Archive for dance lesson
January 23, 2008 at 4:36 pm · Filed under dance, guest, TONY, dance technology, interactive, research, sarah lawrence college, students, education, dance teacher, performance, project, choreography, discipline, pedagogy, process, learning, intelligence, fun, dance criticism, dance lesson, social network, improvisation, Julie Cruse, VICKI, choreobot
For the last meeting of my class last semester, 12-21-07, I had Julie Cruse of Ohio State’s EMMA Lab as a guest to share her research in developing Chorebot VICKI. VICKI stands for Virtual Improvisational Choreographer / Kinetic Instructor. She a virtual automaton who guides a dancer through a structured improvisation using randomly generated verbal cues. Upon initializing VICKI she describes her purpose.
She says:
Choreobot is designed to challenge a dancer’s movement skills, and asks the dancer to draw upon advanced improvisational interpretation. I am programmed to make dances using theme and variation as prescribed by my creator. I use textbook dance methods, but - I am unpredictable. The dancer will demonstrate as I begin my next new dance.
Read more of Julie’s description of the technology HERE at the project website.
Before the lecture demonstration Julie and I had to rebuild modules of the assembly so that we could get VICKI to talk off Intel-based Macs. Retooling software under time constraints can be terribly stressful but I am glad to report we patched things up in time for the class. Julie’s lecture/demonstration was wonderful. She took some time to explain her impetus for building the machine and gave the students a tour of VICKI’s inner workings. Next Julie fired up the choreobot and demonstrated how she danced under VICKI’s instruction. Next she invited the students to try. Watching the student’s improvisation was exciting.
The system forces the dancer to think on their toes and make quick decisions. With time I could see a dancer becoming expert at navigating in this environment. Julie has clearly taken the time to do this. For her it was the first time she was able to observe other people dancing inside her system. By the end of the class everyone was incredibly energized and immersed in conversation regarding future research using choreobot VICKI. Julie has left us with a copy of VICKI and has encouraged us to continue experimenting with and mutating the system.
Matt Gough has taken a good deal of time developing an analysis of this work. In particular Matt takes issue with the description of the work as an “artificial intelligence” simply seeing it as an automated version of Cunningham’s method of chance procedures. Julie has documented the critical discourse HERE.
I met Julie inside Sector 9 of the blogosphere. There she has made bold gestures regarding dance-technology as a field. Like Matt Gough, she has voiced discontent over the current state of dance-tech.
She writes:
When I hear dance and tech, I think - it better not be ANOTHER interactive audio/video environment. It better not be ANOTHER…
…dance contextualized by projected videos
…dancer controlled by robotics or sensors improvisation in real time that composes the score
…motion capture in real time translated to animated projections
…wearable technologies that do something with sound or video
…animated avatars in second life real time “telematic” improvising
I find such pugilistic remarks invigorating and am excited to see what trouble Julie stirs up in the future.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
October 9, 2007 at 6:10 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, teaching, savannah, dancing, VERONICA, the STUDIO, youth america grand prix, performances, dance lesson
POSTING:
It’s been a long while since I’ve posted! Let me try to do a little catching up! Not that I ever really take a break, I tend to operate at a very hectic pace, but, I’ve gotten into the full swing of regular classes at the studio and have also been preparing for some major and minor events.
My schedule is a little tight this year. I decided to limit my children’s classes to 10 students. This is good and bad; good because I have created a very focused learning environment with a lot of individual attention—bad because I am feeling like I am outgrowing my space. I don’t have the time or space to open up new classes and I am seriously lacking in the beginner beginner class area. I do like this however– I wanted a smaller focused school full of kids who really want to dance and this is what I have-I just need about 20 or 30 more of them!
A couple of weeks ago, we were asked by the city to perform and give a class in Forsyth Park, to promote dance as a way of keeping fit. Well, I love dancing outside, but-they didn’t give us anything to perform on, so we danced in the grass. Fun, except it had been raining for days and it was very very wet!
We actually had a great time and also learned some belly-dancing with the Lotus Dance Company.
I have also started rehearsals for our December show “Swingin’ at Club Sweets’. This is my Nutcracker. Never allowing myself to get bored, I had to create a show that would challenge me and wanted to give the students and Savannah something ‘different’. I have live jazz musicians and the set is a speakeasy club. More on this in a future post…….
I have some talented students who will be going to the Youth America Grand Prix in February. It is an overall good learning experience for them. Well the learning starts now and we have been working on a few variations and I have chosen what I think shows them best. I also need to give them each a Contemporary piece, which, like last night-I stay up at all hours of the night listening to music, looking for that perfect fit for each personality.
Next week we perform outside again, at the Richmond Hill Seafood Festival. I look forward to this one. It is in a huge beautiful park, has incredible local seafood and amusement rides for the kids. AND we will actually get to dance on a stage!!!
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
September 30, 2007 at 1:42 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, event, new york city, city center, iphone, fall for dance, social dance, tango, dance lesson
We arrived at City Center early for tonight’s Fall for Dance presentation. Since we parked and entered the complex on 56th street, we had to pass through the fall for dance “lounge” to get our tickets from the box office.
I believe there was some sort of dance lesson earlier, and surprisingly there were loads of people tango-ing on the dance floor. In order for me and doug to get to the other side, we had to assume the tango position and saunter across. Must have been pretty funny looking.
It’s so great to see so many people dancing!
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
