Doug Fox is Perplexed Doug Fox in his blog Great Dance Weblog has often offered the suggestion that choreographers video tape portions of their rehearsal and post a bit of tape on the Internet via blog and ask for feedback - click on the title of this blog to read it. I posed this exact question to my Production Seminar class which has ten MFA choreographers. They didn't like the idea at all! I know this is a new idea, so opinions will likely shift as they consider it over time. One student is very worried someone will steal her work and her ideas. Another wonders why you wouldn't just ask another choreographer in the studio next door. The conversation got quite heated (actually we all love when this happens) with me suggesting scenarios where you might need a more sophisticated point of view, a wider band of feed back and simple self-promotion. Doug Fox also states.... ...seem to have little interest in exploring how the distributed and universal nature of the Internet can be leveraged to transform the process of creating performances and collaborating with global audiences. I think we'll have to see someone do it successfully once to imagine it. The attempts I've seen, frankly, have been boring. Even back in the dawn of the Internet, when I saw music co-performed in Internet Cafe's in Santa Fe, Santa Monica and San Francisco and all I really wanted to see was the life stuff. Look at what we can do -- it's cool. Yeah, it's cool but doesn't interest me much. I think the idea of working on a grand scale is a great idea and a few might be successful at it. Yet, if we are talking numbers - and with the Internet we are always talking numbers - I think the real strength of these tools will be to generate audiences locally. Our education system is pumping out new artists who think they need to follow the model of fifty years ago; join a company and hopefully tour the nation. Gone are the days when just a few leading artists were the core of Art Thought and Presentation. Following the newer model of Regional Theater and following the Regional Ballets like the ones in Memphis and Tulsa is a much more likely scenario. We may still have our Super Stars but we need to think about becoming Local Heroes. Memphis Ballet is creating New Work based on the locale and generating audiences who have knowledge of the local history or have civic pride. While Community based Light Opera groups are dependent on the whims of Broadway generating material, I think choreographers who can create New Work can thrive locally. The Internet tools used then could be an interactive website offering a chance to give reviews (I think this was Doug's idea in a past blog) which gives people the feeling of ownership and connection with a company. I also really like the idea of "profiling" on MySpace even though it's flawed, the idea is right -- of finding people of like interests and bringing them together. Using a blog to "preview" an upcoming performance is a much more appealing idea than generating feedback on a piece of choreography. Modern Dance has always embraced new technology. I can think of 20 examples like Bella Lewitzky's company being commissioned to feature the new product: spandex. I do believe that the Dance World is a little behind in imagining how the Internet technology can be used. Let's let the need create it's good use rather than letting what the tools can offer drive it's application.