I just thought this was such a cool idea, that I had to share.
Birmingham’s Arova Contemporary Ballet – see my earlier piece here – is having a choreography competition.
The tagline is “Please Turn Your Cell Phones On and Enjoy the Show”. Which reflects the dance company’s unusual choice to “embrace public display of technology”.
The new season of Arova will begin with shows in October and invites the audience to bring along cell phones – and use them at the show. The show will represent the finals of a choreography competition where the audience will participate in the judging by texting their votes during intermission. Cool, huh?
Since the winners can’t be announced until the final performance on October 4th, current scores will be announced online so that past audience members can stay tuned. The winning choreographer will be awarded $500 and a contract with Arova for 2010. The second-place award is $200 and an Audience Choice Award winner will receive $100.
Just as cool, the competing aspiring choreographers will be selected via YouTube video links on Arova’s website. From August 1 through August 15, dance enthusiasts and the rest of the unwashed masses will be able to watch videos from the contestants and rate those entries. See the Arova website for further details on how to enter the competition. If I did my best Chris Farley/Michael Stipe, would they put it up?
The Arova shows will be October 2-4 at the Virginia Samford Theatre.
Why don’t other arts organizations incorporate this cool idea? Give your audience members a number to text reviews, comments, ideas, etc, during or after the show? If you want a connection with younger audiences, I think this may be a way to go. The Extemporaneous Theatre Company is an obvious choice to use this idea, since they’re always soliciting direct feedback from the audience. But I don’t know why theatres wouldn’t do this with plays. Or even groups like the Alabama Ballet or the ASO. The audiences would like the feeling of connection and the organizations, I’d bet, would enjoy the feedback – even if it’s sometimes just a mishmash of LOLz and mischief. Mischief is fun.