And You Can Dance. For Inspiration. (Five Views On Dance)

I didn’t intend to make dance the theme of the week but as it happens sometimes all of the ideas come together at once and so, in case you missed them earlier, here they are, five views on dance:

• Monday: Dancers In Slow Motion
• Tuesday: The Secret Lives Of Dancers
• Wednesday: David Parsons’ Caught Vs Wrecking Crew Orchestra’s Tron
• Thursday: Dance Your PH.D.
• Friday: A Modest Proposal By John Bohannon: Get Rid Of Powerpoint And Use Dancers Instead

For more posts on dance check out the Dance category. I also encourage you to check out The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life and The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together, two fantastic books by one of America’s greatests choreographers and collaborators Twyla Tharp. 

Dance Your PH.D.

In 2008 science writer John Bohannon launched the first Dance Your PH.D. contest. The rules were simple, each dance had to be based on a scientist’s Ph.D. research, and that scientist had to be part of the dance. In an article he asked the question “Can Scientists Dance?” and the answer turns out to be yes, yes they can. Since then The New York Times and NPR have reported on the contest. 

I think the idea is inspired. Forcing scientist to get our of their heads and connect with their bodies to convey complex concepts probably led to additional moments of insight.

Below you can see for yourself last year’s winner, which besides showing new physics research in dance form also demonstrates a great panache for filmmaking reminiscent of the dance pieces discussed here yesterday. 

Microstructure-Property relationships in Ti2448 components produced by Selective Laser Melting: A Love Story by Joel Miller. 

Hip replacements have a limited life before they too need replacing. This is known in the medical field as revision surgery and it is a source of much pain and inconvenience for the patient. Revision surgery is most often because the underlying bone has deteriorated. Bone needs stress to grow and to maintain strength, yet current hip replacement implants are too stiff - they constrain the affixed bone and prevent it from stretching. The bone around the implant starts to deteriorate and the bond between bone and implant fails. Titanium, used in orthopaedic implants because it is strong, lightweight and biocompatible, transforms at temperatures above 883°C. The atoms rearrange from a densely-packed structure (called the alpha phase) to one that is loosely-packed (beta phase). Both alpha and beta phases are strong, but the beta phase is half as stiff and has elastic properties closer to that of bone. By adding elements such as tin, niobium and zirconium, our titanium alloy keeps its flexible beta structure at room temperature. If the alloy is then re-heated to 450°C, some alpha phase re-emerges, complicating the microstructure. This makes it more difficult for cracks to progress through the metal, making it less susceptible to fatigue failure. If the amount of alpha is controlled, a metal with good fatigue properties and low-stiffness is made. To further reduce the stiffness of the implant and match it to that of bone, we use flexible scaffold structures. The scaffolding also allows the bone to grow into the implant, creating a strong bond. These complicated scaffolds are built from thin layers of titanium powder that are melted with a laser, then cooled to solidify. This manufacturing method is called Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and it is like 3D printing. Because SLM is good at producing one-off items, customised implants are possible; the patient’s CAT or MRI scans can be combined with Computer Aided Design to ensure a perfect fit. My research at the University of Western Australia uses these new materials and advanced manufacturing techniques to try to overcome the main reason why orthopaedic implants fail. If successful, this work will help lead to more durable implants, reducing the need for revision surgery and allowing orthopaedic implants to be used on younger adult patients. This video was created with friends and family for Gonzolabs "Dance Your Ph.D" 2011 Contest. It illustrates a central part of my research: the effect of the titanium alloy microstructure. The video was created using 2200 photographs because we didn't have a video camera, but also (and more importantly) because stop motion, even though tedious to shoot, is fun. The music is "Mischa" by unsigned Perth indi-electropop outfit The Transients. Hear more of their music at www.thetransients.net

(via ScienceMag.org)

David Parsons' Caught vs Wrecking Crew Orchestra's Tron

In 1982 David Parsons premiered Caught, a work that he performed himself. Almost instantly it became a masterpiece of modern dance. Using simple light cues and a strobe Caught features more than 100 leaps in six minutes by a solo dancer who is repeatedly trapped in mid-motion by the strobe lights, to create an illusion of flight. It has been performed thousands of times worldwide, for nearly thirty years.

The video below does not do justice to the piece, it just gives an overall feeling of what it looks like. In the mid 90s I saw it live for the first time. What the video below is missing is how all your senses are engaged when seen in a theater. You sit in absolute darkness and every time the strobe comes on you see an even more incredible leap frozen in time. You wonder how on earth Parsons can time the leaps with such precision while in the dark. You hear the breathing accelerating as the piece goes on, you hear the loud steps with every landing and jump, you are well aware that what you are looking at seems like magic but is indeed a man working very hard. It is mesmerizing. I’ve seen the piece live 5 times over the years and every time, no matter the audience or location at the end everyone erupts in applause. 

A few weeks back a Tron-inspired dance by the Wrecking Crew Orchestra made the rounds. This new routine by the Japanese dance team relies on specially-designed suits covered with wireless, light-emitting strings that can be controlled remotely. As soon as I saw it I thought of Caught. 

The dancers behind both of these pieces work hard, and have a few tricks up their sleeves, to create amazing dance illusions. It is easy to see that there is direct conceptual connection between the two, becuase, as I always say here, everything is a remix. 

The Secret Lives Of Dancers

Over the years I’ve worked with many dance companies, producing and marketing seasons from ballet to modern dance. One of the things I always wanted to do but could not (so far) was create an end of season annual report that not only covered operations and finances but also covered the year from the point of view of the various creative and technical departments, showing a glimpse of the hard work it takes to create a season of dance. 

Dancers train like Olympic athletes, with none of the endorsements and all of the injuries. They have the musicality of the best classically trained musicians. They can perform complex space-time computiations in their minds while contorting their bodies, to the beat. And then when they get on stage they can move you with extraordinary expresions of joy or sorrow. 

A side anecdote: while working for Ballet Hispanico, I watched and heard endless rehearsals for a particular piece. I had heard the choreographer explain the very moving scene, heard the music over and over and over for days on end, watched the dancers work at mastering and perfecting the moves. In essence I felt like I knew the routine as well as an outsider could. Then on opening night, after all the commotion of starting a new season, I finally sat down in the theater next to my colleagues and when this particular section started I found myself crying almost uncontrollably, surrounded by other company staff that were also crying, the audience was crying. The dancers had taken something that I had seen completely deconstructed and analyzed and were able to strip away all of it and instead infuse the performance with profound humanity and beauty.

It is becuase of this love of dance and the complexities of creating dance that I am excited about two ventures started by two major international ballet companies. 

The Australian Ballet, Australia’s national ballet company, is profiling a year in the life of two of the company’s dancers, senior artist Amy Harris and corps de ballet dancer Jake Mangakahia. The ten-part web series begins in January as the company returns from the Christmas break and prepares for the year ahead. Part 1 is below. Subscribe on YouTube to see the following 9 parts as they are released through the year. 

(via couriermail.com.au & YouTube)

New Zealand’s TV3 has just concluded the second season of The Secret Lives of Dancers, a prime time show that goes behind the scenes at the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Though video of the show is hard to find if you can get your hands on it you should check it out. The second season focused on famous New York dancer Ethan Stiefel becoming their new Artistic Director, with all the interesting cultural juxtapositions that implies, as the company stages their biggest production so far. It is compelling television to watch how the lives of the dancers affect the productions, and how some dancers make it and some do not despite all the hard work.  

Think of all of the work that you do, all the design, all the technology, all the user interactions and constant pushing forward, dancers do that and more. They could be your source of inspiration, your source of entertainment, they could spark your next great idea. You really should go see live dance. 

Dancers In Slow Motion

Let’s begin the week with some beautiful dancing slowed down. Two very different dance styles, one filmmaking technique, so we can see in detail what dancers can do with their bodies.

(via Curiosity Counts)

Marina Kanno and Giacomo Bevilaqua from Staatsballett Berlin perform several jumps captured in slow motion at 1000 frames per second.

(via Kottke.org)

Which of course reminds me of David Michalek’s Slow Dancing installation. If you think these are impressive, you should see dancers projected in HD on the sides of buildings. I had an opportunity to see the installation at Lincoln Center a few years ago. It was amazing to witness  a sea of people basically having picnics around the Lincoln Center fountain watching the projections late into the night. Do yourself a favor, find a dance theater near you and go see a live dance performance. 

Copyright David Michalek http://www.slowdancingfilms.com