Archive for fun
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
November 23, 2007 at 6:40 am · Filed under dance, SUSAN, los angeles, dance companies, college, fun
This past Saturday, at co-founder (co-director, choreographer and dancer) Betsy Uhler’s invitation, I attended the inaugural performance of LA Unbound. Based on Ithaca College’s IC Unbound, a student dance company that Betsy was a member of during her college days, LA Unbound is a dance troupe comprised of dancers in Los Angeles who represent as many different backgrounds, styles, and levels as can possibly be imagined. The company’s primary objective: To hold performances featuring a diverse array of dances in a non-competitive environment.
When Betsy first described LA Unbound to me, the organization and the philosophy upon which it is founded immediately struck a special chord with me because it reminded me so much of the college dance group that I myself directed during my time at Amherst. There, like here, the group existed fundamentally to facilitate dance for dancers (and non-dancers who wanted to dance). The group’s sole demand/s: dance and, more importantly, have fun. LA Unbound’s philosophy is very similar.
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Ithaca College alum Doug Hannah entertains the crowd
with unusual juggling and balancing acts. |
Ithaca College alum Peter Verdell provides musical
interludes in between dances. |
Because it is, in a way, a Los Angeles extension of the Ithaca-based IC Unbound, a majority of LA Unbound’s dancers are IC Unbound and Ithaca College alums. (Just as an aside: I never realized that so many Ithaca College alums live in Los Angeles. They must amount to at least half the city’s population! (Okay, I exaggerate…)) What a fantastic resource, though. Those Ithaca College alums who did not dance on Saturday helped out where they could, either selling tickets, passing out programs, queuing the music, setting the lights, performing in between dance numbers and, of course, supporting the dancers from the house.
Happy dancers.
What a great start for LA Unbound! Cheers to co-founders and co-directors Betsy Uhler and Elizabeth Tramontozzi for their hard work and for creating this special vehicle for dancers and dance lovers. And for keeping it fun.
Betsy and Elizabeth smile after a long day of rehearsing and performing.
Recent Posts by susan kim
November 5, 2007 at 3:41 am · Filed under dance, costumes, friends, SOPHIE, sophie flack, life, gwyneth muller, fun
Tiger and Ladybug-er on Halloween!
(thanks for the pic, Gwyn)
Recent Posts by sophie
November 5, 2007 at 1:43 am · Filed under dance, tour, travel, costumes, friends, ALEX, alex wong, life, fun
Sorry for not writing for so long, we’ve been so busy over here in Miami performing Jewels and what not, and now we’re on tour. We just went to Berkeley, California where we performed Nine Sinatra Songs, Agon, In the Upper Room and now we’re in Detroit, doing a similar program, except replacing Nine Sinatra Songs with Raymonda Variations.
We’ll soon be back in Miami, but in the meantime I just thought I’d stop by and post a nice little Haloween picture I took. I know it’s a few days late, but that’ll just have to do! I’ll write more soon!
(Me, Daniel Baker, Maira Barriga and Michael Breeden)
The wonderful Wizard of Oz! 
Recent Posts by alex wong
October 19, 2007 at 7:28 pm · Filed under injuries, SUSAN, injury, fun
For the past week or so, trying to understand my recovering Achilles has been extraordinarily frustrating and very confusing. At random, sharp spurts of pain will shoot up my left calf during the day. To make matters worse, my right Achilles–perhaps it is compensating?–has been hurting quite a lot. Rest, massage therapy and the usual relief remedies have proven (in the short term, at least) to be minimally effective so, last night, while at the grocery mart, I slipped a pack of IcyHot into my shopping cart. Spur-of-the-moment inspiration?
Last night’s experience with IcyHot was especially enlightening. Without further ado, I feel obliged to pay tribute to my night of IcyHot patches, by way of
A limerick:
This dancer’s calves are a nightmare.
(One even needed a repair!)
Last night, she used menthol
And, then, into bed crawled
(Though she’d rather have plopped in a lounge chair).
Now, the smell of menthol is quite piercing.
It invades any room like a gas ring.
She took just one whiff
And was high in a jiff;
Her mood fast took off in an upswing.
The smell’s permeated her body
And the patch left her skin feeling shoddy.
She’s stuck in despair
For the pain is still there.
Someone should give her a hot toddy.
Recent Posts by susan kim
October 10, 2007 at 5:28 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, costumes, savannah, Nutcracker, VERONICA, the STUDIO, photographer, fun, savannah college of art and design
Tonight I took the dancers downtown to Broughton Street for my photo shoot for PR for “Swingin’ at Club Sweets”. Most of the kids had a great time with this. Some of the parents weren’t happy with my time and location (6:30-7:30pm) But all in all it was pretty successful. This really is the first time they all realize that they are a character in the show. The amazing costumes are made by Karen Corum. We don’t have them all finished yet so there is a bit of improv on that department. Leopold’s Ice Cream Shoppe, owned by Leopold Stratton, lent me the trays for my fabulous waitresses.
This shoot leaves me feeling very positive, when I am starting to get a sort of pre-burn-out. The dancers were pros for the most part. As Kristin knows, the gnats came out in full force! It was pretty annoying.
My photographer, Paula of Belle Vida photos, was slightly frustrated by the light situation, but she was pretty patient about the whole thing. These are all the pix I took between the photographers shots.
We staged some shots partly in the street and in front of the theatre-it was pretty crowded downtown, so dealing with the traffic was a little scary!
Recent Posts by veronica moretti niebuhr
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