October 26, 2006

...And More Participatory Contests

MySpace is hosting the Stand Up or Sit Down Comedy Challenge. The top comics have already been selected and you can watch videos of the top 15 and vote for your favorites.

The winners, according to post on Mashable, MySpace’s “Stand Up or Sit Down Comedy Challenge,” will receive $50,000 and a development deal.

A couple of interesting things about this Comedy Challenge. First, it's part of a trend of an increasing number of such participatory competitions in the entertainment world. I wrote about HBO's "The Wire" contest two weeks ago that encourages viewers of this cable TV series to submit video stories about their educational experiences as kids.

Second, this latest competition from MySpace shows how social/participatory media is being leveraged not just for web distribution but also on TV and for live events. The winning comics will also be invited to perform their routines in Las Vegas.

How should the dance world take advantage of these trends? What types of participatory programs and contests should be created? And how can the dance community create synergies amongst different distribution platforms? I've shared my thoughts on some of these topics before and will continue to write about these issues.

I was especially thinking of these questions in the context of modern dance. Modern dance will never have an audience the size of an HBO series or a standup comedy contest, but their are still avenues along the lines of the above examples that can be pursued to bring dance to a much larger audience. I think it's helpful to think about these online options in particular when you consider some of the perceptions and fears many people have about modern dance - take a look at recent posts on Apollinaire Scherr's new dance blog, "Foot In Mouth" to see what I mean.

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