Producing Online Course Curriculum For Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at 92Y

We’ve filmed courses, edited promo videos, and documented the impact of Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) for 12 years now.

I always joke with Jody Gottfried Arnhold (DEL’s Founder) that my team and I are honorary dance educators, because we have learned so much from filming hours and hours of inspiring courses using the DEL model.

When DEL received a grant to continue growing their Tracing Footsteps curriculum, they knew they could call on us to film and edit their newest online courses in the series — even though this was unlike any DEL shoot we’ve done before.

Filming Tracing Footsteps was a big production. In the past bringing lights in and a teleprompter, more cameras was challenging for a workshop with many people. Tracing Footsteps was a different way for us to use our skills with DEL. We had one artist we were working with on filming their curriculum. We were able to light the space and the artist, film with two cameras, work with a teleprompter and bring in a sound engineer. 

Honestly, we’re better equipped than ever to take on the bigger production needs of our clients — not only because of our new, high tech equipment, but because we can pull together a full team of experts in video, lighting, and sound.

The team for filming DEL’s Tracing Footsteps included:

• Me, Executive Producer and Director Nel Shelby; (and on the hip hop shoot Ashli Bickford directed)
• Videography by Caroline Haidet, Ashli Bickford & Nate Reininga; 
• Graphics by Ben Rich; 
• Editing by Ashli and Ben; 
• Sound Mixing by Donovan Dorrance; 
• Audio/Production Assistant Mason Chapello; and Christopher Marc

That’s a full crew of four during the film shoot, with even more of us involved in post-production! And every single person plays a crucial role. 

Once we learn about a client’s goals and vision for their video, we speak internally to determine the best team to bring to the project.

We have a network of composers, audio technicians, video editors, dance videographers, dance photographers, project managers, marketing pros, graphic designers, colorists, livestream technicians, producers, and more… 

Everyone has different strengths and perspectives and experiences they bring to each project. Most of our videographers have trained with me directly (at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and beyond), and since we’ve worked together for years, we have a lot of trust in one another, comfort in collaborating, and a relaxed and joyful spirit. 

If you want to work on a big project, we bring in the best experts possible – all the way from planning the film shoot to color correction in the editing room.

I’m so grateful to know such talented artists and creators, and I love seeing the individual credits on every video we create!