Exploring the Role of Artifacts in Collective Dance Re-staging

Abstract

Preparing a new dance performance involves more than learning individual steps. We are interested in understanding how dancers collaborate as they rehearse a new dance piece, with a particular emphasis on how they use physical and digital artifacts to support this process. We conducted a 12-month longitudinal observational study with a dance company that re-staged a dance piece, taken from the contemporary repertoire and unknown to the dancers. The study focused on the role that artifacts play in shaping the learning of a dance piece. We showed how dancers produced an ecology of artifacts with the aim of analyzing the choreographic ideas behind the dance and sharing them with other learners. We showed that sharing these artifacts was challenging because they are idiosyncratic and embody their creator perspective and vocabulary. We then illustrated how dancers overcome this challenge by compiling artifacts and distributing the learning task among the group in order to create a common knowledge of the piece which improves the learning process. We conclude with design opportunities for technologies supporting long-term dance learning processes. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing.

Dance Transitions: What Forms of Technology Best Support Professional Dancers as They Learn New Movement Styles?

“…Riviere et al [38] explored decomposition of choreography into segments with their iPad-based system MoveOn. They later studied the role of MoveOn in the ecology of artifacts in a real-life, 12-month dance re-staging of Frame[d] by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui [39]. Although dancers who transition across styles usually study the movements for a particular technique within a particular choreography, we are interested in supporting the professional dancer outside of a specific classroom or theatre settings, but rather in their personal practice and development.…”