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William ForsytheImprovisation Technologies
• About William Forsythe and how he likes to think about dance.
• Introduction to “Improvisation Technologies - A Tool for the analytical Dance Eye” (CD-ROM)
• “Dance Geometry” (Conversation between W. Forsythe (choreographer) and Paul Kaiser (digital artist)
• About algorithms and key frames and their analogies in dance.
• Creative task.
“Ballet is a geometric inscriptive art form.”
(William Forsythe)
Forsythe’s choreography is grounded in a deconstructive reconsideration of the possibilities of classical ballet structures […].
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Forsythe_(dancer)
http://www.youtube.com/user/GrandpaSafari
“My own dances reflect the body’s experience in space, which I try to connect through algorithms. So there is this fascinating overlap with computer programming.”
Retrieved from Dance Geometry (Forsythe) http://openendedgroup.com/index.php/publications/conversations/forsythe/
In mathematics, computing, and related subjects, an algorithm is an effective method for solving a problem using a finite sequence of instructions [...] Each algorithm is a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm
“I start the idea. I am the initiator. I believe that something could emerge from these conditions. I name the conditions, basically the algorithm to make the choreography, we then work on these instructions, and these instructions then give a kind of result, and we discuss that and from that I have to keep deriving other conditions, variations on these results, until we arrive at something that is agreed upon.”
Retrieved from The John Tusa Interviews http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/johntusainterview/forsythe_transcript.shtml
A keyframe in animation and filmmaking is a drawing that defines the starting and ending points of any smooth transition. [...]In computer animation this workflow is basically the same. The animator creates the important frames of a sequence, then the software fills in the gap. [...] The animator can correct the result at any point, shifting key frames back and forth to improve the timing and dynamics of a movement, or change an 'in between' into an additional key frame to further refine the movement.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_frame
•animator - choreographer
•frame - e.g. dance position
•software (algorithm) - dancer (set of choreographic instructions)
The choreographer creates the important positions of a sequence, then the dancer fills in the gap. (obviously a dancer who has a set of instructions to do so, just like a software uses an algorithm)The choreographer can correct the result at any point, shifting positions back and forth (in time) to improve the timing and dynamics of a movement, or change an 'in between' into an additional position to further refine the movement.
•key frame X or starting point (e.g. dance position) at the beginning of the choreography
•key frame Z or ending point at the end of the choreography
•algorithm or a set of clear instructions or operations that define how the dancer gets from X to Z
• “When you get to frame X
• a) hide this image (1st layer of instructions)
• b) also stop and play this movie (2nd layer of instructions) and
• c) activate the photo button (3rd layer of instructions)”
• “When you get to position X in your choreography
• a) hide e.g. your arm (1st layer of instructions)
• b) also stop and dance phrase B (2nd layer of instructions) and
• c) activate another dancer to be ready to execute the next choreographic image (3rd layer of instructions)”
“Hypothetical Stream was originally made for Daniel Larrieu and his company in Tours. He wanted a ballet and I said ‘I can’t come – I‘ll fax it to you’. So I took a series of sketches from Tiepolo and I drew any number of vectors emanating from these knots of suspended figures, all flying in the clouds, all very knotted, very baroque, and I drew a number of vectors and said ‘these are knots’ and these need to be solved or unknotted. The lines that I drew were hypothetical solutions. […] the figures in the drawings are all numbered. Your number would be shown, Joan as Number 1 and John as Number 2 etc., and they received instructions on how to construct this ballet and I have done it in three different places, and each one is drastically different and people solved it themselves.”
Retrieved from The John Tusa Interviews http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/johntusainterview/forsythe_transcript.shtml
Develop a choreographic algorithm, a set of instructions or a score from which dancers could create/improvise a 5 min dance piece.
