Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

• Broadcasting and narrow-casting inroads are being made with more work being
commissioned, which creates both new means of distribution and new audiences
• Pockets of expertise in the use of new technology exist, but they are isolated.
• The development of the ‘prosumer’ 76 has led to more dance on YouTube, mobile
phone programmes etc.
• Technology can inform the process of making work.
• Technology changes the notion of authorship and ownership of work.
The dance profession has been active in this field for some time, creatively using some of the
older technologies and approaching new ones with energy. Filming and broadcasting of
dance being one of its major successes. Ballet has been particularly well represented on
television and is now outstripped by the Strictly Come Dancing phenomenon.
Dance’s successes
• Dance pioneered innovative filming of works in the late 1980s, influencing the filming
of all arts through the work of Colin Nears and Bob Lockyer.
• Dance is a popular part of mainstream television offer – Strictly Come Dancing, X
Factor, Dancing on Ice.
• Documentaries have been made of some of our living choreographers e.g. Wayne
McGregor’s Infra with the Royal Ballet and Akram Khan and Juliette Binoche’s in: i.
• Dance TV is being developed by Birmingham DanceXchange – broadband TV station
covering all forms of dance.
• Global digital dance online competition is being launched by Sadler’s Wells.
• Animation using Motion Capture is starting to be developed – e.g. full-length feature
film of ENB’s The Nutcracker.
• Some dance agencies are specialising in digital e.g. Capture and Dance Digital.
• Many venues now show excerpts from their forthcoming programme on their
websites as a marketing tool.
• Many venues now use online booking tools.
• Live streaming of work into cinemas is being developed, notably Opera and Ballet
through the Metropolitan Opera and Royal Opera House.
• Forward Motion – produced by South East Dance with support from Arts Council
England and the British Council is a collection of dance films made available for
international distribution.
• Live performance includes film and video across small, medium and large scales.
• Most organisations have email, digitised management systems and their websites.
76 Prosumers/ building communities/ social networking/ upload/ download tools - Web 2
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