The frog II-The artistic Odyssey/Panacea

How “the frog” did work during the rehearsal days?

         We had our first VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) meeting in which we set the objectives, artistic concept, structure and timetable of the project. We also checked technological devices that we were going to be able to use during the performance. After setting these general aspects, we had our first choreographic rehearsal. At that moment, we realized about the limitations of the 2D technology internet communication. We lacked effective tools to create the choreography easily. The three of us had been working together at least for four years before this project but we were communicating through a screen now; and feeling powerless to correct our bodies to each other. It was a kind of difficult at the beginning but not hard at all.

          At this rehearsal we tried some phrases and combinations in neo-classical style. Additionally, we improvised movements that we think could work for the screen scenario. In my case, as  a former Paula and Lucia´s  teacher and choreographer, it was a kind of difficult to avoid correcting them. I had to remind myself constantly that this is a collaborative project. The common working is encouraged and the unilateral vision is not allowed anymore.

           We had three more rehearsals immersed in a creative process which followed the old way of creating choreographies: fitting movements inside a song and thinking of aesthetical images for the audience. Personally, I think this was the best way to work in this project since it is the first one and we had to take care of other aspects such as the technological devices. Being comfortable working in a new environment it was the priority rather than coming up with an interesting and innovating artistic concept for the choreography.

            In general, the rehearsing process was smooth in spite of my tendency to give corrections and give artistic directions to improve the aesthetic quality of the dance movements. However, not having the 3D sensations in our bodies when we dance together felt weird. At the fourth and last rehearsal, we were more accustomed to working using the VoIP software. The cold communication that we felt at the beginning of the project—because of the screen—had disappeared. Our brain had understood the new patterns of communication. We felt more comfortable talking about feelings, desires and artistic ideas in a really long distance system.

           Other limitations arise because of the use of technologic devices. For example, I was the only person who rehearsed with the image that I will receive during performance from Ecuador. Paula and Lucia never could see the final image (video) that I will be send to them. We did not have a dress rehearsal because the time limitations of the conference room where the project will be presented. This is the first time for the three of us that we are going to perform without having a dress rehearsal. Hopefully, we will check audio and video settings before the presentation and we will be able to mark once or twice the choreography.

           We do not know what to expect during the performance because it is a completely new experience for the three of us. How will the sensation of having remote audience be? What emotions will the audience have from a 2D performance? How about the feelings and sensations that dancers should feel when they dance together? Certainly, this is a vibrant new experience that we are eager to experiment and live.

            Our project, “The Frog”, will be presented in March 26^th,  4:55 pm NY time 3:55pm Ecuador time. After presenting the project, we will know how our first experience doing internet distributed performances was.

 

The frog

           "The frog" is the first internet distributed performance project that will be done as part of the class “Collaborative projects in the performing arts” taught by Professor Tom Beyer at NYU/Steinhardt, Music Technology Program.

            This project is a collaborative choreography between Maria Piedad, choreographer, Paula Nuñez and Lucía Cortez, students at Danzas Ballet School in the city of Ambato, Ecuador. Additionally, Mario Cortez, musician, will play the keyboard during the performance. The name of this project came up because Ambato is a word derived from the indigenous term “jambatu” which means frog.
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            We emailed each other several times before starting rehearsals and we established one common objective: to get connected through the internet and explore the use of the screens in order to create our choreography. Furthermore, other ideas also appeared: to show that friendship between ballet classmates is strong; to show it is possible to be connected in spite of the distance. Moreover, the relationship teacher-student could be enhanced through new artistic experiences such as this project. As a personal objective, I wanted to introduce my former students in the field of internet distributed performances which is totally unknown in Ecuador.

            This cross generation collaboration has the advantage that we can have novel ideas from two generations. Paula and Lucia found the location in Ambato and the song that we will use in the performance. Lucia’s brother, Mario was invited by her to play alive. Maria Piedad directed the brain storm in order to define what style we are going to dance and what kind of devices we will be able to work with for choreographing this piece.

          We had our first internet meeting to define the artistic concept, technical requirements, time table and other details about “the frog”. At this meeting, we came up with the following:

What kind of artistic project will be presented?
This is an exchange performance between three dancers and a musician

Time Table
We discussed the time table based on the availability of all performers giving priorities to the Ecuadorian team´s needs since they are majority.

What kind of technological devices will we use?
Ecuador set up:
Computer for the VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) connection for audio and video
Keyboard

New York set up:
Computer for the VoiP connection for audio and video, video camera, anycast, screen projector, audio mixer, canopus

**Other important elements: Conference rooms, tables, chairs costumes, make up


        After defining these important aspects for our project we had our first choreographic rehearsal in which we lived a total new experience.

How to start a collaborative project

When we come up with a new artistic idea, our main concern as artists is how to transform that incredible thought into a tangible artistic product. As a personal opinion, it is possible to say that the easiest way to choreograph is constructing the movements and phrases based on a specific piece of music. However, other people prefer to choreograph the artistic concept by trying different kinds of music. In both cases, it is useful to have a script about what the choreographer wants the dancers to do in order to communicate his/her concept to the audience. Additionally, taking notes about the dance steps that could appear spontaneously during this creative process is a helpful tool. The studio rehearsal gives the opportunity to try these ideas again and again, to discover new movements for the dancers or to change previous set combinations; it is possible to vary primary ideas many times--respecting dancers' work--until obtain the most beautiful dance piece in the choreographer's mind. This way of proceeding is not complicated because the dance creator is working alone. He/she could receive other people's advice but at the end, the final artistic decisions are making by his/herself.

On the other hand, doing a collaborative project in the performing arts (Internet distributed performances) implies a different way to work. In a community environment, artists must come up with ideas that work for all the people involved in the project beyond their personal objectives. Therefore, choosing a common objective is the first step to follow. Why should this project be done? What is the artistic concept of the project? Communications, collaboration, technology development, artistic creativity, remote interaction, marketing, are some of the primary ideas that could be the core objective.  Artists with different backgrounds will be together for a mutual reason, and they will give the best to make their project an unrepeatable artistic creation.

 

After choosing the common objective, the logical second step is to design what kind of artistic creation to produce. How many artists are going to perform? Are musicians, dancers, actors, visual artists the only people on the stage? What kind of technological devices and softwares are going to be used?  Video cameras, projectors, screens, audio and video mixers, lights, speakers, microphones, video and audio convertors are only some options.. How many remote locations are going to be connected? What kinds of audio and video connections are going to be used? How the feed signals are going to be received and sent? This part involves a mixture of artistic ideas and technological tools. Performers could have several interesting ideas which must be supported by the audio and video designers and vice versa. It is imperative to do a brain storm to be sure of taking into account everybody´s thoughts and suggestions.

 

Timing concerns is another core part when artists are creating Internet distributed performances .Where and when the performance is going to be? How long is it? How many performances are going to be? For fulfilling these purposes, it is important to design a time table considering everybody´s time availability. After defining performance times, it is essential to include technical and artistic rehearsals, ensembles of both parts and dress rehearsals on the schedule. To make a script of the performance is required as well as to assign each participant´s specific function inside the project.

 Now it is possible to start physically a collaborative project in the performing arts. Collaboration could sound harder than working alone at the beginning. However, artistic creation involved in a community is incredible easier. One can receive support in the areas that he is weak and he can contribute to the project with his strongest knowledge. Day after day everybody will become aware how wonderful is interacting and collaborating between artists. Finally, to make a collaboration project successful, planning and organization are mandatory. In Picasso´s words: “the best muse is the discipline”

 

How to construct a interactive internet distributed performance

  
           Beyond the fact that dancers and choreographers—who want to create interactive internet performances—must be familiar with the use of new technologies, dance artists have to elaborate an artistic concept before starting a new project. One must be able to set cameras, microphones, internet connections, audio and video softwares and many other useful technologic devices to understand the technical needs and requirements of this kind of dance experiences . However, dominating this technology is not enough especially when the objective is construct an artistic product. New technologies are useful and necessary for creating an interactive internet collaborative project but they are just tools, like dance technique is. Dancers, musicians, photographers, multimedia artists have not only their artistic technique but also the technology as tools which will help them to reach the audience. However, the artistic concept and vision continue being the core aspect of an artistic protect no matter what kind that is.

             Why are we doing this? What is the reason that move our bodies helped by technology? Why is important to establish communication and collaborative networks with artists through telematics performances? Is this a collaborative project where other ideas are welcome or it is just our point of view? Many questions could arise before and when we are constructing an internet distributed performance. Questioning our objectives and work is challenging but this will help us to establish our objectives and how to get them done. We have to work on the artistic concept first. A helpful tool to clarify our doubts and to elaborate a consolidated artistic plan before a collaborative performance is research. Research will help us to accomplish our objectives successfully because it makes us understand other people´s work in the same field. Knowing about what they have done and why will be useful to question our own objectives as artists.

             Surfing on internet is a helpful way to research dance works in this relatively new and interesting field. A web side which explains research work done previously in the theory and praxis of performance telematics is:

http://minuet.dance.ohio-state.edu/jbirringer/Dance_and_Technology/workshops/ipstheory.html

             Other blog which shows interesting pieces of works connected with dance and body movements is:

 http://www.turbulence.org/blog/archives/cat_distributed_performance.html

            After reading several of the articles and summaries of research works in the telematics and
Interactive internet performances, is possible to establish clearly our objectives as artists and to have a strong artistic and visual concept for our collaborative projects in performing arts.

Using internet connections in dance educational projects

        There has been different projects which have used internet to develop educational and performing projects in dance.

The TRIAD project (2001)
       This project used internet to establish communication between dance students (9-18 year-old) from the United States, Portugal and England. They worked with internet communications to cosntruct choreographic pieces and to receive feed back about their dance classes. In this case, the internet was not used to communicate simultaneously. In this way, the students had time to analyze and comment their own and other classmates´in other countries with out the pressure of a real-time connection which tends to improvisation.

                     The TRIAD Project: using Internet communications to challenge students’understandings of choreography

                       SITA POPAT,

                       School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, Bretton Hall Campus, U.K.

                       (e-mail: pcusp@leeds.ac.uk)

                       ABSTRACT

                       The TRIAD Project presents an innovative approach to the use of Information and Communication   

                       Technologies (ICTs) in the teaching of choreography. They formed an Internet dance community, sharing

                       their choreographic ideas via movies and text, and developing an original dance work. The asynchronous

                       method of communication encouraged a re ective attitude that supported the learning situation. Through

                       their efforts to explain their creative processes to peer groups via the dynamic Website, the young dancers

                       developed their personal understandings of choreography. The need to communicate clearly via text and

                       movies led to increases in the students’usage of dance-based critical vocabulary, and encouraged objective

                       appraisal of creative work. Discussion of the work by the other peer groups challenged the students to deal

                       with different dance styles and other choreographic approaches.

 

Back ground for the TRIAD project:

 

                        There are several examples both in performance and education of using real-time or

                        synchronous connections for choreographic work. Laura Knott carried out her experiments

                        with online live connections using Internet videoconferencing in 1998 with her World Simultaneous 

                        Dancce project.

                      As early as 1995, Amanda Steggell was working on a project called M@ggie’s Love Bytes where

                       participants from around the world could join a group of dancers in a theatre with an audience and give

                       input to affect the improvised dance.

 

                      In the education world, artists such as Susan Kozel and Wayne McGregor have used live videoconference

                  connections as part of workshops and courses. However, although these types of synchronous connections

                      reflect the immediacy of performance or the studio situation, they rely on reactive rather than reflective

                      methods of response. To be involved in this way in the making of choreography requires improvisation or

                      quick decision making, whereas work that is carried out asynchronously allows time for re ection and

                      consideration. In the classroom, the teacher will commonly set a task and then allow a period of time for

                      experimentation and discovery before asking for presentation of an outcome. During that period, the teacher

                      might move among the students, offering suggestions or advice on an individual basis and returning after a

                      short time to view progress, in a manner akin to the asynchronous method of working. Although

                      synchronous multimedia technology does not have the ‘high-tech’ excitement of live synchronous

                      connection, this research indicates that it may be the more effective vehicle for the teaching of

                      choreography.

                  Research in Dance Education, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2002

 

            This project set a preceding in the use of internet with educational purposes. Additionally, it took into account previous dance works using internet as a tool to work collaboratively between dance artists.Having an understanding about what have been done in the past in the dance field will be helpful to question those works with the objective to produce new interesting ways of using internet performances not only at a professional or university levels but also in regular schools.

Working with delayance

        The use of new technologies in creating dance performances is not a current topic. There are several precedents about that. Since the invention of cinematography, many ballet and dance pieces have been filmed to document them. However, the creation of artistic products combining technology and dance has an interesting precedent. In 1968, Norman Mc Laren filmed a contemporary ballet pas de deux (duo) which shows the use of new technologies (at that time). This is one of the first samples of collaborative projects in arts using new technologies. This work showed a innovating artistic way of expression for that time. 

          Mc Laren filmed two dancers performing a Ludmilla Chiriaeff´s choreography. This film was photographed on high contrast stock, with optical, step-and-repeat printing. In this way, it was possible to obtain a “sensuous and almost stroboscopic appearance” in the film. This cinematographer played with the layers of the movie in order to give many visual effects. One of them was the use of delayance. Actually, he constantly got that effect when several images of the same movement were repeated again, again and again. This kind of delayance built several figures of the dancers which move into the black space harmoniously. These images, one above the other, showed an aesthetic innovating way of “seeing” dance. The high contrast between black and white also helped to make emphasis on visual games rather than just about dance movement. 

 

 

McLaren Pas de Deux video link

         One of the problems when we work in interactive internet performances is the audio and video delayance. As the internet transfer rate for audio is almost simultaneous, dancers are worried about video delaynce. Sometimes, we will work with short delaynces according to the quality of technology devices and internet bandwidth. Other times, we will have to deal with this problem no matter what. Consequently, we could think in a creative way. Seeing the problem as an opportunity will help us to figure out unexpected solutions.

          Do not think about delayance as problem. Keep in mind that this could offer us new ways to construct the choreography visually. Thus, delayance will be another element to play with –as music is— in order to build up our dance. Now, we have dancers, music, images from screens and delayance.

Learning how to deal with new technologies

         As dance artists, we are accustomed to working with our bodies, feeling sensations, listening to the music, moving into the space and interacting with other people on stage. I could say that we are more “physical” people. We need to know very well where we are performing; in this way we are comfortable dancing and acting for our audience. We are interested in feeling and moving our body, internalizing the music and being aware of our surroundings. We like to control our environment. Our natural environments since we were kids are the dance classroom and the theater. Both of them are big spaces to move where you can easily establish with whom you are physically connected (colleagues, audience, teacher, choreographer, musicians). Inside those places, we are able to control and get to know what our dance atmosphere is. However, when this familiar and comfortable environment suddenly changes, we are going to have a weird sensation, a sensation of instability.

       Multimedia collaboration and interactive internet distributed performances are complete new environments for many dance artists. Working with new technologies in order to create performances and artistic products is a relatively new field for choreographers, teachers and dancers. Everything is challenging and demanding in the process of getting to know new and useful technological tools. Working with wires, computers, screens, cameras, mixers, microphones, internet connections, softwares, and many others could be frustrating some times. Mostly, understanding how they work could be unpleasant too. Everything related to new technologies is beyond the “physical connection” that we like a lot. We do not have the control of our artistic environment anymore. The place is new, the way of connecting to people is new, the way of interacting with other artists is new, they way of feeling the music is new; and moreover, the sensations in our bodies will be new when we dance with other people through internet. Now, fear appears. Will I be able to express artistically in this completely new and technological surrounding?



        The course of acquiring new skills is a  kind of demanding for any person. In this process, many doubts could arise especially in artists ‘minds because we are questioning all the time about the validity of our work. Will I be able to master these proceedings in order to gain new ways of expressing my artistic ideas? Could I express my thoughts using new technologies? Will I understand how these devices and software work? How will be the relationship with other artists through internet?  As I wrote above, dancers like to control their environment. It is important to us to understand how our body moves, how to use dance technique, how to listen to the music, how to express our feelings to the audience. Therefore, the first step to become comfortable working in Collaborative projects in the performing arts, using new technologies, is to comprehend how they work.