This is a great article from The Wall Street Journal this week. Technology can start conversations and bring dance - and dance classes - to communities with few opportunities at the moment. Read more about the use of Skype.
To read the full article, click here.
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Skype is an interesting topic for dancers to consider. Now with "Face Time" as well, conversations around the world can happen so easily. This will affect the job interview process and other activities as well. If a choreographer is out of town, can he/she "check in" on a rehearsal via Skype or Face Time? Will mentoring be more possible across miles via these tech tools?
The Luna Dance Institute in Berkeley, CA offers many wonderful, rich workshops and discussions about dance education. As Nancy Ng explains (who is the Director of Community Engagement at Luna),
Luna Dance Institute has been using Skype to connect dance artists, teachers and university professors to lesson studies and professional learning communities held at our library. Skype participants from out of the area can connect with San Francisco Bay Area dance edcuators as they discuss a wide range of dance curriculum issues from bringing dance to students with special needs to - How do I teach a Brain Dance sequence to music that is engaging to 3rd-5th graders? This was my personal favorite Skype session. As the Luna faculty host, I got to watch as former Summer Institute participant Jakey Toor taught her version of the Brain Dance to dance teachers on our studio floor, while a dance teaching artist from the Joffrey Ballet in New York was doing the same thing in her apartment. I could watch both simultaneously with a turn of the head from the laptop computer to the dance studio space. Currently, Luna can Skype up to two out-of-the-area participants at a time.