July 2, 2007
Washington, DC— CityDance Ensemble continues
to blaze new paths in uncharted territory with an experimental
project entitled Tekhni that brings together
dance, music, and technology to challenge current views of
movement and sound. The crux of the concept is to create music
through movement, to use the dancers themselves to bring about
the sounds that frame the piece. The challenge is how to realize
that goal.
CityDance is pleased to partner with Scott Smallwood, a
graduate student in music composition and technology at Princeton
University, and well as Frances “Sis” McKay, Director
of Composition at The Levine School
of Music in Washington, DC, to create a work that
will premiere September 7 & 8, 2007 at
the Lansburgh Theatre for a celebration of
dance, music and computer wizardry.
The project began as an exploration of technology with the
support of a New Media grant from the DC Commission
on the Arts & Humanities. The technological know-how
of Mr. Smallwood offered the computer engineering it would
take to make the project happen, and the composition creativity
of Ms. McKay lent a voice to the project.
State-of-the-art sensor technology is used to generate signals
which, when fed either wirelessly or visually into a capture
system, instruct a computer to generate a sound. In this way,
a dancer can make the music to which he/she would dance. The
technology utilizes proximity sensors (sensors that respond
to each other), placed on two CityDance company members, Kyra
Jean Green and Bruno Augusto. Some
of the sensors correspond to each dancer’s body and others
correspond to their partner’s body. Wireless transmitters
and
motion capture cameras in turn pick them up. The motion capture
cameras also pick up movement made by
the dancers in each of 16 quadrants outlined on the floor.
Each quadrant corresponds to a specific sound generated by
a computer. The captured data is then fed into an Apple 17-inch
MacBook Pro loaded with custom software that translates the
signals into commands to trigger sounds.
For this project, sounds have been gathered and arranged by
Ms. McKay, who recorded an array of natural sounds from Rock
Creek Park including the harmonic tones from the creek
itself as well as that of foxes coyotes, wind, and more. Once
programmed into the computer system, these tones become the
notes used by the dancers to frame their movement/music creation.
The dance itself explores the idea of distance between two
people and uses themes of love and isolation as its catalyst.
Costumes, designed by Marija Djordevic from
Montreal, Canada, add interest by hiding some sensors and revealing
others. The result is a fusion of art and technology as never
experienced before.
“Dancers are, at least by my definition, musical creatures,” explains
CityDance Artistic Director Paul Gordon Emerson. “I
know when I started dancing I found it a way to ‘play
an instrument.’ That instrument was me—moving was
a way of being musical, not simply physical.” He wanted
to bring that motivation of “being the music” to
his dancers in order to further inspire their artistry. “This
is in the service of doing good work,” he says, “not
just using technology for the sake of it.”
The creative process of bringing this collaboration to life
is currently underway at the CityDance Center at Strathmore in
North Bethesda, MD. Media are invited to view the work in progress
and to interview the creative team of choreographers, dancers,
and computer experts. To schedule a visit or interview, please
contact Dina Ghandour, Marketing Assistant, at dina@citydance.net
or 202.347.3909.
Tickets for the September 7 & 8 premiere of Tekhni are
available through the Harman Center for the Arts Ticket
Office (610 F Street NW, Washington, DC) at www.harmancenter.org or 202.547.1122.
About CityDance Ensemble, Inc.
CityDance Ensemble, Inc. is the parent organization to CityDance
Ensemble, an award-winning contemporary repertory
dance company; Early Arts, an arts outreach
program for underserved youth in the DC area; CityDance
Education Centers, two facilities committed to excellence
in dance training for youth and adults; and FilmWORKS, a
creator and presenter of dance-on-camera. The mission of CityDance
Ensemble, Inc. is to advance the appreciation for and participation
in the art of dance through excellence in performance, education,
film, and artistic innovation.
