DancetubeTV Released
Whenever Bladensburg resident Christopher Hodge went out, a video camera was in tow, capturing the latest dance move or breakout dance circle on the floors of in some of Washington, D.C.’s popular dance clubs like H2O and Love. But rather than continue posting videos to his YouTube.com account, Hodge decided to take his documentation one step further. Hodge, also inspired by the FOX TV show ‘‘So You Think You Can Dance,” said anyone can register to create an account and post videos to the site and registration is not required to view videos. Because he started with a YouTube account, Hodge asked users subscribed to his videos to become members of DanceTubeTV and post videos to his site. Hodge discovered more than 50,000 videos of break dancing on YouTube and about 1,000 videos of ‘‘Beat Your Feet,” a dancing style from Washington, D.C. Hodge said is often performed to go-go music. ‘‘There’s a lot of potential for my site to grow if people keep posting videos like this on a regular basis,” Hodge said. Hodge said he entered DanceTubeTV into more than 60 search engines and so far only two to three, such as Google, indexed his Web site. However, Hodge said it typically takes three to six months for a Web site to be indexed into search engines. Hodge uses a program called Clip-Share, software that provides templates to create video sharing Web sites. Using programming skills he gained during classes at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Hodge added the Internet coding necessary to create the site. New Carrollton resident Duane Stevens, who grew up with Hodge, travels with him to dance clubs as he videotapes dancers. Stevens, 27, praised Hodge’s originality and offers support while bouncing ideas off of Hodge. ‘‘A lot of people don’t have a Web site that’s just dancing and dance routines,” Stevens said. ‘‘So I said that’d be good and he just took off with it.” But Hodge might have some competition. Mere weeks into 2008, he received a message through his Web site informing him rapper MC Hammer, whose dance moves and signature baggy pants were popularized in the 1990s, would release his own dance video sharing site, DanceJam.com, at the end of January. Because the site is not fully released, Hodge is not exactly sure what he is up against. ‘‘Some people were saying I should just give up,” Hodge said. ‘‘He’s got $1 million behind his project. I have nowhere near close to that budget.” Operating on a budget of more than $2,000, Hodge still says ‘‘there’s plenty of room out there for everybody.” After employing the help of a Web developer who will help polish his site in several weeks, Hodge hopes to add a chat room—a feature he says is not available to YouTube users—a space for dance groups to create their own pages, and streaming video. He also wants to add a directory of local dance studios and academies. Hodge even ordered 10,000 business cards to hand out to dancers he videotapes for upcoming club visits, which he expects in the mail any day now. ‘‘I’m about to go out there and I’m going to hand them out to everybody,” Hodge said. ‘‘I’m not playing.” To learn more To see Christopher Hodge’s dance Web site, go to www.dancetubetv.com.
