Dancers Using Technology

Building a Dance Company: Your Online Presence

I am reposting from my other blog, Life as a Modern Dancer, here:

 

Image respectfully pulled from the Kate Weare Company website; http://www.kateweare.com/

From Blog Director Jill Randall:

I am pleased to add another component to the blog. Once a month, a post will share ideas and details for dancers building their own company.

I have a stellar group of advisors for this project: 

• Nina Haft of Nina Haft & Company (San Francisco Bay Area)
• Katie Faulkner of little seismic dance company (San Francisco Bay Area)
• Rachael Leonard of Surfscape Contemporary Dance Theatre (Florida)
• Tanya Chianese of ka·nei·see | collective (San Francisco Bay Area)

---------------------------

Your Online Presence - By Jill Randall, with additional writing by Nina Haft

 

Icons found on the Petronio Company website - http://petron.io/

The concept of your dance company is now officially real and off the ground.

What are a few easy steps to take to get your name out there? Several ideas are of little or no cost to you.

Facebook Page
Want to build a page to get the word out about your company? Setting it up now will allow you to easily post events and updates in the future.

In addition to posting about your own work, try posting about other up and coming (as well as established) dance companies, and about arts events in other genres that inspire you. Posting approximately 1/3 of the time about other people/groups helps build partnerships, as well as drive traffic to your FB page.

Twitter or Instagram Accounts
Do you like the idea of documenting your artistic process and sharing it with others?
Twitter and Instagram are easy platforms for this. Twitter also gets you connecting ("following" and being "followed by") with many other dance artists.

Website
Building a website can be a daunting and expensive endeavor. First, do you know anyone who does web design who can help you out, or is there someone you could possibly barter with for web design work? Check out options such as Popslice to build a simple website yourself ("pre-fab" site with templates to use). Other free options include: Wix.com, Weebly.com, Yola.com, and Moonfruit.com.

Youtube and Vimeo Channels

Set up a Youtube or Vimeo Channel with videos of your best performance clips, or with short clips from rehearsals. Link to this in your other accounts, and also like other people's dance videos on your Channel.

Pinterest

Post high quality photos of your dance company - these could get repinned all over the world! Pinterest is also a great way to collect ideas for costumes, set designs and other images for your look book.

Email Announcement

And, if you have not done so already, do you want to write an email to close family, friends, and colleagues, sharing the news about your company and your goals for the next year's time?

You can also include the information about your Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram account, and website so that people can start following you and your company's work.

--------

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

-----------

 

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!

----------------

A Tech-Savvy Dance Company: Stephen Petronio

Last night I was browsing the Stephen Petronio Company website. Since I last viewed it, the site has been updated in its look and content. Check it out!

First, it is a great example of a dance company website, in terms of the images, look/feel, categories, and social media links. The color scheme includes color photos and writing in black as well as a bold magenta color. 

Second, the use of social media is quite extensive. Browse the site, but also click on one of the dancer's bios. For each dancer, you can follow him/her via Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and more. This is the first time I have seen this for a company and each dancer. Looking at this site leads to a great conversation about the intersections of dance and social media. How and why should we be using social media? Is it publicity, hype, conversation, or connection?

Stephen Petronio Company website

-------------------------

The New Numbers Game: Exciting or Sad?

This idea has been on my mind this week, and several examples highlighted this idea for me. Once upon a time, the numbers we gathered, as dancers, were about ticket sales, audience numbers, and students in our real-time dance classes. 

Now, with mixed feelings, we also seek more numbers:

• Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram followers and "likes"
• Number of site visits per month on blogs and websites
• Number of views of Youtube clips
• Users of iTunes U and MOOC dance courses

As I was watching the mockumentary about ballet and modern dance at the University of Utah, my alma mater, I couldn't believe that there were over 93,000 (!) views of the piece. (If you have not seen the piece, click here).

As highlighted in a November 2013 NY Times article, for many of us modern dancers in the United States, our new online presence might be the main way for our work to be seen. Exciting or sad? That is the question.

Here in the Bay Area, we are thrilled to have a weekend of sold out audiences. But, the average house size for modern dance events is usually 200-400 seats. 

Is this our new language in press releases, grant applications, and articles? " Choreographer X has theater audiences of ____, an online audience of _____ a year, and ___ followers on Twitter and Instagram." 

When considering our live audience and our online audience, are we now giving equal weight to them both? Or are the online numbers taking over?

----------------------

February Topic: Facebook

This week's topic is Facebook! What are the many ways that we, as dancers, use Facebook as a means of communication about dance performances, classes, and even related to hiring people for jobs? 

RSVPs for Dance Performances (and Fundraisers)

For many independent choreographers, it can be very stressful estimating how many people will attend your upcoming event. These days, artists post events on Facebook, creating publicity and buzz about an event. I personally always try to make the effort, when invited to an event via Facebook, to actually rsvp whether or not I will be attending. Let's help each other out on this front.

Free Publicity

In this digital age, many choreographers, companies, dance studios, and nonprofit organizations can now publicize about their work for free by using many social media options. Every dollar counts for artists, so this is a definite plus for using sites like Facebook. Facebook allows for a nice balance of text and images about your work. I wonder how many artists, companies, and dance centers have now reached the "paperless phase" and can successfully get audience members and students without posters, postcards, and brochures? 

Getting Information Out Quickly - Subbing for Classes, Sold Out Shows, and More

Facebook is a great way to spread the word quickly and to a large group of people. You might be home with the flu, and your dedicated group of students might like to know that your class is cancelled. You might be jumping in to sub for a class, and a post on FB might do the trick to fill the room. Your intimate dance event this evening that only seats 50 people might be sold out, and letting people know might help them figure out another date to attend the show. 

Linking and Connecting

It is now so easy to make easy and accessible links from Facebook to your other projects, especially Kickstarter campaigns, blog posts, and various pages on your main website. The format of a post on FB makes it easy to create these links. I myself have 3 blogs (including this one) through typepad.com. After I write each post, I always have the option to share my post via Facebook. I frequently do it, and can also track how many people "click through" to the blog posts. 

"Background Checks" on Potential Hires

Our personal and professional lives indeed get blurred on Facebook. A note of caution  - be mindful of what you post on Facebook. Silly and outrageous images and updates might hurt you when a future employer is wondering about your character and professionalism. A future employer might simply Google your name or look you up through Google Images, and this might lead them to Facebook. It indeed will pay off to be more mindful of what you post. The dance world is small, and your information on Facebook is easy to find even if you aren't "friends" with a person.

Paying It Forward - Writing a Post about Someone Else

After the Bebe Miller performance at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts the other week, the Director of Performing Arts (Marc Bamuthi Joseph) asked the audience to post, tweet, etc. about the show to friends and colleagues. I too wanted to see the audience filled for the next night's show, and indeed I went home and made a post about my experience. I pasted in a link to the show, and a nice image popped up to accompany my post. I highly encourage all of us to do this occasionally for friends and colleagues - about performances, classes, fundraisers, Kickstart Campaigns, and more.