Output details

Entity. Choreographic work for Wayne McGregor | Random Dance. Co-commissioned by: Het Muziektheater, (Amsterdam); Sadler's Wells, (London); Biennale de la Danse (Lyon); DanceEast (Ipswich) and Swindon Dance/Bath University ICIA / Wyvern (HST) (Swindon/Bath) and supported by The Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design, The Estate of Sir John Drummond, The Quercus Trust, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, University of California, San Diego and the PRS Foundation for new music. Premiered on 10th April 2008, Sadler's Wells, London. DVD of performance and Programme Documentation.

This work, together with the others submitted, share common research imperatives, but each has the common goal of generating new understandings of choreographic practice by bringing dance into conjunction with cognitive science, biology and technology research, social science and philosophy (see 2nd URL). Typically, research for Entity engaged directly with such specialists, with the aim of building choreographic creation tools and, through this process, increasing our understanding of dance making. We developed adaptive choreographic software agents that generate novel solutions to choreographic problems that work alongside my own creative decision-making. We also aimed to establish some first principles of choreographic thinking in order to augment the creative process through customizing cognitive tool-kits for myself and the Random dancers. The research process comprised a ‘think-tank’, proof-of-concept meetings, research residency, followed by studio-based experiments and research seminars for the public. Software prototypes were tested and utilised in the process that led to the premiere. The piece was conceived in two contrasting halves, where processes of movement generation were oppositional. Firstly, choreography was generated and formed instinctively by working closely with the score and utilising the dancers architecturally as 'objects to think with' (analogous perhaps with a more 'traditional' form of making). But the second half was driven by the dancers’ newly accessed relationship, through the scientists' experiments, with their own cognitive understanding of 'how' and 'why' they make creative decisions. We attempted to breakdown cognitive habits, and embraced the software agent in the studio. This dialogue challenged our decision-making processes and perturbed our content generation. This intentional approach freed our imaginations in surprising and evolving ways and this is reflected somewhat in the randomness of the second half's structure, and the relationship to music and the interactivity of bodies and light. See 1st URL/programme note for additional context, collaborators and images.

http://www.randomdance.org/production/wayne_mcgregor_past/entity

http://www.randomdance.org/r_research