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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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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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

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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?

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January Topic: Twitter

For dancers, Twitter can serve many purposes. It can share information about performances, classes, substitute teachers, and programs. Twitter posts can inspire movement activities and dances, as well as be the venue for virtual conversations. Listed below are a few examples. 

1. Diablo Ballet 

As of now (January 13) through Valentine's Day, Diablo Ballet has launched an interesting Twitter conversation between choreographer and audience members. You are encouraged to write in to help select music, mood, and movement ideas for choreographer Robert Dekkers's new piece. Read all about it through KQED. 

2. Twittermoves with the Luna Dance Institute

The Luna Dance Institute is one of the top dance education organizations in the country. For over a year now, they have posted weekly "Twittermoves" activities. Using the novelty of "120 characters or less," they will share a fun movement exploration that can be enjoyed by adults, college students, and youth as a part of a class or personal warm up. One recent post was: 

TwMvs340: As if wiping a window, circular motions start w/ hand, switch L/R, gradually larger motion. Vary body part, tempo. Rpt tabletop.

3. Dance New Amsterdam - using Twitter to Create Buzz Around Performances, Classes, and Guest Teachers

As a former director of a dance center, I know how hard it is to keep all students updated, curious, and inspired, especially when your schedule frequently changes due to substitute teachers. Check out DNA's Twitter feed to see how they tackle these issues. 

4. Dialogue Via Twitter?

Yes, even conversations are taking place via Twitter these days. Set a time and organize people to do it. The group #artsmgtchat runs a weekly conversation online (Fridays 2 pm EST) "for arts managers by arts managers."

5. Twitter as a Venue for Reflection/Check-Ins Within College Courses?

I recently lead a lecture for college students, and asked them to reflect on their arts education internship as if they were writing a Twitter post (ie 120 characters or less). This exercise challenged them to succinctly reflect on the week.

What if you used Twitter as a way to "check in" with your students at the end of a week? If you teach a class that has students off campus working on projects, using Twitter could be a great way to get a "pulse" on everyone's activities. Try it within a service-learning course, internship program, or dance education course. And, the 120 character parameter is simply fun (and a little poetic) too.....