January 7, 2008Dance 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) May 11, 2007Voice of Dance Launches Video ContentPopular dance website Voice of Dance launched a dance video contest that pays $1,000 to the winner. Dancers are encouraged to upload original videos to YouTube to participate in this contest, which runs through May. The winner will be announced July 2nd.  The voting results for each week's best video and the grand prize winner in July appear to be determined solely by the vote totals not by the creator of this contest. And during May, you can vote three times each week for the same or multiple videos. Voice of Dance could have implemented a better registration system - once you sign-up, you only need your name and email address - there's no password, which means that you could log-on to the competition site, sign-in using my name and email address and vote on my behalf. Most voting systems can be messed with, but this one more than most. One thing I don't understand. The rules say you should upload your video to YouTube in "private" mode. But then, you're supposed to tag your video "voiceofdance." How can Voice of Dance search for a tag if the video is marked private? Maybe I'm missing something. In the rules for this contest, VOD is very clear that you must upload your own videos and you cannot infringe on the rights of others. So while VOD is covering itself from a legal perspective, I wonder what percentage of the videos in this contest will actually be "legal." In other words, if the video is of a dance performance, have all the dancers and other artists (costume, lighting, set design) signed agreements/waivers providing permission for their work to be featured in this video which is competing for a financial award? And do they have permission to use the music that is included in their video. These questions follow-up on the post I wrote earlier this week about intellectual property and ownership interests. My guess is that in many cases the people who upload their videos will not have received all of the proper authorizations and licensing to submit their videos to this contest. While I think this video competition is a great idea and I'm sure we will see similar initiatives in the near future, this is one more reason why the dance community has to start getting serious about IP and other legal issues surrounding the sharing of dance videos online. The bottom line is that it will be very difficult for dancers and dance companies to take advantage of the emerging online revenue streams without addressing these sometimes complicated legal issues. Posted by Doug Fox at 2:37 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) March 29, 2007Can Ballet be as Popular as "Dancing with the Stars"?In a post earlier this week, "WHOA," Tonya Plank of Swan Lake Samba Girl blog writes about the massive audience for ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" in comparison to the relatively miniscule audiences for concert dance. I had no idea there was this degree of difference between a popular TV show and ballet. I no longer think that the Internet is the be-all and end-all right now, the best way to reach out to people and gain new audiences. If the Internet is the future I don’t think it’s the present. The present is still the good old fashioned TV. Obviously the Internet is a good aid for promoting dance, through blogs and message boards, but there needs to be more ballet on TV. I don’t know how — commercials maybe? A full-length ballet once in a while like the Met Opera is doing. Except it needs to be on a basic network and during prime time...Tharp’s ballets are so modern, so fun, and so relatable. Certainly the same audience who gets so in to ballroom would be into her, right?! Or, Alvin Ailey’s The River or Pas de Duke, or Revelations even — they all contain some elements of Samba and Jive, etc. Anyone who takes any interest in DWTS would simply be blown away by those dancers and choreographies. Tonya raises some good questions: 1) If DWTS is so popular, why aren't ballet and modern performances? 2) And given that there's already a huge audience for DWTS, how come these loyal fans don't become part of the audiences for concert dance performances? And, 3) Quoting from Terry Teachout's column, "Ballet, Never Head of It," in the Wall Street Journal that Tonya references, ...therein lies the challenge of reviving dance in America: Anyone who seeks to launch a new company, or revitalize an old one, must start by figuring out how to make large numbers of Americans want to see something about which they no longer know anything--save that Emmitt Smith does it [Smith won last year's Dancing with the Stars]. I think that there are a number of reasons why many dance forms are hugely popular in the US (by popular I mean people either watch or dance) but concert dances often are not: 1) The perennial difference between "high culture" and popular culture 2) Lack of exposure to and knowledge about ballet, modern and many other concert dance forms 3) Lack of an easy entry-point into some dance forms. In other words, the dances are inaccessible to the uninitiated 4) The embarrassment factor of believing that you will not understand what you're about to see 5) Some concert performances are boring and bewildering 6) The inaccessible way that dance reviews are written 7) The separation of concert dance from popular dances in the way the media covers (primarily writes about) dance. When did you ever read a review of a ballroom dance competition? 8) The unimaginative ways that some ballet and modern dance companies promote themselves and explain their works 9) The lack of industry-wide initiatives - especially on a national level - to build new audiences for dance 10) The historical elitism of the ballet. To quote from this morning's Baltimore Sun: Classical ballet...emerged from the tradition of court dance in 17th-century France. It was dance done by and for aristocrats - and ever since, traditional dance has had difficulty defeating the perception that it is elitist and that a specialized knowledge is required to appreciate it. Possible Answers It would be great as Tonya suggests to have ballet or modern performances on broadcast TV. But I think that would be very difficult from a commercial standpoint unless you featured a dance company such as Pilobolus, which always sells out. Or maybe there is a variation of Dancing with the Stars for modern dance companies that could be on Bravo - but is there a large enough audience and this isn't broadcast TV? For starters, many writers mischaracterize the state of dance in the US. In an article in the Los Angeles Times this week, "Ballet Pacifica Lacks Funds to Stay in Business," Mike Boehm writes about the soon-to-close Ballet Pacifica and its impact on the local dance community: Ballet Pacifica's demise would deepen a widespread belief that Southern California is not fertile turf for dance; Los Angeles has not had a major ballet company since the Joffrey Ballet's Music Center residency ended in 1990. Boehm is clearly referring to concert dance not dance in general. But writers are constantly doing this: They start with the very elite and condescending premise that there is only one kind of dance - concert dance - and all other forms of dance are not worth acknowledging. Because when you think about it, it is absurd to say that "Southern California is not fertile turf for dance" - there are many styles and types of dance that are incredibly popular in Southern California. I make the above point about the use of the word "dance" because unless the performing arts dance community views itself as part of the larger dance community, it will be very challenging for ballet and modern dance companies to be more successful from an economic and audience development standpoint. Take ballroom dancing. It is very popular in the US - partially spurred on by the success of Dancing with the Stars. There are many ways to enjoy ballroom dancing. You can watch or participate in professional or pro-am (professional-amateur) dance competitions. You can take American or International-style ballroom classes. And, of course, you can go ballroom dancing throughout the year - In DC alone there are many places to do this. The question I take from Tonya's post is what is stopping these ballroom dancers from becoming fans of ballet and modern dance? These audiences - consisting of millions of people - are either avid fans of ballroom or are already ballroom dancers. The bottom line is that they are already engaged with dance. What specifically would it take to convert some of these millions of ballroom dancers to frequent attendance at concert dances? How could you implement marketing campaigns and the Internet in particular to build this cross-over audience? Making Dance More Accessible Earlier this week I wrote about the new video series that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the New York City Ballet's Rome + Juliet. The second episode was just published. This second episode focuses on weapons training - a brilliant theme if you want to make dance more accessible to a wider audience. Anybody whoever mocked dance or dancers would sort of have to be in awe of the skills of the dancers who not only have to master realistic sword-fighting techniques, but they have to do it to the rhythm of the music. It's time to sell season tickets to the millions of NRA members. Ballet Isn't for the Elite I've already mentioned a number of times the new video podcast series from the Anaheim Ballet that flat-out mocks the notion that ballet is an elite art form in its very enjoyable profiles of its dancers. High-Quality Dance Videos on the Internet Also, while I think it's tough to get ballet on TV networks, there are a number of important developments taking place in the world of online video distribution that will offer some compelling ways for all forms of dance to reach a larger audience. With the introduction of services like Joost, which will distribute high-quality video programming and the roll-out of devices like Apple TV, which connects your computer to your wide-screen TV, there are an increasing number of distribution outlets for dance videos. I'm going to leave it there or I'll spend the entire day writing this post!! Posted by Doug Fox at 9:16 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0) March 19, 2007Injured AgainI haven't been able to take dance classes for about a month or so. I actually shouldn't have been taking classes for a month before that. In February 2006 I injured myself more seriously and couldn't take dance classes for about seven months. I injured both of my adductor muscles and the tendons in each of my hips. Returning to the present: At about the beginning of last December I hurt my back overdoing it on the crunches. I was doing the crunches where you're lying on your back with your feet straight-up in the air perpendicular to the ceiling. I increased very slightly the number of reps I was doing. Then I felt this shot of pain running through my back. I didn't do much at first except take Advil and use a heat pad and go back to dance classes - except I stopped doing the ab work. It's stunning how fast the abs lose strength if you stop working on them. But my back didn't improve. So I eventually went back to the orthopedic doctor and he referred me to a physical therapist. So I went to the physical therapist for about two weeks and they taught me some very helpful back stretching and strengthening exercises. But they seemed to insist that I work with a different PT each time I went. So I just stopped going. I'd prefer just to work with one PT who knows what my problem is. But the exercises they taught me have been very helpful. I do them every other day. And the most helpful advice was that I start using a workout ball. I now think that workout balls are the greatest invention ever. I think all of the exercises I'm doing to strengthen my core and back are beginning to help too. I've been using a book "Ultimate Core Ball Workout" by Jeanine Detz. The author does an excellent job of describing and illustrating hundreds of different ball exercises for your abs, back and other parts of your core. For me this is great because I still can't do regular crunches while lying on the floor.  I'm hoping that my back as well as some pulled muscles I have are in good enough shape for me to go back to dance classes in three weeks. On Saturday I ran into Helen Hayes my wonderful modern dance teacher. She's starting a new routine today and the next one will start in three weeks. So if I'm better in three weeks the timing would be perfect - but realistically I think it's only 50/50 that I'll be healthy enough. I saw Helen at the "Winter Performance Class Showcase" at Joy of Motion. It's always fun to see other students perform - I take classes with a number of the students who were in the program. After another year or so of dance classes, I think I'm going to sign-up for a performance class. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:34 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) February 20, 2007Costume Designers on the WebIn my previous post I wrote about the Houston Ballet's costume design competition and offered suggestions about how their competition could be more Internet friendly. In this post, I'd like to point to some examples of how professional and amateur costume designers who primarily serve the dance world are promoting themselves on the Internet. Blogs and Flickr - The nameless costume designer from House of Secrets has a profile on Flickr and here are some of her designs and pictures.  - You can learn about Carla Cid de Diego's costume design work on her blog (from 2005) and link to dance photos on Flickr. - New blogger "1001 Nightmares - The Worst of Bellydance" shares belly dance fashion pictures along with her amusing thoughts about the designs. YouTube - Belly dance designs by Asi Haskal. Video includes sample belly dance costumes and dancing. (Link to her website). MySpace - Costume designer Kelly has a MySpace page where you can view some of her belly dance designs. - Costume designer Micha Merrick has a MySpace page where you can learn about and see examples of her work -- she's really a theatrical costume designer - not many dance fashion designers on MySpace :( - Dina Lydia "The Costume Goddess" offers a wealth of resources about belly dance costumes. On the Art of Middle Eastern Dance by Shira website, you can find lots of how-to articles written by Dina. What's the story about belly dancers? Are they more Internet savvy than everybody else? There are probably more dance blogs about belly dancing than any other form of dance. Second is probably Argentine Tango. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:32 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) Bring Costume Design Competitions to the InternetThe Houston Ballet is holding a costume design competition. Here's a brief description: You will be creating original artwork to be used as inspiration for the design of a world premiere ballet with choreography by Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch entitled A Doll’s House Story with music by István Márta. Your original artwork as well as the final design of the ballet is anime (Japanese animation). Your original artwork will include character images of 16 individual characters - eight men and eight women. You can view the complete competition guidelines in this PDF file. The deadline for the submission of artwork is July 1, 2007. The winner will receive $2,500. And 8-12 finalists will also have their artwork displayed before and after performances in Houston. So you can see an example of the Houston Ballet's work, here's a video from last year's performance of Dracula: Add to My Profile | More Videos A Different Approach to Dance Costume Competitions This design competition strikes me as a good way for designers to get exposure for their work and creativity. Although I don't know how tempting this competition is for professional designers who already have a number of paying gigs. I'd like to suggest a couple of modifications to this competition that will - get more exposure for designers - help designers better understand the artistic requirements of the Houston Ballet, and - Drive much larger numbers of ballet fans to the Houston Ballet website, which, in turn, will help sell more tickets. My idea is pretty simple. Why not post all submitted designs to the Houston Ballet website or MySpace page? Or maybe all submissions that pass a certain basic threshold of creative quality? The Houston Ballet could even allow website visitors to vote on their favorite costumes in order to help choose the winning sketches. By implementing this type of web-based design competition, everybody benefits. The ballet company and designers get much more exposure, which means more designers will submit their artwork, and, as I said above, more people will go to performances. Plus, this type of web competition gets ballet fans of all ages involved in the creation of a ballet, which is not usually possible. Facilitating the Creative Process I'd like to suggest one other change based on my very limited exposure to seeing how costume designers work. I attended many rehearsals of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's "Funny Uncles" last year - Peter DiMuro is the artistic director for this work. (The "Funny Uncles" blog is on hiatus until we get closer to the formal premiere later this year.) During the rehearsals, I watched the customer designer - I forgot her name but I will get it - communicate with Peter so she would have a clear understanding of what specifically was needed from a design standpoint. So in terms of the Houston Ballet competition, there is no real way for designers to get their arms around this project in a meaningful way. Costume designers can read the guidelines and visit the company's website, but that's about it. What I think would be especially helpful is if all interested costume designers were invited to an online chat session or Skype-type conference call where they could pose questions to Artistic Director Stanton Welch and others involved in this upcoming production. That way designers would have a better feel for the types of designs they should submit. Costume Designers on the Web As I was thinking about this post, I was curious how designers were promoting themselves online. In an upcoming post, I'll link to MySpace pages, Flickr photos and YouTube videos that show how costume designers are using these marketing tools. Posted by Doug Fox at 6:13 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) November 3, 2006"How Do You Enjoy Dance" ContinuedIn October 18th post, "How do you enjoy dance?" I asked and answered questions about the types of performances I like to see and whether I prefer taking classes or being an audience member. In a post yesterday, on Bellydance: Experiences blog, Natalia offers her answers to these questions. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:51 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) October 26, 2006...And More Participatory ContestsMySpace is hosting the Stand Up or Sit Down Comedy Challenge. The top comics have already been selected and you can watch videos of the top 15 and vote for your favorites.  The winners, according to post on Mashable, MySpace’s “Stand Up or Sit Down Comedy Challenge,” will receive $50,000 and a development deal. A couple of interesting things about this Comedy Challenge. First, it's part of a trend of an increasing number of such participatory competitions in the entertainment world. I wrote about HBO's "The Wire" contest two weeks ago that encourages viewers of this cable TV series to submit video stories about their educational experiences as kids. Second, this latest competition from MySpace shows how social/participatory media is being leveraged not just for web distribution but also on TV and for live events. The winning comics will also be invited to perform their routines in Las Vegas. How should the dance world take advantage of these trends? What types of participatory programs and contests should be created? And how can the dance community create synergies amongst different distribution platforms? I've shared my thoughts on some of these topics before and will continue to write about these issues. I was especially thinking of these questions in the context of modern dance. Modern dance will never have an audience the size of an HBO series or a standup comedy contest, but their are still avenues along the lines of the above examples that can be pursued to bring dance to a much larger audience. I think it's helpful to think about these online options in particular when you consider some of the perceptions and fears many people have about modern dance - take a look at recent posts on Apollinaire Scherr's new dance blog, "Foot In Mouth" to see what I mean. Posted by Doug Fox at 5:45 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) October 24, 2006Digitizing Dance Community from the Bottom UpTony Schultz, a physicist studying applications in human movement analysis and a contributor to The Winger blog, has a post from last month, "The Winger is a Dance Technology," in which he writes about the impact of the online world on dance: The democratization of space for showing and talking about dance, through the internet, is transforming the way it is seen and practiced. Communication technologies such as blogs and message boards facilitate relationships between artists and opens discussion with viewers. Free video over IP services provided by sites such as blip.tv or YouTube provide an open trading ground for anyone to share dance media with the world.  He then recounts a personal story of how he used the Internet to connect with breakdancers in Paris before traveling to France: This experience fundamentally transformed the way I think about culture making and dancing. Finding real people dancing, not on stage but in the world, made me shift my perspective on where art comes from, where it belongs and what function it serves. Those who are compelled to create and advance these forms are often not professional dancers. They train hard and sacrifice simply because they know this work is important. Tony's post led me to think about who will lead the charge (or who is leading the charge) in terms of motivating the dance community at-large to experiment with Internet applications and related technologies in order to enhance communications and collaborations among dancers and the public. Tony pretty much answered the question. It often will be done in an informal manner by individuals who may or may not be professional dancers. And, from my experience, those who experiment with the latest Internet developments - the early adapters - will usually not be the established dance companies, presenters and other institutions and organizations connected to the dance world. Here's one example of a dancer who puts a number of online tools to work to share her passion for Middle Eastern dancing: ShanMonster created a blog, Because Nudity is Only Skin-Deep, on LiveJournal. She writes in her profile: I teach Middle Eastern and tribal fusion dance, am a tribal fusion, North American cabaret, and experimental dancer, and I also sell my self-published dance costuming books. To top it all off, I maintain canadaraqs and am a co-moderator at bellydancing. In a post "My Drill Routine," she gives a breakdown of her exercise regimen with a link to the music she listens to on Pandora. And, in her "Warning: Contains Dance" post, ShanMonster links to a Google video of her performing a belly dance. There are thousands upon thousands of Internet-addicted dancers like ShanMonster who are using the Internet every day to make new connections, share their passion for dance and give the public a multimedia glimpse into their daily lives. I just think it takes time for these everyday occurrences to bubble-up to the institutional level. Posted by Doug Fox at 9:51 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) October 22, 2006My First Participation in Community Dance PerformanceI'm looking forward to participating in a Liz Lerman Dance Exchange community performance of "Still Crossing" at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (at University of Maryland) on November 2nd and 3rd (Thursday and Friday).  "Still Crossing" will be performed as part of the Dance Exchange's 30th Anniversary Retrospective, which will also include two works by company dancers: "Small Dances About Big Ideas," which honors the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, and "Man/Chair Dances," based on John Adams’ The Chairman Dances from Nixon in China, which puts dancers in the midst of the UM Symphony Orchestra. As you can tell from this description of the upcoming "Still Crossing" community performance, no dancing experience is needed to participate: The guest artist section (that's you!) lasts about 6 minutes, most of which is stately walking/entering. There is about a minute and a half of upper body and hand gestural work and, for those so inclined, a section of ground rolling. You will always be accompanied by Dance Exchange company members doing the same movements; older participants will have a buddy. You DO NOT need dance skills or a flexible body to participate. Participants will wear their own blue clothes. This is my first dance performance!! Posted by Doug Fox at 8:38 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) October 19, 2006Olaudah Equiano on the Place of DanceIn "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or, Gustavus Vassa, the African," the first of the classic slave narratives, Equiano writes: We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets. Thus every great event, such as a triumphant return from battle, or other cause of public rejoicing, is celebrated in public dances, which are accompanied with songs and music suited to the occasion. The assembly is separated into four divisions, which dance either apart or in succession, and each with a character peculiar to itself. The first division contains the married men, who, in their dances frequently exhibit feats of arms, and the representation of a battle. To these succeed the married women, who dance in the second division. The young men occupy the third; and the maidens the fourth. Each represents some interesting scene of real life, such as a great achievement, domestic employment, a pathetic story, or some rural sport; and, as the subject is generally founded on some recent event, it is therefore ever new. This gives our dances a spirit and variety which I have scarcely seen elsewhere. While this passage is very conservative in some ways (separation of sexes, separation by marital status), it captures a time when movement was the essence of communications; a daily 3D, breathing and dancing newspaper through which the community shared the important events of the day and reflected upon consequential happenings and daily routines. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:57 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) Re-Connecting Bodies to PerformancesI'm very perplexed about how dance writers and critics describe dance - especially dance performances. How many times have you read a dance review where the author talked about how a performance inspired him or her to experiment with new types of movement? How many times have you read an article about a performance where the writer wondered what type of movement he or she would create if starting with the same question as the choreographer and dancers? I don't come across these types of articles. Reviews are never tied in such a direct way to the physical body. Dancers, of course, get their inspiration from many sources - including performances - but the way that dance is explained and critiqued for public consumption is in a very removed, disembodied manner - ironic given that we're talking about dance. It's always about the meaning, aesthetics, forms, technique and other elements that are not directly tied to the writers own body or thoughts about moving their own body. Nothing's obviously wrong with discussing these and other elements of a performance, but I think something has been lost over the past couple hundred years with the rise and excessive focus on professional-level performances, the rise of our mass-market consumer society and, over the past hundred years or so, on the power of mechanized and digital reproduction tools to recreate high levels of flawlessness. The performing-arts going audiences have been taught to savor the role of passive spectators separated from performers by a raised stage. Dance critics have contributed to the separation and this passivity by writing about performances as isolated, discreet events that are not connected to the ideas, intentions, practice, experimentation and rehearsals of choreographers and dancers. I've read a number of articles by dance critics who have said that they are 1) audience representatives and 2) are not interested in the intentions of the choreographer - in other words, they review a performance solely as they see it on stage - disconnected from the creative process. And they also interject themselves, in their own minds - between dancers and readers, which contributes even more to making dance a more intellectualized, unreachable art form that is not tied to the body. Hopefully, the above makes some sense. What I'm getting at is that I'm not interested in art as a passive endeavor. I see no reason not to be connected to or be part of performances in some manner. I see no reason for a dance performance to be a discreet, free-standing event that is disconnected from the process that created the work, and ignores the ideas, experimentations and inspirations of those that created it. Performing arts is sort of where magic shows were before Penn and Teller: The secrets behind the tricks were kept hidden. So audiences could only be awed by the sleights of hand without knowing how these feats were devised. Far from a perfect analogy. But if you compare the performing arts with the rise of the participatory Internet, this comparison might make more sense. The Internet, especially what we now think of as web 2.0, is about authentic sharing and collaboration - at least in theory. One of the characteristics that often goes by the wayside is the concept of perfection, which becomes less of an ideal when the focus is on speed and real-time communications. With performing arts, there is, I think, an overwhelming motivation for artists to only show their works in a perfected state and to eradicate lingering blemishes. This focus on perfection dissuades many artists from providing audiences with access to the creative process. There are many examples that would disprove my point, but, as a general rule, I don't think most performing artists want their works to be seen in the in-progress state. A couple months ago, in Chicago, there was a huge battle because a theater critic wrote a negative review of shows that were in the development stage. One person connected to this showcase of new works complained that the playwrights needed space to develop and showcase their developing works free from the criticisms of newspaper critics. (I have to find this story.) My premise is that our culture values the perfected art work at the expense of candid and productive conversation about works in progress. If performing artists - and other artists, for that matter, embraced more of a web 2.0 mindset and were open to receiving feedback throughout the entire creative process, I think there would be some great on-going dialogue that would contribute to how works evolved before actual performances. I think where I'm going is to that the Internet creates the opportunity for re-connections to be made. That critics and writers can share their insights and reactions without coming between performers and audiences. That raised stages don't need to impose a physical and psychological barrier between performers and audiences. That an excessive focus on perfection does not have to prohibit collaborative conversations and feedback between artists and audiences throughout the creative process. That performances, especially dance, don't have to be enjoyed only on an intellectual and emotional basis disconnected from our bodies and the physicality of movement. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:44 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) October 18, 2006More on Dance and PoliticsKate, a contributor to The Winger blog, started interesting discussion about dance and politics after she saw a performance of William Forsythe's "Three Atmospheric Studies." I wrote post about same topic earlier this week, Does Art and Politics Mix? Posted by Doug Fox at 8:30 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) How do you enjoy dance?Some questions: 1) Would you prefer to see a dance performance at a large performing arts venue or in a small intimate setting? 2) Would you prefer to see a dance performance or watch an advanced dance class? 3) Would you rather take a dance class or watch a performance? 4) Would you rather watch a performance or watch rehearsals for an upcoming performance? 5) Would you rather be at rehearsals or performing on stage? My answers - not definitive because I often like both choices, but my general inclinations: 1) I like small, informal settings. 2) I like watching dance classes. 3) I'd take a dance class. 4) Watch rehearsals. I'm very intrigued by the creative process. And, for me, rehearsals help me understand how movement is created. 5) I can't answer this question because I'm a beginning dancer. But, maybe after another five years or so. You never know. Posted by Doug Fox at 4:38 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) July 31, 2006Video Comments for Online Dance FeedbackOne of the newest features added to online video sites is the ability to leave video comments. On the Grouper video service, you can watch a video and then follow-up with a video of yourself commenting on what you just watched.  I came across this story in a post in Techcrunch. I couldn't find a good example of video comments on Grouper itself - maybe the feature is too new. But Techcrunch points to a good example on the Grouper Networks Blog that illustrates how embedded video comments works. You'll see on the bottom left side of the video screen (image right below) that there is an image of a webcam with the number of video comments. If you click on this link, you can watch the comments.  I think that this type of embedded video comment capability would be a great tool when dancers begin to put video from their on-going rehearsals on the web - preferably in the form of blogs. Visitors to such a dance blog could watch clips of a work in progress, and then leave their video commentary. And if viewers are inspired, their video comments can be in the form of movement recommendations as well. Posted by Doug Fox at 11:12 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) July 21, 2006Link Within Your Google Dance VideosOn Digg, I came across a story about Google's Wednesday announcement that their popular video hosting service now supports direct links to specific points within a video. This new feature is very helpful for dancers who upload videos to Google. First, here's how it works: Say, you're watching the "Dancing Around the World" video that features Matt Harding dancing at each location he visits on his global travel tour. You come across the section where Matt Harding is dancing in India and you want a friend of yours to see this specific section of the video as opposed to having to watch the entire video. What you do is configure the web address for this Google video so a person is taken directly to the India dance scene:
So, as described on the Google VideoBlog, you first cut and paste the URL for the video from the top address bar. The URL for "Dancing Around the World" is: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1609134961558581805 Then you add to the end of this URL the time information. In this case, we want to take people who click on this link to the 0 minute and 48 second mark in the video. So now we'll add this time information to the end of the URL: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1609134961558581805#0m48s Actually, I found that Google takes you to a point about five seconds before the point you specified, which isn't a bad idea. But you can adjust this if you want simply by adding about five seconds to the time section in the above URL. The reason why I like this feature is because it gives dancers a way to write about and explain their dance videos in a more meaningful way. Let's say you upload a dance video (maybe a performance or class) to Google and then you want to write about the video on your blog or website. Now as you write about each portion of your dance, you can include a link to the specific part of the video that you are currently discussing. These time-specific links will make it much easier for your readers to understand what part of your dance you are explaining and will help them visualize the points that you are making. This approach, I think, would serve as a good educational tool for teaching dance moves, providing a viewer guide for an upcoming performance, or showing the evolution of dance styles or choreographic influences. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:55 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) July 20, 2006The Local Dance Scene on TurnHereTurnHere offers video clips of things to do and see in neighborhoods and cities around the globe. It's essentially a video travel guide that's part a tour of the local scene and part a promotional opportunity for local stores and attractions. It appears that the largest video collections are for San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. I've been visiting TurnHere for the past month or so and I've enjoyed watching a number of the videos on their site. Here are two dance-focused videos from Turn Here that highlight Argentine Tango and Belly Dancing in San Francisco: 
 Posted by Doug Fox at 8:35 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) June 29, 2006Universal Dance Movement VocabularyI cam across this interesting post on TechCrunch about a new Israeli start-up, Zlango, that has created an icon-based language for exchanging messages via SMS. SMS is essentially text messaging for cell phones. In the case of Zlango, their new application is not text messaging but two-dimensional icon messaging where each graphic icon conveys a specific meaning. So to send a graphic message to a friend, you select a series of graphic icons. Here's a screen shot of how a mobile phone looks like running Zlango:  And here's a sample graphic message created by a user on the Zlango site. I turned on the text below each icon so you could see what the meaning of this message was:  Maybe not the best expressed thought in the world, but it did get me thinking about a universal dance vocabulary. Say instead of a two-dimensional icon-based visual language, you were asked to create a 3D video-based language library that anybody could use as an alternative to written words? The goal would be to covey any idea, thought or action to others who may or may not speak the same language as you. Would it be possible to create this universal dance vocabulary? Do certain movements cut across cultural borders and express universal emotions and reactions? Or is dance tied too much to the culture and society in which it is created? And if dance is culturally-based, how would different societies express common emotions and reactions through movement? I realize that my project may not be that practical. With the visual icons from Zlango, you simply view a series of small graphic images to discern the meaning. With a video language, a recipient of a message would have to watch an entire video clip - even if just a few seconds - in order to understand the meaning of the message. But then again maybe the greater depth of meaning and nuance that can be conveyed by dance is worth taking the extra time to watch the video clips? Posted by Doug Fox at 10:46 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1) June 13, 2006Step Up Movie's Online Audition Call on MySpaceThe official site for the upcoming dance movie "Step Up" is on MySpace. An interesting twist is that the public is invited to audition for the film's music video, "Get Up."  On the movie's MySpace page there are now 20 finalists for the "Get Up" video. You can watch these video auditions and choose your favorite five. This movie promotion combines many of the important online trends in a single package: social networking sites, user-generated content and empowering audiences to determine outcomes. Thanks to Jo-Anne Green at Networked Performance blog for pointing me to this story. [Via Step Up to dance on MySpace in Smart Mobs blog.] Posted by Doug Fox at 6:01 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) June 9, 2006Dancing in the Second Life Virtual WorldI keep meaning to experiment with the Second Life virtual world. Now with the growth in dancing in this alternative reality, I have more of an incentive to make an avatar for myself and start wondering around and going to clubs, get-togethers and, even, dance studio. This notice caught my attention: This past Tuesday, the Takeshi's Dance Studio in Second Life held an event to teach people how to dance. Plus, they will soon be building a theater and they need dancers. In the meantime, I came across some interesting stories and pictures that offer a glimpse of the type of dancing that is now taking place in SL: - Here are some pictures on Flickr that show examples of Second Life dancing:  - In Linden Lifestyles (Linden is the creator of Second Life), there is an article, "Concert Tips and Etiquette," that explains how to participate in SL music concerts - how, for instance, to listen to musicians and not be bothered by extraneous sounds. If you scroll down this article, you'll find a section that explains the concept of dance animators and dance balls. If an avatar couple steps on a dance ball and then activates the dance animator, their avatars will then be taken through a pre-determined series of dance steps. Here's a screen shot of a dance floor in an SL nightclub:  - Dancing doesn't just take place in virtual clubs. Events on private islands also feature music and dancing. Earlier this year, Creative Commons hosted a party. There are more pictures available with the write-up about this event:  - In "Get That Out of Your Mouth #24 - The Show Must Go Online," Chris Dahlen describes the experience of listening to music in Second Life, how indie bands take virtual tours and make money, and the limitations of gestures and dance in this virtual world: Players also can't control their avatars with any spontaneity or nuance; if you want to dance at a show, you can trigger an animation that runs your avatar through the steps, but you can't personally step in to make the arm rest on your partner's back just so. The same problem applies for performers. If you look closely at Few as he's playing guitar, you'll see that he can't strum or move his hand on the fretboard, and his face is trapped in a stiff mask, like a dummy in a vintage Disney World ride. And while you can add more animations and poses to an avatar, if you have the time and you're handy with 3-D modeling software, you can't make the spur-of-the-moment gestures that even stiff indie rockers need to liven up their acts. - And Rik Riel (his SL name) in his "Dancing with myself... with other people " post, says that he goes to a lot of SL events and music gigs. He describes how dancing works: In Second Life, you are given a small set of pre-defined dance animations that you can trigger from your keyboard. It's easy to pick up other animations at parties or from friends. You can easily perform everything from a waltz to b-boying to country two-step (not to mention more, uh, provocative dancing). But he's not really sold on this virtual dancing: A real basic question is Why would you do this? Virtual dancing provides none of the perks of real world dancing, either the joy of movement, the physical response to music you are digging, the pleasure in touching another person, or the pride of executing a difficult move. There's no learning curve, no physical exertion, no effort to anything, except maybe the effort involved in designing your own custom animations. Rik Riel adds this picture from Flickr to reinforce his point:  Posted by Doug Fox at 8:20 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) June 7, 2006A Dance Vocabulary for Performance ArtOn the Networked Performance blog I came across an interesting write-up about a multimedia and performance art work by Ursula Endlicher. For this installation, "Website Impersonations: The Amazons (.at versus .com)," Ursula creates a movement vocabulary that corresponds to the underlying HTML code of a webpage. You can watch a video that shows exactly how users interact with this art work (QuickTime video file is about 27 MB):  A user sits down on top of a giant trackball as they watch two side-by-side projection screens positioned in the corner of a room. One image is projected of a performer whose movements reflect the HTML code for Amazon.com while on the other screen the performer's movements reflect the HTML code for Amazon.at. The code is generated in real-time from a live Internet connection. By moving one's butt to roll the trackball, users can determine the position of the cursor and thus the corresponding movements that appear on screen. Here's a diagram of the installation set-up and a larger version of these technical requirements are available on Ursula's site:  I think that the online presentation of this installation would be enhanced if there were a separate movement vocabulary gallery that showed, in a visual fashion, the specific connections between HTML code and the individual movements. For example, what are the specific series of movements made by a performer when he or she encounters a tag for the beginning of an HTML table? By creating this video-based movement vocabulary library, both online and in-person audiences would have a better understanding of the inner workings of this installation and would likely enjoy it more. Ursula Endlicher will be showing her work this Saturday, June 10th at 7:00 PM at 315 Broadway, 5th Floor (between Duane/ Thomas Street) in Lower Manhattan. Posted by Doug Fox at 8:11 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) June 6, 2006Maria Finn's Books on Latin CultureMaria Finn is the author of just published "Mexico in Mind," a literary travel guide that takes readers through two-centuries of fiction and non-fiction accounts about Mexico.  Maria has created a plog for her book and upcoming tour on Amazon.com where she shares additional information about herself and her future projects. A plog is Amazon's name for a blog. I like that you can read an author's thoughts as you're learning about their book. In her plog, Maria shares her passion for dance: I’m currently working on a memoir about learning how to dance. I started salsa lessons in New York City (on 2-for salseros who know what this means, but I can follow on 1 with no problem), and these led me to Cuba where I fell in love and married my handsome cab driver. This romance didn’t work out quite as well as I hoped, and so to recover from the heartbreak, I’ve immersed myself in the Argentine tango. In an email to me last week, Maria described how she uses her plog: The Amazon blog is supposed to help writers connect with their readers directly and I believe the purpose of this is to create a sense of community. Since writing and reading are such solitary activities, I think this is great. But when I'm traveling and arrive in a town where I don't know many people, I've found that if I go to a tango milonga, I'm immediately part of a community, and when tangueros that I meet arrive in New York, I give them tips on classes and milongas. So I'm trying to see if I can locate a cross-over and connect with readers and dancers and make my book tour more fun and blog a little livelier. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:40 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) June 5, 2006Integrating Dance into Our Contemporary DiscourseDance and movement can offer important insights into the pressing issues of our time. Dance can also serve as a powerful springboard for encouraging conversation, building community, fostering understanding and inspiring action. Yet while performances often encourage audiences to see contemporary topics from different perspectives and address issues that do not receive sufficient coverage in the media, dance is not in any meaningful way an integral element in how our society thinks about, reflects and reacts to the world in which we live. Imagine an alternative reality where every time a newspaper, a TV show, a community group, a cultural organization, a governmental department, a non-governmental organization (NGO), a website, a blog, a trade association or any other entity addressed an important societal or political issue that they turned to dance for the answers. Take some of the important and sometimes controversial topics and issues of the day: immigration, race, genocide, gender, gay marriage, gay lesbian bisexual and transgender (GLBT), environment, bio-ethics, poverty, war, education, disabilities, healthcare, natural disaster, AIDS/HIV, physical abuse, incarceration and many others. How often do the people and organizations that are devoted to addressing these topics actually turn to dance for answers and insights? The answer is not very often. But it doesn't have to be this way. Dance can be integrated into the overall fabric of how we contemplate challenging issues and think about taking action. Two of the main challenges to achieving this goal, I believe, are 1) that most people don't know about the many dance programs that already exist for addressing contemporary topics and 2) there are no online resources that aggregate these dance programs (performances, workshops, educational programs and outreach initiatives) by theme and subject matter. One of the things I'm thinking about doing is creating such an online resource in the form of a blog that groups the politically, socially, economically and culturally-focused efforts of dance companies on a thematic basis. So a user could visit this weblog and find dance-related content for any of the topics I listed above (plus other issues). So, say, a person from an organization that addresses race and poverty issues is seeking dance resources regarding this topic. Through such a blog, they could quickly learn about dance companies that do performances, workshops, and community outreach programs that deal with race and poverty. Even more helpful, in some cases they could find video clips, audio programs, pictures and other multimedia resources that were already online and immediately available for use. And, in the future, there may be a way to license this digital dance content and add it directly to an organization's website. This way this hypothetical community group that addresses race and poverty issues could integrate directly into their own website dance programs that encourage their website visitors to think about these issues in new ways and, hopefully, inspire action. I'll write more about this new dance resource soon. But for now, I thought I'd do some initial research and explore how dancers have been or are currently addressing some of these topics. Here's an list of eight annotated resources that explore what dancers are doing on a number of fronts - I came across a lot more, I just didn't have time to include them all. I think it would be great to conduct audio interviews for my podcast with the dancers below to learn more about their dance programs and how they hope to inspire their audiences to learn, contemplate and take action. - Saturday night I saw a wonderful community performance of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's "We Are Still Crossing," an updated version of an 1986 commission that celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the gift of the Statue of Liberty from the French to the US. The current version incorporates themes, stories and movement that reflect upon the current debate over immigration and the building of a wall between the US and Mexico. "We are Still Crossing" integrates both the company's professional dancers with community participants. - Jennifer Monson's "Flight of Mind" dance performance is based on her multi-year study of the migration paths of birds and whales. This project includes the "Bird Brain Educational Resource Guide" for grades 3-6. (Download PDF classroom guide.) - Anne Bluthenthal and Dancers performance of "Unsing the Song" deals with the nature of genocide. Part of a multi-arts exhibit that addresses Rwandan genocide, rape and deliberate attempts to spread HIV. You can learn more about this grassroots oral history project. - Pat Graney Company's "Keeping the Faith - The Prison Project" is "designed to enable incarcerated women and girls to discover a sense of identity within themselves and to develop that identity within the context of community - through the vehicles of performance, video documentation and a published anthology of their writings. . .Each year, the program culminates in performance where the participating women perform their own movement and writing, and display their own visual art for 200 members of the general public, 500 of their incarcerated peers, and the prison administration." - David Popalisky, director of Santa Clara University Dance Program, created and performed "Barred from Life" which explores issues of wrongful conviction "...through a combination of media including dance movement, video imagery, [and] excerpts from interviews with exonerees..." - Urban Bush Women (UBW), founded in 1984, "is a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. Programs such as "Batty Moves," in the Caribbean "batty" means buttocks, "directly challenges the audience to question their own notions of physical attractiveness and appropriate movement. Now Urban Bush Women hosts "Batty Parties" to expand its civic dialogue practice to discuss positive body images." - Dream Dance Company "brings innovative urban folk art and culture to the stage to tell personal and collective stories of struggle, transformation and inspiration. Their electrifying pieces fuse an incredible breadth of African diasporic movement (including Hip-Hop, House, Break, Funk and Afro-Caribbean dance) with theater, rap, beatbox and live music." [quote link] Their full-length production, "Dig Us Now," "shows how these rich cultural forms have flipped the script on the ugliness of poverty and racism to reflect the beauty and wonder of everyday life." - Jena Marie Griswold has always been inspired by dance and "its capacity to facilitate cross-cultural understanding." As one of 50 graduating seniors this year who was honored with a Thomas J. Watson fellowship, Griswold will spend the next year traveling four continents pursuing a project she calls "Salsa: Spicing Up the International Dance Scene." Griswold who is motivated by her passion for social justice, will be researching how Salsa and Hip-Hop are both physically and socially reinterpreted as she moves from one destination to the next. (Her journey and exploration of dance would make for a wonderful on-going blog project as well. I'm going to email her to see if she plans to do this.) Posted by Doug Fox at 7:54 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) June 2, 2006An Online Blueprint for Making Dance More RelevantAs a follow-up to my post yesterday, "Reclaiming the Relevancy of Dance," I'd like to offer my initial ideas on how we might move forward with such a project. First, I'd post a message to my blog saying that I'm creating a collection of links to dancers and dance companies that are in the process of creating dance works or have already created dance works that address a specific topic. As dancers add content (descriptions, pictures, audio interviews and videos) to their websites, blogs and multimedia sites (YouTube, Flickr, etc.), they can then send me the links to these resources. For example, I could post a message such as the following: I'm creating a resource guide with links to dance performances (individual or group performances) that deal with the topic of global warming. If you have created such a performance, please send me links to the relevant websites. Clearly, the best type of resource is a video clip so that people can watch your performance. But pictures, text descriptions and audio guides are also worthwhile. Your dance work does not have to be finished in order to participate in this project. If you've created diagrams or illustrations of costumes, for example, and posted these images to your website or blog, these would be of interest as well. So overall the goal is to aggregate dances that deal with a specific topic as a way to reach a larger Internet audience. Environmental topics are especially worthwhile because once we put together a list of, say, ten existing dance works (either completed or in progress), I think this would be an excellent resource for the thousands upon thousands of websites and blogs that address environmental issues. In the end, I think this project would help all participating dancers and dance companies get considerable exposure for their work and upcoming performances. Once this project is up and running, it can go in a number of different directions. For example, once there are a handful of dance videos dealing with global warming, then we could launch a mashup competition and encourage people to create their own global warming dance mixes that can be uploaded to a public video gallery. It would be nice, of course, if we could find a sponsor for such a competition that would offer cash and other prizes for both the best dance videos and dance mashups -- this actually might be possible if there is enough interest in this project. That's my idea. What do you think? Also, global warming is just one of many possible topics to focus on. What are some of the main themes and ideas you address in your dance pieces? Posted by Doug Fox at 8:56 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) June 1, 2006Reclaiming the Relevancy of DanceOne of the ways for dancers to reach a larger global audience - especially an online audience - is by choreographing dance works that address pressing social, political, cultural and economic issues. Last week I wrote about dance pieces that address global warming. Wouldn't it be great if there were hundreds of dancers from around the world that were actively creating and performing dances that dealt with this important topic? It would be even better if videos of these works were made available online. With a large number of dance videos to watch about global warming, the millions of people who are concerned about the health of our planet would have a new lens through which to reflect and learn about this important issue. One of my questions is what are some of the ways that movement can help people - with or without a dance background - think about and relate to global warming? Can it bring people together in new ways and give them a stronger sense of community? I think that dance videos can inspire more of an emotional way of relating to global warming and thus serve as a powerful springboard for building communities around this topic. This is especially true if some of the videos also strive to help Internet users create their own environmentally-inspired dance pieces and routines and share them with others. The end result of such a project, I think, is that dance would have more relevancy because it would be integrated into the overall fabric of how people learn about and share their thoughts on important topics. Imagine, for example, that on hundreds or thousands of websites that cover environmental issues there were direct links to dance videos that dealt with eco-issues. Dance would instantly be transformed from an enjoyable art form that is often disconnected from our daily concerns to a key piece of the puzzle that helps us understand the world in which we live. In my next post, I'm going to describe some thoughts I have about encouraging large numbers of dancers to address global warming and other important contemporary topics. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:03 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) May 30, 2006The Shakira "Hips Don't Lie" MashupJackie Huba in her Church of the Customer Blog has a post about how Shakira's fans were encouraged to create their own video dance mixes of her "Hips Don't Lie" video. You can watch this video on YouTube that shows clips from many of the fan contributions:  The beauty of video mashups is that they are an excellent way to build an audience of energized fans. Jackie Huba points out that there is no way to really know whether this mashup contest is really an important factor in sending "Hips Don't Lie" to the top of the charts, but it certainly can't hurt. I think encouraging fans of any type of dance to participate in a video mashup is a good idea. It's not difficult to implement this type of program and it gets a lot of people excited about your dance performances and classes. Posted by Doug Fox at 9:36 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) May 25, 2006Dancing to Combat Global WarmingWith the upcoming US debut of Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," that highlights the catastrophic effects of global warming, I thought I'd revisit the topic of dance performances that address environmental issues. You can visit the official website for this film:  You can also watch the trailer on Google:  In April I wrote about and did an audio interview with Emily Johnson of Catalyst Dance about her "Heat and Life" production that addresses global warming through movement, video and sound:  And this morning I came across an excellent interview (Part I and Part II) with Brenda Way the artistic and executive director of ODC/Dance. Last year, Way choreographed "On a Train Heading South," a work that "focuses on social denial and complacency in the face of environmental degradation." In this interview in Grist Magazine, Way talks about this dance work, the role of artists and the challenges that dancers face. When describing the role of artists she says: A key part of our purpose is to promote perception and awareness, to incite reflection and reactions. I see us as strong allies with environmental groups in the struggle for enlightened social consciousness in our shared desire for a greater humanity. I'd like to know if other dance companies have created works that have addressed environmental issues or plan to do so in the future? I'd also like to know if any of these environmentally-focused dance pieces will be ported to the web so that Internet users can watch video of these performances online. Posted by Doug Fox at 10:40 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0) May 23, 2006Katherine Dunham Video Tribute[For a February 2007 comprehensive multimedia guide to Katherine Dunham, please click here.] Dance great Katherine Dunham passed away last Sunday at 96.  Credit: Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts You can read about the life and contributions of Dunham: - "How Katherine Dunham Revealed Black Dance to the World" in the New York Times - "Dancer Katherine Dunham; Formed Black Ballet Troupe" in Washington Post And here are video clips that I found this morning about Katherine Dunham: - Katherine Dunham on need for Dunham Technique - Katherine Dunham: A Simple Act of Faith (1 hour, 29 minutes) - Katherine Dunham - Afro-Caribbean influence on her dance - The Belafontes visit Katherine Dunham - Free to Dance - Dance Timeline (1934-1945) -- Scroll to 1940 video clip of Dunham dancing in "Tropics and Le Jazz Hot" Posted by Doug Fox at 10:02 AM - Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0) May 18, 2006Sharing the Creative ProcessNeill Archer Roan has a post, "Don't Be Cool" that links to the "Incomplete Manifesto." I like point number three in the Manifesto: Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there. One of the positive contributions of all the reality TV shows is that they have provided direct access to the process of creation. If you think about dance, fashion and other reality shows, they are not just focused on the end-result - winning the competition - but highlight what happens during the run-up to the final performance and the selection of winners. Even Miss America had to convert its format to more of a reality-based program. In the dance world, I'd like to see more of the creative process shared through websites, blogs and other online channels. Audiences are not currently offered a way to see how dance pieces are created and only get to watch the actual performance. Posted by Doug Fox at 7:22 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) April 27, 2006Monetizing Your Dance VideosBrightcove, a commercial platform for distributing video content over the Internet, launches its public beta program today. After watching the video tour and reading an overview of their service, Brig |
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