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)

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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.

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Web Spotlight: Symmetrical Inspiration

I have yet to find a book on symmetry that I can keep on hand when exploring the concept with students in dance classes. Today, I would like to suggest a beautiful website to bookmark, to have on hand when needing images to share in a class.

Artist Christopher Marley makes some wild art using butterflies and bugs. Check it out! 

*I also have started a Pinterest board to capture "symmetrical images" for future reference.

Symmetrical Art of Christopher Marley

Pinterest

Today I have been thinking about the many ways we can use Pinterest as artists and as teaching artists.

For choreographers and costume designers, I think this website can be a great way to capture ideas, color schemes, styles, etc. for your next costume project. Pinterest can be the place to contain your ideas.

For teaching artists working with high school students and college students, there are numerous potential projects using Pinterest. Have your students create their own board, and then use those images as inspiration for a composition project. How can images inspire movement? How can you make your dance become a moving picture?

If you teach students in K-12, you can use Pinterest to create your own boards that you reference within your classes. For example, I have created a board of "symmetrical images" that I can reference from time to time, providing a visual for the students. 

Last, Pinterest is another great way on the internet to research and "browse." For example, today I searched under "Pina Bausch" and found lots of interesting images of her and her company. 

Write into the blog if you have another way of using Pinterest that you would like to share. 

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