January 3, 2006

Thinking about Dance in New Ways

Here are my suggestions on how dancers and dance companies can be more successful in 2006.

A number of these recommendations are based on the two white papers I wrote toward the end of 2005:

- Embracing Blogs: A New Blueprint for Promoting Dance on the Internet

- Building a New Dance Economy: Expanding Opportunities for Dancers and Choreographers

14 Suggestions for 2006:

1) Build exciting and compelling websites that focus on achieving specific economic benefits. Unfortunately, most websites that promote dance companies and dancers are just not very good. But there are relatively simple steps that can be taken to improve these dance websites.

2) Embrace blogs. Weblogs (or blogs) offer a low-cost, highly effective way for dancers, choreographers and dance companies to build their own audiences and communicate directly with donors and patrons. Blogging within the dance community is in its very early stages and I hope hundreds of new dance blogs are introduced this year. One of the very important positive benefits of blogs is that they can contribute to preserving the artistic integrity of artists. If dance companies take responsibility for building their own audiences by sharing their vision directly with likely theatergoers and donors, dancers and choreographers will be less beholden to others when it comes to deciding what will and will not be staged - more to come soon on this connection between blogging and artistic freedom.

3) Take and disseminate digital pictures and videos. Performing artists have been traditionally and understandably reluctant to take pictures and videos of performances and rehearsals and make them publicly available. But this reluctance is causing marketing challenges for dancers. In order to get wide exposure for upcoming dance performances, it is important that dance companies make quality digital pictures and digital video clips available on their own websites and available to other websites that wish to promote these performances.

4) Pursue new online sponsorship opportunities for donors and supporters. There is no reason that your financial supporters cannot have video and pictures about their products and services promoted through your website. Instead of just giving a listing for a financial contributor in your program guide or on your website, why not conduct a video interview with the CEO of a company and put that video on your website or blog? Nobody does this and this is a great way to give invaluable exposure to your best supporters. It is very prestigious to be associated with the arts and if an executive from a company can talk on camera about why they support you and what they do for the arts community in general, you'll have the opportunity to reach many more sponsors.

5) Raise more money from small donations. If you improve your website as described above and launch a blog, you will have a more compelling marketing presence for reaching larger audiences. At the same time, your enhanced digital marketing efforts will also make it significantly easier to solicit donations from people who visit your website. For example, if your blog provides engaging first person accounts of upcoming performances from dancers and choreographers, blog readers will be more likely to support your on-going efforts through small contributions.

6) Develop and sell digital dance assets. In most instances, dancers and dance companies make money from performances, grants, sponsors and donations. The amount of money that comes in from these revenue sources is usually not enough. I think now is the time for the dance community to start creating, distributing and selling digital assets in the form of dance on camera offerings, performances, routines and class instruction. Here's just one example: millions of people are already purchasing TV episodes of leading shows from Apple's iTunes and downloading them to their iPods. There is no reason that dancers cannot sell content in the same manner.

7) Form new partnerships. In many cases, dancers and dance companies will not be able to implement the above six suggestions without partnering with new media companies, Internet marketing firms or independent contractors/companies that provide these design, marketing, digital distribution and fundraising services. I think it is important for the dance community to start exploring new business models and partnerships that will enable dance companies to work with these different types of experts and organizations in order to improve their financial picture and implement successful digital marketing campaigns.

8) Educate young dancers about emerging digital dance careers. Digital tools, technologies and environments are creating unprecedented opportunities for dancers to seek challenging new paths and outlets for their talent and creativity. From digital dance on camera productions to interactive gaming environments, the opportunities for dancers have never been greater. Read my November 22, 2005 post about "Emerging Digital Dance Careers." I think there is a need for directors of dance associations and dance programs at colleges and universities to get together to explore these emerging careers and to develop a game plan for sharing with dance students what these digital dance opportunities are all about. At the same time, as some of these new career options grow in importance, there may be a need to offer new types of dance classes to educate students about these new career possibilities.

9) Create a universal dance notation language. Yes, there are dance notation systems such as Labanotation, but there is no widely used and recognized notation language. Without such a widely embraced notation system, dance will never reach its full potential. Please read my white paper, "Building a New Dance Economy: Expanding Opportunities for Dancers and Choreographers," which explains why I believe that the lack of a universal notation language poses a big challenge for the dance community.

10) Embrace motion tracking systems on a large-scale for recording dance routines, classes and performances. Motion tracking systems are used today within the dance world on limited scale. But motion tracking systems should be embraced on a global basis to record dance performances in the new universal dance notation language described immediately above.

11) Open motion tracking-based dance notation studios in cities around the world. If there is a universal dance notation language, then it becomes economically feasible to build dance recording studios around the globe that record dance routines, classes and performances with motion tracking technology. Motion tracking technologies will come way down in price because of heavy demand for these tools.

12) Get serious about protecting the intellectual property rights of dancers. Dancers for the most part are not seeking intellectual property protections for their creative work. The bottom line is that dancers and choreographers are losing an opportunity to make money through sales and licensing because they don't have such copyright protections. By following the three recommendations above, dancers will be able to submit their routines and performances in a universal dance notation language in order to receive copyright protections.

13) Support the creation of innovative independent dance websites. Partly as a result of creating a universal dance notation language, improved intellectual property protections, the rise of blogging and the increased use of digital video and pictures tools, it will become possible for a wide range of new dance websites to emerge. Some possibilities: A community blog where people call-in to leave an audio review of a performance they just saw. A video search engine that advertising agencies and corporate marketing departments can access to find dance companies whose work they wish to license for an upcoming ad campaign. A video search engine that meeting, convention and special event organizers can access to find dancers for a performance showcase and class at an annual conference. These are just a few of the possibilities. There will be many more such sites as dancers increasingly embrace the digital world.

14) New advocacy, educational and support organization for dancers, choreographers and dance companies. The Internet is underused by dance associations. Given the low-cost, incredible reach and instant nature of the Internet, there is no reason that dance professionals should not have an equally low-cost membership organization to join that looks after there interests on a national and/or international level. Consider what the possibilities would be if a large percentage of dancers could join an Internet-centric dance association for say $35 a year that provided professional support, low-cost health and other benefits, constant advocacy on their behalf, cutting-edge, timely education and compelling online community resources.

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