pherank

The September 8, 2017 broadcast has appeared on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk0NSGok64k However, the audio appears out-of-sync with the visuals, at least for me. Hopefully that will be fixed. EDIT: the audio and video tracks are a better match by about 17:50 into the broadcast (as the Cathy Marston section is about to start).

Today's live broadcast (10/8/17) is now available on the SFB Facebook video page, and hopefully, will appear on their YouTube page soon : https://www.facebook.com/pg/sfballet/videos/?ref=page_internal Trey McIntyre, Cathy Marston, and Alonzo King are featured in this broadcast. "Look for Principal Dancers Sofiane Sylve and Tiit Helimets dancing a pas de deux; Principal Dancers Mathilde Froustey, Sarah Van Patten, and (brand-new to SFB) Ulrik Birkkjaer in a trio, and Corps de Ballet member Benjamin Freemantle in a break-out solo."

In Simkin's words: I am extremely grateful for the ten fantastic years I spent calling ABT "home." As a new chapter begins, I am thankful to Kevin McKenzie, who not only has been very supportive, but who is also allowing me to return to the wonderful New York audience in the future. Having grown up in Germany, I am looking forward to returning with everything that ABT has taught me and to joining Staatballett Berlin under the directorship of Sasha Waltz and Johannes Öhman starting in the 2018/2019 season. https://www.instagram.com/p/BYybIB5niaq/?hl=en&taken-by=daniil It does sound like he intends to keep 'one foot in the door' here in the US.

I certainly hope there will be another Millennium Stage broadcast, but, this being the END of the entire project, I think KC needs to step up and film the proceedings - and do a commercial release. Personally I think someone like Frederick Wiseman should have been asked to document the last "season" for posterity. But at least KC should film performances to create a commemorative DVD release. Anything else is going to seem rather appalling.

It's a hassle, to be sure, and an expense, but the benefits are numerous. I agree that the number of extroverts probably outnumbers the introverts - at least in front of the cameras. ;) There are so many principal-level dancers, in the present day, whose performances have never been captured on film, or they are limited to 1 or 2 DVDs only to represent their entire career(!) that programs like WBD Live are a godsend - not just some extra 'nicety'.

SFB has, fortunately, extended this approach to offer live videos from rehearsals for the 2018 UNBOUND Festival. These videos made during the "off" season (or in lieu of touring) are a great way of keeping the public aware of the companies and building anticipation for an event. Dance performances are such a fleeting thing to begin with, so films/videos of the movements are essential - often that's all we have of a work, 20, 30 years down the road. The demise (temporary?) of the Nureyev project in Moscow, and the effect of Hurricane Harvey on Houston Ballet's schedule reminds me that all the planning and rehearsal in the world doesn't mean much to the general public if the work is never seen. Sh1t happens, and so it would be better for dance companies to have a Plan B: videos of their current work to be made available as needed. How great that we now have this kind of footage to enjoy and study: Unbound LIVE: July 26, 2017 (rehearsal) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTHLx-97iDo Unbound LIVE: August 18, 2017 (rehearsal) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l_rmYPwD70 I'm looking forward to seeing the National Ballet of Japan footage - a great addition!

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned here yet - The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra is coming to Segerstrom Hall October 12-15 2017 Program: Classic Fokine Chopiniana The Swan Le Spectre do la Rose Scheherazade

What a shame this can't be a real tour of North America. I really hope money can be raised to at least pay for a filming of the performances.

Posted to Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYv5pRyHZgJ/?taken-by=balletrusse balletrusse "...I can not change my height, but what I can do is to dance as big as anyone else" Our special project #defiant starring Maria Kochetkova, one of the best ballet dancers of our time. Maria doesn't take no for an answer, with the incredible will she pushes towards her goals while staying true to herself. Rarely you see that in the ballet world – the world with total obedience to the canons and the discipline of iron. However, Maria managed to break these canons and did not allow others to dictate how she should behave. And because of this, she remains the inspiration for aspiring ballerinas. She calls it luck, we call it well deserved pay off for her incredible will and work. Project & video by Alisa Aslanova (@alisaaslanova ) Music by Dana Sokolova (@danasokolova_official ) feat. Scroodgee (@scroodgee_official ) – "Indigo" La Personne Ballet Magazine https://www.lapersonne.com/en/post/maria-kochetkova 'Maria Kochetkova is the person of our September issue and the brightest representative of the pleiad of defiant ballet dancers who, in spite of everything, break borders and stereotypes. “First of all you are a person” – under such motto Alisa Aslanova presents her special project “Defiant”. '

Unbound Choreographer Interviews: Stanton Welch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OggIQm_rZ3c I believe this is the first of the choreographer interviews that has been made available. There are some nice shots of the dancers that were not previously shown (but no extended dancing sequences). Nice to see Mathilde back in the studio after her absence.

From SFB: A new trio of choreographers will be featured in our upcoming Unbound LIVE. This broadcast, the third in our series of live streams, offers an early look at the brand-new ballets that Alonzo King, Cathy Marston, and Trey McIntyre are creating now with our dancers. Tune in September 8 at 5:30 pm on our Facebook page or on our website. Curious? Join us. #Unbound2018

Natasha Sheehan and Angelo Greco rehearsing Myles Thatcher's Foragers (which I believe they performed in the Erik Bruhn Competition) https://www.instagram.com/p/BYe333bn_3J/?taken-by=tippytoegirl

I haven't found any information yet - I was sort of hoping he followed Nedvigin to Atlanta Ballet, but I don't see any evidence of that at present.

Medici TV has announced: LIVE Saturday, September 2, 2017 9:00 AM PDT (the time displayed probably depends upon your computer's location when accessing the page) Lorca Massine's Parade, after Léonide Massine, music by Erik Satie, set and costumes by Pablo Picasso — In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Parade http://www.medici.tv/en/ballets/parade-pulcinella-grand-theatre-romain-de-pompei/ "Followed by Lorca Massine's Pulcinella, after Léonide Massine, music by Stravinsky, set and costumes by Pablo Picasso" And they are having a "Back to School" sale: 30% off annual subscriptions

I've run into this weird attitude myself - for all the moaning and groaning about "building an audience", the individual organizations ca be amazingly self-serving, and dense, when it comes to dealing with ballet promotion. I remember a period of my childhood when we went to out grandparent's house on Saturdays for dinner and we all watched the Lawrence Welk Show (which my grandparents loved). I was not very appreciative, but kept my mouth shut as was expected of me. My family also watched The Ed Sullivan Show when that was around.

Frances Chung video that accompanied a short Dance Magazine article: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYMuAU6lUq9/?taken-by=franadian http://www.dancemagazine.com/frances-chung-why-i-dance-2476206925.html "Perhaps the toughest part about being a ballet dancer is finding your own identity within the art form. As beautiful and as blissful as it is to dance, I have seen ballet swallow up dancers and spit them back out. It can be ruthless. And the pain can be both physical and psychological: the disappointment of not being cast in a ballet, getting a terrible review after pouring out your heart and soul onstage, or succumbing to an injury. "

Unless one has a vested interest in the arts (for work or hobby) then it isn't likely that the details of children's exposure to the arts is going to be of interest. That's life. Unfortunately, in the U.S. at least, it's not likely that schools can be relied upon to give children a decent exposure to arts such as dance, or drawing/painting. Music, poetry/fiction and drama exposure is hit-and-miss depending upon the school and its special programs (if they haven't been cancelled at his point).

Ah, then you've already been initiated into the 'wonders' of the Web. ;) Best of luck to us all! You've probably noticed that services like Google are not supportive of VPN use, and a browser like Safari is really cumbersome to use if one is using maximum privacy settings. For an easy time browsing, you've got to play along with the big web companies. You probably are aware that companies like Facebook and Google are working hard to deliver the next generation of trackers, which will be even harder to deal with. And tracking for mobile devices isn't the same as what works for desktop computers. Unfortunately, I think we are fast approaching a time when "surfing" the Internet will simply consist of a login to the Amazon/Facebook/Google/Apple system, and the environment will be completely controlled by them. Much like the old days when viewers decided between ABC, CBS, and NBC TV channels. I doubt there will be more options - there will be fewer.

"By 'their site' do you mean Facebook's?" Yes. "Doesn't this generate a pretty comprehensive map of where that user has been and what they did there?" Yes, and no, like everything else. ;) If you are a Facebook registered user - and only then - Facebook keeps track of everything that you "LIKE" on 3rd party web pages (because that requires using Facebook applications and Facebook owns all the LIKE buttons distributed around the Internet). And if there is advertising on that 3rd party web page you are visiting that relates to Facebook, you get more tracking cookies deposited on your computer. Essentially, if you allow Facebook to deposit cookies on your computer, you will be tracked across many websites (unless those websites are not part of the Facebook universe). The actual information that they are gathering is limited to certain items though (and somewhere in their policy that is specified). I'm not about to say that Facebook isn't intrusive - personally, I made the decision to not play their game anymore, and Google is a similar matter. The important thing is that Facebook can only really track your online behavior when you are going to websites that support Facebook ads and LIKE buttons, and yes, that is a lot of commonly used websites. And it is always possible to remove the cookies from your computer (and you should do so routinely). Facebook - and any other company - can track activity on any of their own servers. And there are many webmaster tools that can be employed to do that (not just Facebook-created software tools). But, no, they cannot follow your IP around the Internet, unless they are using completely intrusive methods (for example, "Trojan Horse" -type of software that is literally deposited secretly on your computer, and is a software program). Facebook is still dependent on you landing on Facebook-connected pages. And if you're not a Facebook user, you disallow cookies from Facebook, and you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect to the Web (which disguises your real IP address) then they are very limited as to what they can get from your browser when you land on a Facebook page. [I always recommend using a program like "CCleaner" to delete your cached browser files (HTML pages, images, cookies, browser history, etc.) after every time you finish browsing the Web. This can help to get rid of malware before it activates itself on your computer.] Cookies (small bits of text) and "tracking pixels" work in conjunction with the creator's web pages. So, in the case of Facebook, they leave a browser cookie on your computer (in one of the browser's software directories - unless you have disallowed this functionality in the software preferences) that is "found" the next time you land on a Facebook page (and that page has code to read what was written to your Facebook cookie). The Facebook code knows where to look on your computer for their cookies (it's a previously assigned location that depends upon the operating system you use, and such). Note: Tracking pixels allow websites to track how many times a webpage has been viewed (visits), or how many time an email was opened (opens). The tracking pixel was/is a little piece of HTML code containing an 1 x 1 pixel transparent image that is inserted in the web pages of a website or in the email you send, but this effect can now also be created with JavaScript. The web server software keeps track of the number of times these images were accessed (the web page was viewed). Yes, the web server is already keeping track of web page access, but advertisers don't have access to Facebook's server logs, so using tracking pixels is one easy way to track visits to an ad page (used in conjunction with an ad tracking system). Sorry if this sounds like babble - this stuff gets to be pretty complicated so I'm just giving you a basic explanation. You can read this article regarding a lawsuit with Facebook - the title turns out, naturally, to be misleading: Facebook Can Track Your Internet Activity After You Log Out, Says Judge http://fortune.com/2017/07/03/facebook-tracking-privacy-lawsuit/

One problem is that "viewing" an ad is not a guarantee that the ad was read (at all) and cognitively understood by the reader. Was the ad influential, or just annoying? For companies that have their own websites that are capable of e-commerce transactions (ordering tickets online), it's easy to track the number of users coming from a specific Facebook page and landing on a ticket purchase form page of the company website, and filling out and submitting that form. It's the reverse situation that isn't really doable - Facebook can't know for certain what happens when a user clicks on a Facebook ad and then leaves their site. If that makes sense. What has long been frustrating for marketing departments is that the statistics coming from websites/Facebook/Instagram, etc. are recordings of mechanical/electronic events only. Determining why a user took a particular action is harder to suss out. I'm sure many people have run into a situation in which they purchased an item on a website and then were asked to fill out a "quick survey" about their experience. The survey represents information that marketing would presumably love to know about, but often the surveys ask the user questions that may seem irrelevant, or oddly focused - marketing doesn't always know the right questions to ask a a particular group. The questions we ask often betrays are own interests and not those of the person being questioned.

That's one! ;) The great mystery I think is what is happening with the people who occasionally wander through this forum and read some of various threads, but never leave comments themselves (presumably people who never created an account) - do they purchase tickets to performances based on what they have read?

The easy way dancer's have of helping out the companies is through the use of the ubiquitous hashtags (for Instagram). That way some of the dancer's followers will click on the hashtag and reach a true advertising and sales webpage (the hashtag and webpage would have to be set up in advance by the company). I imagine it isn't too difficult to use hashtags correctly and conscientiously in posts(!), but not everyone will want to play. This discussion naturally leads me to think about the postings on this website, and whether there is actually any conversion to ticket sales, or if it's all just preaching to the choir. ;) Has anyone read a discussion on Ballet Alert that induced them to go to a show that they otherwise would not have known about, or cared to purchase a ticket for?

From sfballet's Instagram page: Monday means 1 more day until we are offering special Nutcracker tickets for just $35! Visit our Facebook page tomorrow at 10am for details! https://www.facebook.com/sfballet/

"If Facebook wanted to tell NYCB how many Sara Mearns followers also bought an NYCB ticket, it could probably do so within a reasonable margin of error" — That's what companies would like to know, but I'm going to argue that it would require an NSA-level of intrusiveness to actually determine the effectiveness of the 3rd party (dancer's) Instagram postings. And, that is one reason why ballet companies still rely upon "user satisfaction" and feedback surveys to find out who actually did what, when and why. And plenty of people don't want to fill those out online, or in the mail, or don't supply their email addresses and only purchase tickets from the ticket box, etc. "Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram have a robust array of tools for marketers that would allow a ballet company to make a pretty direct link between ad views and subsequent ticket purchases" — Dancer's social media postings are not the same kind of information though. The only sure fire way to do this is to track clicks on promotion hyperlinks that link directly to online ticket forms. And it is possible to track whether the same IP address arrived at the ticket form and submitted it, or whether they didn't actually go through with the transaction. There are so many variables in all of this. When Dancer Z posts, "Arriving in Mexico today" and an Instagram follower comments, "OMG! I didn't know you were performing here! I want to go." What is a software analysis program to make of these conversations? I would estimate that at least 95% of the postings and comments never rise above this level of specificity/vagueness. Now, ballet companies and gala committees may start pressuring their dancers to write posts that are more effective at guiding people to online ticket purchases forms, but I can imagine the dancers will mostly balk at being part of the sales and marketing machinery of ballet organizations. They are looking for a space to talk about general feelings and impressions about absolutely anything (including politics, btw).

I wouldn't count on any research being done. ;) It's not all that easy to even relate Instagram followers (plus the people who regularly visit certain Instagram pages, but aren't "followers") to something like ticket subscriptions. It can be a way to create some amount of "buzz" around an event, but converting to actual ticket sales is another matter. What is doable: if a ballet company places a link on their Instagram/Facebook pages that advertises a special ticket offer, then it is possible to measure the link clicks VS the number of actual online ticket purchases on the landing page. Dancers will often mention a gala they are participating in - but they do so as it is happening (which makes it hard to drive ticket sales). It's pretty rare for a dancer to use their Facebook/Instagram page as a true marketing tool, since for most of them it is mainly a personal page, and not strictly for informing the public about their performances. But I generally see a mishmash of both kinds of information.