As an educator I find that it’s important to not just teach the “how” but also how to “communicate” what’s behind the movement. In Texas where football rules all, the questions are “Why should I care about dance, how does it affect me?” “What is modern anyway?” “I went to that other show last time and I didn’t like it” These are all statements that I’ve heard.

Marketing departments are calling other performers asking how to market a show for people such as Savion Glover….WHAT!!! In this situation I definitely think that the marketing department is falling short. The other extreme being the independent artist performing in front of an audience in a forum that has been designed to experiment and test new works and have live feedback from the audience, and the artist not being able to articulate the meaning or story behind the piece, any type of intention or even process of creating. This is definitely where the artist falls short.

I think that this initiative is necessary and I hope that the two worlds ca work together. If they can it will truly be a win-win for everyone, especially those that would rather watch reality tv than experience “real” performance and all it has to offer.

If our goal is to entice new people to attend dance concerts… then… how we describe our work, what our videos look like on YouTube, how great our postcards are designed… is irrelevant if we keep sending our marketing tools to the same people over and over and over again.

We need to explore the “general” population to find those who are likely to see dance.

The YouTube initiatives described above are great first steps at gathering lists of potential dance-goers … however, these seem to be “individual” approaches to this mission.

As a community, we need more.

We need a larger initiative. One that cultivates long-term relationships with potential dance-goers.

This has to be a community effort in order for it to work. Individual artists and companies are too “self-focused” (as they should be) to undertake such a large mission. We need a centralized community organization to take on the initiative and share the resulting lists and strategies.

Lastly … yes, I would be interested in joining a focus group to discuss these ideas.

Peace,
Fernando

Megan, great idea to have gathering to continue discussion of these and related ideas.

Kevin, following-up your thoughts about art marketing and integrity: One of opportunities, I believe, with better quality online dance videos is that the video itself can play a much greater part in the marketing — this means that the actual work of an artists is speaking for itself to a much larger degree than ever before. The old adage in marketing is sell the sizzle not the steak. On the Internet there’s no reason that the steak cannot speak for itself — apologies to the vegetarians :), but I do think that the online medium does change how we think of marketing and communication. And we don’t always have to focus on the intangibles when we can highlight the creative work and explorations.

Karl, the testimonial approach your recommend, if I can call it that, can be very effective. On the websites for dance companies I never really see what Karl is recommending. Often there are quotes from dance critics praising the company. But I think it would be very helpful for us to explore different, effective approaches to including a range of viewer experiences (text or video) that will be compelling to people who are considering going to dance performances.

Sarah, I’m going to try to spend time at your series of posts this week in which you explain your concept of hypermedia - I’m very interested to learn what ideas you are exploring and what you’re recommending.

Christopher, it strikes me that nobody has really done a systematic analysis of what works and doesn’t work in terms of online dance videos, especially when considered as marketing tools to cultivate new and larger audiences. And how, as you mention, do you convey some fairly abstract notions?

Marc, your imaginary description of an indecipherable, esoteric dance company description reminds of of Mel Brook’s History of the World Part I’s famous line of a standup comic describing his occupation: “I coalesce the vapors of human expression into a viable and expresable form.” (I’m a bit off, but something like that).

There’s definitely a need, especially on the Internet, for dance companies to explore new approaches to writing about their companies and their specific works.

I’m very interested in seeing what”discovery mechanisms” you create that will help online dance viewers locate videos that they will find of interest. And the same goes for the geo-targeting tools you are developing. As things stand now, there is no service one could go to that would answer the question. “Show me all dance videos of dance companies that will be performing in a specified city in the month of July.”

Finally, I agree with Marc that many dance companies are not putting enough care into how they upload, describe and tag their videos. Videos will not be found if not enough time is taken to properly configure the video’s profile information.

Jessica, there’s definitely need for artists to promote themselves, however much some do not care at all for this process. But, I think that good news is that there are some false dichotomies floating around. I don’t really accept notion that there has to be a conflict between being authentic and being accessible. Or that marketing by definition is selling out. If done properly as I mention above, dancers can speak directly through their art.

Fernando: you had raised the issue of geographical targeting. Through our partners, we will be able to recognize/target viewers in a particular geographic area (I’m not sure off the top of my head exactly how granular we’ll get, but definitely on a state-by-state basis), and inform them of upcoming performances in their area.

Karl: You’re right about YouTube and the video quality issues. Somewhere within the dance-tech forums I posted some basic thoughts on this issue, including a few (of the many valid) reason why the industry has been a bit slow on the uptake. To your second point, yes, many choreographers are executives, but from an outsider’s point of view, many of the choreographers who are executives tend to be significantly less effective at both roles. There are exceptions, but not many.

Your quote is particularly relevant as well. There are a few company descriptions that can be found online where the work or company’s mission is described in such patently absurd language that it’s almost comical. If a dance company describes their work as “transcending the ephemeral boundaries of the fluidly effervescing human condition as the spirit travels across the planes of time and space” they need some serious communications help.

(PS, the above description doesn’t really exist, although I’m sure we’ve all seen something much too close)

Megan: You nailed the issue of video right on the head when you said “it’s about getting that video out to a greater mass.” There is a general (and patently false belief), that posting something on YouTube is reaching the greater mass. Doug had asked my thoughts last week one of the videos on YouTube that he felt should have found a greater audience than it did. In this case, the choreographer never gave it a chance to find a larger audience, due to outright horrible metatagging that prevented a potential audience member from having any chance of stumbling over the video without looking specifically for it. We’re putting a significant amount of effort into enhancing “discovery mechanisms” that will bring the incremental viewer to the artform, rather than trying to continually upsell the same audience member whose attention every company seems to be competing over.

Finally, as far as the integrity of the work is concerned, everyone should make the work that they want to make. You may not have the largest audience, but at the least we like to think that we can help you reach the audience does exist.

Cheers,

Marc

Is anyone afraid that putting video online will spoil the surprise for the audience? I have also known some choreographers to be wary that someone might copy them. Then again, people go to see Hello, Dolly! over and over and over…again, even though they know exactly what’s coming.

How do we make enticing videos or video commercials for work that is about, for instance, the elongation of time? that are thoughtful but not, perhaps, “catchy”? Or how does one represent improv? In a video the “content” (for lack of a better word) can so easily overwhelm the sensitivity of the performers and the of connection between performers that gives rise to the content. And that content may never be repeated.