Kristin Sloan just wrote this excellent post on The Winger. Apparently, the Berliner Philharmoniker is doing like Misnomer did and is live-streaming their performances. Except they’ve set theirs up so that they have a permanent website and they charge people for viewing. You can buy either single or season tickets. And then you watch live on the internet.
I think this would be such an excellent idea for dance companies. Nothing can take the place of a live performance but there are so many people who don’t get a chance to see those because of where they live, because of finances, etc. Why not live-stream so everyone can see? Then I wouldn’t be having so many of these discussions about my favorites with myself 🙂 or with very few fortunate others who happen to live in New York or another big city.
Every season at Alvin Ailey they put out a souvenir book that includes pics of the dancers and info about the history of the company, which I always get. This year, in honor of their 50th anniversary, they had a section where the dancers were quoted saying something about what being in the company, dancing, etc. means to them. Kirven Boyd, one of my favorites, said how amazing it was to perform under the Parthenon in Greece, “to be on stage under the stars.” Of course initially I felt a pang of jealousy. But then I thought, how great that would be for all their home-based fans to see as well. And others who’ve never had the chance to see them. This is a company that travels widely, all over the world. How cool would it be for them to live-stream their international performances?
And how cool to live-stream as well performances by other intriguing and provocative dance companies — Morphoses, William Forsythe, Tere O’Connor, Jerome Bel, to name a few? Then we could all have these discussions about choreography, about how meaning is made through movement, about what constitutes art, etc., that the people who make these annoying TV shows are so insistent on not having!
