Dancing in a digital age... the intro

Dance has come a long way since being showcased in classics feature films like Singing in the Rain, the creation of schools like Julliard, and even since Michael Jackson’s epic Thriller video. With the recent rise of multitalented dancer/actor/choreographer/directors the dance world is expanding by becoming relevant to mainstream media, especially film, television, and most recently the Internet.

My name is Mary Thurtle. I’m a junior at the University of Southern California in the heart on Los Angeles, majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis in Cinematic Arts. I’m also pursuing a Dance minor and am highly involved in USC Repertory Dance Company as the Company Manager. In addition to school, I am active in Hollywood’s dance industry as an assistant to Los Angeles-based professional choreographer (and my dear friend) Christina Woodard. I also intern at DDO Artist Agency in their dance department. This is who I am and what I do.

I love dance. I have been dancing since I was three and even to this day I'm still dancing over 20 hours  a week. However, my deep passion extends beyond dance performance. More than anything, I care about dancers rising to their utmost potential as artists, professionals, and people. All too often, artists (especially dancers), get so involved with their passion for creation and performance that they don't take the time to understand how to make their work relevant and present in mainstream media and in the minds of all people around the world. From what I've seen first hand, the factor that limits dancers' ability to present themselves and be relevant in more communities than the small dance world is a lack of academic secondary education. Most dancers haven't taken the time to understand how to appeal to the greater population, largely because they haven't adapted into the digital age.

This blog will address the many ways that dance has the potential to evolve past theater performances, studio classes, and beyond being simply featured in main stream media. I will discuss how the dance community can use technology, to become deeply integrated into mainstream and digital media, particularly in cinema, television, and online destinations. In the past two years the entertainment dance industry has exploded. I feel that with the use of new technology and proper utilization of the digital world, the dance world can extend its reach and transform from being a community and become an industry.

Stay tuned… the first topic I will address is YouTube.com and how it has changed the dance industry for the better and for the worse. In anticipation of my next post, view one of my favorite dance videos up on YouTube.com of a very talented performer, Travis Wall. Incidentally, his life was greatly affected by technology and the mainstream entertainment industry after he finished as the first runner up in season two of FOX's famed dance competition reality show, So You Think You Can Dance.