ineffective compared to what?

the internet has been more effective than other media in terms of raw coverage / access for dance. you might ask do audience feedback forms result in a better dance experience (i'm not sure they really do).

many of the issues you raise (income, 'connection', participation, audiences) are things dance is struggling with in general. it's going to take a culture change in dance to address those things.

how can we be more effective at (re)presenting dance on the web? as you say ... by understanding what we do, and our audiences better.

but i think that also involves something the dance blogging community has not been so good at ... giving feedback to each other about what we value / like in others blogs. constructive crits and general assistance.

when your audience (& community) is so dislocated it can be tell what's coming across.

It's very hard to quantify how effective arts coverage is on the web and what effect that has on participation or attending performances.

The vast majority of website readers do not leave feedback or interact with the site in any way. They consume the information and move on.

A while ago a dance company told us that the majority of attendees at their audition had picked up the information from us.

If they didn't tell us that we would never have known, some times you're having an effect and you don't even know it!

Matt:

"it's going to take a culture change in dance to address those things."

I agree. And the best place for this change to start is with the Internet. Only by leveraging the online world in new ways is it possible to transform the economics of dance. And if the underlying financial structures that support--or don't support--dance are not transformed, then dancers, choreographers and dance companies are never going to make enough money to underwrite their creative pursuits.

But despite challenges, I'm optimistic that the Internet can be harnessed to create fundamentally different financial possibilities and avenues for dancers. But this won't happen simply by incorporating bits and pieces of the Internet and adding them on top of traditional ways of doing things (like adding YouTube to traditional TV debates). It will only happen by wholesale restructuring of how dancers reach out and communicate with their audiences.

In addition, in what might sound like a contradiction, these fundamentally new approaches to dance still have to be created, at least to some extent, in the context of what dancers feel comfortable doing.

The above is very general. In upcoming posts, I'll provide specifics.

Michelle,

You're right that there is little data to show how successful specific websites are in building audiences for dance.

But my question is, even on the marketing front, what substantive difference is the Internet really making in terms of reaching new audiences, engaging with audiences in new ways and providing new ways to support dancers.

My answer, without sufficient data to support my contention, is very little. For example, of your readers who went to a specific performance as a result of your coverage, what percentage of these readers would have gone to this or another dance performance in any case?

When Tonya Plank writes her engaging posts, to what extent is she speaking to the world of already-existing ballet lovers? I'm not saying the posts and comments do not provide interesting insight and good opportunities for sharing perspectives--I'm asking to what extent are we engaging a pre-existing audience.

Have you ever read a dance blog comment from a person who was new to dance and suddenly had an entry-point into dance that did not exist before? I don't think I have.

Have dance companies used the unlimited space of their websites to write about their dances in new, captivating and meaningful ways? My answer is no--almost across the board. From my perspective the way that a huge percentage of dancers and dance companies describe their work online does not make sense and is not comprehensible.

Has a dancer/dance company ever written about/posted videos about a work-in-progress on their blog, sought feedback and participated in a thought-provoking online conversation with multiple commenters? And as a result, has the dance piece been modified? I'd like to see this, but I haven't seen this yet.

Doug,

I don't think you should be so disparaging of your work trying to promote dance through the internet. It's a flux time for all the art forms as they try to figure out how the internet is changing their markets and audiences. The music industry is crumbling, films are next, tv will be right around the corner. Then for the art forms that have never had a reproducible mediatized form, like dance and theatre, it's all unknown territory. So this is all to say, be patient. It's all one big experiment and no one will ever fully figure it out.

My impression of your blog is that it is a great resource for people in the dance world, not new initiates. You are speaking to dancers about how to further their craft harnessing new technologies, and this is really really valuable. On the whole, I think you are serving your particular audience very well, and it's just going to take a while before you start to see your thoughts and suggestions take hold and manifest in the real world. I know that for myself personally, I've been reading and digesting your articles and feeling very inspired to start an internet strategy for my work. It's percolating, and I'll be sure to contact you when I start to implement it!

Just keep on keeping on, and I hope you recover from your US politics blues (it's enough to make Mary Poppins go on lithium).

best,
Anna

You have done/are doing more than you know, and a lot of us appreciate it.

-Evan

This is all so new really. There is little feedback in this realm for the most part although I check this site and several others many times a day. I know from casual conversations and "oh by the way" moments with friends and strangers that they check out my blog daily. This medium moves really slow until you reach a certain threshold and then it snowballs. Dancers tend to be suspicious of technology other people tend to be suspicious of dance especially when we ask them to judge us on the content of our choreography and not the execution of steps. I did not see the CNN/You Tube debates but I know that it has never been done before and we need that kind of experimentation. And while it may not move us so much now, at some point it could.

I think that the Internet is very effective in promoting dance but I wonder about the crossover to traditional performance venues. People now go to performances on their computers and that has changed things quite a bit. If I were to do choreography in a theater during a weekend I may get a several hundred paying audience members but online I get many thousands of non-paying potential audience members. Perhaps there is another way to get people to give me money to make my art but in the age of the Internet nothing can stop me from creating and presenting my art.

Anna,

Thanks for your kind words about my blog.

I think I might have sounded more self-critical than I intended. I meant to say that substantive change is not likely to happen in terms of dancers embracing the Internet/technology in new ways unless a comprehensive, integrated approach is taken. In other words, we can discuss the benefits of the digital world for dance, but for real change to happen a number of factors have to be taken into consideration including how dancers work, how they go about the creative process and how they financially support their activities.

By taking these and other factors into the equation, I think we can create more effective and practical models for how the Internet can enhance the dance world and dancers' lives.

I doubt I'll recover soon from my politics blues - It's too depressing!

Boris,

I agree that it is good to experiment with new uses of the Internet and technology like they did with the CNN/YouTube debates Monday night. And while maybe some new issues get addressed in a better way, what frustrates me is how hyped this new debate format was and how substantive issues were still avoided. I addressed what I thought was one example above: How meaningful can YouTube questions be if candidates can still give their essentially pre-packaged sound bite answers in response?

So in this context, I'd like there to be more of a larger, substantive conversation within the dance community about the many pressing issues that should really be explored and grappled with head on - including how best to put the Internet to work and the obstacles that will stop us from doing this.

Plus, it would be helpful to have forums, both online and offline, for good discussion, feedback and constructive criticism as Matt suggests above.

"Perhaps there is another way to get people to give me money to make my art but in the age of the Internet nothing can stop me from creating and presenting my art."

I'm very interested in helping to answer your question. How can dancers receive a revenue stream by making available and sharing their creative work online? I think I may have the answer to that question that I'll be writing about soon.

to answer the question, i know the work i have done (with your help) HAS exposed many people to dance who had little to no exposure before.

before i started working with Misnomer, i had very little understanding about dance, the dance world, the artform, and the politics.

working with misnomer on their blog, and reading your blog has given me a fuller sense of all that is dance, and how to bring this to a larger audience (both in the theater and online).

thinking about these issues and trying different initiatives certainly will tell what will stick.

i have introduced my family, and my friends not only to misnomer, but to the larger dance world. this is exciting and remarkable.

there is a particular phenomenon you are talking about - bridging versus bonding.

bridging brings people we don't know. think democrats reaching out to swing voters, or republican voters or vice versa.

bonding is preaching to the choir. moveon.org is very good at bonding, not so much at bridging. however, bonding is just as important as bridging

there are many tech bloggers and podcasters putting together meetups, podcamps, and conferences of sorts - i am sure that in time, as a result of the work we are all doing, we will be discussing these issues and sharing discoveries in similar formats.

Jakie,

I like distinction you make between bridging and bonding. My hunch is that in the online world, at this point, the concert dance community is probably more in the bonding mode than the bridging mode.

My post today about creating DVDs with dual audiotracks is one answer to the question of how the Internet can be used to create bridging opportunities for dance.

I've always enjoyed seeing how you and Misnomer explore new ways to put the Internet to work to give people additional ways to connect with dance.