Thread: putting your class choreo's on youtube

a question for the teachers out there

finally bought a camera, and thinking of its uses

my students always want to film the choreo (well some of them do, they then share it with the class)

i've been thinking of filming the class myself, putting it on youtube, but using the private/invited friends only function

does anyone else do this? or share video clips with their students in some other way?

thanks

I think it would be great!

I don't record them just for youtube, but I've put up footage whenever my students perform a choreo at a recital or show. I don't keep it private (but do get their permission first) because they love to share their performances with out-of-town friends.

When a new group starts learning that choreo, they LOVE having the reference online!

I think it could be a problem if students practice with it all the time, though. It's easy to mindlessly follow along, practicing the steps but not actually *learning* the choreo. I'd encourage them to use it as a resource if they forget something while they're practicing, but to practice with *just* the music as much as possible.

Originally Posted by artemisia_danst

i've been thinking of filming the class myself, putting it on youtube, but using the private/invited friends only function

does anyone else do this? or share video clips with their students in some other way?

I did this, but I couldn't get the private function to work for everbody so I had to make it public. I made one from the front and one from the back, and they've all been using it to practice at home (or so they tell me) for the recital at DanceGarden in two weeks. It's also a nice way for them to have access to the music if they can't buy it (ours is not yet downloadable) or if they haven't yet received the CD they purchased.

I do this all the time - it works great. I upload me or the student(s) themself/ves dancing, keep the video private and share by invite only.

It assists the students with the timing of the movements in their notes with the music as well.

Our dance company does this all the time, and now we wonder how we ever managed before. The privacy settings on YouTube are not the world's most intuitive, so there was a bit of a learning curve, but after that it was fine.

What made it work for us was this: to run it smoothly and keep your private stuff private, you should set up a dedicated account just for these videos, and have just a couple of people who can post/administer videos. If dancers use their own individual accounts for posting or everyone has password/posting permission on the main account, you'll inevitably end up with rehearsal video all over the Internet! (YMMV, and you may not mind, but the promise of privacy is the only way we persuaded our director to let us use YouTube in the first place.)

The most efficient workflow we found is:
1. Video administrator sets up the central account.
2. Each dancer has or registers for an individual YouTube Account and informs administrator of account name or e-mail address.
3. Video administrator "friends" those individual accounts.
4. The individual accounts accept the "friends" invitation.
5. Upload video, specifying "private" -- the default is public.
6. After video is uploaded and live, share with the relevant individual friends by checking their account names under privacy settings. YouTube sends them a link to access the video.

It may seem silly to break this down into steps, but the YouTube interface has some pitfalls and this sequence avoids most of them. For example, theoretically you can mark the video private *and* share it with specific friends in the upload process in step 5, but usually this gives me a video that only I -- the account owner -- can see and I have to repeat the sharing process to send out the link. Also (and of course this is not YouTube's fault) if you don't tell everyone up front that they need a personal YouTube account to have access to the private videos, once you start posting and they haven't bothered to register for an account and don't get the links, they think you're holding out on them.

If you end up using YouTube a lot you can use the playlist function to organize the videos, with different playlists for different groups or private rehearsal vs. public performance videos.

Go for it -- it's a fantastic tool. Hope this helps!

Suzana

I have students who don't use the internet much, or don't have fast internet access. I *know* they would complain bitterly about the unfairness, or use that as an excuse why they haven't practiced.

Anyone have this issue?

I haven't run into that specific problem, but similar ones have come up. You may find yourself having to set limits on how far you will go to help people. There seems to be one person in every crowd who wants so much hand-holding and tech support that at some point you just have to say "no, we've given you as much help as we can, now figure it out for yourself just like everyone else has." This will likely be the same person who isn't satisfied with having the entire choreography online in sections -- she will try to insist that she can't learn it unless it's all up there in one continuous recording. She will then try to demand that you to rerecord and repost the entire thing every time you change an arm position or reblock because she can't be bothered to pay attention and take notes during the actual rehearsals. But this will be someone who is high-maintenance in other respects as well, so at least it's predictable. Everyone else will appreciate the work that goes into the project and be undyingly grateful.
..g.:
As I write this it occurs to me that in the interests of instructor/director self-preservation, it's probably best to have a trusted student/member volunteer take charge of this project. If the instructor does it, students may come to expect it as part of the package, and the ones with the sense of entitlement may feel more entitled to make demands because they think they're somehow *paying* for video support from you. I'm just a company member, not faculty in this context. So if all else fails I can more easily point out to the demanding person that I'm doing this on my own time, just to help my fellow dancers, and that she really can't expect me to put in more time than I already have. That's harder when you're the director, I think, at least when dealing with certain personalities.

well, my one luck is that my students at this level (upper intermediate), know me well enough to know my time constraints ;-)

When I work with choreography I usually tape and put it on a page on my website. Each group has its own page with its own password. I used to use Google to upload the videos because keeping private was very easy - but they stopped the uploading service. I'm not teaching choreography right now, so I don't know what to do in the future. My site has enough bandwidth so I might look into uploading on my own account and sharing through some media player.

That being said, it takes a lot of time to set this up each time. Plus, a very valid point was that they don't learn the choreography, they just learn to copy. Before reviewing and seeing the new bit in class, I make them dance alone, and they often just can't do it without seeing the example. And indeed they use any technical glitch as an excuse not to practice. And you can never please everybody. That's what I've learnt from the entire operation ,r:;

We do this with success Artemisia. In this day and age of computers, most should be able to get access to a computer and a free youtube account.

Nobody seems to mind because I can get it up there within a day or two in most cases. It takes me a lot longer to do up DVDs as free time for me lately is extremely scarce.

If someone really balked about it, I guess maybe I'd do up the DVD, but would consider charging for it. They'd also have to be patient while I did up the DVD, which could take me a few months with the way things are lately.

my plan is to upload only after the class series is ended, or at least after they have learned the whole thing in class, then we film the students, not just the teacher. so it's more of a reminder for during the holidays, whatever,

by then they've danced it plenty on their own in class, and should know it more or less... it's just so that those who want to can continue practicing it at home, and that if we want to come back to it, after a class break, we have a reminder...

I have two students that video tape the choreos for their classes (separate classes) and post them privately on youtube, so that only their "friends" can see it. Since it is the same person posting videos for each class, all the other students have "friended" these two ladies and can see the videos easily.

What would you all think of charging for the video? say $5 per session (I do 6 week sessions instead of full semesters) or $8 for those who want a DVD?

Since all of my students are college students and very Facebook saavy, I have a Facebook group set up for them. I film the dance then post to their group so only members can see it. Seems to work well for that group.

i'd rather than just include that in the class price and hand them out 'for free', then needing to deal with small change in class, and the palaver of one person buying it, and the rest copying it for them and it becoming something not all of them can afford, and it looking like i'm trying to charge them yet again for something extra, etc etc

and i'd be worried about the legal issues (music). filming a class and putting on youtube privately, that's less of a problem, most of the places where we teach have a licence for the class music.

Originally Posted by Lara L

What would you all think of charging for the video? say $5 per session (I do 6 week sessions instead of full semesters) or $8 for those who want a DVD?

I do this for my classes as an extra tool (besides the written choreography and the music) for learning. Some have taken the time to sign up and are on the private list for the particular choreography they are learning and some have chosen not to.

Before each session I tape myself in the studio with the camera positioned behind me so that the students can see both a back and front view of the choreography.

I don't post the choreography at the beginning of a session. I usually wait until we have learned it entirely and then make it available for practice purposes so they can remember the blocking, hand positions or transitions if they are taking the time to practice in between classes. But I stress that the most important tool is the music. I tell them to listen, listen and listen and then listen some more walking the choreography through in their heads.

As a member of a troupe, I've personally found video has been an invaluable tool in remembering sections of new complicated choreography and gives me a reference tool as I practice on my own. That way when we are back in troupe class we can clarify, refine and move on to new sections much faster.

Oh, two other things:
I stress is that sometimes the choreography is taped a particular way but it might end up getting changed slightly once I see how the class is able to execute it as a group. Sometimes hand positions need to be changed or other minor things need changing in order to make it work for a group.

If it's my choreography then I have control of the video. I don't charge for posting the video but then I don't allow others to video it either.