September 17, 2007

Bravo Launches "Step it Up" Reality Dance Competition

It's about time that Bravo TV jumps into the dance world and creates a reality show for dancers.

Bravo is about to roll-out "Step It Up" and the audition information is posted here. You can read a news story about this upcoming dance show.

Personally, I cannot stand watching Dancing with the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance. And if there's any chance a good quality, engaging reality competition can be created for dance, I think that Bravo TV has the best opportunity to pull it off. While their reality shows like Top Chef and Project Runway are pretty formulaic, they still strike me as engaging. With their "Step It Up" series, hopefully they'll get some good choreographers and dancers and create a framework in which some interesting, innovative and entertaining dance can be created.

Here's a post I wrote last year about the type of dance competition that Bravo TV might create, which is based on a post from early dance blogger, Rachel Feinerman.

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January 3, 2007

"Grease" - New Synergies For Hybrid Productions

I like the concept behind the upcoming NBC reality TV show, "Grease: You're the One I Want," which will premiere this Sunday, January 7th.

The goal of this TV show competition is to pick the two leads - Sandy and Danny - for an upcoming Broadway production of this musical. On the website for this new TV program, you can watch background videos, see some pictures (images are not very interesting), and download audio tracks to create and submit your own video auditions. I don't understand the purpose of the "Be A Star" section since this show is about to air and initial auditions must have already been conducted. At this point, you can't watch any of the submitted video auditions.

While the TV show's website may have some limitations, the idea of creating synergy between a TV competition and a Broadway musical is an excellent one. TV audiences not only get to watch competitors vie for the lead parts in the Broadway production, but they also get to participate in the selection process. And through this highly participatory process, it's hard to imagine that a huge number of tickets for the theatrical production won't be sold. My guess is that the Broadway production will quickly go on a nation-wide tour to take advantage of the pre-existing audience generated from the TV show.

It's interesting to consider how dance and theater companies can create the same type of synergies on a scaled-down basis. Clearly, not everybody can go out and produce a $10 million Broadway musical. But there are other approaches - and much less expensive ones - for engaging audiences in the process of creation and seeking innovative ways to give online and live audiences a voice in different aspects of your performances. How can you use your website and online videos, for example, to provide new types of access to your works-in-progress and current performances? How can you enable audiences to vote or offer their feedback in a way that is both meaningful to participants as well as to choreographers, directors, dancers and actors? And, then, how do you leverage these higher levels of participation to build audiences, create online distribution channels for your performances and generate new revenue streams?

None of the above questions is easy to answer, but I think they are worth considering in light of the direction that popular culture is going and the increasing move toward hybrid events that leverage multiple mediums (Internet, TV and the stage) to build audiences and generate revenue.

Promoting "Grease" through Context-Sensitive Banner Ads

On sort of a related note, I was reading a December 30th story "Unlikely partners: The art of dance is enjoying a surge in popularity thanks to reality television, which has provided a much-needed platform" in the Los Angeles Times by Lewis Segal.

Segal writes:

At a time when even PBS' "Great Performances" series has turned its back on dance, such network series as "Dancing With the Stars" and Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" represent a new beginning for dance as a popular art, an affirmation of the work ethic, self-affirmation and above all, the sheer pleasure involved with dancing and watching others dance.

Segal's take on these popular TV dance shows is much more sympathetic than that offered by Terry Teachout in a November 25th column in The Wall Street Journal, "Ballet? Never Heard of It: The decline and near-disappearance of dance in America." Teachout opens his article with the following paragraph:

Thirty-two million Americans tuned in the other night to see Emmitt Smith, formerly of the Dallas Cowboys, win the Cheesetastic Disco Ball Trophy on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." The network claims that the latest episodes of its primetime ballroom-dancing competition were the most widely viewed programs of the current TV season. That's an impressive statistic no matter how you slice it, but it's noteworthy for another, grimmer reason: If you want to see dance on TV, "Dancing With the Stars" is pretty much all there is.

One of the things that intrigued me about the LA Times story is that the article is surrounded by either 2 or 3 banner ads for "Grease: You're the One I Want." (How many "Grease" ads you see is based on when you happen to load the page.) This new TV show is produced by the same people who created "Dancing with the Stars" as the ads point out. Click on the following screen shot to see what Segal's article looked like when I viewed it with 3 ads:

Click for Larger Image

I'd like to know how this ad targeting works. If the article was critical of TV dance shows, would the ads for Grease have been displayed? Does the banner ad delivery network, DoubleClick in this case, do an automatic analysis of the words within an article to determine which ads to display? Or, is the process a combination of human choices and context-sensitive analysis? In Teachout's article that is hostile toward TV dance shows, there are no ads for Grease - but, in fairness, that might really not mean anything given that The Wall Street Journal might use a different ad delivery system which features different ads, and its audience demographics are probably much different from the LA Times.

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April 27, 2006

Monetizing Your Dance Videos

Brightcove, a commercial platform for distributing video content over the Internet, launches its public beta program today.

After watching the video tour and reading an overview of their service, Brightcove looks like an intriguing way for video content owners of any size to generate revenue through ads, sales and affiliate network distribution.

While popular sites like YouTube are a great way to get exposure for your dance videos, you end-up reaching a lot of eyeballs but you don't generate any revenue.

The concept behind Brightcove is to provide video publishers with a system that allows you to organize your videos into channels, determine how you will generate revenue and choose who will have access to your video content.

You could, for instance, create three video channels:

1) Dance performance previews

2) Performance videos for the web

3) Dance instruction videos

The first category you could distribute for free. The performance videos you might distribute as part of the Brightcove advertising network and video ads would be inserted each time your video plays. You would get a cut of this advertising revenue. And the third category - dance instruction videos - you might offer on a pay-per-view basis.

I think it's time to experiment with services such as Brightcove because there is clearly money to be made - the main question comes down to what the optimal business model is. Will Internet users pay for dance content? How much will they pay for different types of videos? Or is the advertising model the best approach for dance video distribution?

Technorati Tags: brightcove, dance, instruction, performance, ppv, tv, video

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April 18, 2006

Project Danceway

In a January 30th post, "If there was a modern dance reality tv show…," Rachel Feinerman proposes a dance series for TV along the lines of Bravo's Project Runway.

I think that this would be an excellent idea.

If you haven't watched Project Runway, this is what this reality show is about: Sixteen fashion designers who have gone through an audition process are chosen for this TV series. Each week the designers are given a project such as designing a garden party dress. During the show we get to watch the designers buy their materials, make their dresses, interact with the other contestants and deal with time pressures. Then at the end of the show there is a fashion show where models showcase the dresses and judges rate the outfits. At the end of each show one of the designers looses and is off the show.

What I enjoy most about Project Runway is that the creative process is exposed for all to see. You get to watch the designers as they create their outfits - sometimes struggling as they second guess themselves or have to work with the wrong materials. Plus you gain some insight into each designer's personality as they interact with each other and are forced to finish their work on time. So when the fashion show takes place at the end of the episode, you have an emotional connection with the designers and you probably have a favorite.

So if there were a Project Runway for modern dance, some variations would have to be made to the format but the overall idea would probably work. I think it would be a lot of fun to watch choreographers and dancers work together from start to finish to create a different dance piece each week.

There's no current format that I know of that provides dance audiences with access to the creative process at work. A Project Danceway would provide this access and make the experience of watching the performances at the end of the program more meaningful and enjoyable.

Technorati Tags: bravo, dance, fashion, tv

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April 10, 2006

Product Placement and E-Commerce Technology Offer New Career Opportunities for Dancers

PersonalScreen Media, a new producer of TV programming for the Internet, has introduced technology that enables viewers to get instant access to products, clothing and other items featured within a show. As you watch a show online, you can click on a dress, for example, get a pop-up screen that provides the details and purchase the dress through an integrated e-commerce system.

Click for Larger Image

I think that this type of integrated product placement and e-commerce functionality offers some great opportunities for dancers. Even though this market is very new, it strikes me that dance offers advertisers and retailers a quick and effective way to grab the attention of multi-tasking and easily-distracted Internet users.

You can learn more about PersonalScreen Media in an article in this morning's edition of ClickZ.

For more dance-specific possibilities for integrated e-commerce and product placement, read two recent stories I've written:

- "Nike Offers Marketing Campaign Featuring Hip Hop Dance Video" - Here's an impressive online marketing campaign that features a dance video, a breakdown of dance steps and the ability to buy the clothing worn by the dancers. ClickZ also has a recent article that provides background on the creation of this online Nike campaign.

Dance Video

- "Emerging Digital Dance Careers": In November I wrote about new career opportunities for dancers in the online world. One of the areas I discussed was product placement and a video ad from Nordstrom's that features the Go-Go's. Viewers can watch the video and buy the featured clothing and accessories.

Technorati Tags: ads, audition, career, dance, e-commerce, marketing, video

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November 9, 2005

Mirror Dance Documentary Premiers Next Week On PBS

The new Mirror Dance website went up yesterday on PBS. Mirror Dance is a documentary, airing on November 15th, that traces the lives of Cuban-born identical twins that followed different dance careers and live paths after the Cuban Revolution of 1959.

By age 11 Ramona and Margarita de Saa both intended to pursue a lives in the ballet and both eventually became members of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. But in 1964 Margarita left Cuba for political reasons and her family moved to Narbeth, Pennsylvania where she eventually founded the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet. And Ramonda, who stayed in Cuba, became director of the Cuban National Schools of Ballet.

This one-hour documentary, filmed in the US and Cuba, traces the lives of both sisters and their eventual reunion in Cuba after being separated for 40 years.

Just reading the website for Mirror Dance is moving - It will be great to see the film next week. The website features a Q&A with the filmmakers, background info. about the Cuban Revolution and a video clip. You'll find another clip on the website for Frances McElroy, the films co-producer and co-director.

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October 31, 2005

TV Dance Shows Grow in Popularity

The number of TV dance shows keeps increasing. The latest one, Ballroom Bootcamp on the TLC Channel, premiered the beginning of October. The show charts progress of three novice dancers who are partnered with professional dance instructors as they learn one of five ballroom dances (cha cha, waltz, tango, jive or rumba), and then compete against the other couples. There's a review of this new TV dance show on Blogcritics.org.

According to news service article in HUB (a Michigan entertainment guide), ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" was the sixth highest rated show of the season. And other dance shows, while not ranking as high, are still drawing large numbers of viewers.

Aida Moren, creator of yet another dance program called "America's Ballroom Challenge" to be aired on WGBH in Boston this winter, thinks he knows why ballroom dancing is making a comeback:

"Given all the crazy stuff going on in the world today, people seem to be drawn to the simple beauty, the expressive nature, and the passion of ballroom dancing. I believe that's one of the reasons that the genre has, over the past decade, made its way into mainstream American culture."

Here are links to other TV dance programs:

- Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
- So Your Think You Can Dance (Fox)
- Strictly Come Dance (BBC)

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October 24, 2005

Jazz Dancing

Rachel Feinerman (Downown Dancer) has post about skit on Saturday Night Live this past weekend with Catherine Zeta-Jones doing piece that featured classic Bob Fosse moves. I did search to try to find video clip of SNL skit, but no luck. I'd like to see it - if anybody can upload DVR video of skit, that would be great - I guess that's probably long shot.

Also on Jazz front, Evie of Dance Thoughts posts link to good overview article about Jazz dancing, famous choreographers and history.

I've been looking for more Jazz-related dance articles and resources since I started taking Jazz last month. I'm taking a 13-week introductory jazz class at Joy of Motion with Douglas Yeuell. The class is great. I'm going to go to the level I drop-in jazz classes soon, but I wanted to get about five or six weeks in of the basics before going to the drop in classes. A woman in my class asked me last week whether I felt self-conscious about being the only guy in the class - there are about 25 people in the class. I said I did for the first few weeks, but now it doesn't bother me that much even when I get completely lost.

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