Exponential Technology and The Future of Dance

These unprecedented times have turned the dance world on its head. With many performances and festivals being canceled, we have now turned to the digital world to connect once more. But can these online platforms provide the same intimacy as a live audience? Or do we have to consider this new form a part of the enduring reality? Do these platforms dilute or strengthen engagement? These are the questions of the times we find ourselves in, and ones Ghislaine Boddington has been asking throughout her extensive career. In this episode, which is part two of a discussion with Ghislaine, we talk about how younger dance artists can work to create connections with the tech world. Through their social access to friends or acquittances working in tech, they can find commonalities, and in doing so strengthen ties between these disparate worlds. We also talk about the reality of funding for dance tech and how the lack of it has stifled its growth.

We find ourselves in unprecedented times. Social distance and self-isolation have shown us the importance of physical closeness, and the urgent need to recreate it in some form. Today's guest, Ghislaine Boddington, is here to share more about her work. With a focus on collective embodiment, she envisions a unique future of the internet of bodies, bound by sensors and implants, tele-intuition, and dissolution of the boundaries between physical and virtual. In the world we now find ourselves in, Ghislaine’s advocation for the entire body in the development of telepresence and virtual communications is more relevant than ever. She is an award-winning speaker, curator, and director, specialising in the future human, body responsive technologies and immersive experiences.

Today on the Future of Dance we welcome special guests, Veronique Mackenzie and Stuart Anderson. In this episode, we have a great conversation about the role of technology in their careers, the value of creativity, and how they see the world of dance and art progressing in the future. Veronique is an award-winning renaissance artist with a wide-ranging artistic practice. She works with her own collaborative collective, Motion Activated, creating multimedia performances, large projections, and data duets. She has worked across Canada as a dancer and painter, taking her creativity into the world of film and theater too.

Today, we welcome Graham Qually and Lee Su-Feh. Graham started in motion capture in 2007. Five years later, he moved to the east coast of Canada, where he helped build Ubisoft, Toronto's performance-capture stage. He is now the CEO of Beyond Capture and continues his mission of making performance capture accessible. Lee was born in Malaysia and moved to Canada where she now works and lives. Her work includes choreography, performance, teaching, writing, and community organizing. She explores the contemporary body as a site of intersecting histories and habits.

Today’s guests are breakdancer and video game designer Robbert-Jan Brems and North American First Nations advocate and dancer Leslie Kachina McCue. Robbert works at Unity Technologies in Solutions Engineering and is also a tech advisor at Danse Bloom. Leslie is a traditional dancer, indigenous resource knowledge teacher, and coordinator for the Royal Ontario Museum Youth Cabinet. We hear from Robbert how breakdancing taught him about passion and creativity, and how these lessons went a long way in showing him he could learn anything he wanted. He went from being bad at gaming to a game developer because of it. Leslie’s life ambition is to use the land as a dramaturgical device and leverage theatre, education, and dance to preserve her culture and bring justice to her people by telling their story. Our guests come from very different backgrounds but we cover some exciting overlaps today. We talk about how humility and togetherness are both major factors in their work.

Joining us on today’s episode are Barbara Diabo and Rafael Franco. Having been a dancer all her life, Barbara has worked in many styles of dance. She is currently a choreographer focusing on combining indigenous dance with contemporary styles, bridging divides across different tastes and genres. Rafael is a live-action and animation director and pushes boundaries in both media. He has worked in the US, in LA, and across Canada. We sit down with these fantastic guests for an insightful conversation about their respective relationships with dance and technology. Barbara shares her background and how after leaving contemporary dance, she connected to her cultural roots.

Our guests on today’s show are a software developer/musician Joel Klaverkamp and legendary dance choreographer Jennifer Mascall. Joel and Jennifer both explore the connections between technology, music, and the body in their own very different ways. They met through a video recording of Jennifer’s choreography that Joel did the scoring for, and are currently working on a second project together too. Today we sit down to have a fascinating conversation exploring dance and technology in relation to the creative process, the body as an orchestra, the democratization of dance, and the future.

Today on the show we welcome Rachel Franco and Dana Harvey. With the rapid growth of today’s digital landscape, Rachel strives to bridge contemporary dance and technology through themes and ideas that both challenge and entertain audiences. Dana harnesses the power of strategic communications to increase the impact of leaders and profits of organizations around the world. Passionate about immersion technologies and how they can be used to improve our lives, Dana is known for her expertise in translating tech-speak into business marketing and consumer messages that everyone can understand.

Today on the show, we welcome two special guests, Freya Björg Olafson and Mo Dhaliwal. Freya is an intermedia artist working with performance, audio, painting, and video. Her work engages with the influence that technology and the internet have on identity and the body. As a technologist and futurist, Mo came to dance by way of software after working in Silicon Valley for several years. He is a cultural navigator and the creator of the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration Society. Both Freya and Mo work to challenge the status quo and cross boundaries, cultures and sectors.

For this episode of The Future of Dance, we are joined by Andrea Peña and Noa Dolberg to talk about the intersection of technology, movement, and the human body. The conversation covers some of the projects our guests have been working on, the role of dance and performance, the rise of machines in art and the ways in which these machines can be used to make progress. Andrea is a dance artist, choreographer, and artistic director and the focus of her work is the creation of performative spaces that are both critical and alternative. She has her own company, Andrea Peña and Artists, with which she has toured the world and won numerous awards.