DANCE TROUPESWHERE DREAMS ARE MADE

When I was nine I started ballet and modern dance classes at Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City. I learned as well as travelled with this great group of dancers and teachers until the age of fifteen. The teachers who I remember as having the most influence over my development as a young women at that

time are Karel Shook and Marie Brooks. Mr. Shook died in 1985 and Marie Brooks, a dance troupe founder, has been honored many times in her life by creative arts organizations; most recently by the Manna House Workshop, October 2011. A video clip of this last accolade can be seen at: http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr_k4nlZg4I&feature=colike. Our travels and performances were spread by radio, word of mouth and believe it or not fliers! Things have changed quite a bit in the past 40 years!

DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM466 West 152nd Street

New York, NY 10031dancetheatreofharlem.org/

40 Years…….40 StoriesDance Theatre of Harlem is Celebrating its 40th anniversary and is using their website to ask alumni to share stories from their time at DTH. Alumni are asked to submit a three minute YouTube clip of their memories.

DTH Using Social Media to Share Their Work and VisionHarlem Dance Works 2.0 is a dance laboratory to develop new work and engage audiences both in person and online in the creative process. This bold two year initiative will present multifaceted public projects intended to create shared meaning around the creation of new works by combining dance artists, scholars, active audience participants, and the innovative use of technology. Along with studio showings, vibrant interactive arts experiences will be fostered via social media, webisodes, blogging and rich online content. Even so there are dance troupes that are using social media in a more aggressive manner to drum up interest, money and performance attendance...

Ephemeral … Mark Morris's Joyride, performed by San Francisco Ballet.

…According to http://www.guardian.co.uk; the San Francisco Ballet may well be at the forefront of using social media to get their message out to the public . "I'm not really a technology person," shrugs principal ballerina Maria Kochetkova. But in 2005, she was one of the first professional dancers to sign up to Twitter and, as @balletrusse, she now has 180,000 followers. Other SFB dancers are following her lead. In the marketing department, there's a full-time "digital engagement coordinator" posting comments on Facebook and Twitter, and drumming up online buzz.

The New York Ballet Uses Twitter

The title of the New York Times article the above picture was taken from is:” Ballet Stars Now Tweet as Well as Flutter.” The caption reads: “Ashley Bouder of City (NY) Ballet tweeting during a rehearsal break. The article goes on to state; “Katherine E. Brown, City Ballet’s executive director, said: “There’s something special about them talking about the company and the work they’re doing in their own words and giving that behind-the-scenes sort of feel to it. In a way, demystifying it a bit.”

Ballet on Twitter

The above graphic is from a 2010 the balletbag.com article that declares: “social media has the potential to “turn the ballet microcosm into an universe, to make it expand beyond its captive audience and hopefully reach out to those who still believe ballet is old fashioned and all about girls in tutus & tiaras; men in tights.”

Dance Theatre of Harlem's’ Twitter PageAs balletbag.com says: “It is still early days for dance on social media channels. Although there’s a lot more ground work to be done to attract new audiences, we are fully supportive of creative, interactive ways to do so. If tweeting is what it takes, then let the twitterverse be flooded with dancers. We hope they become increasingly aware of how much of the power to demystify their chosen art form lies with them.” AMEN!