Applications of Computers to Dance

f all the art forms, dance has probably been the slowest to adopt technology. In part, this reflects the reluctance of dancers and choreographers to let anything get between them and the live kinesthetic experience. But it also reflects the fact that useful tools have been slow to develop in a market with limited commercial opportunity. Probably the first article suggesting the application of computers to dance was published by A. Michael Noll in Dance Magazine in January 1967, although New York choreographer Merce Cunningham discussed this at about the same time. 1 These initial discussions suggested visualizing dance with animated stick figures and using these visualizations to plan choreography. Soon other choreographers suggested using computers to compose and edit dance notation scores and then to translate these scores into animation. Dance notation is analogous to music notation, but is less widely known— the " Labanotation Primer " sidebar provides a primer on the notation system most widely used in North America. As computer technology has developed and become less expensive, many artists have found ways to use it to enhance their performances with interactive multime-dia. This has included incorporating computer-generated images and sound with live dance performance and using sensors that let the live dancers' movements control imagery, sound, and a wide variety of special effects. This overview describes some of the current applications of computer graphics to dance including visualizing choreography, composing, editing and animating dance notation, and enhancing live performance. When composing a dance, a choreographer typically works with one or more dancers to physically set the movement of each dancer over time. For any significant piece, this can take weeks or months. The choreogra-phy requires not only the dancers' time but also access to appropriate rehearsal space in a dance studio. This is expensive and dance companies work on restricted budgets. A computer tool that could be used to plan the choreography would help minimize the time needed for live rehearsal. In 1991, the founders of Credo Interactive—the developer of Life Forms, a software package for planning human movement—began to work with Cunningham and other choreographers to explore this approach. The result was the evolution of Life Forms into a tool known as Life Forms Dance and now as DanceForms (http://www.danceforms.com). This tool lets the choreographer try out ideas before ever meeting with live dancers. None of DanceForms' features would surprise those working in human figure …