e-Dance project

The Royal Premier of the Morphologies performance was performed over the 22nd Oct 2007.

Details from flyer: “Morphologies is a new piece of work by Ersatz Dance in collaboration with musicians from Symphonia Academica. Ersatz Dance and Symphonia Academica are both resident at the University of Bedfordshire. Morphologies is a performance that integrates live music and digital technologies to explore the visualization of space across the domains of dance and music.

It examines within a live performance context, the integration of video projection and motion-tracking, interactive software. This extends the research undertaken in the Stereobodies (2006) research project, a collaboration between Ersatz Dance and Martin J. Turner at the University of Manchester‘s Visualization Centre.

Ersatz Dance has been based at the University of Bedfordshire since 1998. The company has developed a national and international reputation for intellectually stimulating and cutting-edge work, that integrates a range of media in the dance context. The company comprises of a combination of academic staff and graduates from dance programmes at the University.

• Artistic Direction and Choreography: Helen Bailey
• Dancers: Lee Awanah, Amalia Garcia, James Hewison, Lisa Spackman
• Music: Goldberg Variations by JS Bach
• Musicians: Peter Bussereau (Violin), Paul Bennett (Viola), Peter Randell (Cello), Ikuko Sunamara (Violin)
• Digital Animation: Gareth Risdale
• Technical Production: Graham Hoare, Gareth Risdale

With special thanks to Martin J. Turner and Anja Le BLanc at Research Computing Services, University of Manchester“

The e-Dance predecesor CSAGE as a VRE (Virtual Research Environment) is briefly mentioned in a News article in JISC Inform Vol 19 – October 2007. DVD copy of the videos are available describing CSAGE as well as other VRE projects. This included a photo of the projected and post-edited StereoBodies performance.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/inform19
Copy of news article: “New videos showcase best in collaborative research Two videos that explain how projects from the first phase of JISC’s Virtual Research Environments (VRE) programme are bringing researchers together through VREs have been launched.

Projects highlighted in the videos show how researchers in the materials sciences, for example, have been able to share results in real time with other remote teams of specialists; how dancers have been performing in remote environments (see image); how groups of historians have been ‘meeting’ remotely and collaborating across more than a dozen institutions, and so on.

Frederique van Till, JISC’s Programme Manager for the VRE programme, now in its second phase, said: ‘We’re delighted to have such a range of perspectives and research backgrounds on these films. What has really come through is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, just as no two research projects are the same.'”