Dance videos aren’t what they used to be. Or at least, our anticipation and cherishing of them have changed. With more widespread video-making technology, we don’t treasure the videos that are posted on Youtube. We’ve consumed these videos at a faster rate than ever before. We favorite them with a click of our mouse. And so, it’s not as special when a video gets released online from a dancer. We used to wait in great anticipation for a VHS or DVD release from an OG or shell our forty bucks for the last Freestyle Session tape from the Armory. Now, we can go to a contest and look it up on Youtube the same night.
Will this change when live-streaming video becomes more accessible to the greater public? Possibly. We may start seeing dancing being viewed as sporting events with live broadcasts dominating the channels online. But what we’re yearning for is envisioning the future of the dance video artform in a new light. We can’t go back to the way things were. But dance on film, especially street styles and hip hop choreography, still have many opportunities that remain unexplored. Or at the very least, these ventures have not been revealed to the public yet.
Today, we see specific Youtube clips inspiring a kid to dance. Ten years ago, it was a video compilation like Detours that launched a wave of new school dancers to embrace street styles with an abstract flair. We’re hoping that a new form of dance video can emerge; something more put together than the quickly recorded clips found on Youtube. Will it be more interactive? Will the LXD project bring a new conversation to the public by having its dancers interact with its audience? Technology is at a different state now than it was ten years ago, so the new dance video should embrace that.
What we have seen so far is a deconstruction of the traditional dance video into clips found randomly online. It has become more democratic and has allowed dancers of different styles and skill levels to be seen. But can we build from this? Can we envision dance in a new way on the two-dimensional image plane? We’re hoping that a new generation will embrace filmmaking and dance in an inspired fusion project.
I'm feeling you in terms of the lack of interaction giving the vids less weight than product associated artists. Performances are not easy to brand but may be in the future so more props go to the dancers by their fansbase you can count.
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