May 24, 2007

News, Reviews and Tech Update

- "Agreement Ends Copyright Threats Over Non-Commercial Use of Popular Dance": "The man who claims to have created "The Electric Slide" has agreed to call off his online video takedown campaign and to stop threatening people using the popular line dance for non-commercial purposes. Instead, he's making the dance available for all noncommercial use." Read press release from The Electronic Frontier Foundation. [via NeeTeeVee ]. (I wrote about this legal dispute in February).

- Dance/NYC releasing 2006 census of dance makers today. NY Times article about report. It's not yet published on Dance/NYC website. Conclusions: dance big in NYC area and dancers don't make enough money. [via InfiniteBody]

- I saw Dance Smith perform last Friday at Atlas Performing Arts Center here in DC. I did video interview with Artistic Director Natalie Moffett Smith on Saturday - I'll edit and upload this video in next couple of days. Here's review from Washington Post. Barbara Allen writes "...a delicious collection that celebrated the very act of dancing."

- San Francisco Ballet posts latest audio podcast: "Meet the Artist interview with Lynn Garafola" - dance critic, historian, professor, and author. She says audiences will come back to ballet! She ponders how YouTube and other new media will transform dance.

- "Funny, You Don’t Look Dancerish," by Claudia La Rocco in NY Times explores what's a dancer's body to look like? Article opens with the "silky and quick" movements of David Dorfman, who sometimes carries a few extra pounds. I saw him in January perform "Underground." Of all the performances I've seen this year, the image of Dorfman repeatedly striding diagonally across the stage winding-up to throw an imaginary Molotov cocktail into a university administration building - at least that's what I thought it was - is most imprinted on my mind. It was a simple movement, but something about it was extremely captivating. It also made me think about the intersection of art and activism. This tossing gesture could also represent the throwing of a ball into the hands of the audience to ask: The ball's in your court, what are going to do? Think? Protest? How are you going to respond? (Video and audio programming about "Underground.)

- "Why does opera get the crowds and ballet doesn't? Part Two" by Apollinaire Scherr in her Foot in Mouth blog. Why on earth will people go to opera before a dance performance? Reflections and possibilities considered.

- A Village Voice review by Deborah Jowitt: "A Sunset Feast: Sara Rudner's four-hour banquet of dancing." I saw this marathon performance at Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC a few weeks ago with Tony Plank. Here's Tonya's write-up.

- Art's Place blog review of Merce Cunningham performance at Orange County Performing Arts Center in California. Good write-up about this event, which featured eyeSpace where audience members listen to sound track with iPods. Since audience is shuffling through available recordings, each audience member may be listening to different sound track while watching the same performance. For Art, this breaks down the communal nature of sharing a live performance experience with others: "For me, getting shut off in my old wound world was a somewhat unnerving since I could still see everyone, but my mind had me keeping to myself because I was listening to headphones." I was wondering whether the concept behind eyeSpace has legs. If you, as choreographer, are telling the audience to listen to a designated sound track in any order, why shouldn't audience just load any music they want on to their iPod and take it with them to the performance? And why can't audience members share their own playlists for this performance? If Merce is going to explore chance and randomness, why impose any restrictions?

- Google testing AdSense for video. Publishers will have control over where within their videos ads can be inserted. Important step forward in trying to figure out how video can be monetized. [via NewTeeVee].

- More on Mogulus and creating your own 24/7 TV channel. What are possibilities for dance of broadcasting of live and pre-recorded feeds throughout the day? The possibilities are endless and the costs are plummeting. I wrote about Mogulus here. Once you can broadcast live from any venue - a dance performance or dance competition, say - build an audience and figure out how to monetize it, then a large number of dance events will be distributed online in real-time. Which means there must be ways for dancers to make more money - one of challenges explored in the NYC/Dance report I mentioned above.

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