November 2, 2005

Retail Dance Festival in San Francisco

The 2005 Retail Dance Festival takes place this weekend at Union Square in San Francisco. Retail Dance, launched in 2001, features the work of local choreographers whose pieces are performed in retail showrooms, store windows, hotels and restaurants. Consumers get to experience dance free of charge, retailers underwrite the brief performances, and dancers and choreographers are compensated and have an opportunity to promote their upcoming performances and classes as well.

This festival is presented by choreographer Kim Shipp who created the concept of Retail Dance in 1998. And this year's festival features the work of eight choreographers whose work will be performed at six different locations over two days.

I like this idea of retailer-sponsored dance performances - it definitely benefits all participants. This concept ought to be explored in other cities.

The works are based upon the marketing needs of the retailers. The press release reads, "It is [the dance works] an artistic collaboration between a choreographer and a business in which the content of the work is inspired by the retailer’s site, product, or special event."

The event producers are happy to embrace the commercial nature of this dance event. Their home page features the following quote from a Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal review of a previous year's festival: "Once witnessed, you might dub it 'product-pitching pirouettes' or 'moshing for merchandise.' How about a little dancing with your shopping experience?"

My complaint is with the website for Retail Dance. It's too somber (just black and white) and not very interesting. Retail Dance just calls out for colorful pictures and videos. Why not charge the retailers a bit more and get them to underwrite a website with video clips of the performances and video interviews with the store owneres/managers? This way the retailers would benefit from both the actual event and from on-going promotion on the web.

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