TV Dance Mania
With the launch of yet another dance reality television show - Step It Up & Dance on Bravo - my heart drops as I know that dances success on television will not effect contemporary dance as I know and love it. The marketing department at Dance Theater Workshop is constantly brainstorming ways to reach new audiences - YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, distribution, public performances, previews, reviews - you name it, and yet our performance sales remain relatively the same. If you are reading this post, chances are you already know what Dance Theater Workshop is all about. What do you think? What are we not thinking of? Am I too cynical - will this media frenzy help contemporary dance?
Related links:
Dancing with the Stars
So You Think You Can Dance
Randy Jackson Presents: America’s Best Dance Crew
Your Mama Don’t Dance
Step It Up & Dance
Justin (March 12th, 2008 at 10:05 pm)
no, I don’t think it will help contemporary dance now. Or, phrased differently, contemporary dance is (mostly) beyond the help that an audience can give it. But I digress…
As for audience building:
No, you won’t see benefits now. But all this media may contribute to getting butts into dance class & dance programs which might lead, years from now, as the fringe peels off and begins to identify with something other than that touted by the mainstream, to butts finding themselves seated, the proud audience of a DTW production. Until then, keep up the good work.
Cynthia Meyers (March 16th, 2008 at 8:06 pm)
Here’s an idea: instead of booting out the hundreds of families who come to DTW for Ellen Robbins’ choreography program, figure out a way to keep her program and all those potential dance attendees at DTW. Her students are the future dance audience. Her students’ parents are part of the current dance audience.
Then, figure out a way to put detailed information about each week’s performances in the DTW lobby. Except for the soundless video facing the street, there is absolutely no information or video clips in the lobby, where many families pass through daily and where passersby see clearly into.
If every time I passed through DTW’s lobby I could see more clips of each week’s performance, or posters with images and reviews, I may be more likely to attend more performances.
Megan (March 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am)
Justin and Cynthia -
Thank you both for taking the time to respond to my post. Cynthia, I completely agree with you about Dance Theater Workshop’s lobby. It has become my number one priority for next year. To you both, I do hope that dance class enrollment increases due to these television shows and that those students join us on the fringe in the contemporary dance world. Only time will tell…
hannah (April 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 am)
it would be really great if dtw did free events once in a while for low-income students and families. The modern dance marketing theory seems to be ” go after dancers and theatre people”. If it was more inclusive, that could help. Right now, modern dance (along with many other art forms) has an air of snobbery and pretension to it.
Lisa (April 3rd, 2008 at 2:36 pm)
Hannah,
Actually, they do. The studio series is free, and i think there is one coming up this week, so you could check that out.