Right now the big advantage bloggers have over the mainstream press is: we are fast. We can have a story out about an event within an hour or two of the curtain calls. At some point the TIMES and the other dailies might decide they need their writers to 'blog' their reviews directly to the websites...it might come to that. But right now, bloggers rule in terms of getting the word out.

When a dance company is running a programme for a weekend, the run is over before the press notices start coming out...too late for the reviews to have any influence on ticket sales (I assume that is still one reason for performance and film reviews: trying to get the public to go to the box office.)

Some publicists have recognized the power of the blogs and included us as members of the press; and it works. Earlier this week I was invited to a rehearsal of the David Parsons Company at the Joyce and wrote about it. The next night at NYC Ballet a woman told me she would never have thought to go to see Parsons but she liked what I wrote and went and got tickets for one of his performances. And I have had so many people tell me they went to see some ballet that I wrote about simply based on my blog entry.

Blogs might not be a substitute for the mainstream press but they surely create a buzz that sitting home reading a printed review in one of the weeklies can't do. Blog readers can jump right in with their own comments or questions.

And we get quoted...as I have sometimes discovered to my own surprise.

Cedar Lake is probably a place I would not have gone had Caleb not contacted me. It is kind of a trek from where I live and I wouldn't have guessed that their rep would have interested me. But it did. And their dancers, too.

I recently attended a weekend-long publishing event, and within that, a panel on book publicity. I was absolutely floored to hear all panelist book publicists agree that having one's book reviewed in the New York Times Book Review was no longer "a big deal." That now it's all about getting your book reviewed in the big book blogs, the vast majority of which are run by good writers and fledgling novelists, but not professional book reviewers. It was still prestigous, they said, to have a review in the Times, but it no longer guaranteed any kind of success. In the past, having your book in the Times all but guaranteed that it would be a best-seller.

Anyway, it makes me think that if the Times book review does not have the clout in terms of public opinion that it used to, what does that say about other areas of that paper -- the largest and most prestigious of its kind -- and in turn other newspapers as well? It was several years ago now that the book bloggers started overtaking the papers, mainly because of the papers severely cut their book reviews sections. That trend is now underway in Dance criticism. Are we going to see a similar trend, and, if so, what does that mean for the future of journalism?

One huge thing we bloggers must keep in mind -- and it's hard, very hard -- is that just because companies start treating us very nicely and throwing press tickets at us does not mean we have to or should write all positive things about them. I would think a good company would want honesty and would start to look with suspicion on someone who's just giving glowing reviews to everyone. But of course, we're all new at this and the human thing to do is to want to be "nice" to people who are "nice" to you.

By the way, this all has nothing in particular to do with Cedar Lake -- I really like their rep and their dancers! I'm just speaking in general terms!

I intend to join Dance Critics Association. I hope in the future they will consider giving a seminar on ethics and other areas of blogging / journalism.

I agree with you, Tonya, that being invited to things puts one in the position of not wanting to be too critical...sort of a 'not biting the hand that feeds you' mentality. On the other hand, I think that the types of dance performances that I might write negatively about are things I wouldn't go to anyway. To be honest, I was not sure I'd like Cedar Lake...one of my ballet buddies said very negative things about them when I said I was going to see them. Turns out it was a great night, and I want to see those dancers again.

I don't consider myself to be a critic or even a reviewer, but an observer. I go and watch and then I write about what I saw and how I felt seeing it. My blog is really personal; it's just a public extension of a performance diary I have kept for 45 years. I started blogging simply as an outlet because I enjoy writing about things I love. I never expected to develop a big readership or to have any real impact but it turned out to be something more than I imagined. If I can persuade someone else to try a ballet that I liked, or to look at a dancer as I look at her, or to watch a tennis match, listen to an aria, read a book or watch a movie that I enjoyed, that's the best thing, and it's far more than I ever thought to accomplish.

"All true. But, how come nobody else has done this before

I'm not sure this is 100% true...other arts organizations have been doing this to outreach to the blogging community, esp. in the California Bay Area, where I have been lucky to attend a few of these events. The San Francisco Symphony, having hired a very young (28 years old) associate conductor, invited bay area bloggers to a free concert with a Q&A with the players/conductors during intermission and after the event. This was a cool event because it wasn't only limited to arts bloggers, but any major blogger in the bay area, exposing blogs with large readerships to the arts. Some bloggers hadn't been to the symphony, but had very positive write ups about it after the event.

SF Ballet has jumped onto the blogger wagon and had a blogger event this winter for their newish production of the Nutcracker (which they filmed for PBS), and plan on doing more blogger outreach with their 75th anniversary this spring.

Cal Performances at Berkeley does a few blogger events, with all of the productions that come into town.

Wow, that's excellent, Jennifer!

Jennifer,

Much thanks for sharing what other arts organizations are doing in the Bay Area.

Philip, that's a nice story about the woman who came to the performance because of your blog write-up. I consider you a reviewer, by the way. I think how we define traditional dance criticism is too narrow and that your more personal approach should definitely be considered one of the important ways of writing about dance.

Tonya, thinking about how "traditional" dance criticism and dance critics can stay relevant in light of trends you highlight in book publishing world, I think one answer is for dance writers and critics to embrace the multimedia Internet.

At this June's Dance Critics Association conference in DC, I'm on a panel about the Internet/technology and I'll discuss different online tools that dance writers can use to add video in different ways to their reviews. I'm curious what dance writers will think about these ideas.