Submitting your Reel for 2010

This year, as with the past three years, the length of the reels has been shortened to five minutes. No longer. (Really...no longer.)  

What we want to see in those five minutes is very much what we present in the DanceBreak performances: something that demonstrates your ability to do a musical theater piece and something that shows us your own personal style. Your "Voice" . That does not mean one has to BE a musical theater piece...just that you can do one. Originality is important.

But....most importantly of all, for both musical theater and concert dance / ballet choreographers, we want to see your ability to tell a story through dance. Story telling is the quality most looked for by the DanceBreak Selection committee every year and I cannot stress that enough. Show us that you can tell a story. 

That means a story with a real narrative...not just a piece that says "These two people are in love." Or.....this is a really cool, meaning fun to  dance, jazz class combination..... all about...'passion.' Or 'being hot.' We want to see a story with an arc. Beginning, middle, end.

"Sizzle?" "Montage?" Sure. A 10-30 second (max)  "sizzle" bit is fun and shows us that you can put things together in another way. On video. It sets the mood, get toes tapping, and, hopefully captures our interest. But it is not compulsory. Often the imovies opening bit covers that. Up to you. Or find another way to 'open.'

But we really want to see something that develops. And I don't mean five minutes. I mean ONE minute, TWO minutes.  We want to see your story develop. If you want to send two... two minute pieces...thats fine. Or one five minute piece..if you Really think that says it all for you.

I think we would rather see better /fewer  2-3 minute pieces...rather than lots of little bits that don't add up to much. And five minutes of dance is alot of dance... (where do you ever see a five minute number in musical theater?) and so that a risk...but if its really!!! engaging...well, that's your call too. But its all your eggs in one basket.

We all know and understand the problems that exist with getting good footage of shows you have done. And we have also seen everything from video shot in someone's living room to incredibly slick, professionslly produced, wildly edited extravaganzas on a beautifully labelled DVD. (And they were both chosen in their given year.)

And so if you do not have what you consider a piece that is truly representative of what you can do, or tells a story, or is really original, borrow a handicam, get a few dancer pals together in a studio, shoot something you have choreographed, and edit it on a computer. We can see beyond the editing and the tape quality and the ballet barres in the background.

As to format, DVD is the deal.

A quick word about sending in the recommendations. It would be best if everything arrived in one package. But no one wants to inconvenience, or get overly demanding with someone who is doing them the favor of writing a recommendation. So, if it can all arrive at once, that's great, but if it cannot, just let us know it is coming so we can put it all together.

I hope that helps and we are looking forward to seeing what you send us.

If you are still unsure...call me...212 315 1516.

And Good luck!