It has nothing to do with being "flashy". Animation is extremely useful as a training tool, especially with a movement-oriented subject such as dancing.

If you think back on any of our previous dance lessons (spins & turns, leading & following, latin hip motion, etc), you'll realize what a profound impact Flash animation can have on the effectiveness of these lessons. So many of the pictures in these lessons are intended to illustrate some kind of movement. If there is actually movement present in the picture, the viewer will have a much better chance of fully grasping the subject matter. It is my hope that Flash will help our dance lessons look more like your favorite Discovery Channel presentation, and less like the ISTD technique book (no offense to the authors -- but it is a pretty dry read).

If you're worried about Flash replacing Quicktime on our website, you can relax... the Quicktime isn't going anywhere. A couple of years ago when we first introduced RealVideo, it was met with similar resistance. Folks worried that RealVideo was going to replace Quicktime as the only video format. But as you can see, what we've been doing (and will continue to do) is run the two technologies side-by-side, exploiting each for its individual strengths.

With the technologies in their current state of development, each has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, Quicktime is great for short, detailed clips, allowing you control the speed or even to advance once frame at a time. But as a video format for a 5-minute instructional presentation, it stinks. This is where streaming RealVideo comes in handy. You can't frame-advance with RealVideo streamed from the server, but you can watch a feature length instructional presentation with only a few seconds of buffering. A Quicktime clip of equal length could take hours to load, and would not make an efficient use of disk space or bandwidth.

The point is that each technology has its place. Flash has its place, too. Although it won't be very useful for presenting live video of dance steps, it will be far superior to static html or live video as a medium for teaching certain dance concepts, illustrating positions, showing directions of motion and rotation, etc. That is why it will appear most prominently in our monthly dance lessons and basic dance concepts area of the learning center.

Flash has the potential to do great things, but it also has a tendency to be misused and over-used, and as a result has a poor reputation. People often shudder at the mention of Flash because their only experience with it is the occasional "Flash intro" -- one of the most annoying things you can run into on the web. But we have no intention of using it in such a tacky fashion. Any time we adopt a new technology, we do so primarily to add utility to the website. This situation is no different.

And if that didn't convince you, then you'll just have to wait and see...

Sincerely,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com