The introduction and development of the world-wide-web in the 1990s gave way to new performance possibilities. Just as actors were creating performance opportunities with the use of webcam technology and internet conferencing software, dancers were creating online performances. Such performances were often created in collaboration with several dance practitioners, each of which would be in a different geographic location but could now come together to performance as a unit.
For many companies, the use of an Internet website was, and still is, a mere promotional platform to promote their work. However, some companies and individuals began to develop the interactive ability of the new medium, creating new concepts for dance and leading the implementation of ‘dance based web art.’ Artists Susan Kozel and Gretchen Schiller who, during the 1997 Dance Umbrella Festival, presented to an audience a view of the same dance projected from two separate London theatres, Riverside Studios and The Place, demonstrate early examples of such experiments. Virtual Reality was also popular with artists during the 1990s and prompted choreographers to experiment in a virtual world, creating works that eliminated the significant element of dance, the body.
Dance Technology
Virtual technologies, cyborgs and the post-organic body were the centre of popular discussions often hyped up by the media and did not fail to affect the dance world. The challenge and question surrounding body boundaries inspired choreographers to push further the possibilities of space and time creating fluid performance art that defied the abilities of the human body. The use of a technology like the Internet, that was now so commonly used in the Western world, also allowed dance to become more accessible to the public. Many festivals took advantage of this accessibility, providing digital dance as part of its programme. In 1995 the London Dance Umbrella introduced ‘Techno Dance Bytes’ which was followed by ‘Digital Dancing’ in 1997 in response to the growing interest in digital technologies amongst the dance communities.
Product or Process
The main significance of such dance technology practices is that the interactivity produced by such methods takes away the significance of creating a finished work: the element that is traditionally seen as the ‘dance’. Instead, this practice lead to what Günter Berghaus calls an ‘open-ended process of creativity’ or put more simply, more emphasis towards the process than the product. Such practice in the present years hasn’t shifted. There are still many artists that present work based on the use of technology during the process and show little interest in presenting a polished work. However there are many choreographers that have moved towards developing works that include the use of technology to enhance the message presented in their dance. Such choreographers include Lloyd Newson of DV8 Physical Theatre who included projections and movement sensor technology to communicate prejudice in his latest work ‘To Be Straight With You’ (2008). It has now reached a point in time when technologies are developing and being introduced with such speed that it is hard to predict where dance will head next however, it is clear that the integration of technology and dance has been firmly established and will continue to develop together in the future.
Sources
- Berghaus, Günter (2005) Avant-Garde Performance: Live events and electronic technologies, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan
- Hoglei, Li (2009) Fine Art Film: Social Reflections in Multimedia Art London, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
Amy Watson - Amy-Louise is Artistic Director of the dance theatre company 90 Degree Rotations and has a PGCE in Dance Teaching.
Join the Conversation