HELIOPOLIS (29 mins. excerpts)

Ventura Dance Company's Dance-Media performance "Heliopolis".“… Soon fluttered its secret on white highway and brown byway to the rose of the winds and blew of the gaels…”James Joyce's Finnegans WakeHeliopolis builds a fictitious urban utopia within a Performance-Installation. A light sculpture hovers over Heliopolis like an obelisk, a relic from thousands of years of urban city cultures lighting the temples of consumption. It’s citizens are continuously “scanned” and tracked as transparent actors leaving a trail of their presence as they interact with the city and its sounds.A reflection on humanity in the context of global metropoles of today and tomorrow such as Shanghai, or Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis" or Los Angeles in 2019 (as depicted by Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner).On stage a video screen depicts the chronological journey of a person throughout a day in the city of Shanghai, whilst five dancers interpret the “Replicants” of the film Blade Runner. Their movement patterns increasingly breaking down as they struggle to no avail for an extension of their existence.An interplay between a complex choreography and a dynamic audiovisual scenography is presented simultaneously, polyphon and even dissonant for the audience to find a poli-logical order of the audio-visual impressions presented.TechnologyThe soundtrack of Heliopolis was created through the combined use of camera motion tracking and gesture recognition software. Four “Hot Spots” and sensors continuously tracked dancers movements to generate layer upon layer of city sounds in combination with Blade Runner’s film soundtrack and the composers of Heliopolis music. (Software: Chris Ziegler / Music: Electroscape).Videos recorded in Shanghai were manipulated through the use of software and are projected on to the stage (Software Daniel Bisig). The choreography was created through computergenerated movements, providing credibility to the characters of the film that the dancers portray.Artistic Direction, Choreography, Installation, Videos and Audios:PABLO VENTURADancers:UNITA GALILUYO, MARTYN GARSIDE, DEBORAH HOFSTETTER,JULIA SATTLER, NICOLAS TURICCHIAExtras (Video):JIE YU WUMusic:ELECTROSCAPE feat. Götz Dihlmann Dock 18Audiovisual Interaction-Design, Software-Programming:DANIEL BISIG (Video), CHRIS ZIEGLER (Audio)Costumes:ARLETTE KUNZLight sculpture:GRAMAZIO & KOHLERManagement:KRISTINA SOLDATIwww. ventura-dance.cominfo@ventura-dance.com© Pablo Ventura 2014

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