Just to say hi

[Guilherme Schulze]

Hi Sicchio,

I lead a Research Group in João Pessoa - Brazil mainly formed of drama students. With our current project we intend to create and propose a software package to help both choreographers and students on cognitive aspects of the choreographic process. It is too early to have conclusions but we are having better responses from the educational context than the artistic one. This seems to be related to the fear most dance professionals have about the use of computers for dance.

[Sicchio]

It is interesting that you are using computers within the choreographic process - I tend to teach more about using real time media within performance. But yes, the fear is probably the same on both accounts. When students or choreographers are asked to go outside their comfort zone, this seems to appear.

I also think it is about the approach to teaching the software. For example, today I ran a workshop which looked at real time video projections. The students did not fully engage until they were asked to perform a physical exercise along with the software. It was integrating the familiar that allowed them to feel at ease. I have also seen other consequences of student work when the teaching was technology intensive (rather than integrated with choreography or dance) where the performance is only based around the media or technological output and the students seem to forget about the live performance that accompanies it.

I current am looking at ways to balance this with my students and I am interested in the way others have dealt with this.

[Guilherme Schulze]

The option of applying computers within the choreographic process is an option quite unusual as dance tech artists use to work within performance. Our research intends to have students even children playing with dance not only in the studio or school but at home with the computers they have. The aim is to have a set of simple programs for sketching the use of space and time, and documenting the different moments of the creative process.

Using simple programs sacrifice the 'wow' approach to facilitate the interaction with the user (student, dancer or choreographer). This, in my opinion, is the best way of integrating future dance artists to technology in places such as my region where hi end equipment isn't available locally.

I agree that computers have something that make people forget their live bodies. This is one of the reasons I am not including in my research programs such as Lifeforms or Poser. You would need to spend a long time on learning how to play with it and then the output can be so fantastic that the temptation of going digital could replace any ideas of live dance.

[Marlon Barrios Solano]

hello Guiherme,
sounds very interesting!
The re the very popular and absurd "fear of disembodiment" in a lot of our dance peers.
I thin that is it crucial to approach the definition of "choreography". I think it is very good to lower the level to "composition" and use more gestalt based principles (perception of wholes, continuity, closeness, etc).
Very interesting!
Also, I am curious about the cognitives aspects that you are considering in this project!

[Guilherme Schulze]

To define choreography or dance composition is tricky as it is related to the the artist cultural environment and his/her/their aims. Gestalt based principles could work for some processes and not for others. Personally I tend to use LMA and music composition applied to dance.

On cognition
When a choreographer creates a dance, decisions have to be made. Those decisions are taken from the knowledge of the environment which includes time and space available and the capabilities of the dancer(s). In this equation if applicable you could add the theme, the message, the choreographic strategies, the visual and aural setting, the dramaturgic construction, and so on. All of these are cognitive aspects of choreography. In this way it can be planned and annotated which is what my research is about. For students this approach can help not only to demystify the creative process in dance but to integrate theory and practice.