November 6, 2006

Will The Culture of the Internet Transform Dance?

In a November 5th post, "How Not to Write About Dance, So It Will Matter," dance writer Apollinaire Scherr addresses a question in her new "Foot In Mouth" blog that I posed to her.

My question revolved around the issue of how dance audiences might relate differently to a performance if they had on-going access to the creative process from the first rehearsals onwards. In other words, if audiences can see a work evolve via video, blogs and websites, how might the audience experience be enhanced when watching the live performance? If audiences can have on-going conversations, via the Internet, with choreographers and dancers before the curtain goes up, what changes?

Apollinaire took the way I wrote my initial question to mean that I was starting with the premise "that people need to be instructed in how to read movement." This is not what I meant to imply. Although by providing audiences with an extended window into the process of creation, they are likely to develop new insights about movement and other elements of a dance piece that they might not otherwise have had.

I was talking to a dancer last week who was part of an improvisational piece that I recently saw. She was explaining to me the general structures in which the improvisation evolved. I would have enjoyed going to a website prior to this performance and hearing her discuss this framework. Maybe in two to three years I'll feel differently once I see many more dance performances. I'm not sure. But I appreciate all of the insight and background I can get; it makes the experience of seeing a performance more enjoyable and meaningful for me. And I especially enjoy hearing from the choreographers and performers themselves.

In terms of my original question, what I'm getting at is the emergence of what Andrew Taylor, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business, refers to in his Artful Manager blog as the "active audience." (Read his October 30th post, "The Rise of the Active Audience," and his post today, "Encouraging the Active Audience.")

In these posts, he discusses an alumni conference that took place last week at his university that explored the changing nature of the audience experience and the desire for greater participation and interaction.

Author and speaker Alan Brown was one of the keynote speakers at this event. In an April 17, 2006 post, "Embracing the Inventive Spirit of the Internet," I wrote about Brown's 2004 research paper, "The Values Study, Rediscovering the Meaning and Value of Arts Participation." In this report, Brown creates five modes of arts participation ranging from very active to very passive. If you look at the charts I included in my April post, you'll see that "Attending Live Dance Performances" is plotted in the outer spheres of the circle and thus are highly passive affairs.

The main question I had in my post about Brown's paper was how can the dance community sustain such a sharp disconnect between the inventive and participatory nature of the Internet and the observational nature and passivity required of most dance performances? My answer is that some dancers and dance companies will greatly benefit by exploring new ways to enable their audiences to be more active participants in the process of creation in order to address this growing divide.

So getting back to Apollinaire Scherr's response to my question, I'd like to know her thoughts about the following:

1) What do you think of the idea of an "active audience" and how do you think it relates to dance performances? Do you think that the dance world would benefit by embracing the emergence of a participatory culture?

2) What is the optimal way that choreographers and dancers can use blogs and related tools to communicate with their audiences?

3) In terms of your own personal enjoyment of dance, can you envision any scenario where the pleasure and insight you derive from a dance performance could be enhanced as a result of online content and interactive opportunities that take place prior to the performance?

4) Following-up on your thoughts about how dance reviews should be written, what are your thoughts about how you would incorporate pictures, videos and audio interviews into your reviews? Since there are no space limits on the Internet, do you see a new type of dance criticism emerging that is more multimedia in nature? If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, what's video worth when it comes to dance?

5) As more media outlets turn to user-generated content (stories submitted by readers), what impact will this have on how the performing arts are covered by the media? For example, Wired reported on Friday that USA Today and 90 other US newspapers published by Gannett will turn to "crowdsourcing" as part of its news gathering process.

Apollinaire, thanks for your post and I look forward to your thoughts on the above.

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