Description:
The Digitaal Danstheater (transl. Digital Dance Theatre) workshop combines dance, tracking and data visualisation software with Processing. Participants get a chance to explore the interactive possibilities of the computer for dance. Interactive images and sound will merge into 1 dance performance. This workshop model was inspired by the didactical training in Tracking. Ballet teacher Nicolet Sudibyo and Patching Zone coach Loes Bogers wanted to create a workshop in which technology and dance would unite.
This production has had an intensive development process. A lot of time has been spend on experimentation and conceptualisation. Although the partcipants weren’t working on their end choreography in the first sessions, they were trying out several choreographical protoypes. They, for instance, experimented with lights, coloured cloth, and livestream drawings. This approach provided the room necessary to guarantee creativity and flexibility. In this course of this production it became evident that extra training was required for Processing (e.g., a programming language and enviroment that has been designed for artistic data visualisation). Dave Young (e.g., expert of the workshop Interactivity & Sound) was invited for this extra training. This 3 day expert training programme concentrated on programming with Processing and the concept development of the Digitaal Danstheater production.
From March 22 up to the final performance on June 11, weekly sessions were held. In these sessions participants worked mainly on their final choreography. The theme for the final performance was ‘fashion’. Nicolet had the idea to let their performance take place in an arcade. She got this idea from one of the first prototype sessions. She designed the final choreography and practiced their routine by projecting images onto the dancers. In these last 6 sessions many adjustments were made to the thus far developed choreography. It also became clear that the audience might cause problems for the live stream of images. To solve this problem, Loes and Nicolet decided to project a recorded version of the performance instead of streaming the images live.
On June 11, the final performance ‘Gaming Arcade’ directly attracted the attention of the audience with the video projection. In this ‘classical’ piece the dancers (e.g., gamers) were absorbed into a computergame. They were literally sucked into the game through the video projection (e.g., the projection displayed an abstract monster). Erasing the boundaries between the arcade, the computergame and the dancers.
A similar version of this workshop model was used for 2 other Digitaal Dancetheater productions: 1 version for the mid spring holiday (Krokus vakantie), and 1 version for the Erasmus Projectenweek.
Details
Duration: December 14, 2010 until June 11, 2011
Participants: 8