The Arts Meet Technology

Dance Tech




The pleasures of performing--and watching--dance have taken on new technological twists in the UMBC dance department. Employing video cameras, rear-projection screens, motion sensors, and even robots, faculty choreographers are adding new dimensions to the poetry of motion, and making new demands on dancers.

"In working with technology, dancers have to develop new skills," explains department chair Carol Hess, who uses "interactive technologies" in several of her creations. "They have to be much more specific in terms of their use of space, particularly when cameras are involved."

In Hess's dance "Interchange," a woman dancer wears a tiny video camera placed over her heart, and the images of her partner are projected onto a screen; then the male dancer wears the camera on his waist--the audience can see what their bodies "see" during the dance. In Hess's "Private Property," a video artist actually enters the dance with a camera, taking pictures of the dancer as she moves, sometimes creating a frozen image of her in motion on a screen.

In faculty member Doug Hamby's "Square Breath," dancers perform steps on a table to which sensors are attached, and the vibrations are translated into sounds. And he has even choreographed a piece, "Maurice Tombé," for a little robot.

"It does produce some anxiety because most dancers are not used to working with technology so much," admits Hess. "In order to trigger a sensor, they have to be in the right place on stage. So they must be aware of these things while performing the dance convincingly."

"I know I have developed a different mindset in terms of choreography," says Hess of her forays into digital dance. "I think that as Doug and I work more with technology, we are developing ways of choreographing that work with the technology we use. The task is to keep the dance exciting and in focus when it competes with a bright visual image."

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