March 14, 2008

"Movement Scores" from Non-Dancers: Integrating Dance into Contemporary Discourse

There are many approaches that the contemporary dance community can take to integrating dance into our daily discourse. In other words, dance and movement can be both a practical tool and a creative approach through which people with varied interests, hobbies and expertise can see, experience and better understand the world in which they live.

Below I offer a specific example of what I mean. But first, two candid quotes from dance bloggers that I think illustrate the disconnect between the contemporary dance community and non-dance communities.

Washington, DC-based dancer Amanda Abrams writes the following after reflecting on negative audience reviews for a recent dance performance:

It depresses me most because I don't like to feel so disconnected from the "real" world. I can't convince myself that living in a bubble of art and listening only to what my contemporaries think is going to keep my dancing honest and relevant. It's very strange how we got so disconnected from the rest of the world...

Megan Sprenger, director of marketing for New York City-based Dance Theater Workshop, shares the challenges of building audiences for contemporary and experimental dance in "TV Dance Mania":

With the launch of yet another dance reality television show - Step It Up & Dance on Bravo - my heart drops as I know that dances success on television will not effect contemporary dance as I know and love it. The marketing department at Dance Theater Workshop is constantly brainstorming ways to reach new audiences - YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, distribution, public performances, previews, reviews - you name it, and yet our performance sales remain relatively the same.

Maybe, to generalize, the modern/contemporary dance community has isolated itself too much from mainstream interests and pursuits? Maybe there is a need for the dance community to engage with non-dancers in new ways in order to create new types of interactions and dialogues? And maybe these new types of conversations can be pursued in ways that expand possibilities for dance artists while not constraining or compromising their approach to art-making?

A New Interface for Connecting with Non-Dancers

I think a good starting point for considering alternative types of engagement with non-dancers is through the "interface." Everyday, we access, manage and edit digital data through a range of human-computer interfaces (HCI). We use keyboards, computer mice, remote controls and other devices to control the environment in which we live.

Experimental interfaces are being introduced on a regular basis. ReadWriteWeb has a post from Wednesday, "User Interfaces Rapidly Adjusting to Information Overload," that includes video demonstrations of different types of interfaces.

The video "ShadowReaching: New Perspective on Wall Display Interaction" is especially relevant to this discussion about creating new types of conversations with non-dancers. Researchers at the University of British Columbia (Garth Shoemaker, Anthony Tang and Kellogg S. Both) are experimenting with various approaches to user manipulation of data on large visual panels. Their methodology is called "Shadow Reaching," which you can see demonstrated in their video:

I think the section of the above video that starts at the 1:30 minute mark is especially intriguing. You'll first see a user manipulate local and distant objects. The next illustration then includes a demonstration of bi-manual input.

As I watch this video of "Shadow Reaching," there's no doubt in my mind that I'm watching a dance performance. Although I doubt that the computer interface researchers have dance on their minds.

How could the dance community engage these researchers in a conversation about dance?

I have many thoughts, but I'll offer one possibility for now. I'd ask these interaction designers to create a "movement score" for dancers. For an example of an improvisational dance created in response to a movement score, see Matt Gough's post, "Ecdysis."

So I could see sitting down with these researchers to better understand the focus of their explorations. I'd be especially interested in the challenges that they faced in terms of how different parts of the body must move in order to manipulate digital objects in the desired way. Then, I'd work with these interaction designers to create a movement score -- maybe we would shoot a video and post it to YouTube. On this video, the researchers would invite dancers to create a dance piece that explored specific elements of their research. Dancers would then create their video responses, which might end-up being very abstract or more gestural in nature - there are many possibilities.

I think that there are some intriguing questions and possibilities that would spring from this non-dancer/dancer fusion approach to art-making:

- What can dance artists bring to experiments with new types of interfaces? Are we talking primarily practical ramifications or does art help interaction designers see and experience their work in fundamentally new ways?

- Getting back to Amanda's feeling of a disconnect between dancers and non-dancers. How would this type of collaboration help bridge the gap? Would both dancers and non-dancers now have a better way and better "interface" for understanding and appreciating each other's work?

- And to answer Megan's challenge: The road to success in building new dance audiences is to connect with non-dancers on their own turf. In the case of human-computer interface designers, the goal is to figure out how to fuse art-making with practical explorations in the lab. And once this connection is made, then the possibilities for audience building grow significantly.

I've always been intrigued by how the modern/contemporary dance community can connect in new creative and practical ways with non-dancers. Next week, in conjunction with a New York City choreographer, we'll be launching a new project aimed at pursuing these objectives.

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