I am still in the midst of my performance. Saturday will be the final show. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d open the floor for another Role Reversal discussion topic. The following video has had a few incarnations (this one was newly revised a few months ago) and perhaps you’ve seen it circulated on facebook and elsewhere online. If you haven’t, take a look:
Obviously, if you’re reading this blog, you use a computer, so maybe I’m reaching out to an already converted audience. However, I know that the technology we use in daily life does not always translate to use in our work or business (or visa versa), and perhaps the rate of change is more rapid than we thought or than we are prepared for. After viewing the video, I’d like to pose the same question the video asks: What does it all mean for dancers, dance teachers, studio owners, movement educators? Does this change the way you look at your job, the way you run or advertise your business, the way you reach out to or interact with students? Are dance educators and studios staying on top of ever-changing technology? Do they need to be? What steps have you taken to change with the times, if any? There is no right or wrong way to answer the question. You don’t even have to stick to the ones I’ve posed. In fact, maybe the video raised some questions of your own you’d like to ask. I’m simply curious to hear your thoughts.
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Four things come to mind:
1. compared to here in the UK, the dance industry in the US has a far stronger online presence – not only with websites, but social networking too, and is far more established as such. In the UK, the main tools are MySpace and new FB groups; many websites lack adequate self-promotion.
2. The main focus of my work in dance has been to approach it from a non-dance background, and among other things, to drive it more from being web-based – but on an individual level, it’s often a losing battle (the dance company’s website is intended to be an online resource centre for the dancers, but seeing as they don’t use it….)
3. I think one of the key problems is that internet-based marketing, and technology in general is not reinforced enough in study, and many dancers are graduating without adequate self-marketing training. It is valid that their study is focussed on dance training and associated subjects, but not when it puts them at a disadvantage on graduation.
3a. Dance and technology are very dissimilar fields, and it’s unrealistic to expect all people working in dance to have good internet awareness/skills, same as business/admin skills – all that right brain/left brain stuff.
4. All the same, surely it is impossible to ignore the explosion in web-based technologies recently (Facebook, Twitter, smart phones) and its wider implications – it is absolutely crucial now for anyone working professionally to have an online presence, as it’s perceived that without it, they don’t really exist. In addition to having a base from which to promote themselves, they need to be aware of their audience, and the fact that people are going to look them up and try to find out more about them. (I monitor the site stats for my websites, and especially the search terms people use). And with that, they need to be specific about how they portray themselves, as having a website etc is no longer sufficient – if it’s badly-designed or that bit too amateurish, it will reflect badly on them professionally and lose potential audience.
(In addition to assisting with a research project into the future of the internet, I’ve spent the last three days compiling an exhaustive list of dance-based organisations, checking their websites for up-to-date contact info. To completely generalise, schools (for children) either had no websites or the least sophisticated, followed by small studios).
Great video. I like your topic. I have been watching the net and dance since 1999 from the Silicon valley. My current response is Danceregister and Danceregister professional web services located at Dancerhost.com
In the future I see exciting things becoming more available to the dance industry due to the direction and nature of the web and how it handles information. Just because dance is one of the last Mom & Pop businesses left in the country, is doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have the opportunity to take advantage of the same technology large corporations benefit from more and more, each and every day.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments….
Tap w/u Soon,
Anthony LoCascio
CEO & Founder
Danceregister Inc.