The Dance Technology Project

IMTC is a key player in an ongoing collaborative project between the Atlanta Ballet and Georgia Tech's Robert Ferst Center for the Arts. The project's charter is to find innovative ways to integrate technology and the arts, specifically dance. The project's first performance, "Non Sequitur,” featured a ballerina dancing with a computer animated "virtual" dancer and was shown on CNN's Future Watch program in May of 1994.

In April of 1995, the project, under the direction of Paul Ackerman of the Robert Ferst Center for the Arts and choreographer Lisa De Ribere, presented "Springing Grass.” IMTC tried out its newly designed motion capture system. In this production, the dancers wore infrared emitters, invisible to the audience but detected by special tracking cameras. The locations of these targets were computed and fed to an SGI Indigo graphics computer simultaneously, or in “real-time.” The animation video output of the Indigo was then fed to a high brightness video projector for projection onto the stage. The results were animated particle trails of the dancer's hand movements projected onto a nearby sheet of see through mesh.

The 1996 Dance Technology Project, choreographed by David Parsons, demonstrated animated dancers and virtual costumes through real-time optical motion tracking and projected animation of costumes onto the dancers.

The 1997 Dance Technology Project featured the use of a graphics super-computer that was made available in the theater through fiber optics telecommunication, about 2 miles away. This performance featured motion tracked balls that were tossed around, causing tumbling 3D objects such as an elephant, house, and space shuttle to appear in place of the balls. A dancer outfitted with a motion tracking system, danced on stage next to her cyber re-embodiment. Possible future developments could include a 3D choreographer's sketchbook, motion capture and visualization for dance analysis and injury prevention, and interactive dance through audience participation. The project was selected to provide a key production for the Cultural Olympiad during the 1996 Olympic Games.

On April 29, 1998 was the world premiere of a new dance technology piece titled “Desired”. Created in collaboration with Tech's Interactive Media Technology Center (IMTC), the dance featured choreographer Nicole Livieratos and the GardenHouse Dance Company.

On November 8th, 1999, IMTC in collaboration with The Savannah College of Art and Atlanta’s Beacon Dance, premiered a 45 minute interactive dance performance titled “E-Motion”. The piece focused on the nine movements that are the building blocks of dance - Rise, Collapse, Bend, Stretch, Circle, Twist, Swing, Sway, and Shake. Over 80 students and Faculty at SCAD helped generate ideas and animations based on these terms to link issues of dance and creativity with those of technology and digital culture. IMTC provided integration of the ideas and animations into technology used in the performance. Technologies utilized included: 3D motion capture, real-time 3D graphics, body cams, interactive infra-red sensors, laser sensors, dance pads, real-time visual and audio manipulation, remote data processing and visualization (Savannah to Atlanta and back), IR motion tracking of the dancers, and more.

*Note: The videos on this page were created prior to Section 508 Legislation. They are not Section 508 compliant.

Choose a Dance Technology Performance, or scroll to browse all.

[ 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 ]