December 31, 2007Dance on the Web in 2007There's a great article in the New York Times about the rise of dance on the web. The article has a screenshot of Dance Theater Workshop's site, designed by The Studio for Interactive Media.
The article does a nice job of laying out a few approaches. There are as many approaches to connecting online as there are sites. Camille Brown says, "A year ago it wasn't really geared toward business, but in the past six months it's been turning into that. The amount of contacts you can have -- you can send out a bulletin about your show, and all of your friends, whether it's 1,000 people or whatever, can find out about it. You can reach so many people." Business and tickets sales are definitely a driving force. However, there are many other aspects to connecting online. When Jennifer Alexander died in a car crash this December, the dance community paid tribute to her on The Winger. The posts were touching, thoughtful, and caring. Whether, it's posting on MySpace, writing a blog, or even sending out mass emails, this personal touch drives the work I am doing. In this coming year, I am personally excited to continue to connect with others in the dance world and to build growing relationships - both online and offline. Happy New Year! (posted by Jaki Levy) Posted by Jaki Levy at 12:50 PM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) December 26, 2007Engaging Audiences OnlineThere has been so much interesting dialogue and idea exchange happening here on Great Dance. It seems that there are a growing number of ways that the arts can use web technologies to create new modes of support for artists, while also creating more engaging ways for audiences to feel involved with the art, the artists, and the artistic process.In particular, the web offers ways to leverage the size of the arts community to develop tools and services that benefit the arts at large.  A perfect example of this is the way that Fractured Atlas, an arts service organization, is able to negotiate better health care plans for artists by serving a wide population of artists. Large numbers of people can create positive impacts. As the artistic director of Misnomer Dance Theater, I've been looking at ways to contribute not only to Misnomer Dance, but the arts as well. For example, we are currently competing as an Ideablob finalist to win $10,000 to develop web tools aimed at helping performing arts groups to build and broaden online audience involvement. The prize goes to the idea that receives the most online user votes. The contest funds $10K to an initiative every month and runs through March. (You can check out and vote for our entry here before Dec. 31st, or register and submit your own idea for next month's contest!) We think this is a great example of a creative way that online arts communities can raise funds to help the arts without making direct contributions themselves. Since creating this entry on IdeaBlob, we have received great support for this project as well as some constructive feedback. Are there other online methods that you've found to help groups raise funds for the arts without individual personal contributions? If so, let us know by leaving a comment. Together, we can help generate ideas that artists can test and use so that we can all grow the arts together. Posted by Chris Elam at 6:25 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) December 18, 2007Extending Dance Magazine's Interview with Chris ElamDance Magazine's December 2007 issue featured an article by Kina Poon called Dance Wide Web. Kina interviewed Chris Elam, Misnomer's artistic director, for the feature which focused on how dance companies like Misnomer and others are using the web. Chris came up with the idea of recording the conversation with Kina so that you could hear some of the thoughts that could not make its way into the article. I took the video of Chris talking on the phone and placed past choreography and experiments on top of the conversation to give the conversation more context. I hope this supplemental material gives you additional insight into Dance Magazine's great article. Related Links: Visit Dance Magazine Read the Article Posted by Jaki Levy at 9:49 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) December 4, 2007Developing Online Tools for the ArtsMisnomer has put together a proposal to build online tools for the dance world. Now, we have a shot at making that a reality, through IdeaBlob (a site to win $ for your ideas). I believe that the internet has created new opportunities for artists who continually struggle to find funding. Now, we need help proving that's true. This round of voting ends December 7th, so we need your support today! With your vote and this $10k, we'll be creating exciting ways for people to discover arts online!  Chris has a background in computer science, and I have a background in Arts and Technology. We both have a deep interest in helping the performing arts effectively utilize the web to develop lasting relationships with audiences online. Our initial efforts were featured in Business Week Magazine, so we know we are building something useful. With your help, we can help artists across the board while building the arts community! We're asking readers on Great Dance and beyond to support our idea on IdeaBlob! What will Misnomer do if we win $10,000 for this idea? Your vote will help us 1) BUILD web-streaming capabilities for rehearsals enabling audiences to "attend" live rehearsals online and interact directly with artists. 2) CREATE an online theater in which visitors can watch and direct performances from multiple perspectives including back stage views, and performers' point of view via body mounted cameras. 3) DEVELOP tools to request and display the geography of artist's online audiences. Venues in new cities can then have ready-made audience bases. We hope these online tools will help transform artist's websites into sites of participation. We anticipate this will create great impact in the arts world! VOTE FOR US on IdeaBlob (reg req'd)! Or, heck, register your own idea! "For people who want to be better informed, the Internet itself is the key. For those who want to join the process, the Web is where we merely start." Posted by Jaki Levy at 9:36 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) |
| ||||
|
© 2007 Great Dance. All rights reserved. |