it comes to opening-up the curatorial process. To date, I'm not sure I've seen any actual examples in the concert dance community. This is something I hope to see develop over the coming year and I hope that the dance forum at least touches upon these issues. Posted by Doug Fox at 9:59 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) "Underground Dance Masters" at DFA's Dance on Camera FestivalThe Dance Film Association's 36th Dance on Camera Festival is taking place now through January 19th here in New York City. I wrote yesterday about the Dance Heritage Coalition forum on "fair use" practices for dance documentary filmmakers. On Saturday night I saw (write-up in film schedule): "Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era" (Movie website) I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Guzman-Sanchez spent about 11+ years researching and interviewing street dancers in California and New York who were the creators of many of the street dance styles and forms that emerged from the mid-60s through the beginning of the 80s. He seems partly to have been motivated by a desire to reclaim the originality and artistic creativity of the street dance scene before the commercialization of what become breakdancing and hip-hop in the 80s and afterwards. The film was not the most professional documentary I've ever seen - the lighting and sound for the excellent interviews could have been better, for example, and the film could have definitely been edited down from its 144 minutes. But I can't say these limitations really bothered me - it was just great to see this story told; see the ample video footage from TV shows, clubs, home movies, and MTV dance videos; and get a feel for the connections among the different dance styles. "Underground Dance Masters" is being shown again on Saturday, January 19th at Walter Reade Theater (Lincoln Center) at 3:00 PM. And on Friday, January 11th at 3:300 PM, you can see "Program 12: Urban Dance, Part 2: B-Boys On Screen." This program of two films includes "Inside the Circle" about a grassroots hip-hop movement in Texas. Here's the trailer: And here's the "Inside the Circle" website. A Thought About Crowdsourcing Dance History I've often thought about how dancers with experience in different dance forms can pool their collective knowledge to better document the connections among different genres of dance. Take salsa dancing as an example, how can we use the Internet to help us understand the relationships among different styles of Salsa dancing that have emerged in different countries and cities and how they have influenced each other? If we can come up with an answer, the same could be done, of course, for any style of dance. Posted by Doug Fox at 6:56 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 6, 2008Toward a "Fair Use" Practice for Dance Documentary FilmmakersFriday afternoon I attended a program on how documentary filmmakers can incorporate copyrighted materials in their films and videos under the "fair use" doctrine. This topic is important because if dance filmmakers cannot use historical materials under "fair use" doctrine, then they will often not be able to make the documentaries that they would like to produce. The cost of licensing the desired video footage, photos, audio and other materials would simply be too expensive. Dance Heritage Coalition sponsored this program, "Yes You Can," which was part of the Dance Film Association's 36th Dance on Camera Festival (January 2-19, 2008). What the dance community is attempting to do through the leadership of DHC is follow in the successful footsteps of independent documentary filmmakers who have created a document "Best Practices in Fair Use." In essence this document sets-out generally accepted practices of the conditions under which a filmmaker can use copyrighted materials without having to seek prior approval or pay licensing fees for the material. Peter Jaszi, a copyright and intellectual property attorney on the panel who is spearheading this initiative for DHC says that acceptable "fair use" must involve some type of "transformational" use of the copyrighted materials for a legitimate case to be made on the part of the filmmaker. In other words, the use of the copyrighted videos, images and sound must be different than what was initially intended. for them. I'm probably oversimplifying, but that's the gist I got from the panel discussion. The objectives of this DHC initiative is "To reach a consensus on a fair and balanced approach to using presumptively copyrighted materials to meet our mandate as cultural conservators and educators." An important benefit with creating accepted best practices for "fair use" among libraries, archives and others who own/control copyrighted material, and filmmakers and educators who wish to use these materials is that the likelihood of lawsuits will diminish. All participants will have a clearer idea of when they need to acquire specific rights to the desired materials and when they can go ahead and simply use them under "fair use." Looking Forward There's also another side to this discussion that I think should be explored: What can dancemakers and presenters do today to minimize the challenges that filmmakers and others who may wish to use their creative work in the future do to eliminate possible future roadblocks? As panelist Jan Schmidt, assistant curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, pointed out, as an example, that you can't even watch videos of dance performances at the library (at Lincoln Center) without getting specific approval from the Brooklyn Academy of Music - this would be just for dance performances at BAM, of course. This approval process is cumbersome and I'm sure that there are many similar examples. So what can dance artists do now in terms of contracts, licensing and other intellectual property issues to avoid these hassles? For example, if choreographers worked directly with musicians who created and played their own work, there would likely be many fewer legal issues to worry about down the road if the choreographer and musician worked out all the possible uses of their material upfront. I'm not an expert in this area, but it seems to me that a lot can be done today to help the dance community to start thinking of how to collaborate with other artists in a way that facilitates access and use of their creative output. I look forward to hearing from others on this topic. Posted by Doug Fox at 9:47 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) Update on NYC Dance Reviews and Calendar LinksThe first month (December, 2007) of the New York City dance review summaries and links went well. I'm making a few changes to this aggregation of dance reviews so that the submission and posting process is fully automated. It should take about a week or so, and then this blog will be up and running. I'm probably not going to maintain a calendar of dance performances in NYC since there are already a number of them - I'll just link to these existing calendars. Please email me with your thoughts and feedback. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:32 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 3, 2008Dance Videos Created Specifically for the InternetIn 2008, it would be nice to see more dance videos created specifically for the Internet, videos whose purpose is solely artistic and not marketing in nature. I know of few examples of such videos except the ones I include below. If you know of other videos along these lines, please share. You could say that dance on camera productions are the same as or similar to the dance videos specifically created for the Internet. But I don't think that this is usually the case. For example, the online video dance series produced by Boris Willis and Clare Byrne create on-going relationships between creator and viewer that would not be anticipated at dance film festivals. Plus, the approach to shooting and editing is significantly different as well. Clare Byrne's Weekly Rites Clare Byrne's Weekly Rites is an experimental dance video blog that features the dancemaking of New York City choreographer Clare Byrne. Here's a December 13th video "All My Love Come Down." You can read the corresponding text and comments. Dance-A-Day Washington, DC-based choreographer and dancer Boris Willis produces the Dance-A-Day video blog that features his daily video creations that either feature solo performances by himself or dances with him and others. You can also visit Boris Willis Moves Blog to see his videos. In yesterday's video, Shallom and Boris, Boris dances with Shallom, a Vancouver dancer who is heading back home after being in DC for four months. You can visit Shallom's Moving Space and Time blog. Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's Offsite & Insight Members of Takoma Park, Maryland-based Liz Lerman Dance Exchange created an Internet video, "Offsite & Insight" for their participation in last September's 13th DC Improvisation Festival. Dance Exchange was on the road during the festival, so they decided to participate virtually, via an Internet video. Posted by Doug Fox at 6:29 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) Review of New York Times Article on Dance and the InternetIt was great to see the December 29, 2007 article in The New York Times, "The World of Dance Tries Out New Moves On the Web," by Julie Bloom. The focus of this piece is on how the concert dance community is using the Internet (websites, video and blogs) to reach larger audiences and "change the nature of the form." I think Bloom captures some important trends and stories that highlight how social networking, the online sharing of personal stories and tributes, a greater emphasis on multimedia content and more user-friendly websites are increasing the profile of the professional dance community. For example, she features an interview with dancer/choreographer Camille A. Brown, who performed her "The Groove to Nobody's Business" as part of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater season at City Center, about her My Space page. Brown says that as a result of MySpace, she has been contacted by directors interested in using her work and she uses the bulletin feature to keep her 500 "friends" updated on her latest activities. Also, Megan Sprenger, director of marketing for Dance Theater Workshop, discusses the recent revamp of the DTW website and the importance they placed on making their new site about movement through the extensive use of videos and constant color changes. But I also think that the article has a few weaknesses. First, when discussing Camille A. Brown, Bloom writes that she is "...one of many young artists using the Web as a way to level the artistic playing field." That's an accurate statement up to a point, but an additional interview or two is really needed here. The opening of this article highlights people (Brown as well as David Hallberg and Kristin Sloan) who are connected to the most prominent dance organizations in New York City (Alvin Ailey, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet). I'm definitely not criticizing the people or institutions I just mentioned above. I'm just pointing out that if the Internet is really about a level playing field, then the author ought to find artists, festival organizers and performing arts venues that have used low-cost Internet tools to build audiences from scratch or significantly grow their audiences. For example, who are the dancers who had no following at all, turned to the Internet to create an audience and now are presenting their own work to large crowds? I should also figure out the answer to this question - if you have thoughts, please share. Actually, to modify what I just said a bit. It's possible that Brown's MySpace page led to an increase in ticket sales for Alvin Ailey in December and the same goes for the video series that Kristin Sloan did for Romeo + Juliet for the New York City Ballet. If I recall correctly, I think Kristin told me a few months ago that the R + J video series did help ticket sales. A second shortfall with the article is that Bloom says upfront that artists are using the Internet to "change the nature of the form." In other words, choreographers and dancers are somehow using the Internet to change the shape/approach/structure of the dances that we see at theaters or, maybe, enjoy online. But she never really elaborates on this premise except through one vague example. Bloom mentions that iPods were used by audience members during the Merce Cunningham performance of "eyeSpace" so that each audience member could be listening to a randomly selected sound track during each section of the dance performance. This example, it strikes me, is more a case of how personal digital communication devices can be used in different ways in a performance environment and not really an example of how the Internet is transforming dance. To combine the Internet with chance procedures, I think you'd want to allow for more online audience involvement and input. Maybe musicians could upload and recommend their own musical scores, and audiences could download their favorite musical tracks to enjoy while watching the live performance. Actually, I'm not even sure my example qualifies as an example of "changing the nature of the form" either. In any case, it would be great if more examples of form-changing were featured in the article--if any actually exist. Finally, I disagree with the opening of this New York Times article in which Bloom takes the standard art critic potshot at the very popular "Evolution of Dance" YouTube video, which she demonizes as an "absurdly silly stand-up comedy routine." I wrote about the value and importance of this video two weeks ago. I think that what is worthwhile about "Evolution of Dance" is that dancers and non-dancers can relate to this video because of the basic level of familiarity that many of us have with the dance fads and crazes in the US over the past 50+ years. And it's nice to see these different dance crazes tied together in a seamless whole that provides context and understanding to viewers. These notions of continuity, context and understanding are, I think, invaluable ideas for the dance community to explore as they experiment with the best way to embrace the Internet. Julie Bloom's article is actually challenging to write. How do you encapsulate the latest Internet trends and developments for concert dance in a single piece with deadline pressure? It would be a good exercise for me and others to take a stab at this. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:27 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) January 2, 2008Dance Blogging in 2008 - Blogging Application Round-UpI think that 2008 ought to be the year for dancers to blog. By "blog" I really mean that dancers might want to consider sharing their first person stories and perspectives with their online audiences. I don't mean that every dancer ought to create their own comprehensive dedicated blog and devote large numbers of hours every week to writing about what they're up to - although they can. I'm just encouraging dancers to speak directly to their audiences on an on-going basis in a more or less conversational style. And providing these blog updates on their websites and social networking pages. And promoting them through email and other communication channels. There are a number of blogging software programs to choose from. So in this post, I offer a round-up of the most popular blogging applications. Some of these programs are meant for short, quick posts, and others are intended for more formal blogging. Blogging Tools and Applications I'll start with the short-form blogging tools and follow with the more feature-rich applications. - Twitter is a very streamlined application that is intended for people who want to share what they're up to in just a couple sentences or so. Two examples of Twitter blogs for dancers are from Terrence Taps and Article19. Twitter feeds, as with all blog feeds, can be embedded in your website, social networking pages and blogs. - Another short-form blogging tool (but not intended for supper-short posts like Twitter) is Tumblr. Two Tumblr dance blogs include Danciti and Quodlibet. - You can also use social network sites such as MySpace, which includes blogging functionality. Here's the MySpace blog for Troika Ranch. - There are a number of popular choices for hosted blogging platforms. You can take a look at Blogger, TypePad and WordPress. Boris Willis Moves, Clare Byrne's Weekly Rites and Moving Space and Time use Blogger. Bellydance: Experiences uses TypePad. And A Time to Dance uses WordPress. - Blogging software can also be integrated into the overall look and feel of your website. Dance Theater Workshop's new blog uses WordPress and, as you'll see, the blog is a seamless part of the redesigned DTW website. And Swan Lake Samba Girl , which also uses WordPress, is integrated into the overall design of Tonya Plank's website. - You can also use blogging software to host multiple bloggers and blogs. The Winger uses WordPress. And Great Dance uses MovableType. Personally, I'm a fan of MovableType for hosting multiple blogs. But WordPress does have a lot of fans. So that's a quick round-up of blogging applications. The tools toward the top of the list are pretty much do-it-yourself programs. As you move down, you'll either need more technical experience or want to hire a consultant for the design and implementation. 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