Posts Tagged ‘technology’

The traditional dance company model is exploding apart and a hybrid chimera is being born out of its ashes. These new dance companies are really production companies made up of interdisciplinary collaborators that do it all from making high end videos to performance pieces to working for fashion photographers, music artists, and ad agencies. But most of all this new dance company model lives and breathes on the internet through tweets, blogs, photo streams and video channels that keep an active community of fans, followers and audience members engaged and excited for more.

Here are two new dance companies based in Brooklyn that are at the cutting edge of this emerging paradigm.

DANCELEN(D)S is a non-profit production company that specializes in dance film. Artistic Director Jennifer Madison heads up a collective of artists to create movement-based films and documentaries as well as provide creative services for commercial productions.

“manoeuvres” by DANCELEN(D)S, featuring Valentine Norton’s Project Valentine Dance Crew

Indelible Dance Company calls itself “a dance company in HD.” Mysterious and bold, their website is simply a page of their videos and photos to date. What is so innovative is not the quantity of their output, but the quality of what they make. Each video and photo project is exquisitely wrought, finely composed and emits sexy, smart, classiness.

“Check Out My Leggings” by Indelible Dance

Each of these companies has embraced collaboration at the core of their creative process, and they go for the best collaborators they can find. Thus DANCELEN(D)S created a video look book for fashion designer Rachel Roy in which dancers move in clothing from her new collection, and Indelible Dance created an entire evening length performance around a design concept by Mary Huang to create sound-sensitive costumes made of light to portray the Big Bang Theory.

For the longest time, only a handful of dance companies embraced technology and collaboration in such a fundamental way. To do so required huge sums of money or technical wizardry make your own gear, such as Troika Ranch’s Isadora software that enabled dancers to trigger sound and video with their muscles. Today high-end photography and video is cheap to make and can be distributed all around the world for free on the internet. Fundraising sites such as Kickstarter allow artists to find and cultivate supporters beyond their personal networks and capture many microdonations to reach their large financial goals. New generations of dancers who grew up with these tools have entered the field and they are beginning to show us how dance will evolve in the 21st Century. What is most surprising about their revelations is that dance may be naturally dying off as a separate and distinguishable art form, instead it is merging with everything else into one interconnected web of creative life.

To learn about more artists and companies embracing this new model check out:

Dance-tech.net

Dance On Camera on Vimeo

Curious about 3D dance filmmaking? Check out this 6 minute FORA.tv video by Jacob’s Pillow Dance for an introductory primer.  Award-winning filmmakers Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer of Mouvement Perpétuel share their artistic approach and production process using visual examples from their current collaboration with choreographer Crystal Pite and the National Film Board of Canada.  Millar and Szporer describe how a 3D camera works, share their 3D story boards, take us inside the green screen studio with the dancers, and discuss why they are interested in the challenge of creating a stereoscopic experimental dance film incorporating animation.

Can 3D dance film change how audiences experience and participate in dance? What do you think? Comments and links to other 3D dance film insights welcomed.

Tim Cynova (Deputy Director Fractured Atlas) and Sydney Skybetter (Co-Founder Design Brooklyn) have teamed up to create a new uStream video broadcast titled Sky/Nova:15.

Sky/Nova:15 will be streaming conversations centered around dance/arts, media/culture, and technology with the occasional absurdity (Arts administrator trading cards? Astronaut ice cream and hover chairs as part of the arts-going experience in 75 years?).  This week Sky/Nova:15 will be microbroadcasting from the 2010 Dance/USA national conference in Washington, D.C. June 16-19.  Expect a handful of special interviews from the ranks of national and international Dancilluminati (dance world rock stars).

Video, live webchat and archived episodes are available at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/skynova15. You can also view via iPhones/Androids by downloading the free Ustream Viewer app.

Here are the “showtimes”:
Wednesday, June 16, 5:15-5:30PM, “Afternoon Anarchy …and Cocktails”
Thursday, June 17, 8:30-8:45AM, Morning Coffee
Thursday, June 17, 6:15-6:30PM, “Afternoon Anarchy …and Cocktails”
Friday, June 18, 8:30-8:45AM, Morning Coffee
Friday, June 18, 5:30-5:45PM, “Afternoon Anarchy …and Cocktails”
Saturday, June 19, 8:30-8:45AM, Morning Coffee (and maybe Mimosas)

Guests and updates will be announced on Twitter via @SkyNova15

WHY CHOREOGRAPHERS SHOULD TWITTER

By Lisa Niedermeyer

I AM ADDICTED TO TWITTER AND HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY.  It came to me at 2:30 A.M.

I am a choreographer, therefore when it comes to structure that can be experimented with, in seemingly infinite ways…sign me up.

Choreographers who understand the value of SELF-IMPOSED LIMITATIONS will appreciate Twitter’s “micro-blogging” limit of 140 characters. It is a fascinating challenge to communicate something potent, funny or informative in a sentence or less.

INSTANT FEEDBACK.

A definite factor in my addiction is the ability to track (instantly) responses to my posts. We don’t get that as choreographers very often. With bit.ly (a tool that allows you to “shorten, share, and track your links”) I am able to see which posts are duds and which are viral. I’m not saying I want an audience member to immediately tell me if my work engaged them or not, but in this format it is definitely an absorbing factor. 

The Twitter community is world wide. I want a vast range of people to discover my posts about the work I am doing as a choreographer and (hopefully) be interested. Each word inside a twitter post is searchable. You can also utilize keywords by “hashing” in front of them. For example #videodance #nonprofit #freetickets. The challenge is to create multiple posts around a specific “theme” using variations of words and keywords to optimize many different people discovering your feed.

DIFFERING ENTRY POINTS.

Installations, site specific work, and performances that cycle are often playing with differing entry points for the audience into choreography. Twitter feeds are never static, the order of your posts is continuously affected by your community’s simultaneous posts.

Recently I posted an entire dance review in Twitter-bite-sized pieces spread out over the course of 24 hrs, with an active link to the full article in each tweet. For the sake of experimentation I created many pieces of something seemingly out of order/context to see if it engaged one to look for the larger picture.

NEW TOOLS.

Since Twitter has reached critical mass new tools are continously being created for the platform.  Perhaps most intriguing is relative newcomer Twiddeo, video for twitter.

NEW LANGUAGE.   Choreographers are dedicated to experimenting with movement language and are often adept at learning new movement languages thru improvisation (rather than just instruction). To “cyber civilians” Twitter feeds can look like a Wall Street ticker tape or the coding for the Matrix. Don’t let this intimidate you, once you jump in and start improvising, observing, testing the language, you will be confident in no time (or right about 2:30 am after your first Twitter marathon).

Are you a choreographer or media artist? Have you been experimenting with structure on Twitter? What has been successful or interesting for you?  We’d love to hear about your experiences and success stories promoting dance through video on Twitter.

Do you share your original dance videos on twitter?

Share your original dance videos on twitter with us @MovementMediaNY and we’ll Re-tweet (RT)!

Movement Media wants to help increase your online viewing audience by promoting your work.  Feel free to nominate the work of others on Twitter, and we’ll also RT those videos.

If you don’t have videos on Twitter, but you would like to view more video dances, you can follow Movement Media on Twitter to stay current with the artists and videos we feature.

Follow MovementMediaNY on Twitter and stay up-to-date on events such as Movement Media’s screenings, festivals, workshops, and webinars.  You can also stay up-to-date on the weekly videodances and artists we feature on our new Video Dance Channel on YouTube in our  FilmingDance4web Playlists!

As many artists feature their work on YouTube, Movement Media promotes artist videos on our YouTube channel as well.  Contact us to let us know about YouTube videos that we could feature for you.  Share your own dance promo videos, your videodances, or nominate other videodances you’ve seen on YouTube to share with our online audience.

On FilmingDance4web, we feature dancers, dance companies, choreographers, film directors, video artists, and animation in our playlists.  Playlists inlcude Movement Media’s Favorite Videodances, Featured Artists, Featured Countries, Cheap Digital Recorder Art, Cell Phone Videodances, Aerial Dance, Gymnastics & Acrobatics, Trampoline, Fire performers, and more.  We celebrate all forms of dance and videodances.  Tune in and enjoy!

We look forward to sharing your videos through Retweets and showcasing your work on our YouTube Video Dance Channel, FilmingDance4web.

What do dancers need?

Many dancers want to post their own dance videos online for self-promotion and need help finding equipment for filming.  For example, if a dancer doesn’t have a video recorder yet, they may want one, or other equipment to help them get creative.

Here are 5 different gift suggestions (with links and and reviews on equipment) from seasoned Cameraman, Ron Kienhuis.

1.  Video Digital Recorders

Digital Recorder by Zoom.  Most camcorders (especially cheap ones) have horrible sound recording features, or are AGC (non manually adjustable).  If audio is important to you, here’s a Digital Recorder by Zoom (known for the H2 and H4n) that does video!  It’s very affordable at $249.00.  http://www.discmakers.com/duplicators/peripherals/zoomq3.asp

Other multi-purpose recording devices are Digital Still Cameras with video capabilities.  Here the choices are endless.  Almost every manufacturer makes them in all price ranges.  The most useful would be a camera with a Wide Angle lens and low light capabilities.
Canon’s Power Shot S90 for $429.99.  http://tinyurl.com/yfyxxe5
Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-LX3 for $469.00.  http://tinyurl.com/6zyxpo

At the same time nearly all Video Cameras can take stills, some at the same time as recording video.  One of the last tape based cameras is the Canon HV-40. It has the capabilities to shoot 24P the infamous “Cinema” look.
Canon VIXIA HV-40 for $699.00.  http://tinyurl.com/yarxynk

Flip Video Camera.  Easy to use, and affordable.  It costs $159.00.  http://tinyurl.com/yej764v

Video Enabled Cell Phone or Music Player.  Try Apple’s iPhone or iPod Nano.  A simple way to record video is with a 3G iPhone or the new Apple Nano iPod.

iphone 3GS 32GB starting at $299.00. http://tinyurl.com/rbwkab.

ipod Nano 8GB at $149.00 and ipod Nano 16GB at $179.00. http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

2. Creative Filming Options

Here are some fun cameras to try some different types of shots.

Waterproof Camera.  Want to shoot near the water, or in it?!! Then you’ll need a waterproof camera.  Check out the Sanyo XACHI VPC-E2 Digital Camcorder and Digital Camera beginning at 169.99  http://tinyurl.com/ycsyyfo

A Pet’s Eye View camera for only $49.99.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cameras-photography/afbc/

3. Tripods and Camera Applications

GorillaCam Camera Application. Prefer to have a video recorded that affords you steady and level shots?  Gorillacam is an iphone app that works with your camera to improve your camera capabilities.  It includes a self-timer for self-portraits and group shots, and time-lapse photography, and other features for  FREE.  Read more here.  http://joby.com/gorillacam/

GorillaMobile Flexible Tripods.  When cell phones and some video recorders do not have ways to attach a tripod you need to rely on a friend to operate it unless you buy a tripod that can do the job.  A GorillaMobile is a flexible tripod with a custom-designed iphone case for $39.95.   You can also purchase GorillaPod for regular cameras for a cost of $21.95.  http://joby.com/gorillapod

4. Micro Projectors

(Brief review of the first 3 products made)

Optoma Pico Projector.  A video projector so small, you can carry it in your pocket. Then, when it’s time for a little entertainment, you can whip it out, connect it to your iPod or iPhone, and project your videos onto a nearby wall, ceiling or airplane seat back–a far more satisfying experience than watching the movie on a little two-inch screen.

The Optoma projector is aimed almost exclusively at iPods, iPhones and other smartphones that can play video, along with video sources that have RCA cables–the red/white/yellow cable set–like camcorders, DVD players, game consoles, digital cameras and other sources.  But you can’t connect it to a laptop (for spur-of-the-boardroom PowerPoint presentations, for example).  The Optoma projects iPhone videos effortlessly–but not photos.  It is sold in most retail stores ranging from $229-$400.  As these mini projectors are new to the market, the costs vary considerably depending on where one purchases the product.   http://tinyurl.com/c7q28k

3M’s Micro Professional Projector, the MPro110.  The 3M Micro Professional Projector MPro110 costs about $359.00.  It’s about the same size as Optoma (2 x .9 x 4.5 inches), but it’s not quite as bright; it tops out at about six feet from your “screen,” casting an image about 40 inches diagonally. And whereas the Optoma projector has a tiny, feeble built-in speaker, the 3M has none at all.  If you plan to use it for movies, you’ll also have to plan to connect headphones or speakers.

The 3M projector, on the other hand, is the only micro projector so far that accepts a standard laptop video signal (it has a VGA connector). On one hand, it may seem a little silly to use a micro projector for a laptop; in the end, the projected image isn’t all THAT much larger than the laptop’s own screen. Still, it can make the difference between showing your slides to three people and showing them to eight people.  The 3M also accepts input from RCA cables, just like the Optoma.  http://www.3m.com/mpro/news.html

Aiptek’s PocketCinema V10.  The Aiptek PocketCinema V10 takes yet a third approach.  Whereas the Optoma seems made in heaven for iPods and iPhones (and comes with the proper cable), and the 3M is a better bet for laptops, the Aiptek has a slot for a memory card, and, more intriguingly, 1 gigabyte of built-in storage.

In other words, you can carry this thing around without any other equipment at all, preloaded, ready to make your elevator pitch at any time, without having to connect or set up anything. (You do have to convert your pictures and movies to the projector’s preferred formats, which can be a pain.)

Connecting a laptop is pretty much hopeless unless it has either RCA or S-Video connectors, both of which are rare on laptops these days, or a VGA-to-RCA adapter. (Once again, any video source with RCA cables will work.)

The PocketCinema ($249.00-$300) is bigger than the other projectors (4.9 x 2.1 x 0.9), but it’s the only one with a decent speaker, a remote and a tripod. (Maximum image and distance: 42-inch image, 5 feet away.) http://tinyurl.com/y9rfggu

5. Speakers

For rehearsals how about a set of portable speakers for your iPhone?  These portable speakers cost $49.99.
http://www.dlo.com/products/view/portspeakers_universal

Or turn your iPod into a boombox.  Prices range from $14.00 to $100.
http://www.nextag.com/ipod-portable-speakers/stores-html

Good luck with your holiday shopping.  We hope these gift suggestions were helpful!  Happy Winter Solstice everyone and Merry Christmas!