Dance & Technology

[kirstinway]

It is important to know your different camera angles and how they can enhance what the viewer is watching and how you portray something. The emphasis of the film has to be on the dancer. Filming a dance and editing the different shots and angles together makes a piece more interesting to watch and means your audience can see it in 3D.  Close up shots give lots of detail of one specific part of the bod whether it be the face or a leg, this can help show emotion and get the audience to really focus. Medium shots are useful to show either the top or bottom half of the body if that’s all that is moving then this cuts out the distraction of the rest and really focuses on what movement they are doing. Wide shots are good when there is a lot of movement and travelling as you get a clear view of the whole picture. When there is a lot of travelling, tracking shots follow the dancer so you can get a feel for the movement. A tracking shot can also be done with a close shot following one body part.  

[kirstinway]

Either the camera will dance, or I will.

(Fred Astaire in Winge, John. “How Astaire Works.” Film and Theatre Today, January 1950, pp.7-9.)

[kirstinway]

In this day and age there is so many different ways we can connect with people from all over the world over the internet and it is very accessible. There is FaceTime, Skype, Facebook chat, google chat and so many more. Using these in collaboration with dance can become very interesting. Class could be taught to you by someone on the other side of the world to hundreds of people all in different locations, using a video call projected in a studio. Or two performances could be linked together by using a live chat to film one and project it at another. There is so many opportunities that can be explored by this technique and the person on the other side of the call doesn’t need to be more than a few meters away. 

[kirstinway]

This is an example of some things you can do with isadora, the media reacting to the dancers movements. 

[kirstinway]

‘Isadora is the award winning, interactive media presentation tool that allows you to follow your artistic impulse. Whether you are an artist, designer, performer, or VJ, you can quickly and easily harness the limitless potential of digital media and real-time interactivity with Isadora.’ This is how the editing programme is described on its website. Isadora basically gives you the tool to create anything as far as your imagination can go. A creation on Isadora can be perfectly combined with dance to produce a captivating performance, with a relationship between media and dancer so the performance doesn’t become disjointed.

Isadora can seem complicated and very daunting but following tutorials you can find on YouTube it isn’t as impossible as you think. For example this tutorial ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqNw_4AWvvA ) covers the basics of finding your way about to start playing around. a covers the basics of finding your way about to start playing around.

[kirstinway]

Videos you edit can then be uploaded straight to your YouTube channel or Vimeo which supports high definition video or a website/blog. Having a channel or blog is the best way to instantly get out there to everyone and anyone what you are working on and a great way to do some free advertising.

[kirstinway]

When making a dance video of any sort of course the filming and how well it is done is important but what is just as important is the editing. This can even be done very simply and free using something like YouTube where you can do quick fixes on your clips or add filters and you can also use the video editor to join your clips together and add audio. If you want a more complex editor you can download programs such as Microsoft premium pro, where you have more options and produce a better quality video.

[kirstinway]

A few photos i took on my phone to help remember these poses in a site specific piece we were learning in a short space of time and this meant i could go away and practice in my own time.

[kirstinway]

Having a camera in a studio is very useful. Rehearsals can be filmed or photographed to watch later for memory or for choreography, to see what works and what doesn’t. You might like to film rehearsals also to create a promotional video or to show someone else.  Class work can also be filmed to look back on and see what improvements you could make or what you are doing well.

Knowing how to use a camera and tripod and how to film to a good standard means when making audition tapes they can look more professional and appealing which is important in getting noticed. The angles and framing used can make a big difference. For example when shooting and head and shoulder shot of the applicant introducing themselves you would want a neutral background and enough light on their face shot in a place without much echo. To shoot barre work the camera is best positioned diagonally in front and with the dancer in the centre with enough room to extend in all directions. Centre work should be a wide shot, to get a clear view of what the dancer is doing and making sure there is a clean tidy studio in the background. 

[kirstinway]

Technology is fairly important to aid a dance class. If you don’t have the opportunity to have a live musician to accompany, rather than having multiple CDs or tapes with you, using a laptop or phone/iPod means you can have access to pretty much anything. For example you can use Spotify, YouTube, sound cloud, iTunes and have playlists made up ready for class or rehearsals. 

It can also be useful for teaching, for example showing videos of dance work or research as there is lots of information on the internet about historical and modern choreographers/dancers/companies and this is vital knowledge for training dancers. 

[kirstinway]

Dance technology is the application of modern information technology (media video, interactive computer programs and the internet) in dance performances used to amplify the body’s movement. Multimedia started in dance with the use of electric lights, Loie Fuller was the first to experiment with this creating kaleidoscope effects.

Using multimedia is popular and important in contemporary dance as choreographers want to come up with original works and keep up with the times. Also it is used to help choreograph finding new ways to move as that’s what contemporary dance is about. If video is used it needs to have a connection with what the dancers are doing or bring something to the performance which enhances or changes the audiences perception of the what they are watching. It can allow things to be shown on stage that can’t normally be seen, edited videos, a live feed from elsewhere or even an isolated spot on the performers body giving a different view point for the audience.

To be digital theatre a performance has to have live performers with some kind of media in the same space with a present audience. Also it has to only include limited interaction with the audience and should include spoken language or text, which has some kind of narrative.

[kirstinway]

Edited dance video using different camera shots.

Filmed by Kirstin Way 

Danced by Natasha Simpkins

16/02/16 at The Space. edited 14/03/16

[kirstinway]

Dance video clip.  Filmed by Kirstin Way  Danced by Natasha Simpkins at The Space 16/02/16.