The show must go on—YouTube: Dance companies debut streaming opps

In conjunction with this month’s Chicago premiere of Swan Lake,  will stream its rehearsal process with choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and the company’s artistic director Ashley Wheater at https://www.youtube.com/user/TheJoffreyBallet.

It is the first time the ballet company has ever used streaming to help promote a show, realizing the digitally accessible online venue is a way to maximize its marketing efforts.

Like the Joffrey, The Dance COLEctive (TDC) is using digital media to help reach its goals. At 7 p.m. on November 2, the company will expand its audience by streaming the closing night performance of its program Holding Ground for free on its website www.dancecolective.com.

“There are many reasons I’m interested in the idea of streaming a live performance,” says TDC director and choreographer Margi Cole. “I want to share my work with students, collaborators and artists I have relationships with outside Chicago. In fact, we’re encouraging people in other states to organize viewing parties, which we’ll report on via social media. To date, fans in central Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and Vermont are already committed to watching.

“For those in Chicago, it offers another point of view on the live performance, perhaps even from backstage. I encourage Chicagoans to come to the live version, then watch it streaming and compare.”

To stream the live performance, Cole is working with Justin Kulovsek of Nesek Digital, which has enabled several nonprofit organizations with video streaming, from Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival to the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

“We are proud to be working with TDC on their first live streamed performance,” says Kulovsek. “The live video stream allows people around the world the chance to see this unique dance performance.”