February 18, 2007

Appointment New Chief Dance Critic for NY Times Obscures Future Riches for Dance World

There is a heated discussion on Apollinaire Scherr's "Foot In Mouth..." blog about the appointment of Alastair Macaulay as the new chief dance critic of The New York Times.

You can read Scherr's first post, "Leading 'the girls'" and her second post, "A reader responds: You're nuts. Apollinaire responds [take two]. Postscript from Paul Parish." Both posts include comments from readers.

Musical America in "New York Times Names Chief Dance Critic" has a write-up about this appointment.

Paul Ben-Itzak has an email interview with Macaulay shortly after his appointment to the Times.

And on the Ballet Talk boards, you can read message thread, "Alastair Macaulay @ NY Times." [Via Rachel Howard].

The discussion about Alastair Macaulay's qualifications to be the new New York Times chief dance critic and whether or not a woman should have been appointed instead, fails to address a much more pressing issue about the future of dance criticism.

Essentially from a business and practical perspective, dance criticism is a dying art form in the US. There are now fewer and fewer paying opportunities for dance writers because many newspapers have cut back (or eliminated) the number of articles devoted to dance.

THE PROBLEM WITH DANCE CRITICISM

Dance criticism hasn't changed for decades - it's essentially an anachronism tied to the mass-media print culture of the 20th century. It's a solitary endeavor by experts who use words alone to describe and pass judgment on finished dance works performed on stages. All roles are clearly defined and demarcated among dancers, audience members and journalists, there's limited effort to educate dance audiences about the art of dance, and the focus of critics is almost exclusively on concert dance - social, competitive, folk and international dance forms are not covered.

In addition and very importantly, not a single dance critic or journalism school with courses in dance writing has addressed the issue of how dance writing can or should change to take advantage of the collaborative and participatory nature of the Internet.

Doesn't this lack of curiosity by dance writers about how to harness the Internet - especially what is referred to as Web 2.0 - strike anybody as strange?

It appears that dance writers would rather argue over the remaining handful of dance writing gigs that pay real money than join forces to explore new, more lucrative opportunities for a larger numbers of dance writers.

A NEW MODEL FOR DANCE

Well, there is a way forward for dance writers. There are real opportunities for dance writers to make good money and have their dance expertise recognized and appreciated to a much greater extent than it is today. Actually, the plan I describe below will benefit everybody involved in dance. But for what I propose to work, dance writers will need to think in much different terms about what they actually do for a living.

THE PLAN

We need to create a new Internet-based dance eco-system that, if implemented, will

- generate millions of dollars of new ad revenue for newspapers and publications that cover dance.

- reposition dance critics as "dance facilitators" or "dance conversationalists" that enable large-scale, multimedia-enhanced, online discussions about dance.

- increase the profile of dance throughout the US - actually dance is very popular in the US, just not the kinds of dance that critics admire.

- unite all forms of dance - concert, social, competitive, folk and international - under a single unified umbrella that still recognizes the uniqueness of each dance form.

- help dancers and dance companies make more money.

- Enable the new generation of "dance facilitators" to make more money.

- Ensure that "dance facilitators" can be enablers of meaningful dance conversations that don't in any way require that dance experts lose their sense of artistic and creative integrity.

THE SOLUTION

I've already written in past posts about how to realize this new dance eco-system:

- Deep Tagging, Linking and Searching

- Educating Dance Audiences with Video Annotation

- Ushering in a New Era in Multimedia Dance Criticism

If all participants within the dance community - dance writers, dance companies, presenters and everybody else - really want to create a more profitable, sustainable and larger dance economy in the US, there're going to have to embrace the collaborative spirit and nature of the Web 2.0.

"Web 2.0" can sound like a meaningless term. So when I say Web 2.0, I'm referring to all of the ways that Internet users can share, network, collaborate and build upon the contributions of others who have similar interests. I'm also referring specifically to the Web 2.0 functionality that allows users to contribute and categorize their own content - often in the form of videos - which is referred to as consumer-generated media or user-generated media.

And one more important point before I define what the intersection of dance and Web 2.0 specifically looks like. Most major newspapers in the United States are about to announce or have already announced plans to embrace consumer-generated media. In other words, newspapers are beginning to blur the lines between professional journalists and amateur contributors, and are giving readers an opportunity to be part of the news gathering and making process.

Even the New York Times, the new home for dance critic Alastair Macaulay, has, according to Red Herring, said that they are about to embrace the Web 2.0 and user-generated media.

So the framework for what I'm proposing is not at all theoretical; it exists. The question is whether dance experts and the dance community are going to do something about it or not. I've read too many sob stories where dancers and dance associations bemoan the loss of coverage for dance in major publications. Well, instead of complaining, here's you're opportunity to take meaningful action and make something happen.

WEB 2.0 AND DANCE

What will the fusion of dance with the Web 2.0 look like and how will it be realized? Here are some thoughts:

The Internet is a Distributed Medium:

Dance writers will need to embrace the Internet as a distributed medium - a medium which does not really support the idea of a self-contained article in the same way that a print publication does. For example, in the interview by Paul Ben-Itzak and the posts by Apollinaire Scherr, you'll notice that neither of them links to a single online review, story or interview by Alastair Macaulay. This omission strikes me as stunning. All they had to do was search Google or Google UK to find a wealth of examples of Macaulay's work. Wouldn't links to select articles written by Macaulay have provided the readers of the Dance Insider and Foot in Mouth... with invaluable insights about his approach, style and abilities? Wouldn’t such links have allowed their readers to decide for themselves what they thought about his writing and knowledge of dance?

What's interesting and meaningful is that the only place you'll find links to Macaulay's articles is in the message thread about his appointment to the New York Times. A poster who goes by the name of "drb" on Ballet Talk includes excerpts and links to a few of his articles.

Dance Writing is Multimedia Writing:

Dance writers can no longer rely upon text alone to write reviews and tell their stories. There are thousands upon thousands of dance videos on the Web. And with a little encouragement, there are many dancers and dance companies who would probably be willing to put dance videos on the web.

So given the availability of this visual content, it makes absolutely no sense not include links to these videos when you write reviews, or not to embed these videos directly into your reviews.

To put it another way, why describe something only with words, if the visual content is available? It's like saying you have to write a review in calligraphy instead of using a word processing program to submit a dance review. There's nothing wrong with calligraphy - it can be very beautiful - but it does not make sense to rely upon calligraphy to write a review.

So for starters, I think that dance writers will want to experiment with writing reviews that reference specific video clips. And writers will also want to use "deep tagging" and "deep linking" so that they can direct readers to specific sections of video clips in order to explain and clarify important points. (In my post, "Deep Tagging, Linking and Searching," I define these terms. In "Educating Dance Audiences with Video Annotation," I offer examples of specific Web-based software applications that let you create deep tags and deep links.)

Consider what video-enhanced reviews would be like from a reader's perspective. I can now read a paragraph in your review that describes a specific movement. I can then instantly jump to a section of a dance video clip that shows an actual example of what you've just described. If you ask me, that would be a wonderful, clarifying experience.

Dance Writing Includes the Spoken Word:

In addition, you can now use the latest crop of video editing tools to add audio commentary to online dance videos. What I'm describing here is identical to listening to a director's audio track on a movie DVD. But in this case, I can watch, say, a five-minute dance video and listen to your audio commentary at the same time. Personally I think that listening to dance experts discuss a work that I'm watching would be a very worthwhile educational opportunity.

Dance Writing is an Extended Conversation:

It's important to bear in mind that anybody can use these video editing and tagging tools to comment on and analyze dance. Unlike print publications where only a few people can have their articles published, on the web everybody can be a publisher and contributor.

So what distinguishes a dance writer is your expertise, insight and artistic sensibilities not the fact that you happen to have exclusive access to a print publication.

But in a collaborative environment what also distinguishes you is that you are committed to facilitating a larger, distributed conversation about dance - all forms of dance.

When you write a multimedia review with embedded videos and deep tagging, you are just initiating the first phase of an on-going conversation - one that others can and will build upon.

An audience member who saw the same performance as you did might write a multimedia review on their own blog that builds upon or offers a different perspective than your coverage. Maybe they will link to a different series of online video clips to show that the source of the movement you described in your review may come from a source that you didn't contemplate. That's just one example. There are an unlimited number of ways that dancers and dance fans can link to and build upon your reviews and the reviews of others.

Over time, what you have is a huge web of connections and links that allow dance fans to experience this distributed commentary from many different starting points and along many different paths.

Newspapers Step into the Picture:

Newspapers such as the New York Times will want to be (at least ought to want to be) one of the major hubs through which these extended dance conversations take place. They will hire expert dance writers/facilitators to post their multimedia reviews on the Times' website. They will also encourage dance companies and dancers to upload their dance videos to the New York Times website. And this paper will want as much of the conversation to take place on their own message boards.

By encouraging dancers to upload their dance videos, much of the embedding, linking and commenting will remain on the paper's website. This means more traffic, which means more advertising revenue from banner and video ads as well as from different approaches to monetizing this traffic.

But the New York Times will be going over the deep end if it expects to be the sole hub of this extended dance conversation. The Internet is a distributed medium and other Web 2.0 players will enter the market and want a piece of this online conversation. And the Times will have to allow their own writers as well as amateur contributors to link to dance resources anywhere on the web.

There's a Big Dance Audience Out There:

This facilitated approach to fostering distributed, multimedia-enabled conversations about dance is ideally suited for all forms of dance.

It doesn't make sense for newspapers to limit dance coverage to concert dance. If individual dance writers just want to devote their energies to concert dance, that's fine. But there's no reason not to have dance experts who are facilitating conversations about competitive ballroom, Salsa, belly dancing and many other dance forms. These dance writers will be the ones who go to clubs, hit the competition circuit or watch popular dance TV shows. Each type of dance has its own experts and own audiences with lots of people who would like to participate in this conversation.

And by embracing all forms of dance, the potential advertiser pool will increase many times over. Which means that the sorry state of affairs today where newspapers can't even find advertisers to sponsor dance content will instantly disappear.

New Channels and Audiences for Dance Performances:

By engaging more people in a global, online conversation about dance, more people than ever before will become interested in dance. More people will take dance classes, more people will attend performances, more people will buy digital dance content (performances, video dances and dance instruction) and more people will buy dance clothing, shoes, accessories, books, DVDs and related merchandise.

And do you know what the best part of this is? Dance writers and critics who are often marginalized can be big players in making this happen!!

WHAT WILL THIS TAKE?

I believe that everything I wrote above is doable. The technology, software and infrastructure exists today and will continue to be improved upon. And as I wrote, the New York Times and other newspapers are or will embrace the Web 2.0 and consumer generated media.

There are challenges and issues to be addressed:

- Major dance companies (especially large ballet companies) have to rethink their approach to intellectual property protection, and some of the union contracts between dance companies and dancers impose too many limitations on shooting and distributing video. For everybody's sake, there has to be serious conversations about different copyright protection schemes in light of the Internet, and union contracts should be renegotiated now to get rid of these antiquated notions about video prohibitions. Everybody will make more money and be more successful if these two issues are dealt with this year.

- Along similar lines, dancers and dance companies have to be willing to upload more video and the video has to be of decent quality. While there is much more dance video available on the Internet than just three months ago, much more is needed in order to have a more meaningful, extended conversation. We have to explore what it will take to get this video online.

- Dance writers - or what I'm calling dance facilitators - have to be or become Internet and multimedia savvy. I don't know whether older dance writers - let's say over 40 or so - are willing to learn how to edit video, embed video clips in their columns or create deep tags. Happy to be proven wrong but technology is usually a generational issue.

- Dance writers have to become facilitators and conversation enablers. Are today's dance writers willing to play this role? Is this an alien notion?

- Somebody has to train a new crop of dance critics in how to actually be a dance facilitator. In addition, training is required in how to use a range of video and related software applications. While academic programs in dance journalism can teach future writers how to understand, analyze and critique dance, I don't think any of the professors in these programs know about multimedia editing tools.

- Finally, and on the challenging side, dance writers have to fundamentally change their conception of dance writing. What I really want from a dance facilitator is a person with a wealth of insight and knowledge about dance that can engage with me as if they were a virtual dance companion. In other words, I want them to talk with me as if they were sitting next to me during a performance and we continue the conversation as we walk out of the theater doors.

Posted by Doug Fox on February 18, 2007 11:02 AM

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