Marc Kirschner

Dancing up Next for iPods – WSJ.com

TenduTV in the Wall Street Journal: Article

Now that the Beatles are downloadable on iTunes, the next frontier awaits: ballet.

On Wednesday, the New York-based distributor of dance programming TenduTV announced that a select group of dance performances and movement-based short films will be among the initial offerings, available in December, for download on Apple’s online service.

Though the upcoming titles may not have the reach of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the announcement marks an important step for dance, said Marc Kirschner, the general manager and founder of TenduTV.

“This is about making the work accessible to audiences —accessible in away that delivers quality,” he said, adding that the distribution also means more support for artists. “Dance was never able to develop a secondary revenue stream.”

via Dancing up Next for iPods – WSJ.com.

TenduTV mainstreams and monetizes dance film – Time Out Chicago

TenduTV just got a big write up in TimeOut Chicago (online and print). The article can be found by clicking this link:http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/dance/90546/tendutv-mainstreams-and-monetizes-dance-film

We have a truly exciting upcoming release schedule and look forward to bringing dance to new and existing audiences through the highest quality and most user friendly digital network in existence today.

YouTube radically changed the landscape for dancers and fans, as personal video collections and archival rarities made their way online. But the scenery didn’t change for the famously cash-starved field of dance itself. Enter Marc Kirschner, 36, founder and general manager of media-distribution label TenduTV. As the company’s site puts it, “No other art form has as much of an imbalance between popularity and revenue capability [as] dance, and we believe the time has come for a change.”

A graduate of Northwestern University and Columbia Business School, Kirschner worked in digital-media strategy consulting; the United States Tennis Association and producers for Discovery and National Geographic were among clients of his prior venture Sumaki. He shrewdly shifted his focus to the dance world. Companies and choreographers couldn’t control their content as it showed up online; many weren’t even aware that snippets from discontinued and slow-selling videos to which they owned rights were suddenly pulling in millions of views. (Just as young tennis pros pore over clips of Roger Federer’s forehand, aspiring ballerinas obsessively re-watch superstars perform tricky solos and pas de deux in which they hope to be cast some day.)

via TenduTV mainstreams and monetizes dance film – Time Out Chicago.

Back to the Future: The NEA Survey on Arts Participation

FROM THE GREEN ROOM: Dance/USA’s e-Journal

By Marc Kirschner

The ultimate conclusion of the National Endowment for the Art’s Audience 2.0 survey, that “Arts participation through media appears to encourage – rather than replace – live arts attendance,” is neither a surprise, nor news. It’s not the first study to come to that conclusion, and, in fact, any other outcome would have flown in the face of conventional wisdom. That said, for the NEA to supplement its 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts with an edition focused purely on media is an important first step in changing the dialogue, and putting to rest some basic fears that have impeded real progress in the performing arts.

The NEA survey’s primary function is to serve as a snapshot: here is the state of the art at this particular time. It serves this function well. But it’s not enough, nor does the NEA claim it to be. Whereas the survey provides a valuable data point that can kick-start forward-thinking dialogue, the practical impact of the survey is limited by the rapid rate of innovation that has taken place over the past few years. Since the beginning of the May 2007 survey period:

• Facebook’s user base has grown from 20 million to 400 million users

• The entire book publishing industry has been turned upside down by e-readers, such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad

• Millions of set-top boxes, Blu-ray DVD and home theater PCs have connected televisions to broadband Internet

• Hulu launched its online video service to the public

• More than 300,000 people viewed simulcasts and encores of the Metropolitan Opera’s Carmen

• The first 3-D network began broadcasting

• Four generations of iPhones have been released

Three vital audience behaviors – seeking, browsing, and consuming content and information – have changed dramatically over the past few years and are going to continue to evolve with new technology. The most popular technologies now in wide use are not the latest fads to hit the market – they are in their second, third and fourth generations. New business models have emerged, failed, succeeded, been modified, adapted, discarded and improved in real time over just three years.

There is value to all organizations in being able to recognize how out of date the research contained in this report is.

While some dance companies are still wondering what to do about YouTube and Facebook, and continue to take a “wait and see” attitude toward more intensive and productive uses of technology, other organizations and artists are taking risks and challenging long-held assumptions. The UK’s National Theatre (NT) released a report earlier this month about the impact of satellite cinema broadcasts of Phedre on its audiences. Dance can learn from this survey not because cinema audiences “reported higher levels of emotional engagement” than live audiences, but because the NT has already implemented the findings into its strategic plan.

Which raises another key issue: Once a dance company has actionable information and presumably wants to act, can it?

A general consensus throughout many dance company boards maintains that risk should be avoided, instead of managed. Progressive initiatives are stalled because decision-makers are unfamiliar, don’t understand, condescend toward or don’t even use the new technologies. A few months ago, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Michael Kaiser wrote in The Huffington Post:

“… the biggest problem we face in the arts is a lack of trained arts managers and board members. One can trace the demise of virtually every bankrupt arts organization to a lack of competent staff and/or board leadership.”

Understanding these new technologies has to be included in the definition of organizational competency. Funders need to be a part of the process. They need to share in the risk and mandate progress by funding short-term technology-rich projects capable of returning incremental and current knowledge and experience. Failure should be viewed as being as valuable as success. Instead of funding a few massive multiyear programs where, by the time targets are defined, funds are awarded, data is analyzed and findings are shared, all of the basic assumptions have changed, let’s put future funding resources into smaller, faster, more nimble projects.

Fail. Fail again. Succeed. Build on that success. Move forward.

We can’t wait for long-range studies to tell us that three years ago data showed engagement via electronic media encouraged arts participation. We can’t wait for studies to tell us, three years from now, what is happening today.

Marc Kirschner is the founder and general manager of TenduTV. TenduTV aggregates and distributes dance-related programming through its network of more than 70 digital platforms capable of reaching over half a billion devices in ten countries. He currently serves on the Dance/NYC advisory committee.

via Back to the Future: The NEA Survey on Arts Participation — FROM THE GREEN ROOM: Dance/USA’s e-Journal.

TENDU TV PREMIERES DANCE ON CAMERA FESTIVAL ON HULU

Worth a look, TenduTV deals with expanding a distributed idea of presentation, now presenting in partnership with Hulu!

Contact: Michelle Brandon Tabnick, (646) 765-4773,  michelle@michelletabnickcommunications.com

TenduTV announces the launch of the digital Dance on Camera Festival on Hulu, at www.hulu.com/network/tendutv. The digital Dance on Camera Festival is an extension of the Dance Films Association’s Dance on Camera Festival (DOCF), which it has produced annually for the last 38 years, the last 14 of which have been co-presented with the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

“This new venture presents an exciting opportunity for dance film artists to expand their audience. The bulk of today’s viewers consume their media digitally. Our partnership with TenduTV widens our distribution while offering an excellent, new venue for our participating artists,” said Deirdre Towers, artistic director of Dance Films Association.

“We’re excited to take this first step forward towards meeting the needs of the dance field. Finally, dance audiences can begin to get the access they eagerly desire. The Dance Films Association is a great partner and we’re looking forward to doing all we can to help them fulfill their mission,” said Marc Kirschner, General Manager of TenduTV.

TenduTV will be adding new films on a regular basis, providing viewers with a diverse range of dance on screen. While the initial films primarily represent contemporary works from prior editions of the festival, the Dance Films Association and TenduTV will also curate focused collections of dance films. Planned themes include “Past Masters,” “Africa” and “Animation.”

The first six films are available now, and feature dancers from some of the dance world’s most renowned companies, including Tanztheater Wuppertal, Frankfurt Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Armitage Gone! Dance.

These films are:

Arcus, a jury prize nominee, DOCF 2004
directed by Alla Kovgan and Jeff Silva

Arising, from DOCF 2009
directed and choreographed by Ben Dolphin

Folies D’Espagne, a jury prize nominee, DOCF 2008
directed by Philip Busier
choreographed by Austin McCormick

Madrugada, from DOCF 2005
directed by William Morrison
choreographed by Deborah Greenfield

Vanishing Point, DOCF 2009
directed by Patrick Lovejoy

Wiped, Jury Winner, DOCF 2002
directed and choreographed by Hans Beenhakker

TenduTV also announced the addition of Cory Greenberg to its advisory board.  Ms. Greenberg is Director of Operations & Special Projects for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as well as Ailey’s in-house counsel.  She received her undergraduate degree cum laude in Art History from Duke University and her law degree from New York University School of Law, where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow and a recipient of the Vanderbilt Medal for Public Service.

About TenduTV

Founded in 2008, TenduTV seeks to deliver dance to audiences through the highest quality digital distribution network available to the art form today.  Through TenduTV’s platform partners, dance artists and organizations will be able to transport their vision beyond the physical theater and engage audiences through computers and 200 million digital devices including internet-enabled televisions, portable video players and mobile devices. By empowering artists to connect with audiences on a global scale, TenduTV believes that the dance field can be as strong financially as it is creatively.

About Dance Films Association, Inc.

Dance Films Association, Inc. (DFA) is dedicated to furthering the art of dance film.  Connecting artists and organizations, fostering new works for new audiences, and sharing essential resources, DFA seeks to be a catalyst for innovation in and preservation of dance on camera. DFA was founded by Susan Braun in 1956, and included Ted Shawn, the founder of Jacob’s Pillow, as its charter member, as well as modern dance pioneer Jose Limon and ballerina Alicia Markova as members of its first Board of Directors.  A tireless advocate, Ms. Braun devoted her life to finding, showcasing, preserving dance films and videos until her death in 1995.  Today, DFA seeks to carry on her spirit of creativity and collaboration in a time of extraordinary transformation.

For more information, visit www.dancefilmsassn.org and www.tendu.tv.