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New Software for Choreographers

Posted by Carri on April 12, 2010 at 7:44am

DANCE DESIGNER is a powerful new software program for Choreographers. The intent was tocreate software that would save choreographers time and help with all steps ofthe creative process, including supporting choreographers in documenting theirIntellectual Property. This new technology offers a completechoreography package that assists with the creation, pre-visualization,documentation, communication and rehearsal process for all styles of dance. Ithas the ability to save and organize elaborate, multi-layeredproductions in a single digital file and allowschoreographers to share creative information easily with their dancers andproduction teams.

Please contact me for more information or go to http://www.ChoreoPro.comand sign up for a Free Trial. I can also arrange a special online demo foryou. We are in the process of spreading the word about this unique newtechnology. I hope you will share this information with yourfriends and colleagues.


Thank you,

Carri Burbank

Choreo Technology, LLC

CarriBurbank@ChoreoPro.com

Read more…

Excited Atoms: A study on virtual mobility is now out! and ...downloadable here!

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 9, 2010 at 11:04pm



On-the-Move presents its exploration of virtual mobility in the contemporary performing arts 'Excited Atoms' by Judith Staines.

Excited Atoms outlines a history of virtual mobility in performance, presents the main types of work with inspiring current examples and traces some of the most critical issues and motivations for artists, cultural producers and promoters to collaborate, share, make, question, present and innovate using virtual mobility.

In depth interviews with twenty-one key practitioners, cultural managers and critical observers present informed points of view from around the world. A specially commissioned essay from Ghislaine Boddington (body>data>space) traces a personal pathway through creative collaborations in performance telematics. A Glossary explains some of the terms and helps demystify technologies and areas of creative practice. A research section Explore More presents over 150 links to artists, projects, platforms, reading and other references to extend the exploration of virtual mobility.

Learn more about networked performance … enlarging the action radius … participatory strategies … one-way, two-way and third spaces in interactive performance … virtual stages … avatars … live streaming of work in progress … transdisciplinarity … and so much more

The study was funded by the Fundacion Autor.


Download pdf
Read more…

After Ghostcatching: Augmenting Bill T. Jones with 3D

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 9, 2010 at 10:30pm


Courtesy of Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar



June 20, 2010 - January 2, 2011 - After Ghostcatching will be on exhibit at SITE Santa Fe’s Eighth International Biennial, entitled The Dissolve. Curated by Sarah Lewis and Daniel Belasco, the 2010 biennial brings together artists working in many visual mediums who have mined techniques of early animation and moving image technologies to create a hybrid practice where the homespun meets the high-tech. As a part of this international exhibit where the old-fashioned melds with the futuristic, OpenEnded Group (Paul Kaiser, Shelley Eshkar, and Marc Downie) creates a new edition of the original virtual dance installation, likened to “calligraphy twisting in space” by The Village Voice. After Ghostcatching augments the 1999 version with 3D graphics and cutting-edge technology to further play with perceptions of Jones’ moving figure. This time, as viewers don their glasses, they experience the virtual movement in real depth.

Says Paul Kaiser, “These advances will contribute to a far more immersive and beautiful version of Ghostcatching. And the one advance that will draw the most attention is the stereoscopic illusion (3D). This will put Bill’s ghostly figure in a space that seems at times to hover within hand's reach of the viewers; indeed, viewers may even feel lines of the drawing brushing against their foreheads.” For more information about the biennial, visit thedissolve.net.
Read more…

Cuerpos en Red: Acciones Compartidas en el Nuevo Internet (Taller Madrid)

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 9, 2010 at 7:30pm

Madrid 12-15 de abril 2010
Organizado por:
Master en Práctica Escénica y Cultura Visual
Medialab Prado

Este taller es una introduccion teórico-práctica a nuevas herramientas
tecnológicas y conceptuales orientadas a potenciar el intercambio de
conocimiento y la collaboracion creativa con el uso del internet. Se
explorará el video en la/el internet y plataformas de transmisión en
vivo como nuevo espacio performático, y su potencial creativo y
estético para artistas del movimiento y el performance. Se ofrecerán
ejemplos de aplicaciones innovadoras del nuevo internet y los medios
sociales en los procesos creativos y el mercadeo viral. Se revisara la
interacción con otras plataformas mediáticas de producción y difusión.
Se le dará especial atención al uso de herramientas multimedia
integradas y portátiles a nivel de equipo (hardware) y plataformas
gratuitas disponibles en el internet (software).

Marlon Barrios Solano (Venezuela – EEUU) investigador y especialista en tecnologías interactivas para performance, nuevas
medias sociales y colaboración creativa. Master en danza y nuevas
tecnologías por la Universidad de Ohio (EEUU). Productor de plataformas
interactivas para colaboración y conocimiento abierto. Creador de la
red social dance-tech.net
y productor del canal colaborativo de vídeo dance-techTV. Desde 2007
colabora con la Red Sudamericana de Danza, entre otras organizaciones
internacionales como consultor e instructor.


dance-tech.net
dance-techTV
Interviews

movimiento.org (La Red Sudamericana de Danza)




Troika Ranch

dancetechtv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Alejandra Ceriani

Bebe Miller and Company
dancetechtv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Chunky Move

Watch live streaming video from dancetechtv at livestream.com

We Live in Public

Cena11

Human Browser

Can you see me now? Blast Theory

Can You See Me Now? Tokyo from Blast Theory on Vimeo.



Uncle Roy All Around You/Blast Theory

Uncle Roy All Around You from Blast Theory on Vimeo.


Dance a day
Boris Willis


Koosil-ja Wang
Watch live streaming video from dancetechtv at livestream.com

ERS Counting Workshop for Future Perfect



Isabelle Choiniere

dancetechtv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Armando Menicacci

Watch live streaming video from dancetechtv at livestream.com



ETP Dresden



Tristan Perich

Find more videos like this on dance-tech.net

Idol Task/CynetArts 09

ZEN Station/Cynetarts 09

Mindbox/Cynetarts 09


ECHO System




Radio Healer
RADIO HEALER




Twitter Community Choreography



Swing wing


Improv everywhere




vida
arte
proceso
producto
investigacion
conocimiento
creatividad
colaboration
arte investigacion
creacion collaborativa
proceso creativo
Plan, estrategia, accion
Organizacion



Technological Mediation
Automation (agency)
Recording (register)
Simulation (as if....)
Transmission (space)Tele
Interactive control (alternative interfacing)
Interactivity
Virtuality (worlds and bodies)
Interactive control/ games
Coordination of actions/mobs
Re-sampling/digital creativity
Presence, Telepresence, co-presence

STORY and META
SOCIAL IMAGINARY
The thing, about the thing and that other thing

STORYTELLING

Explicit intention of:
Reflexive Living: time based process
Synchronous and asynchronous
Creative engagement
Collaborative creativity...


Affords:
Shifts in

Time/pace
Seriality

Space/site
mixed




Cambios Generales Mundiales siglo 21
Economia Global/mercado
Iniciativas transnacionales
Movimientos sociales urbanos
Nuevas tecnologias
Interconecion Ecologica/Impacto



Como estamos conectados?
Conectividades?
Contactos (mediacion)
Movimientos (migraciones/mobilidad)
gentes, lugares, ideas/intereses


Transporte y Comunicacion
Mediacion en espacio y tiempo


Sincronia y Asincronia
Presencia??

Historia/s/storytelling
Jonathan Harris: We feel Fine
Transmision
Registros/trazos


Wordle

workshop




Planes y estrategies/coexistencia: design top-down/bottom-up


Que es una red?

Relaciones Vs Objeto
Gregory Bateson

Una forma de Organizacion
Una forma de operar/protocolo de interaccion
Un Proceso Generativo en si mismo

Coneciones
Procesos
Cursos de accion
intercambio entre todos estos aspectos

Promete Flexibilidad!

En red, la organizacion se convierte un fin en si mismo: es el contenido y el logro

reflejan la logica de la vida social

Plataformas de accion politica/intervencion de sistemas

prishtinahouse1.jpg

Pristina House
Marjetica Potrc
Ljubljana-based artist and architect.


Principio de Generosidad
Infraestructuras de confianza



CAMBIOS ESTRUCTURALES Y FUNCIONALES TECNOLOGICOS:
Infrestructura de Fibra optica
Protocolos y estandares
Convergencia
Miniaturizacion
Portabilidad

Conectividad masiva dentro del disenio urbano
Gran Capacidad de almacenamiento y rescate/llamada de datos en forma interactiva
Data base driven websites (PHP/Mysql)
Video/procesamiento de la images con Flash video/flash servers
Ajax (procesamiento en el browser)

Movimientos Sociales/culturales:
Open source/free software
Publicacion de API
desarrollo collaborativo/inteligencia distribuida
Nuevos modelos de produccion y atribucion de derechos de autoria
Cambio Funcional
Arquitecturas Bottom-up
permiten participacion de los usuarios en el desarrollo de contenido y organizacion de contenido.

reflejan la logica de la vida social

Sitios web de estaticos a dinamicos/ informacion es dinamica y cambiente creada por los ususarios

Compartir
Discutir/dialogo
Colaboracion
Acciones compartidas/Coordinacion




EL NUEVO INTERNET




Cambios FUNCIONALES:

Forma y contenido estan separados!!
XML
XHTML
CSS
PHP
MYSQL
APACHE
LINUX
FLASH VIDEO


ENTONCES

WEB2.0
Proceso/proceso/proceso
Servicio no producto
Participacion en el desarrollo del contenido (PROSUMER)
Platafomas que cambian
Esfuerzo colectivo
muchos a muchos
Transparencia
Auto-organizacion


reflejan la logica de la vida social

Subir, bajar,
lateral:
transmision horizontal

"sideloading"

RSS

100px-Feed-icon.svg.png


API Application programing Interface

AGREGADOR

Generadores de Codigo de insertar (embedding) VIRAL

Lista de Agregadores

Projeto RSSificado


Ejemplos...


DanceBloggers

BROOKLYN MUSEUM 1st Fans

Dance Theater Workshop, NYC


Project52

08: Marina from Caleb Custer on Vimeo.


Umove festival
http://movetheframe.wordpress.com/umove-festival/

Side by side
http://www.side-by-side.org/

Steal this dance
http://stealthisdance.com/


Clytemnestra ReMash Challenge
http://clytemnestraproject.com/


Beyonce
http://www.beyonceonline.com/us/news/beyonc%C3%A9-announces-official-single-ladies-dance-video-contest


Move out loud
http://www.moveoutloud.net/


Recursos
http://delicious.com/unstablelandscape/socialmediaclass

DERECHOS DE AUTOR: CREATIVE COMMONS
Generador
de Licencias

Lawrence Lessig



FRAME:
Training/learning
Communicated
Technological spaces/designed and engineered
Mediated?
Movement/motion...

Systems
Mapping
Input out puts
Change
cause and effect
Control

What is NEW?

New steps?

what is dance anyway?

who are we?

Introductions


PLEASE WATCH: A bit of a background...
Leon Theremin

David Rockeby
Troika
Ranch (MIDI Dancer)
Palindrome
Intermedia Group
Gideon
Obarzanek
Hiroaki
Umeda
Merce
Cunningham and The Open Ended Group
Bebe
Miller
Lisa
Nelson
Synchronous
Objects/William Forsythe
Blast Theory
Builders
Association
Rachid
Ouramdane
Jeannete
Ginslov
Gilles
Jobin and Vincent Pluss
La
Jetee/Chriss Markers
We Feel Fine
Aserty
Dances
Improv
Everywhere
Leave
Britney alone!
OK
Go
Human Browser
Project 52
Nine
Inches Nails



How we are going to work:
-Collaboratively.
-Sharing knowledge.
-Sharing media.
-Using what we have, who we are and what we know with our limitations.



Read more…

The Bubble Chamber

Posted by Oliver Scott on April 8, 2010 at 10:18am
Getting working on The Bubble Chamber, my empty shops project exploring sited dance & projection in Coventry. Getting some cool things going with Isadora and Processing and working with @arctic_sunrise. you can follow the progress on twitter @MercurialD

Here is a panorama of the space before we started work

Read more…

LIVE.MEDIA+PERFORMANCE.LAB @ EMPAC this Summer!!! Troy, NY

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 8, 2010 at 6:30am


http://www.empac.rpi.edu/events/2010/summer/workshop/
Announcing our first summer lab for interactive media in performance! Directed by Johannes Birringer and Mark Coniglio, the workshop offers intensive training and possibilities for experimentation with mixed reality and real time architectures, programmable environments, interactive design and the integration of time-based media into live performance and installation.

The workshop addresses emerging and professional art practitioners, scientists, researchers, and students from different backgrounds in performance and new media committed to sharing their interest in developing a deeper understanding of composing work focused on real time, interactive or time-based experiences and multidisciplinary collaborative processes (video, sound processing, projection design, lighting, choreography and directing).

Participants will be in residence for the duration of the lab and offered our exceptional facilities for investigating performance and design techniques that will develop skills and inspire new ideas for working in mixed realities and interlinked physical/virtual or distributed aesthetics. The workshop will include examples and references to international stage works, choreographic systems, installations and site-specific works, as well as hands-on experimentation in full resolution with interactive systems.

Methodologies for the laboratory are conceived by theatre director and media artist Johannes Birringer, founder of the annual Interaktionslabor and professor of performance technologies at Brunel University (London), and Mark Coniglio, artistic co-director of Troika Ranch and creator of the Isadora software. Both artists are widely recognized for their pioneering work in the international performance and media network. Interaktionslabor was last offered on tour in Belo Horizonte, Brasil (2008), and Birringer’s and Coniglio’s work has been featured in numerous festivals and exhibitions around the world.

The activities of the lab are open to visitors, and information about the proceedings and the research process will be available soon.

Résumé and informal letter of application due: June 30, 2010. Contact: Hélène Lesterlin: lesteh@rpi.edu / tel. 518.276.3918
SKILL REQUIREMENTS:

Intermediate/advanced experience in performing with audio/visual technologies and/or programming. Previous experience with Isadora or Max/MSP recommended. This workshop is geared for those already working with technology but wishing to improve their skills and get new perspectives.
WHAT TO BRING:

It is recommended that participants bring rehearsal clothing and their own laptop and other tools (camera, recorder, etc.). Digital equipment will also be available.
HOUSING:

Participants in the workshop will be able to choose from several shared or single on-campus housing options, or may organize their own housing while in Troy.
SCHEDULE:

The lab is intensive and will run from 10am - 10pm daily. Registration will be held Monday morning, August 16, and work that day will start at noon. Participants will wrap up their work Sunday morning, August 22, and depart Sunday afternoon.
Read more…

Technology and Peace: A Short Course at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica this Summer

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 8, 2010 at 5:00am
Technology and Peace
The advent of new technologies has fundamentally changed the capacity for processing and exchanging
information in the 21st century. NGOs and
governments, and companies alike are just beginning to understand the
potential that these tools and systems can have in analyzing and
addressing a range of social problems. This dynamic one-week course
will explore how technology is being used to transform conflicts, build
more sophisticated statistical models, fight diseases, monitor
elections, distribute food, design better economic development measures,
and much more. It will also consider some of the key challenges related
to access, implementation, scale, and evaluation that working with
technology presents. The course is designed for professionals from both
the private and public sectors to assist them in developing strategies
and skills to benefit their organization amid this rapidly evolving
landscape. Participants can expect a hands-on and interactive learning
environment with a variety of real world examples from organizations
working in the field.

3 minute video of course: http://vimeo.com/10555508
Online enrollment form:http://www.upeace.org/academic/training/institute/form.cfm

Technology and Peace: United Nations mandated University for Peace Short Course from Nick Martin on Vimeo.

Read more…

moves10 - full festival programme online + tickets on sale!

Posted by moves Fstvl ofMovement on Screen on April 6, 2010 at 5:20pm

moves10: Framing Motion

moves10: Framing Motion will hit the region from 21-25 April with more than 30 screenings, 16 screen-based installations, 4 interactive video performances, debates and workshops spilling out to over 50 venues across the North West and the UK.

Catch moves online, on site, on screens, indoors and outdoors!
Please find moves festival guide, schedule and registration forms for festival passes at www.movementonscreen.org.uk.

TICKET INFO:

moves full festival pass: £ 55/45
EARLY BIRDS! moves full festival pass: £ 45/35 (deadline 9 April 2010, 5pm)
moves combi pass (full festival pass + Kinesthetic Empathy conference): £ 85 (deadline 16 April 2010, 5pm)
To book tickets for individual events please check moves festival guide and contact moves partner venues: the Bluecoat, Picturehouses at FACT, the Contemporary Urban Centre (CUC) and LJMU Arts & Design Academy.

OPPORTUNITIES AT MOVES10:

- Interactive Scenography LAB by Santi Vilanova ( Telenoika, Spain), an inspiring and creative taking place during the course of the festival (22-24 April). Places are limited. Please book tickets in advance.
- moves filmmaking LAB : be part of a team and join an exciting 7 day filmmaking challenge!
- You still want to get involved? There are some volunteering opportunities still available. Check moves website for details!
- Are you a dancer? moves is looking for contemporary dancers to support Goran Vejvoda's piece Sayat Nova Revisited, coming all the way from France, to be performed during the festival.

Visit www.movementonscreen.org.uk for full programme details and see you at moves10: Framing Motion, 21-25 April 2010, Liverpool!

The moves festival team.
moves10 image strip
Read more…

Message to all members about new membership system and services.

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 6, 2010 at 4:30am
Dear dance-techers,

this is Marlon, the network producer and creator.

dance-tech.net was created in November 2007, since then we have grown to become a social network with almost 3000 international member. We all share our passion and curiosity for innovation, fearless creativity within movement arts and new media technologies.

dance-tech.net has evolved to produce:

The dance-tech.net interviews: a series of interviews with artists, technologies and theorists that has constituted a knowledge axis for the community

dance-techTV in-line video channel: a collaborative internet video channel that transmits hight quality content and provides the community with a platform for co-production of LIVE streaming of performances, conferences and any relevant events.

dance-tech.net receives more than 60000 page visits a months.

We have developed sustainable ways of producing digital content, establishing partnerships and collaborations that have helped dance-tech.net and its projects to grow as an important infrastructure of generosity, exchange and collaboration.

During these two and half years, several of our members have contributed with dance-tech.net beyond the content. They have facilitated and provided creative ways of engaging my work, our community and the use of our platforms. Some members have covered traveling costs and have offered me space for work in a research and teaching residency format. In such collaborations we have participated and developed several international educational and cultural projects in more than 15 countries. These strategies have definitely helped for the growth of the network, but they represented specific work such as teaching, consulting and development: work that was not directly related with the maintenance of the site, community facilitation and media production. Until now, the work is done without receiving direct compensation and I cover all the operational costs.

As you might have noticed, this April, dance-tech.net has opened it space to contextual advertising and we are offering low cost online services for the community and different kinds of membership.

Considering the number of people who visit and use dance-tech.net regularly, from individual artists to educational/artistic/research organizations, I believe that it would be feasible to make dance-tech.net sustainable without compromising the goal of providing free and open access to all its content and platforms.

Our goal is to raise at least $3,000 per month ($1.00 per member or 1000 members paying $3.00 a month), via your patronage of our community, especially those member who do can help. I propose a model that allows your generosity to support the project
distributing costs in a way that members with more resources are able
to help the rest of the community.This model acknowledges the differences in resources between countries, professions, career levels, organizations and fields. Organizations have a higher suggested monthly payment.

I ask you to consider becoming micro-patrons with a voluntary subscription model (micro-monthly payment). In-keeping with the spirit of generosity which has sustained this project until now, it seemed only appropriate that we find a model for financial sustainability that incorporates the ideals of offering free access to the platforms and the possibility of helping.

Explore the following links with the details of the services and the new membership system!

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

Leave comments here or email me at marlon@dance-tech.net

Thank you in advance for your understanding and on going support,

Marlon


Radical Transparency
In the spirit of radical transparency, here is a breakdown, in terms of percentages, of how your contribution will be used:

60% for Salary – almost half of your contribution will go toward in subsidizing my time to work on dance-tech.net projects.
I will use my skills in:
-dance-tech.net site management
-Publishing and reporting on relevant content
-dance-tech.net interviews production (original content)
-Developing collaborations. co-productions and partnerships.
-Producing dance-techTV channel/curatorial and programs
-Training new co producers for dance-techTV platform.


40% for Overhead – Close to half of the money will go toward all of the
things that go into running a social media enterprise.
These includes things like:
Taxes and legal fees
Communications infrastructure
Internet providers
Digital equipment
Web platforms, hosting, design, & development costs

Thanks to dance-tech.net Sponsors


12249475856?profile=original

Advertise in dance-tech.net and reach the world!


PREMIUM members


12249441498?profile=original



Read more…

Discounts for dance-tech.net members: performances and lectures in NYC

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 6, 2010 at 2:00am
Hello all,'
besides the tangible benefits that we already enjoy we have two exciting upcoming events that are offering discounts to our members:

Ashley A. Friend: The Contemporary Dance Core .tcdc. at Joyce Soho

New Voices In Live Performance Fest: TECHNOSHAMANISM at CPR

You must print your dance-tech.net profile page and be sure your name can be read clearly. Show it at the box office with a valid ID.


Thanks to Ashley Friend and Karl Cronin!

The power of collaboration and generosity!!


Would you like to offer discounts or offers in performances, lectures, conferences, festivals, classes to dance-tech.net, software, hardware, books to members email marlon@dance-tech.net


Read more…

New Voices In Live Performance Fest: TECHNOSHAMANISM

Posted by Marlon Barrios Solano on April 6, 2010 at 1:54am


April 12-17, 2010
Curated by Karl Cronin
New Voices in Live Performance
Center for Performance Research
A week dedicated to extended mind and altered states in contemporary performance.

Special discount for dance-tech.net members

Events Overview
April 12-17 (All week) ! Cyborg Nation (encounters, performance, installation)
April 14 (Wed) 7pm ! The Art of Transformation (symposium) - Free
April 15 (Thurs) 7pm ! Trancedance workshop, led by Jennifer Hicks, $20
April 16 (Fri) 7pm ! Ode to the Winter Sea (dance performance), $20/15
April 17 (Sat) 7pm ! Beat Hollow (transcendent sound performance), $20/15
$40 Festival pass available
Student and Artist Discount Available

Tickets at door or
reservations@cprnyc.org

Performing artists have long used "technologies" to induce creative states, expand
their capabilities, and alter their audience's perception of reality.
This week of discussion, performance, and participatory events will use a broad
definition of technology to bring to the surface an underlying aesthetic discussion
about incorporating technology into performance.

Technoshamanism is a term used for applying modern technology to traditional
shamanic practices. Contemporary performance is not shamanic practice, yet the
two share some important features. Technoshamanism is a messy term, yet for
some reason I've enjoyed using it as a placeholder for the messy terrain surrounding
transformation and art, states of being/consciousness in performance,
social sculpture projects that involve the shaping of perception, and a deeper
analysis of performance "technologies" and how they can be used effectively in
the alchemy of live performance. The concept of technoshamanism will serve as
a jumping off point for discussions between the artists presenting
work throughout the week.

Throughout the week there will be discrete planned events, including a trance
dance workshop and performance and a mind-altering sound event, and many
unplanned encounters, courtesy of Cyborg Nation. Cyborg Nation will serve as
the wild card that binds the different events together. Ongoing documentation of
Cyborg Nation, displayed as an accumulating installation, will serve also as an
ongoing record of the interaction between all the different events of the week.
Read more…

Interview with Brice Leroux, part 2: Choreographing bodies and spaces

Posted by body pixel on April 1, 2010 at 9:00pm
This is the second part of the interview with choreographer and dancer Brice Leroux. Read the first part here: Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1, Dancing lumino kinetics

Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux


Could you describe a little bit the processes of your work from the beginning…

BL: I guess it depends on every process in particular. Of course, it’s always the first initial point, and it's about the movement and about the perception of this movement. So, I work on certain parameter of movement and then I’m trying to magnify the perception of this for the viewer.

Usually, it’s a physical process. First, it’s about what are your physical cababilities and how far can you go with it? The idea by itself is not important enough; it’s about how we are going with it? How far you’re going to bring it? And about the training with dancers

It’s a long process of building a technique, actually. Of course, it’s not only about us in the studio as performers, but also about the audience. I think that this experience of watching is important. Then, it’s a lot about the scenography, and the light and the costume. How it’s going to allow the audience to focus on the performance. This focusing is important. And I think that these experiments are a mayor issue, although they are not sensing physical experience, it’s about the perception.


Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux


I guess that’s how the process goes and I’m trying to take away everything that is not necessary for the experience, both for the ‘doer’ and for the viewer. On this way you can have full experience and really focus on what we are really doing.

What about these technical parameters? Because you’re using many elements that are based on science… in your work scenography takes an important place, it’s a huge element in your language… basically, the light is dancing, the sound is dancing…

BL: Right! Yeah, as a choreographer I feel as much as a visual artist then a choreographer. Because it’s about the perception of the movement. In this sense I feel like a visual artist and in a way, for me choreography should be a part of visual art. It’s working with the perception, what is specific here we have perception on human movement.

I’m focusing as much on the perception of the movement then on the movement. Of course, I’m also doing costumes, lights, scenography… for me all of these are part of my job, because it’s about the perception of the movement. I have never collaborated with a visual artist for instance, or with a scenographer, or costume designer…


LED cube, photo taken from Instructables


So, you are doing everything by yourself?

BL: Yes! But for me it's much more coherent this way, because I can't work on the movement and then let someone else to show it the way they want. I don’t want to work with visual artists who haven’t been through the whole process and decided randomly to pick up some element. This aspect is gonna magnify or hide somehow. I’m responsible for this, and on this way I’m the scenographer, and the costume designer, light designer, because it’s a part of the process.

It has to be me, who goes through all these processes, otherwise it can’t be coherent. It goes along the creation; all these aspects are going to be parallel works. For instance, I can’t work on the movement and then wander how I’m going to show this, it’s all the part of the same process.

I’m working on the light little by little as much as with the movement. It’s all part of the same process, it can’t be divided for me, and it would be totally incoherent to work on the movement and then let someone else decide how it’s gonna be shown.

Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


What are you seeking from your dancers?


BL: I want my dancers to go fully with the work. That they wanna go as far as they can building up a new technique every time with a new project, and not being afraid to spend hours and hours in the studio working on one simple thing, trying to bring it as far as they can.

You have rather good connections with Bulgaria? One of the company member is Bulgarian contemporary dancer Krassen Krastev...

BL: This just happened like this. Somehow I ended up in Bulgaria long time ago. I guess that was in 1992, if I’m correct, because I have won this Paris competition as a dancer. That was an arrangement with this competition, which is mostly ballet actually, I won it with contemporary dance, but it just happened that there was no first prize for ballet…

So, they have invited me in Varna to show my work. Of course, it was in the early nineties, still post communism situation, especially in Bulgaria; and there were mostly ballet happenings. I’ve felt a little bit like an alien in the middle of those things. I have showed them a quite contemporary solo in the middle of TuTu’s and point shoes, and Paquitas' and Copelias’… (laughs) which was really weird and I felt like most of the people were wondering what is this weird thing they were watching?


Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


But there were actually few people; somehow it seems that it opened a lot their view on what was possible. Although, maybe for three or four person in the audience. For me that was really a strong experience to see that I could touch few people, and that my work has changed their artistic lives.

That was quite intense experience. One of these few people was Krassen. When he saw my work, he founded contemporary dance company in Bulgaria, which was the first. So, it felt like there was some kind of connection. Few years later we met again and I proposed him to dance for me, and since then we have been collaborating and it’s been a great collaboration.

What artists did inspire you in your work?

BL: It’s hard to say. There are a lot of artists that I really like. But in my work, I tend to avoid influences because I’m trying to build what I think choreographic work should be. I don’t want to take it for granted that this is dance and I should go for this.

I’m trying to build my own ideas on what contemporary dance, choreographic composition should be for me. Yeah, I don’t feel any influences. I find the work I’m doing as I’m being completely within and that’s the way it should be.

Led Fiber Optics


What do you think about technology in dance?

BL: It’s just a tool. It’s not interesting by itself for me. I don’t need amazing technology. Actually for this solo, it’s the first time that I’m using some sort of new technology which is really simple. It was just this idea that the source light is lighting an object, but the object is being lit by itself, it’s the object itself that is giving light. And for this I had to investigate in new technology and I ended up working with this electronic luminescence which is kind of new.

Actually, it was really complicated to build this show because it was new, you don’t have a lot of information how this thing is going to work. That was the big part of the process to discover how this is working. There was not a lot of information on this. But it's just a tool, it could be something else. In other shows, I’m only using what’s already in the theatre. I’m not using a lot actually, just few lights most of people are using and I’m trying to get the most out of it.

Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


With this performance 'Solo#2-Fréquences' it was a little bit different. I wanted to use something we are bringing by ourselves. We have our lights; we have our curtains, the scenography that we are bringing with. In this situation when everybody is so close and all around you can not hide the source of light. So, then I needed to have light but not coming from outside. The source of light needed to be hidden, from every point of view. But it was just a tool to go where I wanted to go.

Do you work at the moment on some new piece?

BL: Yeah, I'm coming back to the trajectories in the space. Actually, I'm focusing more on bodies moving in the space and the interaction between the bodies. Rather then the movement of the body in one place, like in the 'Solo#2-Fréquences', where the body is not moving in the space. Then it's about the articulations of the body. I'm coming back more to trajectories and I would like to work now with more people. And again using the theatre context, front stage, big venues… we'll see how it goes…

Thank you, Brice!


Read the first part here: Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1, Dancing lumino kinetics


(Originally published on BodyPixel)
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Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1: Dancing lumino kinetics

Posted by body pixel on April 1, 2010 at 9:00pm
French choreographer and dancer Brice Leroux presented in February his lumino kinetic dance piece 'Solo#2-Fréquences' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. The guest performance was organized by Eurokaz – The International Festival of New Theatre.


Photo of Brice Leroux by Sandra Piretti (c)



Brice Leroux (b. 1974) graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon in 1992. For his First Solo he received a prize for best contemporary dancer at the Paris International Dance Competition and the Gold Medal of the city of Paris. In 1992 he was awarded a scholarship by the American Dance Festival in North Carolina and completed his training in New York at the studios of Trisha Brown and Merce Cunningham.

In 1994 he moved to Brussels to dance with Rosas. Three years later Brice Leroux decided to give up this work and decided to the study of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at the University of Paris VIII. He worked with David Hernandez, George Alexander Van Dam (violinist in the Ictus Ensemble), Sarah Chase, Jean-Luc Ducourt and others.

In his work 'Solo#2-Fréquences' Leroux uses mathematical schemes applied on movements, LED art, and sound tempo. It's a poetic science on trajectories in space. Brice Leroux is a fascinating and uncompromising choreographer; and he doesn't care much about the establishment, but is fully committed to the processes of work.

Brice Leroux: Continum, photo by Wolfgang Kirchner (c)


Therefore, here is Brice Leroux to tell us more on his art_space_sound_body articulations...

Let's start with your education and interest in dance…

BL: First I've been trained as a ballet dancer. I guess like a lot of dancers, I was being educated like this till the age of sixteen and then I oriented myself to contemporary dance. I’ve studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon. Afterwards, I left for the States to study a bit with the Cunningham Studio and with dancers of Trisha Brown Company. Voila! That’s about it, I’m mainly dance trained…

I’m very interested in your American experiences, because techniques by Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown are slightly different… What was it like to work with them?

BL: Right! Well, it’s true, the movements are very different in these two techniques, kind of opposite. For instance, Merce Cunningham did everything as a sort of geometry, whilst in Trisha Brown’s technique everything is more free and more like fluid forms. Trisha’s movements were actually informal in a way.

But at the same time, what was interesting to me was the fact that these techniques are really working mostly on the movement. And there is nothing theatrical in it, a dancer is a dancer and dancers are really not pretending to do something, just letting their bodies to work.



Photo: Gravitations by Brice Leroux (c)


I guess, some people would call it abstraction, but I don’t think it’s really abstract, because it’s still a human person doing it. So, I think there is still a possibility for the empathy for the viewer.

It can’t be abstract and for me really is important to define the art of dancing in a way. Like really playing with your body which is totally something else then being an actor, like pretending to live something else. I don’t feel like I’m pretending anything, I’m just playing with my body and I’m living the sensations it gives me, hoping that this is also 'lived' by the viewer, I guess.

Seems that you are interested lately more in corporal work and kind of minimalism… Is there anything that has triggered this interest particularly? When did you decide to do this kind of aesthetics?

BL: Well, I was just trying to learn as a composer. I guess I needed to focus on one figure at the time. I didn’t study choreography for instance, compositions and these kinds of things. My way of working is actually studying every aspect of what composition is. For instance, if I would work on trajectories in space that’s enough for me to focus on, without a need to also work on arms movement for instance or something else.

For me, there is my own 'composition' I work on and then, I work for the viewer… because I’m also trying to create things to let the viewer see this work on trajectories.



Gravitations-quatuor


Therefore, everything out of that I'm moving away to show what I want to see. Hence, I’m working on what’s necessary and what’s enough.
I’m not interested in minimalism itself. I’m just interested to focus on one aspect of compositions, if it’s already a full work, that's enough and I don't have to mix everything.

As for the viewer, I wanna show the specific thing I’m working on. I’m dividing it into parameters, only working on certain parameters at time.

What is your relation as a choreographer to the space… to theatre space? More precisely, how do you treat space in your work?

BL: Um, that’s a large question. As for theatre space, I started experimenting with space more like Trisha (Brown), having more events in site specific spaces. Afterwards, I started to go to theatres and then working in some propositions this space gave me, for instance: What is a block box? What is a frontal perception of the audience?

Solo#2-Fréquences by Brice Leroux (c)


Well, in this performance 'Solo#2-Fréquences', the audience is all around and it's a little bit different. I’m trying to use what's in the theatre and what’s interesting in this situation, the audience is sitting in front of it, in the dark, there are no other stimuli and it’s a live show, it’s direct and you know that’s not an image. A human body in front of them, and that’s a specific situation that I want to work with.

In terms of space, what’s interesting for me is the space between bodies. If you are only working with trajectories, the distance between bodies and how they come close or get far from each other. In a way, what’s really visible for me is happening between space and that’s what I’m trying to work on.

OK, now we can switch to music and the importance of the sound in your work. You studied ethnomusicology and came into contact with other cultures through traditional dances ... Why did you decide to go in that direction?

BL: Traditional dances were interesting to me because you are entering the field that's not about the style, specific style that has been built by some choreographer, but was built over the years, decades, centuries.

Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux


There are really coherent forms that somehow attracted me to study them and to see what style actually is? You can do the movement with it, like for instance, if you would ask a ballet dancer to do a movement or if you would ask an African dancer to do exactly the same, it’s not going to be the same thing at all. This is what interests me. What are these differences in the way of doing things? And for me, these differences are style, so researching on this was important. Body movements are not only shapes, it’s also a way of doing it.

For me that was a way to go toward the source of the pleasure of the movement. It wasn't being built by someone thinking about what movement should be, it’s just something that has been built up over the centuries, something that is very coherent within the society and just a basic pleasure of what dancing is.

Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux


Yeah, I know... many people very often use these terms like, lets make now a Forsythe movement, or a Cunningham movement… what about non labeled body and movement?

BL: Yeah, I didn’t want to create my style based on taste. For me that was training, too. As a dancer, I wanted to have all these experiences. But, I don’t wanna be imprisoned with a certain style that I would have to study more then others. I wanted this range of obvious possibilities and from this point, my work is about not deciding on style.

I’ve never decided to use a movement because I think: oh this is nice, so I would do this. So, I’m building this compositional mathematics in order to avoid this. There is some sort of logic and coherence with the project rather then a decision of taste.

I guess, that’s what I’m trying to do, which is somehow opposite to traditional dances. But because it’s opposite, I was really interested in this. I needed to go through all these things to pull away from this, I guess.

Read the second part of the interview with Brice Leroux: Choreographing bodies and spaces

(Originally published on Body Pixel)
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