Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Automimesis

Mimicry is a foundation of learning and teaching movement; dancers primarily learn movement from other dancers, teachers, choreographers, or skilled individuals. In my work, I seek to collapse this foundation, by learning and performing movements from a digital avatar. Yet this avatar performs movement which I've created myself, so the process of mimicry is self-constructed, both doubling and subverting traditional dance conventions. A reverse mimesis is introduced when people copy the information of media, rather than employing media to copy us. In the above photo things are further complicated; I'm copying my movement as transposed onto the body of another figure - in this case, an insect.

Opening Night

CHARADE premiered successfully at DTW on Saturday, and was received with great enthusiasm by both young and mature audiences. I had initial anxiety about how the mixed audience would react to these digital images of the body, but people were remarkably excited about what they had seen. I may also be invited to perform the piece in showcases at PS 122 and Joe's Pub later this Spring. Here is an image of the first section of the work, in which I mimic the "digits" on a digital hand.

Younger Audiences

"CHARADE" will premiere tomorrow, and all is assembling as it should. The piece was curated into the "Family Matters" series at DTW, which is geared towards younger audiences, and I think that many of the computer graphics I work with are compatible for this kind of setting. Above is a photograph of a lecture-performance in Bangkok, Thailand - last year I was invited to teach dance and technology workshops to young students in Bangkok, and they took to the material with incredible dexterity.

Merce's First APAP

To my great surprise, by boss Merce Cunningham has decided to participate in the yearly forum called APAP, or the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. Merce's dance company has never been involved in this annual week of showcases and presentations, all of which are geared toward the acquisition of future performance engagements (the reason for this is that the company is often overbooked). To add his own little twist this year, Merce's showcase will involve the processing of live choreography: he will created new dance phrases using chance procedures, these movements will be documented in DanceForms 1.0, finally being learned and performed by three understudy dancers. This should definitely illuminate his process in a new way, and I've been given the honors for operating DanceForms while he choreographs - the material will be projected live in the presentation space.

The information of this event is: Merce Cunningham in Creation 55 Bethune St., 11th Floor 7:30 pm (Reception to Follow)

Virtual Rehearsals

The most challenging aspect of preparing for the upcoming work at Dance Theatre Workshop has been coordinating rehearsals with the four other performers. Because it was nearly impossible to find available times before the performance week, we resorted to "virtual" rehearsals: I created multiple QuickTime files of the animated choreography, so that each performer could practice their roles independently. This saved an incredible amount of time (and money) that was not available during the creative process. Rather than booking rehearsal space and coordinating schedules, cast members were able to rehearse autonomously, often in different parts of the globe.