WWW Investigation by Professor Gail Hoak.

The purpose of this paper is to provide on overview of the resourcesavailable on "dance"on the Internet and the World Wide Web throughthe search engines Lycos, Infoseek, Yahoo, Web Crawler, and Excite. Theoriginal intent was to create a comprehensive listing of all dance siteson the Internet. This task has proved an impossible one for the limitedscope of this paper, and for the limited time available for research. Itis also impossible at this time due to the thousands of dance sites currentlyrepresented on the Internet. A future listing of this kind would be extremelyuseful for all who want to do dance research, but it will entail many moremonths of full-time inquiry. An important contribution to dance researchon the Internet would be a catalogue listing sites by category in a morein-depth way than is now listed. As will be shown in this paper, many ofthe categories listed are at-present too broad and inclusive to be of efficientuse to the dance researcher. Often searching for a very specific area ishaphazard as the dance sites on the Internet are still very random and theinformation included is at the whim of those offering it. The search enginesdirectories DO help somewhat in this organization.

This paper will also discuss some of the more useful sites found forthe serious dance researcher and scholar. Obviously those sites chosenwill reveal some of the biases and interests of this writer.

This project is in its infancy and will definitely be continued; itspurpose is to eventually provide students of the Dance Department withaccess to dance research on the Internet. The courses for which thiscurrent research is designed are Dance 100 and Dance 133. "Introductionand Appreciation of Dance" (Dance 100) is a multicultural dance historyand appreciation class. "History of Dance in the American Theatreand Film"(Dance 133) focuses on the history, development, and stylesof dance found in American popular entertainment: vaudeville, minstrelsy,musicals on Broadway and in Hollywood films, clubs, cabarets, and musictelevision videos. This paper will reveal some of the sites found to-datewhich are of use for these courses. Hopefully, also areas of interest tothe general reader will be disclosed as well.

Web Crawler

"Webcrawler" has some of the most useful dance links foundto-date on the Internet for the dance scholar. When "dance"is typed in the search area, 23,349 documents related to dance appear. "Filmdance" results in 0 links, "dance in film" reveals27, 499 links and "dance in Hollywood film" results in 35, 712links. These sites are not all directly useful for dance because the subjectwords are not always tied together. A more efficient way of getting torelevant dance information is to go into the Web Crawler directory called"Arts", then into the subgroup called "Dance". Thiscategory has the following listed in the directory:

Culture Finder

CyberDance: Ballet on the Net

Dance Links

Dance Pages

Dancing on a Line

Don's Dance Links

National Endowment for the Arts

Tap Dance Homepage

WWW Virtual Library: Dance

Some of these links were explored. "Dance Links" (http://www.physics.purdue.edu/~jswhite/dance_links.html) is especially useful if the researcher is looking for information on dancecompanies, dance performances, dance organizations, coalitions, dance funding,dance schools, dancers, dance publications and/or newsgroups. This isa link begun by dance videographer Amy Reusch (eye4dance@aol.com) on behalfof the newsgroup "alt.arts.ballet" and is currently maintainedby Reusch, James S. White (jswhite@physics.purdue.edu), and Jon Wright. The newsgroup "alt.arts.dance" was begun by Eliot Aronstern(elito@netcom.com). So far this research has indicated that this newsgroupis a useful platform for asking questions re: all areas of dance researchand for posting information on conferences.

"Culture Finder" is subtitled "the Internet Address forthe Performing Arts". Provided here is a calendar of over 500 performinggroups for the current year. There is also "chatting" about Broadway. Interesting links here were the reviews written by Richard Gist of currentmusicals playing in regional theatres around New York. The address forthis reviewer is "http://midget.towson.edu/~gist". When searchedon March 6, 1997, this site revealed in-depth reviews of "Triumph ofLove" playing at the Centerstage Theatre in Baltimore , Maryland, "Cats" at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., "Josephand the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at Toby's Dinner Theatre inColumbia, Maryland, "Crazy for You" at the Burn Bae Dinner Theatrein Burtonsville, Maryland, "Whistle Down the Wind" at the NationalTheatre in Washington, D.C. , "The Mikado" at the Interact TheatreCompany in Washington, D.C., "Candide" at the Arena Stage inWashington, D.C., and "Passion" at the Signature Theatre in Arlington,Virginia. For musical theatre, these reviews can be of great importancebecause they can indicate how well a new or revised musical is doing off-Broadwayand what its chances are for going to Broadway, where the "real"money is. For a dance researcher, they provide invaluable information regardingthe history of musicals. They also provide enough information about a particularnew or revived musical for the would-be producer of local theatres to beable to select work of interest to a community or a school for production.

Another important site found through the "Culture Finder" of Web Crawler is the Washington Post dance review and performing artsreview sections. The dance reviewer cited here is Sarah Kaufman. Accessto this site is through the Washington Post's website "http://washingtonpost.com". All of the pertinent reviews found here were obtained by adding ":80/wp-sr..."to the Washington Post address. Among the very informative reviews helpfulto the dance researcher on theatrical dance and modern dance, respectively,were "'Stomp':Street, Minus the Smart" and "Streb and Co.:Hurts So Good". Also useful, was an in-brief reviews of D.C. DanceTheater, a two-year old dance company directed by Juan Carlos Rincones,whose emphasis appears to be Modern Dance.

Another very interesting site found through the "Culture Finder"was an extensive interview of a modern dancer in Austin, Texas named MargerySegal who produces a yearly dance event called "Personal Dances". This article would be of interest to any modern dancers and to all interestedin the local theatrical dance scene in Austin. The address for this articleentitle "Getting in Step" is "http:www.auschron.com:80/current/arts.dance.html"

"Tap Dance Homepage" has extensive information on tap danceand is so far the best source tap. Found here is a tap glossary and notationsection (http://www.mcphu.edu/~corrp/tap.glossary.htm), a tap referencepage with history of origins and a bibliography with over 60 works on tapdance specifically (http://www.mcphu.edu/~corrp/tap/referenc.htm#STAGE),a listing of films in which tap dance is seen (http://www.mcphu.edu/~corrp/tap/tapfilms.htm),an address for a movie database (http://www.moviewunlimited.com/), and awho's who in tap dance, including individuals and groups with short biographiesof many of them (http://mcphu.edu/~.corrp/tap/persbios/people.htm). Manyof these links have links to other sights, making this a formidable resourcefor anyone interested in the history, choreography, dancers, companies,films, techniques, and past and current performances of tap dance. Thissite is a must!

Infoseek

The "Infoseek" dance sites are accessed most easily by goingthrough the directory on "entertainment", then clicking on "dance." This link reveals the following subject headings and the number of linksassociated with them:

Ballet-310

Ballroom-71

Belly dancing-15

Breakdancing-121

Country and Western-83

Festivals and events-93

Folk-8

Jazz-868

Modern-173

Schools-5

Square-36

Swing-39

Tap-28

Troupes and clubs-665

A click on the "Mexican"section of the "folk" siteresulted in a link to "Mexican Dance, Music, Art and Culture Web Sites(http://www.azteca.net/~alegria/mxother.html) , a comprehensive listingof over 36 more links listed under "Mexican Folk Dance Links", 29 inks under "Mexican Folk Music Links" and 16 links listedunder "Mexican Art and Culture Links". This website has hot linksto Los Danzantes de Alegria, Grupo Folklorico Mexico Tenochtitlan, Mexicanfolk Dance Directory, Regional Dances of Mexico, Mexican Dance, Music, Artand Culture Web Sites, and a Mexican folk Dance Bulletin Board. Clickingon Regional Dances of Mexico (http://www.azteca.net/~alegria/rgndance.html)resulted in a very concise directory of the 24 different regional dancesin Mexico, with explanations of them and links to further information oneach of them. This site and its links is invaluable to the researcher ofany Mexican dance.

The "ballroom" site of Infoseek leads to the "Danscape"homepage which provides information on competitive dancing. A wide rangeof all kinds of dance events listed is found in the "festival and events"site of Infoseek. Also found here is a "worldwide dance pages directory"which locates artists geographically. The "schools" site of Infoseeklists the following school sites: Institute of Historical Dance; Kirov Academyof Ballet; Nagoya Odori, Japan; Royal Ballet School, London; and the ZenonDance Company, Israel (?). The "breakdancing" site revealed manywonderful resources for breakdancing, as did the Modern Dance site.

As can be seen by this random application of Infoseek, some areasof interest in dance are covered much more extensively than others. Thenumber of links do not necessarily reveal the quality of the links, however,as can be seen by the "folk" dance link example of "Mexican"Dance. This site is one of only eight listed, but it is superb. Surfingis still an appropriate and necessary way to find what one is looking foron the Internet. Infoseek's directory makes it easy to access its links.

Infoseek's directory was also searched for musicals through the "entertainment"category and then the "movie" category. Over 20 subsections werefound, many of which could be very useful to the musical theatre dance researcher. Finding dance in musicals is not easy through this venue, however, andtakes much surfing.

Yahoo

Dance was accessed in Yahoo's directory by clicking on "arts",then "performing arts", then "dance". This site (http://www.yahoo.com/Arts/Performing_Arts/Dance/)lists the following:

African-5 Folk-107 New

Apparel@ Institutes-2

Ballet-88 New Jazz-5

Ballroom-63 New Magazines@

Belly Dance-15 New Middle Eastern-6 New

Break Dance-10 Modern-48 New

Cajun and Zydeco-8 Moshing@

Capoeira@ Organizations-20

Chinese@ Regional-9 New

Classical Indian Dance-8 New Renaissance-2

Clogging-7 Samba-3

Contemporary-37 New Software@

Country Western-24 Square Dancing-55

Dancers-7 Swing-33 New

Education-25 New Tango-16 New

Electronica@ Tap-5

Events-10 Theaters-4

Festivals-14 Traditional Japanese@

Flamenco-14 New Usenet-5

Also listed on this directory page are:

Cambodian Classical Dance-with links to other Southeast Asian traditionaldances

Dance Service-links, events, articles, forum, company information, etc.

English Ceilidh-folk and associated dance index

Older Dancer-recreational and amateur ballet, modern, and sacred dancefor the older dancer; includes Dance Beltline, dance page for male dancers

Pow Wow Dancing-information on Native American dance styles, plus informationand resources on Pow Wows such as etiquette and a calendar of upcoming events

Raper's Dance Corner-includes information on swing, lindy hop, and countrywestern dancing; links to dance sites on the Web

Vintage Dancing

As can be seen by the above, the links to dance through Yahoo are formidable. Following are comments on just a few.

Excellent information on breakdancing is available through a numberof sites. Some of the sites about specific crews are: http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/2332/(The Spartanic Rockers)

http://pilot.msu.edu/user/okumurak/dancers/nycb.html (New York CityBreakers)

http://pilot.msu.edu/user/okumurak/dancers/rac.html (Rock Steady Crew)

Clicking on the "renaissance dance" category provides linksto bibliographies, discographies, companies, and reconstructions. Clickingon the "African dance" category leads to many links on the dancingand drumming, primarily of West Africa.

Clearly, Yahoo is worth perusing more extensively for its dance resources.

Lycos

This site remains to be explored fully. What has been discovered to-dateis that Lycos has 63 relevants pages on the subject of dance. There isno "dance" section found in their directory. "Dance"is found by typing it in and asking lycos to search. A sub-directory besidesthe 63 relevant pages lists the following possibilities for more on dance:

Search The Web

Search Top 5% Sites

Search Pictures

Search Sounds

Sites by Subject

What was found in some of the 63 pages were clear descriptions of someof the more important dance sites on the web. "Dance Links",which is found through the Web Crawler search engine as well is describedas "professional dancers, dance students and dance fans will find hundredsof pages to spin through from this index. Dance companies, educationalinstitutions and grant sources are listed here, along with other resources."(http://www.lycos.com/cgi-bin/pursuit?cat=a2z&query=dance). The "Dance Ink" link provides on-line reviews, news, artist profiles,and archives of back issues of this very fine dance magazine. Found duringthis search were stunning interviews and reviews of Tywla Tharp, Merce Cunningham,Mark Morris, Neil Greenberg, and Ralph Lemon, all contemporary, world-reknownmodern dance makers.

Also of possible interest and use is the link to "the Dance Directory" (http://www.lycos.com/cgi-bin/pursuit?first=21&part=&cat=a2z&query=dance),a directory which surveys dance resources on the Web. It identifies clubs,companies and instructional sites.

The "World Wide Web Virtual Library: Dance", which can alsobe found through WebCrawler, attempts to provide a comprehensive list oflinks to dance-related information on the Web. A gateway is provided herefor browsers or to submit information. This site is found through the sameaddress as the "Dance Directory".

Excite (http://www.excite.com/Re...rts/Dance/index.html?CCt)

This search engine's access to dance is through "arts" then"dance". The dance subtopics are:

Ballet

Ballroom

Dance on the Net

Folk

Modern

Swing

Troupes, Schools & Clubs

Clicking on "ballet" revealed over 2000 links to ballet andmodern dance. This section is broken down into six links:

Companies Education News and Information

People & Organizations International Other Links

Clicking on "education" revealed 313 links to universitiesand colleges. Much more searchin needs to be done on "Excite"to reveal its possible wealth.

Other sites of relevance to the dance researcher have been found onthe Internet, but their source through a search engine is not known at thistime. Therefore, they will be listed in the Sources Consulted, but willnot be discussed here.

This paper has provided an overview of the dance sites available onthe Internet and the World Wide Web as found through the search enginesLycos, Excite, Yahoo, Web Crawler, and Infoseek. It is hoped that in thefuture a comprehensive, anecdotal catalogue of all dance sites on the webcan be created. This is obviously a formidable task, one for which surelya Humanities Grant or National Endowment for the Arts Grant might be available.

At present, the search engines are the best avenue to dance on the web,unless a researcher has previously used a site and knows of its benefits. Hopefully, this paper begins to make searching dance on the web an easiertask by providing some of the links found thus-far.