October 18, 2005

Where Are the Pictures of the Dance Performance?

There's an August 8th post at uncoy.com, "Dance Publicity Photographs: Promotion of Dance in the Press," by Alec (don't know last name) that caught my attention:

I am often disappointed with the dance photos which I am able to present with the pieces at Impulstanz. Unfortunately modern dance companies believe that the audience has no right to see what the show actually looks like. They provide their own publicity stills and do not allow newspapers or anyone else to take photographs of the actual performances.

While I understand these dance companies would like to protect their image, at the very least there should be an official Impulstanz photographer shooting every show in rehearsal and offering the company director or manager to approve or disapprove shots from the rehearsal photo session. The technology exists.

Reviews of the work would be more vivid and useful for all concerned with accurate photo materials which correspond to what is actually on stage. Newspapers would probably be happier to run newsworthy photographs rather than somebody's contrived poster piece. While I understand these dance companies would like to protect their image, at the very least there should be an official Impulstanz photographer shooting every show in rehearsal and offering the company director or manager to approve or disapprove shots from the rehearsal photo session. The technology exists.

Alec raises good point about the paucity of good quality pictures of modern dance companies. I'm often annoyed when I'm searching online for upcoming dance performances. A huge percentage of the time, I come across a very brief one to two sentence description of a dance performance -- no extended descriptions and no pictures. And the odds of finding a video clip are next to zilch.

Yesterday, I wrote about an upcoming dance performance by the San Francisco-based Capacitor. This dance company actually provides high-quality pictures online, a video clip and a detailed press release about this performance. The availability of these resources should be part of the standard promotional campaign for all dance performances. But, sadly, this is not the case.

To me the lack of engaging online marketing materials for upcoming dance performances is inexplicable and I have trouble fathoming its causes. Don't dance companies need larger audiences? Aren't most dance companies struggling to increase fund raising efforts? And don't dance companies want more exposure in the press???

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