picasso choreography
just had to share this. i talked to amanda about choreographing objects some time ago, and i thought of the convo again when i saw this video.
i watched it twice and it’s amazing how (if you’re slow like me) the structure hits you the second time; the black/red, the half time, the ending, the movements of the cubes, the cubism, the coloring, the everything.
and also, if you think about it, the structure of the song is not typical for billboard songs. the refrain doesn’t really happen until the end, and there’s an instrumental part in the middle. and believe it or not, this is top 1(!!) in britain as we speak.
i also love how the role of the singer in this video is different from many female singers today. it’s andrygonys but still sexy and interesting, far away from the commercial style many ladies fall into in the music industry.
but really, it’s the choreography of the cubes and cylinders with the simplistic walking of robyn that gets to me.
it’s almost like a futuristic ingmar bergman film.
ok, i would be totally skeptic to see something after praise like this. but if you wanna, here you go (promise to have the sound on). (and watch/listen to the whole damn thing before you judge me.)
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i love this and what they’ve done to go with the music. love the idea of working with shapes rather than people, too! it really clarifies ideas of composition and rhythm without the muddiness of human expression and technique. i wonder if mfa dance programs focusing on choreography ever have their students work with computer programs that can create scenes like that one, or even ask them to take an art class in composition. it’s so easy to forget that dance is a visual art, first and foremost. i remember ed tyler complaining about that…
Comment by Amanda Abrams — August 14, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
this is called animation - your analysis uses concepts of movement, musical, and scenic analysis for it. there is a huge difference in dance and visual arts. although dance can be a subset of or have its place in visual arts.
Comment by Anonymous Director — August 15, 2007 @ 8:12 am
> this is called animation
certainly not all animation qualifies for what lotta and amanda are referring to. is it the term used in programs where animation is used for abstract choreography?
from the technologist’s point of view, there’s a world of difference between being able to implement this kind of thing and having a system that is really conducive to it. crafting a system for “domain specific” functionality is a high art, and can be very revealing of various aspects of the domain. (it requires collaboration between computer-technical and domain experts, always a challenge not just because of personality differences!) i would be surprised if there were not some 3d animation packages designed for dance choreography, though i couldn’t guess about how mature/effective they would be, and would be surprised if they took an abstract approach, eg using geometric shapes.
the latter, because selling academia and artists on the effectiveness of technology for practicing and teaching art is a leap in the first place, and doing so with an abstract approach would require even more convincing. a very interesting idea, though - i bet it’ll eventually happen, if it hasn’t already. for those of you astute enough to see the potential, if you happen to find yourself around technologists seeking dance domain experts, help make it happen - or seek out the technologists, they’re not always from a completely different planet!-)
Comment by Ken Manheimer — August 15, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
there are several universities in this country that have dance technology programs. i merely was noting this as animation as it was using shapes and characters other than dancers. i will go a step further and agree that the lead singer was dancing as she was moving (walking amoung the shapes) your must not be familiear with our technology champion Merce Cunningham who has used LifeForms and MoCap software. There are other tools as Bryce and Poser utilized by dance technologists. You must also not be familiar with Troika Ranch as well. Being that said and my exposure to the capability of technology in the arts. My original opinion that in this one example - its animation - still stands. its dance however in how the lead manipulates her way around the animation. best to you Ken - AD
Comment by Anonymous Director — August 15, 2007 @ 1:06 pm
right, animation…i forgot that there’s a word for it. personally, i’m not interested in dance and technology per se, but i think that animation technology must allow one to create moving visual scenes, which are a large part of what dance is. not the biggest part, but a major element. by working with just shapes rather than people–who have faces and emotions that add many other layers of meaning–you simplify issues of composition and rhythm and relationships. as far as i know, merce’s life forms technology is whole other thing, helping him look at movement of the human body and its possibilities. i bet that’s amazingly useful, too, but it’s not exactly what i’m talking about.
don’t know if i just made any sense or responded to either of y’all, but at least i was able to clarify my own thinking!
Comment by Amanda Abrams — August 16, 2007 @ 6:49 am
i hope there is not a mistaken impression that i am against or downing the art of animation. to clarify - i feel there can be animation in dance al beit generated on a screen, film, or actual body or props/set on stage. take alwin nikolai for example. and i am not even putting emotion into the equation. however i believe there is sophisticated technology today that can incorporate facial movement as texture and skins on animated objects. but then i ramble. and i agree - there are many ways to produce movement. i believe we relate to that video by placing our knowledge of dance into why it can be viwed as a new way of dance expression. but its the animation that is making that happen to me. this technology is very sophisticated to make anatomical movement characteristics of any mamal or mechanical and place any skin or texture or shape over it. let me use an example of the one insurance commercial where an elephant is tap dancing to singing in the rain. you can clearly see they incoporate human tap movement into the graphical image rendering the shape or texture of an elephant. they kept the elephants natural mamal characteristics of movement in the torso and head. however the legs and the style of the limp is very much like a human tap dancer. the art of animation is much more than how a shape or character is used but the analysis of how it will be “animated” or move around and rendered in the final outcome.
Comment by Anonymous Director — August 16, 2007 @ 7:17 am