Technology and its Effect on the Dance World

Whilst reading through my module handbooks and reader, I notice there is a lot of emphasis on technology and the internet. That would make sense considering that I am taking part in an away learning course and many of these tools, such as the internet, social media and online conference calls are essential to my involvement in the process. My ability to use Skype in order to stay in contact with my course supervisor for example is extremely useful. It allows me to be able to have those immediate interactions with another person in order to help better communicate and stay in touch with my progress on the course.

I wanted to take this moment to link these themes and ideas with how things like social media etc. has affected the dance world and see whether I think that it is making a positive or negative impact on different aspects of dance.

To start, I think that technology has been exceedingly helpful for performers in order to create a profile for themselves and be able to create networks that can be very beneficial for their careers. One example of creating a profile is the ability to find websites designed for both dancers and employers seeking employment/employees. These sites allow dancers to upload CV's, photos and videos. You can advertise yourself within certain fields and you can let potential employers know what sort of work you are seeking. On the other side of things, theatres and companies can browse these profiles and also let dancers know if auditions are being held or if they even are seeking anyone to work for them. There are several sites like these but one of particular note I'd like to share is Network Dance. Here is a screenshot of my own Network Dance profile.

I've found this website to be particularly effective in keeping me informed on upcoming auditions and contracts that are going within various companies. I will receive regular emails letting me know what jobs are going that match the criteria I have listed within my profile e.g. classical ballet performance work.

This leads me on to my next point that the internet has been very beneficial for companies and choreographers in order to let the world know what work they are doing and what repetoire they have going on. This is useful in two ways. First of all it makes the institutions more accessible to the public and can help draw in the crowds. Second of all it can attract dancers seeking employment as they may be drawn to a certain company's repetoire or facilities. In this day and age it is debatable that going to the theatre for entertainment isn't as popular as it once was. Harnessing the internet and social media in order to gain exposure I believe is a great way to maintain a healthy flow of audience members.

As well as just being able to use the internet as a platform for advertising, it has been proven to be a very useful tool in gathering feedback. Certain websites can make it very accessible for theatre goers to inform theatres, companies and choreographers on what they would like to see and be able to hint at what types of shows may be most successful.

So far I have been very praising of technology's affect on the dance world (and the business world in general for that matter). I also have a few points that may expose another angle on technology.

Many dancers and companies will use video cameras to record shows and rehearsals. This can prove to be very useful for the sake of documenting choreography and being able to teach new dancers certain works. I would personally argue that the use of cameras can slightly change choreography over time. Because the camera records exactly what it sees and because we're only human, that will include every mistake also which could have a knock on effect to new dancers learning parts, essentially acting like a big game of Chinese whispers with choreography! Prior to video cameras there were various forms of dance notation. One example which is arguably the main method still in circulation is called Benesh. It works on staves like music would and documents exactly what the dancer is performing. Here is an example of Benesh with the image of a dancer above representing the positions that have been notted below.

Despite the precision of notation, many companies may not have the funds or desire even to hire an annotator so the ability to use video cameras can be a very cheap and easy solution to documenting dance.

One last thought about social media is that it makes it far easier for an employer to learn about someone via their online presence. Many of us take very different approaches to how we present ourselves on a website such as Facebook compared to how we would on a professional site such as Network Dance or LinkedIn. A potential employer could very well search for someone's private social media profiles in order to make a judgement on whether they would like to hire such a person. That poses certain ethical questions as to how much access should an employer have and how much information should be shared between an employer and employee.

Despite raising positive and negative points on the subject, I think overall technology has been great for the dance world. There are arguments for and against old methods versus the new ones but essentially it has allowed much easier networking and profiling among dancers and companies. There is much freedom and access to information but in such a situation many of us may have to be careful with just how much we share!