January 3, 2006

Great Dance in 2006

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

I look forward to continuing to learn about and cover dance around the world with a strong focus on technology developments and Internet marketing.

Plans for 2006:

- Write and research a workbook with the title "Dancing into the Future," which will offer extensive coverage of all aspects of technology that relate to dance. I posted the initial outline for this book in December. You'll see in this initial outline that I was first thinking of writing a series of publications - the first focusing on dance companies. But in the end, I've decided to write one larger publication that covers all aspects of technology that relates to dance.

- Launch an audio podcast for the dance world, which I'm starting this month. Many of the interviews will be for my upcoming publication, but I'll also be interviewing people who are making news and have interesting insights about different aspects of dance. I'm hoping that I can do many of the Interviews using Internet telephony software such as Skype and Vonage. These Voice over IP programs (this is term for software that allows you to make telephone calls over the Internet) are much better than I thought. I've been using Skype to talk to a friend of mine in England. If both you and the person you're talking with have Skype installed, there is no cost for the call - - not bad for making international calls. In addition, with Skype you can host conference calls as well. So if I interview people that are using one of the Voice over IP programs, I can record the interview directly to my hard drive and then quickly post it to my blog.

But I also have a digital recorder for interviewing people over the regular telephone system or in person. My guess is that I'll probably start by conducting informal interviews with dance bloggers to test out different recording approaches and to figure out what people are interested in listening to.

Please don't hesitate to make suggestions of people I should interview for upcoming audio interviews.

- Develop a series of seminars that cover how dancers can use the Internet and other digital technologies to build audiences, sell products and enhance public relations efforts. I've conducted Internet and technology educational programs for many years. I love conducting these programs. I've always enjoyed explaining and demonstrating how new and emerging technologies can be used for marketing, promotional and educational purposes. The first educational program that I develop will probably focus on how dancers and dance companies can develop websites, publish blogs and conduct Internet marketing campaigns.

- Take more jazz dance classes. Right now my legs feel like rubber. I took a class last night with Maurice Johnson at Joy of Motion here in DC. The class was fun and challenging. I never took a class with Maurice before. Last semester I took a 13-week Intro to Jazz class, also at Joy of Motion, with Doug Yeuell who is the dance center's executive director. Doug is a wonderful instructor. I'm going to try to take at least two jazz classes a week. As I conduct interviews and research for my upcoming book, I think I'll be spending a lot of time in New York so I'll probably take jazz classes there as well. If you have suggestions for where and with whom I should take jazz classes, please let me know what you think. I'd like to be exposed to as many instructors and teaching styles as possible.

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