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creating a website for a small ballet school


BarreTalk

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About 6 months ago, the artistic director of the Academy of Classical Ballet asked me to take over and improve the school's online presence. I'd never done a website before, but since I want to create one for my own company decided this would be good practice and an opportunity to learn something new.

 

If you've read my posts on Ballet Talk for Dancers, you know I frequently comment on our adult program which offers pointe, partnering, and even performance opportunities to adult dancers. Even though the school is small, it also mounts 2 full length ballets each year.

 

With Nutcracker coming this weekend (with yours truly once more playing Drosselmayer) the site has a cool look right now that I think is worth checking out. When I developed the website, I had 3 major goals:

-to sell the school to prospective students

-to be a continuing information source for current students and parents

-to get the word out about our performances and facilitate ticket purchases

 

The site offers downloadable class schedule and ticket ordering information and even a small map for people who can't find the theatre. Please feel free to comment on the site and offer any suggestions.

 

Academy of Classical Ballet homepage

 

 

 

(since this post offers a link to a 3rd party website, I checked and had it approved in advance by Mel Johnson)

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Guest sally-mandy

BarreTalk,

 

Okay, I want to move to your town.

 

The site looks good and I hope it's appropriate to respond on the forum. I just posted something on the Buddy Board asking an open question about what adult dancers can do artistically. It seems like you are answering this question at your school. That's wonderful!

 

It would be really cool to see more photos of mid-lifers performing--I don't know, maybe not on your site, but somewhere. It's just hard to get a mental image, and maybe that's something we need in the world to make an attitude adjustment about the possibilities of adults doing serious ballet.

 

Thanks.

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It looks like there's a lot of really helpful information on this site and I like the inclusion of photographs.

 

I won't put on my evil Art Director hat ...but I'll just mention a couple of glaring things that stand out to me.

 

From a design/coding perspective....never use framesets ever again. Here's some good reasons why...

 

http://www.html-faq.com/htmlframes/?framesareevil

 

Also, I can't see your source code because of the aforementioned evil frameset....but I'd add some padding between the text and images. Shouldn't be hard to figure out.

 

I find that background pattern kinda makes me dizzy

 

It's good for a first site! Looks like you learned a lot and created a valuable product for this school. I bet they're really grateful to have such a nice site.

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Thanks for the feedback!

 

Lampwick, I think I understand the argument against framesets, but I have no intention of ever learning HTML programming and NetFusion 8 seems to default to templates with frames. Since this a ballet forum "how do do a better plie' " instead of a website developer's forum, I'd like to communicate with you directly away from Ballet Talk. Can you send me a private emssage so we can discuss this further?

 

I guess I have to add Monday to the schedule.

 

P.S.: with Nutcracker tickets going like hotcakes (our Sunday show only has a few single seats left) I just put a last minute newsflash on the site to get ticket buyers to phone in their orders since showing up at the last mimute could lead to disappointment. This has zero artistic skill applied, but I thought the message needed to get out FAST.

Edited by BarreTalk
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BT, I want to move to Denver and this for two reasons: the mountains and your school.

 

No kidding. Apart from providing a lot of info, your site makes it very atractive for somebody who hesitates to get into ballet to jump right in and enjoy. Good job. And "merde" for your Casse Noisette.

 

Dick

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BT, I want to move to Denver and this  for two reasons: the mountains and your school. ...

 

Dick

 

Be aware: in Colorado, employers prefer to pay in "mountain scenery" rather than cash.

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