A dance performance with both human and non-human performers. This piece explores the possibilities surrounding the involvement of non-human and non-anthropomorphic performers in live dance performance.
Bringing a set of three non-anthropomorphic autonoma together with a human dancer, Dancers in White, Standing focuses on the bold new forms of creativity and physical performance that result when art embraces computation and robotics. The otherness of such foreign bodies engaging with one another through dance presents a unique relationship that gives the improvised performance a truly genuine air of exploration. The work takes a firm and practical step toward a new intersection between dance performance and Artificial Intelligence.
Dancers in White, Standing avoids the anthropocentrism of replicating human motion in the non-human performers by instead using forms of motion that are pre-existing in non-human forms. The fragility and uncertainty of the robotic arm allows for explorations into movements that are markedly different from a human dancer. Responding to its fellow dancers in real-time, the improvised choreography allows each arm to demonstrate its own identity, as both a non-human entity and as a performer.