Anti-Body
June 2022 A real-time, motion-capture driven dance performance that explores the form of the human body and technological drive to transcend it. Collaboration with Alexander Whitley Dance Company.
In a world where almost everything can be expressed in bits and bytes to form a digital counterpart of a physical presence, three performers, physically isolated yet digitally connected, embark upon a journey to investigate the evolution of the human body and its symbiotic relationship with technology.
Moving between translucent screens and immersed in streams of motion responsive visuals, the three dancers experience tensions between mind and body, containment and connection, and the desire to be unique as well as part of something larger than themselves.
Can we live in augmented, digitally enhanced bodies? Can consciousness be downloaded? Is the dream of transcendence into a fully disembodied form built upon our expectation of true freedom?
This interactive performance, implements real-time motion tracking technology to generate a multi-layered language of responsive visual effects.
Choreography and visuals were developed hand-in-hand during 2021 in a productive feedback loop. Set to an electrifying score by composer Hannah Peel and music producer Kincaid, the dancers become at once set, lighting and characters in a narrative that blurs the boundaries between human essence and digital pattern.
The show premiered in the UK on October 2021 in Dance East and Oxford Playhouse and came back for three sold out shows in Sadler’s Wells’ Lilian Baylis studio on October 2022. It has also been showcased in Stuttgart on July 2022 as part of the Colors Festival, and is set out to tour Germany and Austria on Autumn-Winter 2022.
The performance has also been filmed and licensed by the renowned European culture TV channel ARTE.
Collaborators
Alex Whitley Dance Company
Hannah Peel
Joe Kincaid