Dancers Using Technology

Using Skype, For Dancers in Iraq and the US to Work Together

This is a great article from The Wall Street Journal this week. Technology can start conversations and bring dance - and dance classes - to communities with few opportunities at the moment. Read more about the use of Skype.

To read the full article, click here. 

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Technology that Creates Interactive Sets

It makes me so happy to see articles about dance in non-dance publications, liked Wired today.

Today's piece is entitled "A High-Tech Dance Performance Melds Human Bodies with Code." It highlights the work of French choreographers Adrien Mondot and Claire Bardainne. 

Watching the video, the use of technology is spectacular. The interaction - or illusion of interaction - between the images and the dancers creates a magic I have rarely seen outside of the Cirque du Soleil realm. I can only imagine the cost of the equipment and designers for this work.

Click here to read the full article and see a video link.

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Article: Movement That Streams (from the NY Times)

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This is a recent article by Siobhan Burke in the NY Times. Short and thoughtful, the article asks great questions around audience attention, live versus recorded dances, and accessibility.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/arts/dance/movement-that-streams.html?_r=0

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Article of Note: Tiptoeing Around the Music Video (NY Times, November 15, 2013)

Brian Seibert’s article “Tiptoeing Around the Music Video” is definitely worth ten minutes of your time, to read and to consider. Seibert highlights the work of choreographer Susan Marshall and her online work/trailer “Stop.” The article brings to the surface many questions about art on the internet, accessibility, audiences, virtual audiences versus guests at live events, and “Youtube as a platform.”

Read more here.

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Wendy Whelan Uses Technology

If you haven't already read this short Wall Street Journal piece this week, check it out. It highlights ballet icon and New York City Ballet principal Wendy Whelan. The article is about the various tech tools she uses in her personal life and for dance-related ideas. 

click here

Article of Note: Dance and Digital Projection

If you haven't already read this recent article in The Guardian by Judith Mackrell, I encourage you to follow this link. 

The article shares the details about a recent French production. Mackrell highlights some good questions and considerations for the role of technology within our choreography. Does technology enhance the work or become the main attraction?

• Is it "the 'magic box' for choreography to inhabit?"
• Does technology now create "the most portable scenery?"
• Are we keeping the main thing the main thing (ie dance)?

Dance and digital projection: bring on the virtual rhinos

Dancers Using Technology: Kickstarter and College Students

While looking at Arts Journal Online this morning, this article caught my attention. It is about students at Weber State University in Utah using Kickstarter to fundraise for a special performance opportunity in San Francisco. Read the article to find out more about Kickstarter and giving college students real life experience fundraising.

Kickstarter Article

Food for Thought - Article from the Dance/USA Website

This opening paragraph from Marc Kirschner's article should spark your interest to read further.

In 2012, technology began to transform the art of dance. This transformation was led not by social media or crowd-funding, which began to have a substantial impact on how dance companies operate their traditional business of presenting live performance, but by consumption of dance outside of the traditional stage and away from the theater – on tablets, in cinemas, and at a time and place completely separate from the actual performance. As a result, the foundations have been laid for restructuring how the art of dance will be produced, consumed, and supported in the future. 

Thinking about "Dance and Technology"

First, if you are a dancer, dance company, or arts administrator in the United States, I highly encourage you to join Dance/USA. They do so much for the field, and we all can gain so much from their conferences, email list, and e-journal.

Speaking of the e-journal, they have a wonderful section of articles about technology.

Check it out here.