Natyalaya School of Dance: The Tour App

Background + Ask

Natyalaya School of Dance is a Bharatanatyam Dance School based in the Greater Central Texas Area. As a part of its outreach initiative, the school sends a traveling performance troupe to perform around South India annually. Because these students are young, often have connectivity issues, and are traveling for several weeks, it is difficult to keep constant contact across the world. Despite these conditions, the experiences these dancers have is truly unique, and have the opportunity to inspire younger generations to take their craft seriously.

The school would like to develop a centralized platform where students, teachers, friends, and family can keep up with the travels and performances without having to rely on existing social media platforms.

The Audience

Performers: the dancers who are touring that will be using this application to document their experiences, promote fundraising, and track their own journey

Parents and Teachers: Those close to the company members who will be using the platform to keep track of their students/children as they travel, watch performances virtually, and keep up with performer’s firsthand accounts of their experiences

Friends and Family: Those who want to watch performances virtually and keep up with the performer’s first-hand account of their experiences. They can also use the platform to donate to the troupe and spread the word.

What do they already know?

Most users will already know about Natyalaya and Bharatanatyam, so the context around the school or art form itself is redundant. They will also likely know at least one company member who has directed them to the platform.

What do they want to know more about?

Most users will be seeking more information about the company members, the performance sites, how to donate, first-hand information about the performer’s experiences, and where in the world the dancers are.

How will I give them what they want?

Many family members of these dancers do not have Instagram accounts and Natyalaya’s social presence is also very young. I plan on creating a social media-like application that is intuitive and gives the audience easy access to tour-specific content that can be updated annually as each tour embarks on its journey.