November 28, 2006

Explaining the Decline of Dance in America

Update: Wall Street Journal now has free link to Terry Teachout's full article, which I quote below. Thanks once again to Apollinaire Scherr.

Terry Teachout, drama critic for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a column this past weekend, "Ballet? Never Heard of It: The decline and near-disappearance of dance in America." (This column is in the November 25-26, 2006 weekend edition on page P16. You can read this column online, but you have to be a paid subscriber to The Wall Street Journal to access it.)

Against the backdrop of the recent crowning of Emmitt Smith as this season's winner of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" as thirty-two million Americans looked on, Teachout highlights a number of trends and developments that have contributed to dwindling audiences for concert dance performances.

"Things were different in the '60s and '70s, when Edward Villella would fly through the air on "The Ed Sullivan Show" one week and swap one-liners with Tony Randall on "The Odd Couple" the next. Those were the days of the "dance boom," the heady interlude when America was dance-crazy. Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Jerome Robbins, Broadway's hottest musical-comedy director, made popular ballets like "Dances at a Gathering" on the side. Even George Balanchine was a celebrity, thanks in part to "Dance in America," the PBS series that introduced a generation of TV viewers to ballet and modern dance."

Teachout highlights data from the "2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts," which is published every decade by the National Endowment for the Arts, to show how interest in dance has diminished:

"...the percentage of Americans between the ages of 18 and 35 who attended one or more ballet performances a year fell from 5.0% in 1992 to 3.1% in 2002."

(PDF version of the full 2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts and the PDF version of the summary.)

I looked through the "2002 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts," and I did not find a side-by-side breakdown by age for attendance for both 1992 and 2002. Also, age groups are broken down as follows: "18-24," "25-34" and upwards. So I'm not sure where Teachout found the data for decreasing ballet attendance for 18-35 year-olds I quoted above.

Also, by quoting just the numbers for ballet, he makes the decline in dance audiences look worse than it actually is. This survey also includes data for other types of dances.

In a table titled, "U.S. Adults Participating in the Arts at Least Once in the Past 12 Months," 4.7% of survey respondents said that in 1992 they attended a ballet performance. This percent declined to 3.9% in 2002. The number of adults attending a ballet performance was 8.7 million in 1992 and 8.0 million in 2002. (Something appears not right about these numbers because a decline to 3.9% would result in about 7.2 million adults attending ballet and not 8.0 million as the table indicates. So I have to go back to the report and see where these numbers come from.)

While still showing a decline, the numbers for "Other dance" (dance other than ballet, including modern, folk and tap) are higher. 7.1 % of survey respondents said that in 1992 they attended an "Other dance" performance. This percent declines to 6.3 in 2002. The number of adults attending an "Other dance" performance was 13.2 million in 1992 and 12.1 million in 2002.

To digress, I was looking at one of the tables in this survey report titled "U.S Adults Performing or Creating Art at Least Once in Past 12 Months." Essentially, to what extent survey respondents are actively involved in the creation of art. In 1992, 8.1% of respondents said they were actively engaged with "Other dance" in a creative manner. This number then dropped to just 4.2% in 2002. The actual numbers are 15 million people in 1992 and 8.6 million in 2002. That's a stunning drop that does not seem possible.

Teachout then offers three generally-held theories for why dance is declining in popularity:

"- Not only has dance vanished from American TV, but newspapers and magazines have cut back on dance-related news stories and reviews.

- The quality of new choreography has fallen off significantly.

-"Swan Lake"-style classical ballet with it tutus and Tchaikovsky, is "irrelevant" to today's young people."

These theories, to a greater or lesser extent should all be taken seriously, Teachout says. But a more fundamental reason for the decline in dance's popularity may have deeper causes:

"Of the 120 American dance companies that received grants from the NEA in 1986, 50% are no longer in existence, among them such noted ensembles as Alwin Nikolais Dance Company, Chicago City Ballet, the Cleveland Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Feld Ballet, the Oakland Ballet Company and Twyla Tharp Dance. Most of America's major museums and symphony orchestras, by contrast, have been in business for roughly a century--but only three American ballet companies, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet, were founded prior to 1950."

In addition, another "problem is that classical dance is a comparatively young art form that lacks a universally recognized canon of crowd-pleasing classics....outside of "Swan Lake," "The Nutcracker," "Sleeping Beauty," "Giselle" and "Romeo and Juliet," there are no "classic" dances... Most of the greatest ballets and modern dances were made in the second half of the 20th century, and none is known by name to more than a comparatively small number of committed dance buffs."

Teachout concludes:

"That's why the dance boom went bust. No classics, no stars, only a handful of long-lived institutions...so why take a chance on dance? And there in lies the challenge of reviving dance in America: Anyone who seeks to launch a new company, or revitalize an old one, must start by figuring out how to make large numbers of Americans want to see something about which they no longer know anything--save Emmitt Smith does it."

Good food for thought. Terry Teachout also has a blog About Last Night on ArtsJournal.

Thanks to Apollinaire Scherr for making her blog readers aware of Terry Teachout's article.

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November 10, 2006

Educating Dance Audiences with Video Annotation

With the proliferation of web-based video tagging and annotation applications, there's no reason not to use these software programs to educate audiences about dance, which can play a role in helping to grow larger audiences.

What I'm recommending is that dance writers and critics consider taking a fundamentally different approach to producing content about dance - one that will be more accessible and interesting to more people - both current and new fans of dance.

When it comes to the Internet, it does not really make sense to focus on words alone when video can often be a more powerful tool. By using the latest video editing tools, dance writers and others can provide compelling video examples of dance so that readers/viewers can clearly visualize specific elements of movement.

For example, if a video is online of a dance, why should a writer just describe movement when they can link to the movement itself? An expanded role for a dance writer/critic can be to educate readers/viewers about the meaning and context of the movement. (I don't really mean just movement - by directing readers to video clips, a dance critic can educate readers about all aspects of dance and help readers understand how to appreciate dance so that when they go to a performance they will have a much richer understanding of what they are seeing.)

Dance writers and critics don't usually see themselves in such an educational role, but I think this approach works very well online and, eventually, I think there is money to be made. For example, if a dance company is willing to put portions or all of a dance video online, then dance critics can annotate this video using the video tools that I include below. I would definitely pay a few dollars if I could see an annotated video about how to understand and appreciate a dance - either before or after I was about to see the dance.

Plus, it would be nice to see some decent dance videos online. On most of video sites below, I did a search for "dance" and the videos are for the most part terrible, silly and pointless.

Here are video applications/websites that have possible uses for educating audiences about dance:

- Google Video does not technically have a video tagging capability, but you can create a link to any point in a video uploaded to Google. (See my July 21, 2006 post.) The ability to jump to a specific section means that it's possible to write a description about a short section of video and then link to that section so readers can see specifically what you're talking about. So in a blog, for instance, there could be an article about a dance video consisting of ten paragraphs or so. Each paragraph describes a different section of the video and each paragraph includes a link to the specific section of the video.

- Mojiti is a video application that lets you add scrollable text banners with links to the bottom of videos from popular video hosting sites. So on Mojiti you can watch the excessively popular "Evolution of Dance" video with text captions at the bottom of the screen. You'll notice on the right-hand of this video page that there are multiple sets of "spot tickers" to select from. - in other words, one video can have different sets of captions created by different users. So this is essentially how a dance video can be annotated to provide viewers with background and insight about a dance. And you could even have two or more reviewers creating their own "spot tickers." [via Mashable].

- Veotag allows you to create a clickable table of contents and text comments for each video. As you watch a video, the table of contents scrolls up on the right-hand side of the video and you can click any section to jump to that part of the video. I actually found a video of a dance class being taught remotely that has been "Veotagged." But almost no use is made of the bottom right text box where comments can be added. As this dance video shows, you can break-up a video into sections and then add commentary to each section.

- I've been trying to figure out the feature-rich interface for ClickTV, which appears to offer a lot of options. But, realistically, if I'm having trouble with the consumer interface, there may be usability problems here. I'm writing about this service because it's worth considering some of its functionality. For each video, a transcript and user text comments with links can be added. Any number of users can create their on highlight reels, which means that you could select one user's selected video sections and just watch these highlights. So if a video were annotated using ClickTV, you could walk a viewer through just the sections of a larger video clip you want them to view along with comments about each section.

- Motionbox has a nice visual filmstrip tool at the bottom of each video that lets you block a section of video and generate a link for it. So just like with Google Video that I describe above, you could write about a dance video and at each point in your article, you could include a link to the relevant section of the video. (I had trouble using Motionbox with Internet Explorer. But it worked fine with Firefox.)

- Grouper allows viewers of video to leave both text and video comments. This applications probably has limited applicability for the purposes of this post. But it would be possible to leave a series of video comments that viewers could watch after seeing a dance video. But the video comments would not be linked to specific sections of the video. My guess, however, is that it won't be long before video comments can be left and linked to tagged sections within a video.

What I didn't discuss in this post is how video editing applications (both online and desktop) can be used to add new audio tracks to an existing video. This way, for example, you could add running commentary in the same way you can listen to directors and actors on a second audio track on DVDs. This is what I did with Peter DiMuro with some of the rehearsal videos from Funny Uncles. I'll write more about this topic in future post.

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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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September 6, 2006

Rethinking Art Reviews and New Marketing Approaches - Part II

This is part two of the post I started yesterday with the same title.

I closed yesterday with a few thoughts about the uproar that resulted from theater critic Hedy Weiss' review of Stages 2006 Marathon, a showcase of new musicals that are in the development stages, which took place in mid August in Chicago. I'd like to elaborate on these thoughts in this post:

1) The amount of energy generated by this issue is excessive and unwarranted.

I think that theater, dance companies and other performing arts groups place to much weight on reviews of their works in local newspapers. The marketing landscape has changed and reviews in publications are just one of a number of avenues for promoting upcoming performances.

My guess is that many within the theater community are motivated to speak out on this issue because they are wedded to the notion that art critics still play as important a role as they used to. I'm actually not commenting one way or another about the quality of reviews. I'm just pointing out that the role of the critic emerged with mass circulation newspapers throughout the 20th century. And as more corporations, especially consumer companies, increased the size of their advertising budgets, newspapers could afford to hire critics to review local performance. Over time, art critics became a primary intermediary through which prospective audiences learned about performances and decided which ones to see.

But with the rise of the commercial Internet in about 1995 or 1996, the landscape started to shift. Newspapers have lost readers and advertisers, and audiences can learn about upcoming performances through many more online and offline channels than previously. The end result is that theater and dance critics have been partially disintermediated - they no longer play as important a role as intermediaries as they used to. So while many performing arts critics continue to characterize themselves as audience representatives, this is only partially true - they can now be more easily bypassed as theater-goers access audience reviews and information about these performances through other channels.

So when I read the many emails sent in support of John Weidman's (president of the Dramatists Guild of America) strong criticism of Hedy Weiss' reviews of work in progress, my reaction was that this anger is misplaced. I can't read anybody's mind, but my hunch is that many of these letters, some written by leading playwrights, spring from a 20th century notion that art critics still play an essential role as intermediaries and that their reviews are disproportionately important in influencing how audiences spend their entertainment dollars.

I'm going to skip over my second and third points from yesterday because I pretty much addressed them above. So jumping to point four:

4) It would be immensely helpful for some artists (those who are inclined) to explore new avenues for exposing their works in progress to the general public in order to receive constructive criticism during these early or middle stages of the creative process. And this effort of sharing the creative process - even with all the potential downsides - will help build a loyal audience as well.

What really struck me were two paragraphs in John Weidman's letter to the editor that harshly condemns Weiss' review:

Ms. Weiss’s decision to review these eight shows at this early stage in their development, in violation of the express wishes of the theatre, was a shocking and irresponsible betrayal of one of the fundamental understandings which makes the creation of new work possible.

These musicals were presented in workshop. Every musical in workshop is understood to be a work in progress. Workshopping a new musical provides an opportunity for writers to evaluate their work as it evolves, protected from the consequences of critical appraisal. This security allows writers to take chances, to be bold, maybe even to embarrass them­selves—in short, to do their work.

I'm putting aside Weidman's claim that Weiss was expressly told not to write reviews about these works in progress - this claim appears to be inaccurate since Weiss was given a press release and pictures for publication.

What I'd like to focus on is what appears to be a sacrosanct notion that theatrical works in progress should not receive "critical appraisal." As with outdated notions about the importance of critics, the premise that public criticism of works in progress poses a dangerous threat to artists is equally antiquated. I would like to propose the exact opposite: Artists can benefit in many wonderful ways if they are willing to share works in progress with as large an audience as possible consisting of both critics and art enthusiasts.

Here is what I think is a wonderful example of what happens when a writer intentionally makes a work in progress accessible to a large audience. Greg Sandow writes a Blog, The Future of Classical Music? One of his online projects is a book that he is writting about, as you might imagine, the future prospects of classical music. As he writes each chapter, he posts it to his blog. Each chapter is clearly in unperfected form and Sandow's primary objective is to seek feedback from readers. You'll see at the bottom of each chapter there is a lot of great feedback. And Sandow follows-up the comments with his thoughts. By not thinking that he has to present only a finished, perfected product to his audience, Sandow creates new possibilities for interaction with his audience - likely buyers of his future book by the way - that did not exist before. In addition, he gets on-going, free feedback from a diverse audience to help him think through each section of his book. So he is clearly being presented with ideas and perspectives that he might not have considered if he wrote his book in isolation.

Another example is the TV show Project Runway that consists of up-and-comming fashion designers competing against each other on a weekly basis. What I like about this show is that you get some insight to the creative process at work. You go from watching designers sketch out their initial idea, design their outfit and make alterations, and then see the finished garment on the runway. The underlying premise behind this show - and other reality shows - is that what leads up to the finished garment or performance is equally as important as the finished garment or performance itself.

So what I'm recommending is that artists discard some of the notions that they hold close to their hearts. It is not always necessary to show a perfected work to an audience. In many cases, there are important advantages to exposing a work in progress with all its weaknesses and blemishes. Audiences - in the Internet age - are more interested in participating in feedback and creation than focusing on just your final, perfect work.

Then, consider this sentence from John Weidman's letter that I quoted above:

This security [of not being subjected to public scrutiny] allows writers to take chances, to be bold, maybe even to embarrass them­selves—in short, to do their work.

I understand Weidman's point of view, but, as I've explained above, this is just one perspective and not the only acceptable or meaningful approach to creativity. As I think my example of Sandow's online book in progress shows, the act of making a work accessible to the public as it is being developed does not by definition mean that a writer will embarrass themselves or that they will not be able "do their work."

So, here's where I'm going with this:

1) I think that an excessive focus on the importance of art critics distracts artists from considering ways to communicate directly with their current and future audiences.

2) I think that too much emphasis is placed in the notion of perfection and that many artists would benefit by allowing professional critics and audiences at-large to examine and critique a work throughout the creative process. And,

3) I think that dancers, actors, choreographers, playwrights and others should explore different models - often with an online component - of enabling their audiences to offer constructive criticism and feedback throughout the entire creative process. By taking this approach, audiences have an important stake in your creative work, artists receive unfiltered and helpful feedback, and the actual performance is likely to be attended by larger audiences who feel a stronger connection to your work because they had an opportunity to contribute.

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September 5, 2006

Rethinking Art Reviews and New Marketing Approaches

I'm back from a month of no blogging. Hope everybody enjoyed the summer.

I don't think that there is any question that the traditional role of art critic is changing - often disappearing. Large-circulation publications (print and web) are running fewer music, theater and dance reviews. Just to reinforce this point, in the September 1st issue of the New York Times a story ran with the following title: "Village Voice Dismisses 8, Including Senior Arts Editors" -- clearly self-explanatory.

While the number of art reviews has been cut, artists and the arts community at-large seem more intent then ever to ensure that the reviews that are run serve their marketing and creative objectives.

Here's an intriguing story that erupted because artists, in this case playwrights, didn't like how their works in progress were reviewed. After I provide some background and links for this story, I'll offer my thoughts about why this battle over how a theater critic should or should not go about writing a review is misguided.

To the story:

The Stages 2006 Marathon, a showcase of new musicals that are in the development stage, took place August 11-13th at the Theatre Building Chicago, an "incubator for emerging theatre companies." On August 16th, Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss wrote a review, "Stages' Eight Musicals Show Serious Flaws." An uproar followed.

The main criticism directed at Hedy Weiss is that she should not have written the review of works that were clearly in progress. (Read about story in New York Times and Orlando Sentinel.)

It's also worth reading the letters to the editor that were run after Weiss' August 16th review. Weiss offers her response to the criticism at the bottom of this page of reader letters. After reading the letters and Weiss' response I lean toward supporting Weiss' side of the story.

But the story gets even more heated. John Weidman, president of the Dramatists Guild of America, adds his voice in a letter to the editor that is harshly critical of Weiss' review. Plus 22 members of the Guild wrote letters as well expressing their dismay.

A Few Thoughts:

1) The amount of energy generated by this issue is excessive and unwarranted.

2) Artists and the arts community put too much weight in the marketing value of reviews in publications that run after the fact - after the curtain has already come down.

3) Many people within the arts community are making too many unexamined assumptions about how art goers make decisions about attending performances. And,

4) It would be immensely helpful for some artists (those who are inclined) to explore new avenues for exposing their works in progress to the general public in order to receive constructive criticism during these early or middle stages of the creative process. And this effort of sharing the creative process - even with all the potential downsides - will help build a loyal audience as well.

This post is getting a little longer than I intended. I'll elaborate on these four points in my next post - probably by tomorrow morning.

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May 2, 2006

Peer Recommendations - Not Expert Critics - Rule

Following up on my post yesterday, "The Dwindling Market for Professional Critics," I came across a Boston Globe article that tells the same story.

In "Everyone's always been a critic -- but the Net makes their voices count, " columnist Scott Kirsner writes:

Amazon.com may have been one of the first sites, in the mid-1990s, to allow its users to share their thoughts about a book, just below the venerable Publishers Weekly or Booklist write-up. Now, such sites as Blogcritics.org collect reviews written by bloggers, and Apple's iTunes Music Store allows users to share their iMixes -- lists of favorite songs on a particular theme, like ''NJ Best," a selection from Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and other musicians with roots in the Garden State.

''The cultural influencers are changing," says Brian Kalinowski, chief operating officer of Lycos, the Waltham Internet portal. ''Expert opinion in the media used to drive culture. Now, it's peer recommendations."

[Boston Globe article via Arts Journal.]

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May 1, 2006

The Dwindling Market for Professional Critics

Media critic Jeff Jarvis has a good post, "Who killed the critics," in his Buzz Machine blog. He writes about the diminished importance of pop culture critics and how the rise of rating websites and consumer generated content are supplanting the need for authoritative voices.

Today, in essence, everybody is a critic.

What I find odd about the dance world is that dancers and dance companies still haven't expanded beyond or completely bypassed dance critics. Dance companies and performing arts centers are still wedded to the notion that dance critics play a pivotal role in spreading the word about dance performances. This notion is increasingly outdated. I'm not saying that a good review does not help -- it obviously does. What I am saying is that if too much focus is put on getting press coverage, which is increasingly difficult, less time will be spent pursuing other very worthwhile channels for generating large-scale exposure.

Dance companies have it within their power to expand beyond dance critics and reach a much larger online audience. But, as of today, a very large percentage of dance companies have simply not taken advantage of opportunities to distribute video promotions that could potentially reach tens of thousands of fans.

The irony is that while dance companies value dance critics, newspapers and magazines certainly don't. Take a look at the conference agenda for the upcoming New York meeting of the Dance Critics Association. The first session is devoted to training dance critics on how to write feature stories since papers are running fewer reviews.

So if I were a dance company, I would create compelling dance performance video previews and distribute them as widely as possible. I'd actively encourage audiences of social media sites and bloggers to review, rank and dissect these video previews. This is the best approach to building buzz and getting people to talk about your upcoming performances.

And if I were a dance critic, I'd be pondering a number of topics:

- Why is it that newspapers and magazines keep cutting back on reviews of dance performances? Is it possible that the way critics write about dance is simply not that appealing so fewer people read the reviews? Should critics consider new approaches to writing about dance?

- How come dance critics have not created audio podcasts so that dance fans can listen to dance reviews? What would be the best approach to creating compelling audio commentary?

- As more dance videos are distributed online, how does the job of a dance critic change? Before the Internet and digital video, dance critics had to write word paintings to help readers visualize movement. But if audiences can see video clips, what exactly should a dance critic describe?

- And, overall, are dance critics open to changing how they view the role of criticism? Just about all dance critics are in product review mode. That is they believe they are supposed to review a work as it is presented on stage without taking into consideration the creative process or the intent of the choreographer and performers. (Read my March 24th post, "Dance Critics Don't Get It"). If choreographers and dancers, through blogs and other online platforms, start sharing their creative insights and challenges as they are developing dance pieces, the nature of dancer-audience interaction will change considerably. How will critics deal with this new type of interaction and sharing? Will they ignore it or will they begin to incorporate this exchange of ideas in their reviews?

From my perspective, the Dance Critics Association's conference agenda admits defeat (smaller market for dance criticism), but there seems to be no counterbalancing effort to address the fundamental issues that led to this downsizing and there is no effort to experiment with new approaches.

Technorati Tags: blog, critic, dance, media, performance, reviews, video

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January 20, 2006

Review of Troika Ranch Performance in NYC

John Rockwell writes review in today's New York Times about Troika Ranch's "16 [R]evolutions" performance at the Eyebeam Arts and Technology Center in Chelsea.

While praising the recent work of choreographer Dawn Stoppiello, and "computer wizard" and composer Mark Coniglio, Rockwell is not thrilled with their latest performance: "If visuals alone could guarantee success, this would be a triumph. But the concept and the choreography don't deliver as much as the technology."

I've always wanted to see Troika Ranch perform. I thought I might be going up to NYC this week but I didn't make it. So I'll have to catch their next performance.

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November 15, 2005

Bypassing the Mainstream Media to Promote Dance

In previous post I linked to blogs and online newspapers that have recently featured stories about the decline of dance coverage in local papers.

This paucity of dance coverage is one of the major complaints within the dance community.

Here's where I stand on this topic: dance companies, presenters and dance critics should accept as fact that any direct effort to encourage newspapers and magazines to increase coverage of dance will not be successful. Letter writing campaigns to newspaper publishers and editors, for example, are a waste of time and energy. I agree with much of Rachel Feinerman's statement:

I’m not discouraging the community from fighting for the newspaper space we’re going to lose but one has to wonder whether what we have now is even worth fighting for. How worthwhile are the small paragraphs that barely have enough room to name the show and the choreographer?

So if the mainstream press will not cover dance, then how will dance companies, presenters and performance venues build audiences?

Here's my four-part game plan for bypassing the traditional media:

1) Build Your Own Multimedia Distribution Channel

As I described in my 24-page white paper, "Embracing Blogs: A New Blueprint for Promoting Dance on the Internet," the most important first step that dance companies can take is to build their own multimedia weblog to ensure large-scale promotion for upcoming dance performances.

If you can't get the coverage you want and need in the local media, then build a direct communications channel with your own audience. It is not expensive or difficult to create a blog and promote it on the Web.

2) Recognize New Categories and Types of Dance Writers

When thinking about getting coverage for your upcoming performances, it's important to think about dance coverage in new ways.

There are certain assumptions that we take for granted when we think about published articles written about dance performances:

- Assumption One: Only professional dance critics (as opposed to hobbyists) will write about performances

- Assumption Two: The written pieces will be reviews (as opposed to, say, a viewer guide on how to watch a dance piece) of dance performances

- Assumption Three: Reviews will be delivered almost exclusively through words (as opposed to pictures, audio descriptions and video clips) and will usually be in print format - although more reviews are now appearing online

Now, let's think about these underlying assumptions in the context of how dance promotion and criticism can be presented in the online world.

Essentially, each of these assumptions is way too limiting when it comes to the web. If you uncritically accept these assumptions, then you will significantly limit the type of promotion you will receive online for your dance performances.

Assumption One: Professional Dance Critics

Terry Teachout has a piece in the Wall Street Journal, "You, Too, Can Be a Critic," that explores how art journalism is expanding through weblogs. He identifies an emerging type of online arts writing that is done by practitioner bloggers - artists who also offer their own arts criticism.

But Terry is not going far enough. Not only can professional critics and practitioner bloggers write about dance and the arts online, but hobbyists and enthusiasts who simply want to share their passion and insights can and do blog as well. Admittedly, Terry is focusing specifically on art criticism; I'm focusing on the larger pool of anybody and everybody who may write about dance.

Assumption Two: Just Dance Reviews

We are so used to reading dance reviews that we never consider that there are other ways to convey information about dance.

Many years ago (about 1984), I read the autobiography of the Spanish-born filmmaker Luis Bunuel (for the life of me I can't find this book on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or the web). In addition to recalling that he drank everyday and smoked a daily pack of Ducados into his 80s, I remember that he told an interesting story about the early days of silent movies in Mexico.

When silent movies were first shown to audiences, the series of moving images did not present a coherent narrative to viewers. Essentially nobody had any clue what was happening on the screen. So a person called an "explicador" stood up-front by the side of the screen and explained how to understand the storyline and the interactions among the actors. Over time, if I recall correctly, viewers developed an intuitive understanding of how to interpret movies and no longer required the aid of an explicador.

At the same time I was reading Luis Bunuel's autobiography I was watching my favorite baseball announcer Tim McCarver (well I've watched Tim McCarver over many years). The reason why I think McCarver is great is because he offers strategic insights into the game that I never thought about. Even though I played baseball growing up, McCarver would offer a way of looking at plays that I had never contemplated. I can't say the same for most football announcers, which frustrates me to death. I've played in pick-up games over the years, but I've never played in an organized football league. So it would be nice if for once a TV football announcer would offer some insight into the strategy and tactics of professional and college football teams, but they almost never do.

With Bunuel's silent movie "explicadors" and McCarver's play-by-play insights in mind, I'd like to introduce a new type of dance writer. This is a writer whose focus would be to reach out well beyond devoted, very knowledgeable fans of dance to the much larger audience of people who would be more than happy to become dance enthusiasts if somebody would simply show the way.

Current dance criticism is often not very accessible to people who haven't been immersed in dance for years. So dance writing in the form of reviews does not serve the purpose of growing the community of dance fans.

Taking myself as an example: I do not always understand the dance reviews that I read. I would like to understand them and I'm sure that over time I will as I attend more dance performances and continue taking dance classes (I'm taking Jazz classes right now at Joy of Motion in DC).

What I really could use - and I'm sure many others would benefit as well - is an "explicador" in the form of Tim McCarver. I want knowledgeable dance enthusiasts writing in their blogs about dance in a manner that is more educational than critical. I want to learn how to understand a dance piece, and what I should be looking for and thinking about as I watch a dance piece. Essentially I want a non-academic, dancework-specific dance appreciation course. But I don't want it in the abstract I want these types of insights for dance performances I will see or just saw.

When it comes to the web, there is no premium on space as there is with newsprint. So there is no reason that this type of introductory dance writing cannot exist side-by-side with reviews and commentary by professional dance critics and practitioner bloggers.

Assumption Three: Text-Based Reviews

Words, words and more words are not the only way to cover dance. It is increasingly easy to share pictures, audio clips and videos with audiences. As of today, I don't think that there is a single blog that provides multimedia coverage of upcoming or past dance performances. This lack of use of multimedia content is too bad because there is nothing like engaging video to get people excited about upcoming performances.

So to wrap up this section on identifying underlying assumptions, I think that when we consider how the web can be harnessed to cover dance, it's important that we don't allow ourselves to be boxed into the prevailing notions that only professional dance critics can cover dance and that this coverage must be in the form of written reviews - there are many additional ways for us proceed.

And if we start with the notion that there are many different types of people who can write about dance (professional critics, practitioner-bloggers and amateurs) and that dance can be written about in different ways (criticism and introductory guides), then we dramatically increase the number of outlets on the web that may write about your upcoming dance performances.

3) Prepare Your Own Multimedia Content

As new types of dance coverage take root through blogs and websites, it is very important that dance companies, presenters and venues play a proactive role in providing a wide-range of multimedia content to these new outlets.

In other words, dance companies must make good quality digital pictures and video clips available of upcoming and past performances to both professional and non-professional websites/blogs that cover dance. This multimedia content should be placed on a dance company's website and anybody who covers dance should be encouraged to use the videos and pictures on their own sites in order to provide coverage of these dance performances.

There seems to be an incredible reluctance on the part of dance companies to share images and videos of dance performances. Maybe dance companies want to protect their creative work - that is clearly understandable. But if the goal is to get as much coverage as possible in order to build audiences, then, I think, it is imperative that dance companies devote the time and effort to creating and distributing this multimedia content to as many websites/blogs as possible. If protecting copyrighted content is important, it is not difficult to add logos and watermarks to video files and digital pictures to ensure proper attribution and recognition.

4) Support Local Bloggers and Networks of Bloggers

In many cities and regions, we will soon see an increase in the number of local bloggers who are writing about dance - these bloggers may be professional critics or they may be amateurs.

In some cases, local bloggers are likely to join together in formal or informal networks in order to provide greater coverage of the local dance scene.

I think that it is very important that dance companies support and encourage these bloggers. Dance blogging is going to start growing exponentially, and, along with your direct blogging efforts, these independent blogs will begin to attract a lot of attention from people who are considering what dance performances to attend.

So one of the reasons why you will want to provide ample multimedia content about your dance performances as I described right above is so that these local bloggers are encouraged to feature your dance programs.

Something else to keep in mind: The more blogs that cover your upcoming dance performances the higher your own blog will be listed in popular search engines. Search engines often determine how they list results based upon the "authority" of a website. "Authority" means the number of websites that link to your website. So if a lot of blogs link to you, then you will have a high level of "authority" and your website will be displayed higher up in search results.

Conclusion

The mainstream press cannot be convinced to increase their coverage of dance. Given that coverage will only decrease in these traditional outlets, it is necessary for dance companies to take direct charge of getting as much publicity as possible.

To ensure wide-spread coverage, dance companies as well as presenting organizations and venues should:

- Create and promote their own multimedia blogs
- Recognize that there are many ways that dance can be covered online in order to reach die-hard dance fans as well as newcomers to dance
- Provide multimedia content to these emerging online media outlets, and
- Support emerging local dance bloggers and networks of bloggers

Posted by Doug Fox at 11:15 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

November 14, 2005

Dwindling Coverage of Dance in Newspapers

There are a number of recent blog posts and articles that address the topic of shrinking coverage of dance and the arts in local newspapers.

Below I include links and brief summaries of these pieces. In my next post, I'll share my thoughts:

- In NYC Dance Journal, Shannon Jowett writes that The Village Voice will soon be cutting back its dance coverage. He encourages dance fans to contact the paper to encourage continued coverage of the New York Dance Scene.

- Rachel Feinerman in Downtown Dancer, also referring to the pending Village Voice cut-back of dance coverage, believes that it may not be worth fighting for such limited dance coverage in the first place and its best to look toward weblogs and the Internet to increase coverage of dance.

- In Rachel's second post about the need for more dance space, she highlights and agrees with comment by Gail of Let Go of Your Butt blog that the online world is an ideal medium for dance criticism given its ability to share video clips and foster dialogue.

- In the Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout has a piece, "You, Too, Can Be a Critic," that discusses the declining coverage of the arts in newspapers, which is being replaced, in part, by an increasing number of art critics who are now sharing their perspectives through weblogs. Terry believes that a new category of practitioner-bloggers (critics who are also practicing artists themselves) will have a positive effect for arts journalism. (You can also read Terry's blog About Last Night).

- And Rachel Howard in a review of Bebe Miller's "Landing/Place" at the end of October points out that her local newspaper, the Chronicle, did not feature an article about this performance. Rachel encourages her readers to write to the paper to encourage more coverage of dance.

Posted by Doug Fox at 8:50 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

October 26, 2005

"Ballets Russes" Review

Aimee Ts’ao of the Dance Insider writes review of "Ballets Russes" which just opened at Film Forum in NYC.

To see playdates in US, visit Ballets Russes website.

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October 21, 2005

Review Bebe Miller's Landing/Place

Tom Pearson reviews Bebe Miller's "Landing/Place" in his new NYC Dance Journal (Performance earlier this month at Dance Theater Workshop in NY):

Bebe Miller is known for her humanist works, but recently she has been seduced into the world of technology. In her newest, "Landing/Place," seen at Dance Theater Workshop on Wednesday night, she mixed her polished movement with equally adept motion capture, video, live sound and animation. The theme of the work emerged in the form of a pre-recorded monologue midway through. As Miller's voice asked, "is it important to know where you are going when you set out for a place," we began to understand that this work was not going to give answers but ask questions. Read entire review

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