Corridors

Building, rehearsing in and choreographing a 15-minute-4-dancers choreography for one such interactive environment. The subject of it being the paradigm of the “television family” – the ways in which television has played a cardinal role in shaping Western subjectivity over the past 50 years by mediating our most formative and intimate relationships – that of the family. Video-tracking (and possibly) wireless sensor suit will track the dancers’ position, speed and direction and will manipulate the projected image accordingly in real-time.

Wanting to create a new kind of dance studio. A dance studio that is technologically responsive to the dancers. A rehearsal space where performers play, interact and work with the projected image as raw material. One that inevitably forces choreographic practices to change. This thesis is targeted at experimenting with new processes of creating choreography by integrating interactive video technologies with choreographic practices. The goal of this thesis is to introduce interactive Video-scapes (and eventually 3-D immersive environments) as playgrounds in which to explore new forms of performative ‘events’.

Choreographers usually start their work either with a subject matter, a narrative or an image. Some compose their own bodies using their personal movement language then teach their dancers how to repeat it. Others observe the dancers – letting them improvising, giving them performative tasks etc. Through this intense process of watching both choreographers and dancers discover the themes and piece the choreography together from there. The target of this project is to introduce the element of projected image – that is interactive video and 3-D animation – as an active agent in the making of such process – an additional company member, or perhaps an enhanced dance floor which serves as a projected extension of the choreographer/dancers’ subjectivity, an image that doesn’t just function as background but supplies happenings and initiates events.

Dance audiences. Mainly proscenic theatre.

The audience sits and watches as the 4 dancers interact with the 4-channel video screen.

Running on video tracking and Jitter the idea is to use this system as the blank canvas in which choreographers can choreograph and dancers imrovise.

It is absolutely essential to devote a substantial amout of time to this process. It should take place over the course of a year or two and the rehearsals MUST take place in the same space as the performance, otherwise it is impossible to engage in this kind of experiment.