January 27, 2008

Internet Wrap-Up for Dance and the Arts: Marketing, Mobile, Video, Music, Games and Funding

- Review with photos of New York City Ballet new branding and advertising campaign - also read comments [via Danciti]. Promotional write-up about City Ballet campaign here. City Ballet website updated with new logo, color scheme and videos.

- What does rise of creative cultural consumers mean for the arts? When Internet users, especially Generation Y, create online content reflecting their artistic and entertainment interests, should marketers be considering new approaches to engaging these more involved and influential audiences? My answer is obviously yes. Read post in The Cultural Consumer.

- Apple ad campaign breaks borders. Read about and view latest anti-PC banner campaign from home of the Macs. The idea seems so simple upon reflection but captivating in execution. Write-up on Lost Remote and 360 Digital Influence. See screen shot on 360 Digital Influence - seeing actual Flash-based video ad is more effective, but campaign doesn't seem to be on Yahoo any longer.

- Mobile game in Madrid, called QR-Kill, consists of players using cell phones with cameras, and each player wearing a QR Code (two-dimensional bar code) on his or her back. Objective of game is to take picture of competitor's QR Code, which includes the person's name and SMS address, and then texting them. Once you text person, they are "dead" and out of game. That's it. These urban, mobile games are increasing in popularity. Any possibilities for dance? [via Smart Mobs]

- Toyota and Arthur Murray have teamed-up to create a reality-type dance competition as part of the car manufacturer's exhibition at this past week's auto show in Washington, DC. Contestants were partnered with ballroom instructors from the dance studio chain in an effort to win a Toyota. You can watch Arthur Murray ads and dance competition videos. [via Free to Dance]

- Add hotspots with links and text to your videos with Asterpix. Watch video of how this works here. Then, you can embed video or specific section of video on your site or blog. These types of video annotation tools have range of applications for dance, especially in dance writing and education. Also, take a look at Overlay.tv. [via Mashable]

- Qik and Livecastr are new applications for live video broadcasting from mobile devices and camcorders. [via TechCrunch]

- YouTube ramps-up mobile offerings making large percentage of videos available for high-end mobile devices--visit YouTube mobile page. While this development will accelerate delivery of video content to small screens, there are still limitations and roadblocks as pointed out by Last100.

- ReadWriteWeb on latest news from popular Last.fm music site, which will be streaming large number of full-length tracks. Since music sites get much more traffic than dance website, why aren't all types of dancers doing more music videos that are then featured on these (and other) sites? Here's Last.fm profile of neo-tango group Gotan Project and their video page.

- TechCrunch on the "YouTube" room at Davos conference. It would be easy to set-up something comparable at dance and arts events and a good way to encourage bloggers and amateur/professional media creators to conduct video interviews, take pictures and write about performances.

- Through Beth Kanter's blog, How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, I came across America's Giving Challenge. This fundraising program gives $50,000 to good causes based-upon online voting. It seems that dance companies and especially their outreach efforts would be good candidates for such programs. America's Giving Challenge only has five days left, but I'm sure there are other similar upcoming programs.

- Is digital sharing of creative content legal or illegal? Or should it be legal or illegal? A huge question. Do artists and arts organizations work to protect their creative work from unauthorized YouTube distribution or do they work on premise that the more video that is out there the better? A video posted to Creative Commons blog that takes position that copying is fair. I think answer is more challenging than video portrays.

- I'm intrigued by experimentations and diverse approaches to funding the arts and creative endeavors. Adam Forest Huttler on Fractured Atlas blog writes about San Francisco-based "The Thing." Essentially, you pay annual subscription of $120 to receive 4 artworks from contemporary artists.

- New report, "Best Practices for Non-profits in Second Life" (PDF), by Rik Panganiban. Read about report.

- Robin Good's Internet Video Publishing: A Beginner's Guide offers comprehensive overview of creating, editing, publishing and monetizing video.

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January 17, 2008

News, Videos and Commentary

- Misnomer Dance Theater wins $10,000 prize from Ideablob to develop Internet tools for dancers. Here's their thank you post. And on related note, here's Misnomer documentary on Sundance channel:

- Andrew Taylor has excellent post "Rules of engagement" (with good comments) about ways to improve Arts Presenters conference that took place this past week. But he doesn't name names, which sessions were good and not good? Should we critique sessions the way we critique bloggers and dance companies? I think yes - why shouldn't we hold session panelists and moderators accountable? When I make statement on my blog that's not accurate, I ought to be corrected. For example, Jennifer of Saturday Matanee modified my premise, in a comment of hers, about Cedar Lake Ballet being first arts organization to reach out to bloggers.

- TechCrunch's 60-second long Steve Jobs keynote from Macworld 2008 - this is the length most presentations out to be:

- Two effective video promotions of dance performances and installations: Chunky Move's Glow (click video link) [via Networked Performance] and Cedar Lake's Glassy Essence video [via Danciti]:

- Big Art Mob is a growing collection of photos of public art throughout the UK [via Mashable]. This would be interesting project for dance world - maybe collecting and mapping videos of site-specific performances along the lines of what I did for Three Rails Projects using Google Maps.

- Dance critic Claudia La Rocco discusses Miguel Gutierrez on WNYC radio [via DTW blog].

- Hey, pictures of my ballet teacher, Finis Jhung. Well, slight exaggeration. I've only taken one of his classes at Alvin Ailey. Here are pictures of Jhung teaching posted by Veronica Moretti Niebuhr on The Winger. Take a look at the Finis Jhung website to see how they present and sell ballet DVDs.

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January 15, 2008

The Artistic Explorations of Dancers Should Speak for Themselves

For modern and contemporary dance to grow and prosper over the coming decade, there needs to be, I believe, a rethinking of how the Internet is harnessed to achieve such a successful outcome.

There are two overriding strategies at the heart of this re-evaluation:

1. All online forms of communication and outreach should be driven by the artistic work that has already been created or is in the process of being created. What is the nature of the work? What are the ideas being explored? What are the driving values, aesthetic, emotions, conflicts and other characteristics of this work? Simply following cookie-cutter "best practices" to Internet marketing does not serve the short-term or long-term interests of artists. In the end, artists are creating work that audiences can engage with in some manner. Why not embrace the art itself and use it as your primary or sole communications vehicle when developing your Internet presence? Then, you can develop an Internet marketing campaign around your artistic vision that you are sharing with the public.
2. When at all possible, creative work should be integrated into the larger cultural, intellectual, economic, spiritual, artistic and other conversations that take place throughout our society. For too long, dance has been relegated to its own silo without strong or any connections to non-dance conversations that address the same or similar topics that choreographers and dancers are exploring in isolation. The Internet is an absolutely wonderful medium for developing new types of multi-disciplinary exchanges that will enable the larger public to think of movement as one of the important ways to consider and engage with the world around us.

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January 13, 2008

SpeedLinks for January 13, 2007

- "What's The Egg That Needs To Be Cooked Now?" - Choreographer/dancer Aynsley Vandenbroucke writes about Dance Forum on curation that took place this past Friday morning as part of Arts Presenters conference.

- Audience reviews of Miguel Gutierrez on the Walker Art Center blog - always good to see performing arts venues encourage reviews on their own site.

- "What is Physically Integrated Dance: II" by Wheelchair Dancer.

- On-going discussion on dance-tech.net social networking site about "Internet. Market. Choice. Dance. Industry. Sell. Buy. Process." a wide-ranging discussion, nominally about impact of Internet on dance, with some interesting points.

- Teens are big content creators - girls more than boys. "The survey found that content creation is not just about sharing creative output; it is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content." Quote strikes me as important for arts marketers looking to embrace social media. [via SmartMobs]

- What would optimal dance-tech performance space look like? Matt Gough offers suggestions. But who will pay for it he asks?

- Good, straight-forward post on how to set-up an easy to use and manage website that you can quickly update. [via Chromatouch]

- Watch screen dance video for planetarium projection - from Chromatouch.

- Choreographer Makeda Thomas from Port of Spain and Back again "In the Place of Silk Cotton Trees."

- Tonya Plank's photos from Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet dress rehearsal last week. Write-ups of this blogger event from Arial, Evan, Taylor, and CounterCritic. It struck me - the one thing missing from the night was talking with the dancers after performance.

- Eva Yaa Asantewaa reviews Cedar Lake performance.

- Add video widget to your webiste/blog to quickly add latest displayed videos - from Beet.TV.

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January 10, 2008

SpeedLinking for January 10, 2007

- Maria, A Time To Dance, on taking master classes and their relationship to then seeing performances - I'll definitely get back to this post.

- Tom Pearson of Third Rail Projects blog posts videos of recent Hong Hong site-specific performance.

- Choreographer and dancer Joe Goode in conversation with fellow choreographer Jess Curtis on different cultural tendencies when it comes to accepting/giving criticism - and related topics. [via Daniel Burkholder's act/re/act]

- I've always liked Carlos Saura's dance films. Argentine Tango Videos has clips from the Spanish director's "Tango."

- Tangobliss points out that DC-based Tango dancer and teacher Sharna Fabiano is one Dance Magazine's Top 25 to Watch and links to PDF file of Dance Magazine article.

- In-depth interview from Barry's Arts Blog about the need for "comprehensive restructuring of how arts organizations interact with youth" audiences. I just skimmed it - looks interesting.

- 36% of American consumers use their cellphones for entertainment purposes. What does that say about how dancers should embrace mobile distribution options? From Orbitcast.

- Would you like to see dance on 150-inch high-definition plasma display? Images from CES show in Las Vegas on Reel Pop blog.

- Online video traffic doubled in 2007 - from Mashable. Add-up these trends in video, mobile and high-def, and it simply has to be an imperative to create great videos - but how to pay for them? More to come...

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January 9, 2008

SpeedLinking for January 9, 2007

- Artful Manager on new fascinating research report, "Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance" - full link to report. I'll definitely be writing about this.

- PDF of "Youth Dance: Towards Best Practice" from Quodlibet.

- Possible photo editing apps for dancers - send online postcards and create scarpbooks - from Read/WriteWeb.

- Oberon's Grove on Parsons at Joyce and NYC Ballet "Dance for Joy."

- "Bricks vs. Spaghetti vs. Feathers" metaphors for maintaining good dance frame with comments - The Dance Primer.

- PayPal and other payment apps want to help non-profits - Mashable.

- DNO Dances on "Jacques Tati 'Jour de Fete'" at Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center.

- Tonya Plank on New York City Ballet dancer Jock Soto film documentary - also part of Dance on Camera Festival.

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January 8, 2008

Ballet Nouveau Colorado Chooses Three Finalists for Its 21st Century Choreography Competition

Sometimes I look back at posts I've written and wonder what on earth I was thinking. Back to that thought in a second.

The Ballet Nouveau Colorado (BNC) has just selected its three finalists for its 21st Century Choreography Competition. The first stage of the competition consisted of choreographers uploading their dance videos to BNC's YouTube channel. There were 28 video submissions and the three finalists were chosen from these videos.

You can access the bios of the finalists on the following BNC page - I've embeded the three videos of the finalists below. The finalists were chosen by allocating 25% of the vote to YouTube voting and 75% to the artistic staff.

Now each of the finalists will have a nine-day residency at BNC where they will create their work - this process will be videotaped and documented for the web. The performances of these three works will take place April 11-13 and "celebrity" panelists will choose winner.

Reevaluating My Initial Criticism

I wrote this post last September when this competition was just getting started. I don't really understand why I was being so critical of a project that appeals to me on just about every level.

In any case, it looks like BNC did a good job of encouraging choreographers to submit their videos to YouTube and there were a good number of views, comments and votes cast. I think that it was a good idea to limit the weight of the YouTube voting to 25% because it is very easy for friends to skew results without too much work.

Now it will be fun to get a peek behind-the-scenes as the choreographer finalists create their work.

And it will be especially interesting and enlightening to see what the audiences are like for these performances. Will new audiences be attracted to ballet as a result of this open, YouTube-enabled, participatory process?

More on APAP and Curating

Yesterday I wrote a post Dance Forum on Curation at Dance Presenters Conference. In this post, I expressed my hope that the panelists and audience members explored new approaches to curation that used the Internet during this forum Friday morning. The BNC 21st Century Choreography Competition is an excellent example of new frontiers in curation and would be, I believe, a good springboard for discussion and analysis.

Finalist YouTube Videos

Heather Maloy:

Ma Cong:

Alex Ketley:

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SpeedLinking for January 8, 2007

- New media artist Jessica Thompson's "Give It Up" features breakdancers battling at 2 different sites with the aid of video chat software. Performance January 12th. [via Networked Performance]

- Watch "Christopher Walken Wants Your Pointe Shoes!" [via The Intermission]

- Dorian Nuskind-Oder's Tenuous Points in her DNO Dances blog.

- When Tango Cultures Clash in Sallycat's adventures.

- Dance bloggers don't like new ABC show Dance War. Bellydance: Experiences, Swan Lake Samba Girl and BSYTYCD.

- New Research on Arts Audience Attitudes and Behavior - Americans for the Arts blog.

- Blueray wins HD-DVD battle on TechCrunch. Will this matter in long-term with rise Internet video?

- Bad Acting in HD from Article19's Evil Imp.

- Explore alternate reality games. ABC's Web Adventure for Lost - The Future of Entertainment in Read/WriteWeb. How might dance be incorporated into ARGs?

- New Parkour Video from K.K's World, Duly Noted.

- Marlon Barrios Solano mentions crowd-sourced user-contributed video/performance project from Ashley A. Friend's The Contemporary Dance Core. I'm very interested but don't understand at this point. Will follow-up.

- More On Salsa Mambo Festival from Don Baarns' Unlikely Salsero.

- Solo Charlestons hot at swing competitions. Carl's Dance Blog.

- Continued developments in how audiences can watch live music performances online - even controlling desired camera angle during concert. See video on DeepRockDrive - from TechCrunch.

- A Clever Kind of Family Concert - Gene Carr's Patron Technology Blog.

Web Video Promotion: Online Video Distribution Goes Pro With The New Hey!Spread
from Master New Meda. Single app for managing, uploading, tracking all your videos.

- Ten Common Objections to Social Media Adoption and How You Can Respond from Read/WriteWeb.

- Culturebot on recommendations of what to see during this week's APAP conference.

- What do high-def, live broadcasts of opera, classical music and ballet performances mean for performing artists in non-first tier cities? For 25 cents More You Get A Large Coke And Opera Glasses in Butts in Seats.

- Matt Gough on Youth Dance - Safe Touch in Quodlibet.

- Arial in The Arts Et Al asks "why couldn't major ballet or contemporary dance companies generate buzz by letting their patrons learn choreography via You Tube?" That's my question too.

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January 7, 2008

Advertise on Great Dance

The new Great Dance ad specifications and pricing are available - you can view them here.

I think that advertisers who want to reach dancers, dance audiences and others in the dance community will find these introductory rates very cost effective and will also find that advertising on Great Dance provides excellent value.

So if you're thinking about being an introductory sponsor, I'd be delighted to talk with you and answer any of your questions. Please email me.

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"Underground Dance Masters" at DFA's Dance on Camera Festival

The Dance Film Association's 36th Dance on Camera Festival is taking place now through January 19th here in New York City. I wrote yesterday about the Dance Heritage Coalition forum on "fair use" practices for dance documentary filmmakers.

On Saturday night I saw (write-up in film schedule):

"Underground Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era" (Movie website)
Thomas Guzman-Sanchez, US, 2007; 144m
"A tour de force exploration of the origin, evolution, history and the creators of the Urban Dance examples of Boogaloo, locking, Popping, Roboting, Rocking and B-boying, a previously unknown part of American Pop history. Introduced by the director."

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Guzman-Sanchez spent about 11+ years researching and interviewing street dancers in California and New York who were the creators of many of the street dance styles and forms that emerged from the mid-60s through the beginning of the 80s. He seems partly to have been motivated by a desire to reclaim the originality and artistic creativity of the street dance scene before the commercialization of what become breakdancing and hip-hop in the 80s and afterwards.

The film was not the most professional documentary I've ever seen - the lighting and sound for the excellent interviews could have been better, for example, and the film could have definitely been edited down from its 144 minutes. But I can't say these limitations really bothered me - it was just great to see this story told; see the ample video footage from TV shows, clubs, home movies, and MTV dance videos; and get a feel for the connections among the different dance styles.

"Underground Dance Masters" is being shown again on Saturday, January 19th at Walter Reade Theater (Lincoln Center) at 3:00 PM.

And on Friday, January 11th at 3:300 PM, you can see "Program 12: Urban Dance, Part 2: B-Boys On Screen." This program of two films includes "Inside the Circle" about a grassroots hip-hop movement in Texas. Here's the trailer:

And here's the "Inside the Circle" website.

A Thought About Crowdsourcing Dance History

I've often thought about how dancers with experience in different dance forms can pool their collective knowledge to better document the connections among different genres of dance. Take salsa dancing as an example, how can we use the Internet to help us understand the relationships among different styles of Salsa dancing that have emerged in different countries and cities and how they have influenced each other? If we can come up with an answer, the same could be done, of course, for any style of dance.

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January 6, 2008

Toward a "Fair Use" Practice for Dance Documentary Filmmakers

Friday afternoon I attended a program on how documentary filmmakers can incorporate copyrighted materials in their films and videos under the "fair use" doctrine.

This topic is important because if dance filmmakers cannot use historical materials under "fair use" doctrine, then they will often not be able to make the documentaries that they would like to produce. The cost of licensing the desired video footage, photos, audio and other materials would simply be too expensive.

Dance Heritage Coalition sponsored this program, "Yes You Can," which was part of the Dance Film Association's 36th Dance on Camera Festival (January 2-19, 2008).

What the dance community is attempting to do through the leadership of DHC is follow in the successful footsteps of independent documentary filmmakers who have created a document "Best Practices in Fair Use."

In essence this document sets-out generally accepted practices of the conditions under which a filmmaker can use copyrighted materials without having to seek prior approval or pay licensing fees for the material. Peter Jaszi, a copyright and intellectual property attorney on the panel who is spearheading this initiative for DHC says that acceptable "fair use" must involve some type of "transformational" use of the copyrighted materials for a legitimate case to be made on the part of the filmmaker. In other words, the use of the copyrighted videos, images and sound must be different than what was initially intended. for them. I'm probably oversimplifying, but that's the gist I got from the panel discussion.

The objectives of this DHC initiative is "To reach a consensus on a fair and balanced approach to using presumptively copyrighted materials to meet our mandate as cultural conservators and educators."

An important benefit with creating accepted best practices for "fair use" among libraries, archives and others who own/control copyrighted material, and filmmakers and educators who wish to use these materials is that the likelihood of lawsuits will diminish. All participants will have a clearer idea of when they need to acquire specific rights to the desired materials and when they can go ahead and simply use them under "fair use."

Looking Forward

There's also another side to this discussion that I think should be explored: What can dancemakers and presenters do today to minimize the challenges that filmmakers and others who may wish to use their creative work in the future do to eliminate possible future roadblocks?

As panelist Jan Schmidt, assistant curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, pointed out, as an example, that you can't even watch videos of dance performances at the library (at Lincoln Center) without getting specific approval from the Brooklyn Academy of Music - this would be just for dance performances at BAM, of course. This approval process is cumbersome and I'm sure that there are many similar examples.

So what can dance artists do now in terms of contracts, licensing and other intellectual property issues to avoid these hassles? For example, if choreographers worked directly with musicians who created and played their own work, there would likely be many fewer legal issues to worry about down the road if the choreographer and musician worked out all the possible uses of their material upfront. I'm not an expert in this area, but it seems to me that a lot can be done today to help the dance community to start thinking of how to collaborate with other artists in a way that facilitates access and use of their creative output.

I look forward to hearing from others on this topic.

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Update on NYC Dance Reviews and Calendar Links

The first month (December, 2007) of the New York City dance review summaries and links went well.

I'm making a few changes to this aggregation of dance reviews so that the submission and posting process is fully automated. It should take about a week or so, and then this blog will be up and running.

I'm probably not going to maintain a calendar of dance performances in NYC since there are already a number of them - I'll just link to these existing calendars.

Please email me with your thoughts and feedback.

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January 3, 2008

Review of New York Times Article on Dance and the Internet

It was great to see the December 29, 2007 article in The New York Times, "The World of Dance Tries Out New Moves On the Web," by Julie Bloom. The focus of this piece is on how the concert dance community is using the Internet (websites, video and blogs) to reach larger audiences and "change the nature of the form."

I think Bloom captures some important trends and stories that highlight how social networking, the online sharing of personal stories and tributes, a greater emphasis on multimedia content and more user-friendly websites are increasing the profile of the professional dance community. For example, she features an interview with dancer/choreographer Camille A. Brown, who performed her "The Groove to Nobody's Business" as part of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater season at City Center, about her My Space page. Brown says that as a result of MySpace, she has been contacted by directors interested in using her work and she uses the bulletin feature to keep her 500 "friends" updated on her latest activities.

Also, Megan Sprenger, director of marketing for Dance Theater Workshop, discusses the recent revamp of the DTW website and the importance they placed on making their new site about movement through the extensive use of videos and constant color changes.

But I also think that the article has a few weaknesses. First, when discussing Camille A. Brown, Bloom writes that she is "...one of many young artists using the Web as a way to level the artistic playing field." That's an accurate statement up to a point, but an additional interview or two is really needed here. The opening of this article highlights people (Brown as well as David Hallberg and Kristin Sloan) who are connected to the most prominent dance organizations in New York City (Alvin Ailey, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet).

I'm definitely not criticizing the people or institutions I just mentioned above. I'm just pointing out that if the Internet is really about a level playing field, then the author ought to find artists, festival organizers and performing arts venues that have used low-cost Internet tools to build audiences from scratch or significantly grow their audiences. For example, who are the dancers who had no following at all, turned to the Internet to create an audience and now are presenting their own work to large crowds? I should also figure out the answer to this question - if you have thoughts, please share.

Actually, to modify what I just said a bit. It's possible that Brown's MySpace page led to an increase in ticket sales for Alvin Ailey in December and the same goes for the video series that Kristin Sloan did for Romeo + Juliet for the New York City Ballet. If I recall correctly, I think Kristin told me a few months ago that the R + J video series did help ticket sales.

A second shortfall with the article is that Bloom says upfront that artists are using the Internet to "change the nature of the form." In other words, choreographers and dancers are somehow using the Internet to change the shape/approach/structure of the dances that we see at theaters or, maybe, enjoy online. But she never really elaborates on this premise except through one vague example. Bloom mentions that iPods were used by audience members during the Merce Cunningham performance of "eyeSpace" so that each audience member could be listening to a randomly selected sound track during each section of the dance performance. This example, it strikes me, is more a case of how personal digital communication devices can be used in different ways in a performance environment and not really an example of how the Internet is transforming dance. To combine the Internet with chance procedures, I think you'd want to allow for more online audience involvement and input. Maybe musicians could upload and recommend their own musical scores, and audiences could download their favorite musical tracks to enjoy while watching the live performance. Actually, I'm not even sure my example qualifies as an example of "changing the nature of the form" either. In any case, it would be great if more examples of form-changing were featured in the article--if any actually exist.

Finally, I disagree with the opening of this New York Times article in which Bloom takes the standard art critic potshot at the very popular "Evolution of Dance" YouTube video, which she demonizes as an "absurdly silly stand-up comedy routine."

I wrote about the value and importance of this video two weeks ago. I think that what is worthwhile about "Evolution of Dance" is that dancers and non-dancers can relate to this video because of the basic level of familiarity that many of us have with the dance fads and crazes in the US over the past 50+ years. And it's nice to see these different dance crazes tied together in a seamless whole that provides context and understanding to viewers. These notions of continuity, context and understanding are, I think, invaluable ideas for the dance community to explore as they experiment with the best way to embrace the Internet.

Julie Bloom's article is actually challenging to write. How do you encapsulate the latest Internet trends and developments for concert dance in a single piece with deadline pressure? It would be a good exercise for me and others to take a stab at this.

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December 31, 2007

Vote for Misnomer Web 2.0 Internet Project on Ideablob

Chris Elam's Misnomer Dance Theater is among a handful of finalists in contention for winning a $10,000 prize from Ideablob that will go toward the development of Internet tools for helping the performing arts engage with audiences in new ways.

You can read about and vote for Misnomer's project here. As I write this post, there are 16 hours left to vote for your favorite project - the competition ends at midnight (December 31st). The winner is the project with the most votes. Currently Misnomer's project is in 2nd place--about 40 votes behind a project that deals with the creation of an anti-procrastination system.

For the record, I have a bit of a vested interest in Chris' project. Chris and I are in the process of discussing how we might collaborate on the development and creation of Internet consulting offerings for dance and the performing arts communities. Our partnership may involve the Internet tools described in Chris' Ideablob proposal.

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November 29, 2007

The Compelling Quality of First Person Dance Narratives

Dancers have no obligation to write about and describe their work.

Dancers who do not write about and describe their work are missing a huge opportunity. This missed opportunity is especially magnified when it comes to the Internet.

Dancers who do not write about and/or document their work in pictures and videos are allowing others to speak for them. Why allow critics and bloggers to be the only voices when it comes to your work? Why not provide readers/dancegoers with your point of view?

In the end, I believe, if I'm presented with two stories on a website/blog--one is a first-person dancer narrative about a work and the other is a review--I will almost always read what the dancer has to say about his/her work first.

Yet, very, very few dancers are providing this first person perspective. People want to hear directly from artists. What are you creating? What's important to you? Who are you working with? What ideas are you exploring?

Dancers Share Their Stories on Bourgeon

Rob Bettmann of the dance blog Bourgeon is working with dancers, primarily in the Washington, DC area, to encourage them to write about their dancing. The latest posts features first person accounts from choreographers, dancers and teachers.

I think that Rob's initiative is an important one and I hope more dancers explore different approaches to communicating about their work and sharing their explorations with online readers.

Matt Gough has a related post "365s" about his desire to see more documentation of dance.

Also, I hope more choreographers and dancers take me up on my offer to write first person narratives (text, pictures and/or videos) about works that they will be performing in New York City. So far, I've been linking to reviews in newspapers and blogs of local performances. But I definitely want to encourage dancers to write about their works as well - just use this form. You can either link to an existing write-up about a piece or you can enter the copy right into this form.

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September 27, 2007

Great Dance Launches New Blogs for Dance Community

I'm delighted to announce that this week we started to expand Great Dance into a blogging platform for the dance community.

We have a new home page from where you can access the latest posts from all blogs on Great Dance. And you can read descriptions about the blogs that have already gone live. A few more blogs will be added over the coming week.

Over the next couple of days, I'll introduce the participating bloggers whom I'm delighted to work with and I'll also recap the specifics of what will be happening as Great Dance expands.

I hope you enjoy the new voices and perspectives. And, as always, feel free to share your thoughts and feedback.

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September 24, 2007

Upcoming Launch of Expanded Great Dance

I'm about to launch expanded Great Dance site, which will feature blogs from choreographers, dancers, dance companies and others connected to dance.

I'm very excited about this development and I'm looking forward to working with dance bloggers to explore the many ways that the Internet can be used for creative, marketing, educational and community purposes.

Since my blog will be one of many, I'm changing my blog's name to "Dancing into the Future." Great Dance will now refer to the overall site.

There will be a new home page - at http://greatdance.com - from which you'll be able to access the latest posts from all blogs and read descriptions of each blog so you can visit them directly.

The actual launch process will take place over the next few weeks or so.

Of course, please share your thoughts and feedback. You can email me at doug@greatdance.com.

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September 18, 2007

NYC Dancers and Choreographers Honored Last Night at Bessies

Update: Complete list of winners at Tuesday night's Bessies on Critical Correspondence site.

The 2007 New York Dance and Performance Awards, called the Bessies, took place last night at The Joyce Theater.

Here's a multimedia guide to the recipients of the "Choreographer/Creator Awards":

Luciana Achugar for "Exhausting Love at Dancespace Project":

- Interview Critical Correspondence

- Review Village Voice

- Conversation on Foot and Mouth

Germaine Accogny and Kota Yamazaki for "Fagaala":

- Kota Yamazaki website

- Germaine Accogny bio

- Review "Fagaala" in Dance Insider

- Overview with pictures of "Fagaala"

- Video of Germaine Accogny visiting UT Dallas:

- New York Times review

Yoshiko Chuma for body of work

- Yoshiko Chuma website

- Review "Sundown" Village Voice

- Yoshiko Chuma "School of Hard Knocks" at DTW

- Review Dance Insider

- Review in New York Times

Emmanuel Gat for "Rite of Spring"

- Review New York Times

- Pictures Emmanuel Gat choreography

Bill T. Jones and Collaborators for "Chapel/Chapter:

At Harlem Stage:

- Bill T. Jones website - "Chapel/Chapter" overview

- Review New York Times

- Review Village Voice

- Review the Sun

- Review the Brooklyn Rail

Mark Morris for "Mozart Dances"

Rehearsals for "Mozart Dances"

- Mark Morris Dance Group

- New Yorker review

- Review Village Voice

- New York Times review

- Ballet-Dance Magazine review

- Voice of Dance review

- Swan Lake Samba Girl blog post

Saburo Teshigawara for "Bones in Pages"

- Saburo Teshigawara website

- New York Times review

- Village Voice review

Doug Varone for "Boats Leaving"

- Doug Varone website

- Interview Doug Varone

- Review Village Voice

- Review Danceviewtimes

- Review Independent Weekly

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August 30, 2007

Eva Interviews Sitelines' Nolini Barretto

Earlier this week Eva Yaa Asantewaa conducted an audio interview with Nolini Barretto, producer and curator of the annual Sitelines summer festival, a project of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

In addition to listening to Eva's interview, I encourage you to visit the 2006 Sitelines website. You'll find an excellent archive of pictures and videos from last year's site-specific dance performances.

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August 28, 2007

Eva Interviews Dancer-Choreographer Ashleigh Leite

We just posted audio interview that Eva Yaa Asantewaa did yesterday with dancer-choreographer Ashleigh Leite.

We also added YouTube videos of two works choreographed by Ashleigh including this one of Autopsy:

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August 27, 2007

Upgrading to Moveable Type 4.0

I just upgraded to Movable Type 4.0, the new release of the blogging software I use.

You may encounter some technical glitches or formatting problems over the next few days. Please let me know if you run into any problems.

Thanks,
Doug

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August 24, 2007

Expanded Great Dance Now in Production

In preparation for launching an expanded Great Dance blogging platform for the dance community in September, I'm now in the process of upgrading and redesigning my site.

I'm using the new version of Movable Type, which has better functionality and more features. One of the important areas that will be expanded on Great Dance are the different ways that readers can participate in conversations and track their comments and posts.

Over the summer, I've had great conversations with dancers, choreographers and others involved in dance about hosting their dedicated or short-term blogs on Great Dance. These new blogs will start to be introduced in September and then on an on-going basis over the following months.

I'll provide updates as we get closer to the new site. If you're interested in blogging, please contact me.

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August 21, 2007

The Choreography of Soccer

Vanity Fair's James Wolcott characterized me as an "aghast bystander" in his post that references my review of last week's broadcast of the Mark Morris performance from Lincoln Center. He doesn't agree with my premise that it doesn't make sense for the TV to cut back and forth between the performance and the musicians.

I think my reaction to this live broadcast is in part a result to my constant annoyance at how US soccer games are produced for TV.

American sports are obsessed with individual effort and accomplishment. While we have popular team sports in this country, the TV producers and promoters are always looking to hype the extraordinary efforts of the superstars. This approach works in baseball, basketball and football--baseball is easy because only one batter is up at a time, and in basketball and football there are so many breaks in the action that replays of individual performances can be re-played endlessly.

But in soccer focusing too much on individual wizardry during a broadcast can really mess-up how TV viewers get to watch the game. I stopped watching US soccer games because the camera is always zoomed-in too close to the player with the ball and the players immediately around the ball. And in addition the camera is vertically too close to the ground so you end-up seeing individual players more than the action unfolding.

Soccer is similar to dance in that it's at heart about the offensive team creating and using space in unpredictable and innovative ways to help push the ball closer to the other team's net. So with the American obsession with individual action dictating the rules of TV coverage, viewers don't get to see space being created by players that don't have the ball. We only get to see the immediate source and vicinity of the current action separate from how the game is currently evolving - this was my main criticism of how Mark Morris' performance was covered by PBS--although it doesn't seem that anybody else shares my annoyance at an excessive focus on individual performers at the expense of the larger picture.

In addition, broadcasts of soccer games are always interrupting the action with replays. This bugs me to no end. I like seeing replays especially of goals. But I don't like to see the flow of the game interrupted by replays. Soccer doesn't have breaks in the action like American team sports. So there is very limited time to insert the replays without messing-up the continuity of the game. So the reason why I want the cuts to Emanuel Ax axed is because it just interrupts the flow.

I guess I like continuity and I'm not a huge fan of the gazillion TV shows and movies that cut from one scene to the next every 1/100th of a second.

So instead of watching US soccer games, which aren't really up to the level of other countries, I watch Latin American, English and Italian soccer--those are my choices on the channels I get. For the most part these non-US games are covered in a way that is much more in tune with the nature of the sport.

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August 16, 2007

Eva Podcast with Gina Gibney

On Great Dance Podcast, we just posted audio interview that Eva Yaa Asantewaa did with Gina Gibney, artistic director and founder of Gina Gibney Dance.

In addition to the podcast, you'll also find some pictures and a video clip from Gibney's current work in progress "The Distance Between Us."

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August 12, 2007

Heidi Latsky Video Interview

At the "Dances for deeAnn" benefit concert at Dance Theater Workshop on July 2nd, Heidi Latsky Dance performed an untitled work-in-progress with dancers Lawrence Carter-Long and Associate Director Jeffrey Freeze.

This was Lawrence's first dance performance. He lives with cerebral palsy and he speaks and advocates on behalf of those with this neurological disorder. I didn't even realize that this duet was a mixed-ability piece. Lawrence and Jeffrey both have great presence on stage. And even though Lawrence is forced to walk in an awkward manner, I just thought it was part of the performance. Maybe I should have realized this. But you have to give credit to Artistic Director Heidi Latsky and the dancers if I was responding to this work (and moved by it) on its own terms as opposed to thinking about it as the result of a mixed-ability collaboration.

Heidi choreographed this piece, which is part of an evening-length work "From the Limb" with dancer Lisa Bufano, a double amputee.

I conducted this video interview with Heidi in mid-July in which she talks about her work with Lawrence and Jeffrey:

Click To Play

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August 3, 2007

Using Dance Blogs to Reach Beyond Traditional Dance Audiences

Wednesday night I spoke by phone with Chris Elam, whose Misnomer Dance Theater is in residence at Summer Stages Dance @ Concord Academy in Massachusetts.

Chris was kind enough to share his ideas about my plans to expand Great Dance into a larger blogging platform for the dance community.

One of his recommendations was that I work with dance bloggers to reach out to audiences not currently engaged with dance, but who are pre-conditioned to enjoy dance if given the right access-points.

Using blogs to foster conversations among dancers and others directly connected to dance is, of course, very worthwhile. But figuring out the best approaches to motivating people who don't currently attend dance performances to become regular audience members is invaluable.

Chris offered suggestions that fall into two main categories:

First, it's important to use blogging, and the Internet in general, to reach casual viewers by telling the human stories behind dance, offering accessible ways to "decode" performances, and constantly thinking about who is the larger audience with whom you wish to communicate.

Second, there are many creative people who are engaged with the arts who don't think about attending dance performances--museum-goers, theater fans, writers and many others. These people are already "pre-conditioned" to enjoy dance if they are given a way to "cross-connect" their current artistic interests with dance and movement.

Stephen Greco, the new executive director of Dance Theater Workshop, offered a similar perspective in the video interview I conducted with him. He discusses the core DTW audience devoted to the "forward edge of dance," and the importance of reaching out to another larger "concentric ring" of people who would be interested in dance if they knew more about it:

Dance is no less sophisticated, no less propolsive, no less important to American culture than the visual arts which are flourishing [in nearby Chelsea]...but I know that people who are smart enough to care about the visual arts would be as interested in the very sophisticated, amazing stuff that's happening on our stage.

Blogging Beyond the "Core" Dance Community

In the context of Chris' recommendations, I'd like to offer some of my thoughts about different approaches that dance bloggers can take to reaching out to and connecting with new and casual dance audiences.

Content and Stories:

For starters, my personal feeling is that dancers have great, fascinating stories to share, but, for the most part, they are not shared online. These stories, if told in a compelling, accessible manner, can play a major role in grabbing the interest of people who do not normally see dance performances.

Here are some possible examples of topics that dancers/choreographers can address in their blogs and on their websites:

- Why do you dance? What inspired you? How old were you when you started dancing? Were there one or two moments in your dance education/career that really stand out in your mind as pivotal in your formation as a dancer? Why did you become a dancer as opposed to becoming a different type of artist or pursuing non-artistic endeavors?

- How do you work to maintain/improve your skills and technique as a dancer? What challenges you to grow as a dancer? Do you take certain types of classes? Are there certain teachers that you enjoy taking classes with? Do you like to take dance classes in styles of dance that you have very little exposure in?

- How did you become a choreographer? How did you make the transition from dancer to choreographer? How would you describe your choreography? Does the choreographic process ever feel overwhelming or impossible? How do you get back on track after being uncertain how a dance should proceed? Do you seek out certain types of dancers to collaborate with? How would you describe the characteristics/qualities of these dancers?

- What was the source of inspiration for the dance piece you are currently working on? Was it an idea? A discussion? An emotional reaction? Music you heard? An artwork you saw? A result of experimenting with movement in the studio? Whatever the impetus was, can you write about (text) or discuss it (video) so that visitors to your blog who may not be familiar with dance can connect to your story?

- What is the process that you normally use (or use for a specific work) when you create dance? How, for example, do you specifically generate movement? What kinds of movement normally capture your attention and why? Once you develop the movement vocabulary for a work, can you shoot a video so that viewers can see the basic building blocks of your dance piece? When viewers see your performance, will they be able to see the basic building blocks of movement?

- How would you go about helping audiences to better understand or get inside your work? What should they focus on - rhythm, pacing, emotional connections (lack of connections), shapes, patterns, transformations, use of space, or other elements? Would you like audiences to be in a certain state of mind, receptive to certain things, stimuli, ideas, reactions? Would you like audiences to see a specific art exhibit before hand? Maybe see a play? Listen to an opera? Watch an online video? Read a book or article?

- What are new ways that you can share your work with audiences? For example, why not shoot a video of a rehearsal and put two versions of this video online? The first version would have the musical track and the second video would have audio commentary with choreographer and dancers.

- Specifically addressing Chris' recommendation about reaching out to pre-conditioned audiences, do you have ideas about how you would speak to different types of audiences? How would you use words, video or audio to reach visual artists? Opera goers? People who are very creative? I'm not exactly sure how I'd answer this question. But it seems that it's very worthwhile to explore how to connect with people who are predisposed to enjoying dance but don't really know where to start.

- If you integrate interactivity, technology or anything digital into your performances, how do you write about/cover these types of performances in a way that connects with audiences, and doesn't overwhelm or confuse them? Writing about technology can be very challenging. Finding a way to humanize and make more meaningful your explorations, however, is very worthwhile. How can you use pictures and videos in particular to simplify what you're working on a making your dance more comprehensible.

- Some dance works by their nature focus on esoteric topics and may have complicated theoretical underpinnings. Is there a way to give casual audiences a window into these works that will increase their understanding and enjoyment? How would you go about achieving this? Are there connections that you can make between your work and other art forms? Or connections with completely non-artistic things, projects or pursuits?

The above just represents a handful of different types of questions, that I hope, may serve as a useful springboard for thinking about how to communicate your work to casual and new dance-goers via the Internet. I don't in any way mean to suggest that the way you write about or talk about your work has to be dumbed down. What I am proposing is that considerable thought and energy is devoted to exploring new approaches to giving audiences access to your dance work.

Next Post: Marketing to New Audiences

In my next post, I'll discuss different possible approaches, especially those using the Internet, to reaching out to arts-going and creative audiences that don't usually go to dance performances.

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August 1, 2007

Great Dance is Expanding

I'm in the process of expanding the Great Dance website into a large-scale blogging platform for the dance community.

This means that greatdance.com will host many dance blogs that cover a range of topics from different perspectives. Among the blogging formats that will be featured include:

- Dedicated and short-term blogs by dancers and dance companies

- Audio and video podcast interviews with dancers and choreographers

- Blogs from dance writers, students and others who cover dance

- Hot topic blogs for extended conversations about important issues, and

- Dance blogs dedicated to the Internet and technology, video and film making, dance instruction, improving dance literacy and other topics

Goals

I'm introducing an expanded website for the following reasons:

1) I would like to help dancers, choreographers and dance companies take full advantage of the Internet for creative, marketing, educational and community-building purposes.

2) To work with dance-makers to create new and expanded revenue streams from advertising and sponsorship, online contributions, increased bookings, larger audiences, and product sales and licensing (digital and packaged).

3) To provide dancers with on-going education and recommendations about how to use digital tools and technologies for both artistic and business purposes. And,

4) To develop an active online conversation that provides dancers and dance audiences with a compelling and meaningful forum for discussing a wide range of dance-related topics.

The Blogging Challenge for Dancers

In theory blogging offers dancers, choreographers and dance companies great opportunities for sharing creative work, reaching larger audiences, building active communities and developing new revenue streams.

But in practice it is very difficult for dance-makers to achieve these goals when working independently.

The Solution: A Large-Scale Blogging Platform for Dance

My approach to solving this challenge is by inviting dancers and dance companies to create their own blogs on Great Dance.

Participating dancers and dance companies are provided with:

1) A free blog on Great Dance. In some cases bloggers may join others in topic-specific blogs.

2) Free blogging support and guidance including how to add multimedia elements such as pictures and videos to blog posts and how to submit content via mobile devices.

3) An instant audience of readers and extensive on-going marketing to build more traffic for your blog. And,

4) Community development tools and promotion so that your blog readers are encouraged to become actively involved in your discussions.

New Revenue Streams

By building this high-quality, multi-blog platform, it then becomes possible over time to generate both direct and indirect revenue streams for dancers and dance companies.

Realistically, it is not possible to generate sufficient online advertising revenue from sponsors, or financial contributions from website visitors unless you have a large, loyal audience of dance fans and supporters who visit and participate in your website. The same holds true for using the Internet to build audiences for your performances and to increase bookings.

So an important part of what I'm ramping-up to do now is sell advertising and sponsorship for this extended Great Dance blogging platform. Participating dance bloggers will then receive a percentage of the advertising revenue resulting from their blog readership, or will generate advertising revenue in other manners. I'm now in the process of exploring different possible revenue models.

In addition, I'll be working directly with dance bloggers to develop and pursue other revenue streams such as from increased contributions and more bookings.

Overall, one of my major goals is to create new business models for dancers so that they can generate greater financial support to pursue their artistic interests. I've written about this topic for almost two years and I'd like to play a constructive role in making this happen.

At the same time, I don't want to oversell or over-promise the financial possibilities of an expanded Great Dance for dance-makers. What I've described above is what I plan to work toward in collaboration with the dance community. Also, in some cases, there will be potential revenue streams and in other instances there may not be. For example, a dance company with its own blog on Great Dance may have a broader range of financial possibilities than a dancer who posts occasionally to a topic-specific blog with multiple bloggers. These details will all have to be worked out.

Summary

This expanded Great Dance blogging platform will provide dancers and dance companies with the resources, know-how, marketing guidance, and technology infrastructure they need to take full advantage of the Internet. By aggregating high-quality dance blogs on a single website, it will be possible to reach larger audiences and help participating dance-makers develop new revenue streams to support their creative activities. This improved financial support will, in turn, make it possible for dancers to create more compelling content for their ever-growing online audiences.

Your Thoughts and Feedback

What do you think about any and all aspects of the above?

Your Participation

Are you interested in blogging on Great Dance?

If you would like to explore upcoming possibilities, please send me an email with a brief introduction about yourself and your involvement in dance. And, of course, include a description of the type of blogging that you'd be interested in pursuing and the subject matter that you'd like to cover.

I will soon post formal guidelines on how to submit proposals and how the evaluation process will work.

Advertising and Sponsorship Information

I'll soon be posting an overview of advertising and sponsorship opportunities for the upcoming expanded Great Dance site. If, in the meantime, you'd like to learn about these advertising programs, please email me.

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July 31, 2007

Thanks to Sydney Skybetter

I'll soon be posting a write-up about my plans to expand Great Dance into a large-scale blogging platform for the dance community.

While I was in New York City for the first few weeks of July, I met and brainstormed a number of times with Sydney Skybetter who provided some excellent ideas and recommendations about how I might go about growing Great Dance to best serve dancers and the dance community. Plus, Sydney is a great networker and he introduced me to a number of local dancers with whom I also had very helpful and productive conversations.

So I'm writing this post to thank Sydney for sharing his ideas and insights. Sydney is about to start the second and final year of his MFA program in dance performance and choreography at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Plus, Sydney consults for dance companies on a number of different fronts.

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Video Interview with Dance/NYC's Robert Yesselman

While I was in New York City earlier this month, I conducted a video interview with Robert Yesselman, the director of Dance/NYC.

Dance/NYC supports the needs of the New York City dance community and is a branch of Dance/USA, which is a national service organization for dance.

Click To Play

During the interview Yesselman discusses their latest research report, "Cenusus of NYC Dancemakers," advocacy on behalf of local dancers, the challenging funding environment, efforts to support individual dancers and dance companies with smaller budgets, healthcare initiatives, and Dance/NYC's professional development programs and town halls.

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July 27, 2007

Video Interview with Stephen Greco, New Executive Director, Dance Theater Workshop

Last week when I was in New York City, I conducted a video interview with Stephen Greco, the new executive director of Dance Theater Workshop (DTW). (Here's the link to the announcement of Greco's appointment on DTW's site).

During this twelve-minute interview, Greco discusses a wide-range of topics including his initial reactions after being at DTW for just a few weeks, his decades-long connection to the dance community, upcoming plans for the Internet, supporting and working with choreographers and dancers, buildin