Creating Dance Works Specifically for the Internet -- Dance Goes Digital

October 30, 2007

Creating Dance Works Specifically for the Internet

By Doug Fox

Are there choreographers/dancers who are creating dance works specifically for the Internet (with no real-world equivalent)? Who are they and how are they going about it? Are they using video? Motion capture? Animation? Other tools and technologies?

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8 Comments

Inarra Saarinen said:

~ Ballet comes to the global virtual community~

Second Life Ballet produces professional works that creatively enhance the viewer’s experience while attending a ballet performance. Audience members can see classical, neoclassical, contemporary, and novel ballets that cannot be seen elsewhere. New ballets are premiered with original stories, choreography, and music with dancers from around the world all dancing together in one space.

Unlike other ballet companies, Second Life Ballet uses new technology to take the art form into a unique environment to new and existing spectators - the first and only of its kind. The company performs in and takes advantage of a 3D Internet virtual world called Second Life: http://www.secondlife.com. The company creatively utilizes unique aspects of the virtual reality, e.g., transforming from human into animal or growing old on stage. The ballet uses a new breed of dancers and a new classical ballet vocabulary created to take advantage of the innovative medium. The dancers are virtual representations of human beings (avatars). These avatars, or virtual dancers, are real people from around the globe – Bahrain, Chicago, Denmark, England, Germany, Hawaii, Holland, New York, Seattle, Scotland, and Washington DC – that come together to captivate audiences. Many are real life professionals.

By performing in an Internet virtual space, it breaks geographical boundaries and time zones, and it allows new spectators to enjoy, in a unique way, a ballet performance that they may have not experienced otherwise. Second Life Ballet drives further awareness and appreciation for the art form.

“By the end of the first act, I realized that the same emotional response that real life dance can evoke is possible in the virtual realm.” Pixeleen Mistral, Second Life Herald.

Added: October 31, 2007 7:30 AM | Permalink

Doug Fox

said:

Inarra,

Thanks for your comment about Second Life Ballet. A few questions:

- What is the specific process of creating avatars and sequences of movement in Second Life? How do you synchronize multiple dancers during a performance?

- Second Life is a relatively new technology. What can go wrong during a performance that brings together "performers" from around the world?

- Can you elaborate on what you mean by creating a "new classical ballet vocabulary" for this virtual world?

- Do you have videos online of your performances? I know I've seen them online - I might be able to find them.

- From my personal experience, I don't feel that I had a similar emotional response to watching Second Life ballet performance as I do when watching a live performance. Could you elaborate on why you believe the emotional response is the same?

Much thanks.

Added: October 31, 2007 10:10 AM | Permalink

simon ellis said:

Here is another example of dance web-art, although to call them 'dance works'* is definitely stretching the definition. But certainly they were created (and continue to be created) working with a consideration of 'performance' beyond its usual contexts.

Here's the url: http://www.dad-project.net

at the time I was developing a lot of theatre-based installations & projects that needed a lot of money, so dad-project became a means of working with ideas that required no funding (indeed, no money at all).

strangely, the work (dad-project) was 'picked up' to be developed as an 'real-world' project, involving touch screens etc (from the screen to a different screen!) .... www.still-live.net.

yours in - gulp - self-promotion

simon

* 60 frame performances?

Added: November 1, 2007 2:29 AM | Permalink

simon ellis said:

Also, David Corbet and I (from an idea he had considered with a fellow called Jacob Lehrer) developed these 2 second dance films.

www.microflicks.net

one thing that (still) intrigues me about them (as compared with 'most dance' is that they invite repeated viewing - indeed, as you will see, they tend to demand it!

They were initially made solely for web, but are also available in vodcast format for viewing on portable devices. Some details are here:
http://slightly.net/microflicks/?page_id=6

yours in - yet more - self promotion.

simon

Added: November 1, 2007 2:39 AM | Permalink

clare byrne said:

thinking about performance in a different way --
I'm doing Weekly Rites. I perform weekly, while videotaping, and excerpt a short segment. The product lives only online.

For me it's dance/movement through a "looking-in-to-look-out" way of living: becoming more primal, by degrees. It's strange to me that the way I've found to do this is by putting it online, but somehow this weirdness makes sense...it's that kind of paradox I find all over in creating.

It gives me a chance to perform privately, affordably, spontaneously, and I hope generously. It gives people a chance to watch privately, affordably, spontaneously. Listening seems vital, allowing for movement to come through, however subtle or gross. Also, to be getting parts of my ego/psyche out of the way in order to be channelling in and out. I think it takes a receptive receiver (audience member/online viewer) on the other end. I think a lot about that interchange, though not necessarily in audience-building terms.

Some things that have come up for me are the connections between performance, survival, and hunting. I'm thinking a lot about how dance in ritual evolved from the need to become the animal that was to be hunted, and/or that had been hunted. How we eat to live, how energy eats other energy, how vibrations of movement, sound, and thought affect/engulf things and people. It's a powerful process, it's really the only process; it's what I want to break down and participate in more. So far, it helps me understand better that movement and performance, in all the ways it has always existed, is essential. I'm trying to get to some very old ways through some newer technological tools.

Added: November 1, 2007 10:46 AM | Permalink

Richert Schnorr said:

http://www.regularmotion.net

I've also been creating short videodance, at this point, specifically for the internet. For me, the pieces are about accessibility and producing art within my current means. They are an exercise in trigger pulling, creating art quickly without being precious. They are also a visual documentation of my own process of learning about video and movement. I consider not only the videos themselves, but also how they relate to each other, and how they are presented to the viewer.

The pieces on the site were created for the internet, but I also see them as rehearsals or investigations that could lead other places. For now, I've kept them short and simple, but as I continue I'm beginning to hunger for something longer, more complex, and potentially integrated in live performance. However, for a young artist opportunities for installation/performances with multiple projections/screens are difficult to come by, and while the internet has proven to be an accessible and affordable way to make and present art.

Added: November 1, 2007 3:33 PM | Permalink

Inarra Saarinen said:

Hi Doug,

First of all, please refer to our web site http://slballet.org for a lot of details, including "The Making of a Ballet in Virtual Space", information on the ballets, bios on the composer, choreographer, and dancers, calendar of performances, auditions, etc.

I would like to thank fan Kati Voss for the URLs of our first original ballet, "Olmannen", which are on YouTube. Machinima of our second original ballet, "Windows", will be posted soon.

The short technical answer is that I create animations outside of Second Life using various programs, import them into Second Life virtual reality, choreograph and place the animations and timings into musical/dance sequences, and then give them to the dancers (avatars) and rehearse much like physical dance. The dancers (avatars) synchronize with each other much as in physical dance: they are listening to the music and watching each other. The performances are completely live; nothing is canned or the result of pressing a button. This makes for always interesting slightly changed performances (just as with physical dance but in a different way) and I am always intrigued by the changes. The dancers (avatars) are very rehearsed and trained in virtual dance to do this.

One of the major problems that can occur is "lag" -- a slowing down of the movement or the perception of the movement -- that can be different for different people (avatars) and slow down costume changes. Remember that since the dancers (avatars) are really responding to each other, if there is differential lag, their timing will be off. Another problem that can happen is occasionally an entire "sim" (simulator) that holds the audience or stage can disappear! That happens very rarely in physical dance.

In terms of exploring a defining a new virtual ballet aesthetic and vocabulary... let me post on that separately.

You will have to ask other audience members about their emotional responses to the ballet; perhaps Kati can comment?

- Inarra

Added: November 6, 2007 3:37 PM | Permalink

Dance Goes Digital

October 30, 2007