January 05, 2007

Dancing for a Better World

Here's how dancers around the globe can join together to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to support worthwhile causes while simultaneously generating financial support for their dance careers and creative explorations.

A few months ago, Peter DiMuro, producing artistic director for Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, told me about "Postcard Dances," which were popular during the 60s. If somebody wanted to see a dance that dealt with a specific topic, they would write the description of the desired dance on the back of a postcard and mail it to a specific address. Then, a dancer or dance company would choreograph a piece in response to the postcard request. How the mechanics of this process actually worked I'm not sure about - if somebody in Los Angeles requested a dance that was created by dancers in New York, how did the postcard writer actually see the dance? I have to ask Peter about this.

In any case, I've been thinking about this idea of Postcard Dances in the context of the Internet. What would happen if we put out an online call for a specific type of dance performance? Say, we wrote that we were looking for 3-minute original dance works that addressed (in a concrete or abstract manner) specific topics such as poverty, healthcare and disease, violence and genocide, environment and global warming, or many other pressing issues of our time.

Dancers around the world could then make a video of themselves or their dance companies performing this theme-specific work and then submit it to a designated website. Visitors to this site could then watch hundreds of excellent dance videos that addressed specific issues. This would be my Internet version of Postcard Dances.

Once a video library of dances is created for each cause, the next question is how do we go about monetizing this undertaking? In other words, how do we raise money for different charitable efforts? If the first requested dance piece deals with global poverty, then we need to find a way to raise money for organizations that are dedicated to combating poverty.

Here's how revenue could be generated from both advertising revenue and donations:

First, by encouraging large numbers of dancers to submit videos that address specific issues, there will be hundreds of engaging dance performances accessible at a single online location. These videos will attract a large audience (with the help of a corresponding marketing effort).

Second, there are an increasing number of video applications and services that enable video creators to monetize their videos in different ways. This morning I was learning about In Video from AdBrite. In Video is a customized video player that you can embed on your website. This video player shows your videos along with advertisements in a "split-screen" so that the video watching experience is not interrupted. Video producers split the ad revenue with AdBrite (I don't know what specifics are of the revenue share). So if hundreds of dance videos are aggregated for each cause, thousands of hours of videos will be watched which will generate a good revenue stream from advertising. [InVideo story via TechCrunch]

Third, this archive of dance videos can also serve as a compelling vehicle for seeking donations from individuals and corporations. This morning I was reading another post, "The Power of One," in Maryann Devine's Smarts & Culture blog. Maryann writes about a successful online fundraising effort conducted by Beth Kanter that uses "fundraising widgets" or "charity badges" for seeking donations. Clearly, as the story makes clear, there is more to fundraising than simply using the latest Internet tools, but it's intriguing to see how these applications can be put to good use. To learn more about charity badges, visit Network for Giving on Yahoo.

So by using charity badges as part of a compelling fundraising effort, donations can add up for worthwhile causes even when contributions are made in relatively small increments. Beth Kanter rasied $49,537 from 745 donors for educational programs in Cambodia in just three weeks.

Forth, both the In Video player and the charity badges have a viral component. So visitors to the dance video site who watch the videos can take any of the videos and put them on their own websites and blogs. Ads are also shown on these distributed videos, which mean that ad revenue continues to be generated no matter where the videos are played. Plus, visitors to the dance video site can also be encouraged to put the charity badges on their own websites as well. This means that an increasingly larger and larger audience of Internet users will be encouraged to make donations.

Plus, if say 200 dancers submit videos for a specific cause, all of these dancers will be encouraged to place their videos and charity badges on their respective websites, blogs and MySpace pages. This type of distributed marketing will significantly increase the audience for the dance videos - increasing ad revenue and donations.

Fifth, dancers should also be compensated for their dance video contributions. Some type of overall revenue share program should be created so that of all the revenue and donations generated, a specific percentage goes to the contributing dancers. Then, a formula would have to be created to determine what percentage of the dancers' revenue pool each dancer or dance company would receive. Maybe it's based on the number of views or maybe it's just an even split for each dance contributor.

That's my game plan. I think it would work.

A note about In Video and specific charity badges. I've never used In Video or any of the charity badges or fundraising applications. So I'm just using them in this story as examples of what is possible.

• Scottish Ballet Sells Dinner Dates with Dancers, and a Letter to Merce
• Hybrid Performances Build Audiences and Sell Tickets
• Building an Online Marketplace for the Licensing of Dance Choreography
• Increase Dance Coverage with Multimedia Releases and Open Rehearsals
• A Chorus Line Promoted Through Word of Mouth Reviews

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