Elegant solutions

The other day, Bill (the Dance Department director) subbed for my dance composition class. We were talking about different approaches to choreography, and several interesting questions arose.

Bill asked me how I thought being involved in a technical field influenced my thoughts and actions in dance. This is not the first time this question has come up, and not the first time I had no idea how to answer it. I am a firm believer in the mind as a whole unit - that it is not possible to distinguish someone as "right-brained" or "left-brained", because everyone has their individual strengths, and creativity draws on logic, and vice-versa. Therefore, I know there is a connection between the two seemingly separate parts of my life. It is just not yet apparent to me.

On this topic, Bill mentioned to the class that engineers describe admirable solutions as "elegant". This took a few of the dancers by surprise; I thought it was common implementation of the adjective! I suppose they had never thought of describing technical issues with a word generally reserved to label people. Perhaps this is a clue in my science-arts connection dilemma.........

Our class assignment was to create a triptych. While discussing a fascinating piece one of my classmates had presented, the choreographer seemed frustrated with the responses she was getting. While her movements were very abstract representations of each concept, as she talked us through the piece, it became apparent that every moment had a very strong connections to the three ideas. I was surprised when she said she wanted everyone to know exactly what her triptych was after observing the dance, and thought she had not developed her piece well enough because the audience had their own interpretations. Is it backwards to try and make modern dance literal?

equivalence of forms

This just in! Import a photograph into a program, and the program would contort the body (within standard physical limitations, of course) to try and match that shape. Are the other qualities of an object that could be emulated. Optionally, matching points could be marked. Whether human balance should be factored in to the calculation could be a user option. Side by side view of photograph and human form would be simple. Once run, the form could animate, twisting into the final pose. A sexually ambiguous model, such as the wooden ones used for figure drawing, would make sense. Though observing the difference between male and female balance/physical capacity as it relates to matching shapes would be interesting, as well. Also, instead of matching an image, the user could make some 2D or 3D sketch, perhaps dropping and dragging points and edges, or building with blocks (polygons), for the program to try to imitate. Would this be more or less abstract than literal pictures?

LifeForms

Note to self: check out LifeForms, the software that Merce Cunningham uses to demonstrate movement, since he is terribly arthritic and can no longer do those things himself. Hmm - accessibility to movement. What different ways would an immobile person think about moving, from an 'average' moving individual. What capacities could be lost by going from mobile to immoble. How would this be different from someone who was never able to walk, for example? What would the choreography of a whole-life-wheelchair-dependent person look like? How large is that barrier?

Relating to LifeForms, I came up with the idea a few weeks ago of some sort of automatic choreography generator. Sounds tacky. And would it discount dance as an art; would it become a manufactured product? I heard someone in the Dance Department talking about how a couple years ago, the Performing Arts Technology majors were given access to LifeForms and choreographed a piece within that program. I like that an application like that bridges the gap from people who are not trained dancers to choreographer. Anway, the choreography generator would allow the user to input checkpoints, either by sculpting a digital figure, or perhaps by matching the shape of an object (*new idea*). Different options would be specified (overall, for a given sequence, or just for the one transition) relating to the "weighted feeling" of the body (which could in fact change the gravity of the virtual environment), how much the limbs are extended, how the transition would be grounded or lifted, etc. The calculated transition between the two points does not have to be the shortest distance.

the pen or the ink?

I feel somewhat limited by an electronic journal versus pen and paper, because it is much more difficult to (literally) sketch ideas. Maybe one of those electronic drawing pads might be nice.

freedom of information

Is it a bad idea to post choreography/phoject ideas in a blog? This information has no protection (in fact, that's the point). Does the importance of sharing ideas, availability of feedback and potential for collaboration outweigh the possibility of, well, someone taking the idea and doing a better job at it than I would? Or is this a good thing? Different perspectives on the same concept could be interesting.

build-up of stills

There would be a still camera set up facing the performer, perhaps from an angle other than the front. There would be a projection onto a back screen from a computer. The performer would carry some sort of wireless trigger, perhaps a presentation clicker, or perhaps a receiver that could pick up audio cues? Something discreet (or not). When activated, the transmitter would cause the computer to take a snapshot of the action onstage, then to display the image, layer by layer, on the screen. Think *skate magazine ad*.













How would the layering work? Consecutively might be added on top (or behind). There might be a way to tell which snapshots of the performer are from a greater distance - then to layer the in that order. The relative positions of the performer in the snapshots would have a lot to do with the final image. The formation of the image would be a story of its own. In the picture, there is a presence of the performer's former selves.

Would a blue screen be required? The new iChat, coming with Leopard, uses some technology where a picture of the backdrop is taken, then this is somehow subtracted from the moving image being captured. This would be even easier with still photography.