Online, performers step it up

It STARTED as a simple back flip. Well, maybe it wasn't that simple. Los Angeles dancer-choreographer Jacob "Kujo" Lyons executed the risky move for a video camera -- tumbling through the air from a bouncing seesaw into a pair of blue jeans. The resulting footage, combined with scenes of three other guys athletically donning their dungarees, was conceived and shot by Benzo Theodore as a viral ad for Levi’s and was posted on YouTube on May 5.

That was a Monday. By Friday, the video, which doesn't mention the brand name, had accrued nearly 2 million views and been broadcast on "Good Morning America." Later, it was even displayed on a Jumbotron in New York's Times Square.

Lyons, 31, who fuses break dance with contemporary dance and heads the L.A.-based company Lux Aeterna, couldn't be prouder.

"It was extremely exciting and a personal triumph for me to be able to physically pull off that stunt," he says. "After two hours and 40 back flips, I finally did it."

More than that, though, more than 3 million people have now seen the feat online. Welcome to dance on the World Wide Web.

Thanks to the Internet and especially YouTube, dancers of all stripes are finding audiences around the world. Conversely, dance aficionados are able, with the click of a mouse, to see not only legendary performers of the past, such as Anna Pavlova as “The Dying Swan,” but also today's crop of hot young talent.

Say you'd like to catch 24-year-old sensation Rolando Sarabia, hailed as the "Cuban Nijinsky." Just go to YouTube, where he dances his heart out in dozens of video clips, including one shot when, at 16, he was already demonstrating his mettle. Siberian-born Daniil Simkin, 21, who is joining American Ballet Theatre as a soloist this fall, has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Plus, he has a MySpace page and a detailed blog enabling his fans to track his balletic comings and goings.

At the same time, dance companies big and small are joining the global village. New York City Ballet launched its website in 1998. The current incarnation is its third. What's more, in September NYCB premiered its own YouTube channel.

General Manager Ken Tabachnick says the success of the troupe's Internet presence is palpable. "We have an increasingly robust program of utilizing the Web, and our ongoing research shows that more people not only see us on the Web but purchase tickets on the Web," he says. "For 'Nutcracker,' we are approaching at least 50% of ticket sales, particularly with people under 39."