Dancers Using Technology

Coming Back to Twitter - Like Browsing through a Newspaper

After infrequently using Twitter over the past year or so, I am back to exploring it at least once a week. To me, I use it now like a newspaper - something to browse and to use to get a pulse on current events in dance, education, and arts education. 

I follow a variety of dance organizations and artists - such as the Luna Dance Institute, New York Live Arts, Gibney Dance, Doug Varone and Dancers, and more. I also follow Edutopia and Huffington Post.

I have Twitter bookmarked on my computer for easy access.

Dancers, consider Twitter again. Like me, it can be a quick 5-10 minute browse each week to gain a sense of what's happening in dance in the United States and beyond.

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Dancing with Twitter: TwitterMoves

I love the Luna Dance Institute's TwitterMoves project on Twitter - 140 characters to convey a movement idea or warm up. Over the past few years, I have used the tweets numerous times with students in grades 5-8. I encourage dance teaching artists working with middle school students, high schoolers, and even college students to follow the Luna Dance Institute on Twitter, and to explore these cool movement activities within your classes. These short posts can inspire a warm up, group exploration, or even a concept for a full dance.

A post from last week was:

Luna Dance Institute @lunadanceinst · Sep 25

TwitterMoves679: Select your favorite Dr. Suess Book, pick a page and dance to it; play w/ realism, abstraction, rhythm, invention.

This morning, I quickly gathered a stack of Seuss books at our school's library. In my 7th/8th grade Dance Elective course (which has a theme this fall of dance and technology), we explored "inspiration from the internet." I printed out the tweet for the students.  

In small groups, the students selected a book and used the language of the Twitter post to make a short movement sketch. We worked for about 10-15 minutes and then shared.

You can easily try this post (tweet) with students in 4th/5th, middle school, or even high school. My middle school students dove right in.

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GoPro Dance Videos and Bandaloop

I am thrilled to see how much press - and cross postings - are happening this week around the GoPro video of the vertical dance company Bandaloop. Check out the video here, which already has almost 400,000 views!

I am excited to do some more research on the web this week to see other dance-related videos using GoPro equipment.

I was just reading about "kinesthetic empathy" last night. Check out this video to gain a sense of dancing on the side of a building!

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SoundCloud/Interviews/Archives/Memories

 

Today I am excited to be putting together a few ideas that have been swimming in my mind – around podcasts, interviews, and college dance departments. Please join me - brainstorming ideas that can be used in college dance courses.

SoundCloud is a website that is used to listen to music, share music, and also share/listen to interviews. My alma mater – the University of Utah – recently posted a 10 minute interview with Abby Fiat.

I believe there is great potential to use sites like SoundCloud to capture conversations and musings with dance artists. I myself have been listening to an interview I did as well with Abby Fiat a few months ago. (I am transcribing it for an upcoming piece on my blog Life as a Modern Dancer.) I studied with Abby 18 years ago, but listening to her voice now – recorded – quickly transports me back to studying with her and having a connection. I have been quite surprised in the power of the recorded voice.

Here is what I am proposing. As a component of a course during the final year of undergraduate studies, could each student interview a professor who has been pivotal in his/her training? What questions can we ask? How can we capture ideas and inspiration that we can listen to in years to come?

College students can easily use Voice Memo on a smart phone or tablet to record the interview. The interview can then be uploaded and “archived” on a site like SoundCloud.

One of my other areas of interest is about college departments/alumni relations. Does a college department have an obligation to its graduates, especially during those first few years leaving the nest? Could these archived interviews be a “continuation” of the program? I venture to say, since so many concepts and corrections in dance are lifelong recurring ideas, recording these interviews can support lifelong learning for a dancer.

Please become a part of this conversation and leave a comment below. 

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Interviewing and Archiving Project: Part Two

As I wrote about in the spring, I interviewed two of my beloved dance professors from the modern dance department at the University of Utah as they were transitioning into retirement, Abby Fiat and Donna Fiat. I have several hours audiorecorded through Voice Memo on my iPhone and iPad.

Months have passed, and now is the right time to listen, transcribe, edit with Abby and Donna, and then share with you (the interviews). 

Today I listened to 30 minutes of the first interview with Abby. My post today is to highlight the power and importance of audiofiles of dancers. Yes, maybe this is an odd sounding comment about a performing art. I too believe in archives of photos and videos, absolutely! But the simple power of hearing a person's voice, inflections, and passion is priceless. If you are a lover of public radio, you know what I mean.

So, today, I encourage you to interview a student, a mentor, a colleague. Save it for another day. Listening to Abby today transported me months back to our interview, and also transported me back years and years to the time when I studied with her. I am still learning from her and get inspired from her words.

I think that audio interviews and podcasts can be explored more widely within the field of dance. The quality of a voice memo even on your phone is of good quality. Try it out!

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On Facebook: Making Lists and Finding Resources

I know that we are in a time when some artists are pulling away from Facebook --- too much screentime, too much time looking at others’ lives and feeling bad about our own. But recently, I have grown to appreciate a newer, relatively tame but useful, way that dancers use Facebook to quickly find ideas and get people talking.

Over the past few months I have seen several dancers pose a question and get great responses. These are non-heated topics, but rather questions looking for multiple answers. I recall:

-A dance professor creating a list of collaborators from dance history to use in a course (ex. Cunningham and Cage)

-A dancer wanting recommendations on shows to see in the coming months in the Bay Area

-Another dance professor seeking ideas for key dance films to show in a dance appreciation course

-A dance writer gathering questions to ask in future interviews with dance filmmakers from Europe

When looking for a list of ideas, and relatively quickly (24 hours or less), try it out in the near future on FB. For information gathering, I venture to say that using Facebook --- versus a group email --- will result in more responses in a very short amount of time. The information, shared publicly, just might help or inspire another dancer or two.

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On Facebook: The Dance That Documents Itself

These days, I am particularly curious about the use of Facebook in our dance lives. I am now starting to follow Jess Curtis's project, "The Dance That Documents Itself." You too can "like" this page on FB.

As described on its Facebook page,

The Dance That Documents Itself is a dance of community; resources and electronic representations meeting in a virtual dance of minds imagining a dance into existence that will finally culminate in a meeting of material bodies together in space and time to share in a short embodied nexus of live interaction and embodiment of previously imagined, documented and rehearsed material events, that will in turn be documented, re-imagined and remembered as they resonate out like a digital echo into virtual space.

In other words this project is an exercise in re-thinking the parameters of where and when a “performance” exists. The hours and hours of work that go into the creation of most cultural performances are usually not recognized as “the work” itself. The Dance that Documents Itself attempts to re-frame all aspects of the process that is making this work, to recognize them as a part of the artwork itself. Meaning that (as one example) your current reading of these words is in fact a part of a larger choreography, an important artistic act that is usually disappeared into the machinery of the Culture Industry. We hope to insinuate the idea into your minds that what you are doing RIGHT NOW is a part of a choreography, an artistic act. Jess Curtis/Gravity presents The Dance that Documents Itself and invites you into the dance. 

Join the dance by leaving a message, sharing a choreography or asking question.

Log onto Facebook and check out the project today!

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Live Streaming of World Class Ballet on October 1st

While browsing Twitter this evening, I stumbled upon the information on World Ballet Day, coming up on October 1st.

Five ballet companies will stream throughout the day, whether it be rehearsals or interviews. The companies include:

• Royal Ballet
• National Ballet of Canada
• Australian Ballet
• San Francisco Ballet
• Bolshoi Ballet

Find out more here about this wonderful window into the daily work of professional ballet companies around the world.

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The New On/Line Teen Dance Film Festival (and Call for Applications)

 

On/Line Teen Dance Film Festival

Presented by The Hamlin School (San Francisco, California)

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

 

The Hamlin School is pleased to curate the first annual On/Line Teen Dance Film Festival, showcasing “dance for the camera” films by middle school and high school students from around the world. Students age 11-18 are welcome to apply. This film festival is an extension of the dance work being done at The Hamlin School. The goal of the festival is to highlight the work of teen dance programs and the intersection of dance and technology. In December 2014, the selected films will be available online and can be viewed anywhere. You can host your own 45 minute dance film festival at your school or dance center. 

 

The On/Line Teen Dance Film Festival is open to all public and independent middle schools and high schools as well as to dance studios and community centers. All films must be created by teens (not the instructors).

 

The guidelines are as follows:

-Each school/site may only submit up to two films.

-Films must be 5 minutes or less.

-All students featured in the film must provide written consent for the film to be submitted. If selected, this film will be placed online via Vimeo.

-Films can be submitted in the following categories:

·      General film – edited

·      General film – single take

·      Stop Motion

·      Diptic App

·      Green Screen

·      Combination of the above

 

-Please first email your intent to apply information to Project Director Jill Randall by September 30. Email Jill at [email protected] with the subject of the email as “On/Line Teen Dance Film Festival Application.”

-Hamlin will only be accepting the first 20 applications for this first film festival. Approximately 8-12 films will be selected. In full disclosure, please know that there will be 3-4 films from The Hamlin School as part of this film festival.

-Videos will need to be submitted no later than November 15th.

-Videos can be made in 2014 or could have been made in the past 2 years (ie 2012 and 2013).

Selection process:

-Films must be submitted by November 15th.

-From November 15-December 1, the 15 students in the Dance and Technology Elective class at The Hamlin School will review and select films for the festival.

-All applicants will be notified by December 5th.

 

Timeline:

-Call for entries with intent to apply: September 5 to September 30, 2014

-Submissions: Due by November 15, 2014

-Film review: November 15 to December 1, 2014

-Applicants notified: December 5, 2014

-Films online for viewing: December 12, 2014

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