Amen to this post! And too, how about some ballet videos like the ones you describe wanting for modern? If anyone reads this and answers the call, please add me to your mailing list. Because I, like Doug, will pay for them!

Shoshana,

Thanks for your follow-up. Hopefully, there will be an outpouring of such videos!!!

It can and should be done. Maybe I will do it.

Boris, that would be great. You ought to do that.

For that matter, why not all kinds of dance instructional video clips? I think that I shall do some "Shake Your Booty with Shoshana" videos, and get my youtube viewers out of their seats and moving-to-the-groove!

I happen to believe that, as Anna Brady Nuse of Move The Frame has said, that we are on the cusp of a wide-spread dance revolution. May we all, everyone, use our dance ability and gifts of expression, to reach out to a world of bodies & souls who are trapped sitting on their butts!--A tailor made audience for our efforts, aye?--Millions of them!

Three cheers for videodance!

Dances for the revolution of liberation!

Shimmies,
Shoshana

I think that this sort of thing would be a wonderful resource for some people, but I would not be one of them. I am an experiential learner-- I need to be physically in the studio with my teacher. While an instructional video may give me a few ideas for choreography-type stuff, it would probably not improve my technique.

Great idea Doug. Since I'm in business school mode, I'd like to see a market analysis of this type of offering. Are there any successful dance instructional video services on the web? Are they growing? Are people paying for them? For modern dancers, any amount of income is good, but the benefits have to outweigh the costs of producing such a thing. The initial costs to make videos of high quality may be prohibitive for most modern dancers at this time. We're typically living hand to mouth. I'd like to see it happen, but I think an investor would have to step up to create a viable business model. Or if someone else produced them and got a roster of artists together to make one or two videos each. The producer could help foot some of the costs of producing the videos and then get a share of the profits. Anyways, these are my over-analytical thoughts right now. Blessings to any dancers that take up this call!

Maria,

I think that whether instructional videos would help me would really come down to their quality. I've started taking ballet again. And I would like to find some good videos for direction. What I need is very, very specific guidance on the most minute elements of ballet technique. As they say in the Internet would, I would like it to be very granular. I've just started searching so I don't know what I'll find.

This past Tuesday, I took ballet class with Finis Jhung at Alvin Ailey. The class was too large for me - about 35 students - but he seems like good teacher. After the class I went to his website which looks interesting. He has a wealth of instructional DVDs for all aspects of ballet that I'm going to explore:
http://fjballet.com

Anna,

You raise a lot of important questions/topics that, I think, remain largely unexplored.

There are a couple ways to address these questions:

1) We can start with which dance instructional videos in DVD/VHS formats have been successfully promoted and sold. And,

2) What success stories, if any, are there in the online world? Who is selling dance instructional videos online for any and all forms of dance? What is their pricing model (single downloads, subscription, etc.), how much are they charging and how many units/subscriptions are they selling. Here's a website I came across awhile back called Buy a Class - I'd like to learn how they are doing:
http://buy-a-class.com/

If anybody knows of dance instructors/companies who have been successful at selling their videos, it would be great to hear these stories.

We (http://worshipsteps.com) are doing instructional dance videos to contemporary Christian music. The Christian dance scene is rapidly growing which opened up an opportunity for us. We do lyrical and hip-hop videos for now. Until now we worked with only one "outside our organization" choreographer and getting ready to do a second video with her. We are open to work with others. For the luck of funds, the early projects were done with poor cameras in poor lighting, so quality suffered a bit. The latest stretch-flexibility video is don with the HD equipment.
The whole process is costly:
1. licensing fees for the song
2. locations for filming
3. cameras and cameramen
4. editing
5. graphic design
6. mass production.
In the beginning we burned our DVDs ourselves, but many of them had errors. Since we sold them for a price, people expected them to work. We had to replicate them commercially which required an upfront investment. The minimum quantity was 1,000 multiplied by the number of titles - you get the picture. The profit margin is good, but the upfront expenses are high since you have to license, produce it and keep an inventory.

Any questions? I'll be happy to answer.

Wiesiek,

Thanks for your overview of the process of creating your dance videos - a very helpful overview.