A dialogue in movement between two artists, Wally Cardona (US) and Rahel Vonmoos (UK), A Light Conversation reflects on life being lived: choice, commitment, pleasure, sacrifice, boredom, aesthetics vs. ethics, the uncertainty of the future, and last but not least, love—first love, erotic love, marital love, mature love, and friendship. The sound score features philosophers discussing Kierkegaard on truth and love, but the words blur in the visceral presence of the duet unfolding. The audience, seated on three sides of the stage, often within only a few feet of the performers, shares the same intimate space. 

Wally Cardona is an artistic director, choreographer, and performer residing in Brooklyn, NY and is the recipient of a 2006 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in choreography and a 2006 Bessie Award for the creation of Everywhere. Rahel Vonmoos is a Swiss choreographer and performer who has worked with choreographers Charles Linehan, Rosemary Butcher, Philippe Gehmacher, Philippe Saire, and Iztok Kovac (film on improvisation), among others, and has been part of Ricochet Dance Productions. 

DANCE MOViES was a screening series showcasing short films and experimental videos made by contemporary choreographers and filmmakers. 

World premieres of five new commissioned dance films chosen by an international panel; the screenings were followed by a panel discussion including the filmmakers and curator.

Hoop (Canada, 4.5 minutes) Directed by Marites Carino and performed by Rebecca Halls; floating in a black void, swinging through shafts of light, a woman keeps an incandescent and familiar circular childhood toy in perpetual motion.

Anatomy of Melancholy (US, 6.5 minutes) Directed by Nuria Fragoso; visual metaphors about space portray the melancholy that underlies contemporary society. Recursive imagery and gesture accumulate to reveal the catharsis of individuals who are faced with profound isolation in today’s communicative processes.

Quince Missing (US, 16.5 minutes) Directed and choreographed by Rajendra Serber. In this exploration of urban isolation, three strangers tracing their solitary paths through empty streets at night become locked in anonymous antagonism when trying to pass each other.

The Closer One Gets, the Less One Sees (Brazil, 10.5 minutes) Videomaker Valeria Valenzuela and choreographer Lilyen Vass collaborated on this intervention in the everyday lives of three street jugglers/beggars in Rio, which transforms the objective action of their juggling into the abstract vocabulary of contemporary dance.

MO-SO (US, 12 minute looping video installation) Directed by Kasumi; performed by Chan U Hong. Multiple video screens installed side-by-side layer film samples and a dancer’s gestures to create counterpoints of movement and image. 

Announcing our first summer lab for interactive media in performance! Directed by Johannes Birringer and Mark Coniglio, the workshop offers intensive training and possibilities for experimentation with mixed reality and real time architectures, programmable environments, interactive design and the integration of time-based media into live performance and installation.

Workshop blog: http://empaclivemediaperformancelab.blogspot.com/

The activities of the lab are open to visitors, and information about the proceedings and the research process will be available soon.

The workshop addresses emerging and professional art practitioners, scientists, researchers, and students from different backgrounds in performance and new media committed to sharing their interest in developing a deeper understanding of composing work focused on real time, interactive or time-based experiences and multidisciplinary collaborative processes (video, sound processing, projection design, lighting, choreography and directing).

Participants will be in residence for the duration of the lab and offered our exceptional facilities for investigating performance and design techniques that will develop skills and inspire new ideas for working in mixed realities and interlinked physical/virtual or distributed aesthetics. The workshop will include examples and references to international stage works, choreographic systems, installations and site-specific works, as well as hands-on experimentation in full resolution with interactive systems.

Methodologies for the laboratory are conceived by Theater director and media artist Johannes Birringer, founder of the annual Interaktionslabor and professor of performance technologies at Brunel University (London), and Mark Coniglio, artistic co-director of Troika Ranch and creator of the Isadora software. Both artists are widely recognized for their pioneering work in the international performance and media network. Interaktionslabor was last offered on tour in Belo Horizonte, Brasil (2008), and Birringer’s and Coniglio’s work has been featured in numerous festivals and exhibitions around the world.

SKILL REQUIREMENTS

Intermediate/advanced experience in performing with audio/visual technologies and/or programming. Previous experience with Isadora or Max/MSP recommended. This workshop is geared for those already working with technology but wishing to improve their skills and get new perspectives.

WHAT TO BRING

It is recommended that participants bring rehearsal clothing and their own laptop and other tools (camera, recorder, etc.). Digital equipment will also be available.

WORKSHOP FEE

$500

HOUSING

Participants in the workshop will be able to choose single dormitory style housing near the Rensselaer campus for $50/ night, or may organize their own housing in Troy.

SCHEDULE

The lab is intensive and will run from 10AM - 10PM daily. Registration will be held Monday morning, August 16, and work that day will start at noon. Participants will wrap up their work Sunday morning, August 22, and depart Sunday afternoon.

Will Rawls (producer) and Kyle Wilamowski (director and editor) created this short documentary on the founding, history, and current relevance of Movement Research (MR), one of the world’s leading laboratories for the investigation of dance and movement-based forms. Through interviews with key participants in the organization, the film explains MR’s vital mission: valuing individual artists and their creative process and vital role within society; creating and implementing free and low-cost programs that nurture experimentation and instigate discourse; and reflecting the cultural, political, and economic diversity of the MR community, including artists and audiences alike.

Set to a torrent of sound by Massive Attack and Coldplay collaborator Jon Hopkins and composer Joby Talbot (The Divine Comedy, White Stripes), Wayne McGregor's ENTITY is a work of exacting and sensual movement for nine dancers, framed by multiple moving screens. Ongoing collaborations with research scientists in neurology and psychology informed the creation of this stunning performance, which interrogates the relation of the working mind and the dancing body.With its fierce kinetic intelligence, large-scale video projections, and propulsive music, ENTITY further establishes Wayne McGregor | Random Dance at the forefront of contemporary dance. Wayne McGregor | Random Dance will be performing ENTITY at the end of a two-week residency at EMPAC, during which they will investigate tools, ideas, and visual design concepts for their current work-in-progress, the sequel to ENTITY. Panel discussions and talks by leading collaborators, research partners, and Artistic Director Wayne McGregor will take place throughout the residency period. ENTITY features set design by Patrick Burnier with film/video by Ravi Deepres, and lighting by Lucy Carter.

Come take class with the dancers of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance! A ballet-based technique class open to intermediate/advanced dancers. Class size is limited. Please reserve a spot by calling the box office 518.276.3921.

For two weeks, the London-based dance company Wayne McGregor | Random Dance is pursuing a creative residency at EMPAC, investigating tools, ideas, and visual design concepts for their current work-in-progress. Their work involves collaborations in research on the cognition of choreography and the development of new directions in scenography. To open up the process to our audience, talks and a panel discussion by collaborators, research partners, and Artistic Director Wayne McGregor are happening throughout the residency period. At the end of their stay, the company will perform ENTITY, a magnificent work of dance, sound and video projection.

In a two-week residency, Wayne McGregor and Random Dance (WM|RD) investigated visual design concepts, tools, and ideas for a work-in-progress, a sequel to Entity, choreographed and directed by McGregor and premiered at Sadler’s Wells, London in 2008. The company performed Entity at the conclusion of the residency. Set to a torrent of sound by Jon Hopkins (Massive Attack and Coldplay collaborator) and composer Joby Talbot, Entity is a work of exacting and sensual movement for nine dancers, framed by several moving screens.

Wayne McGregor | Random Dance was founded in 1992 and in 2002 became resident company at Sadler’s Wells; in 2003, McGregor was appointed artist-in-residence at the University of Cambridge in the Department of Experimental Psychology. Collaborations with research scientists in neurology and psychology informed the creation of the Entity, which interrogates the relation of the working mind and the dancing body, and during the residency, EMPAC presented panel discussions and talks by WM|RD’s collaborators, research partners, and artistic director Wayne McGregor:

Cognition, Emotion, and Action: Dr. Philip Barnard, program leader at the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge and a collaborator and research advisor to WM|RD spoke on his research work.

Real-time Reactive Systems: rAndom International spoke on their award-winning design and art work. Best known for large-scale public installations combining design, technology, and media, they play with real-time reactive systems that offer viewers an intuitive body-based experience.

Panel Discussion on R-Research: A discussion on projects and directions of R-Research, the research branch of WM|RD, which initiates and implements new research collaborations across disciplines including dance, neuroscience, cognitive science, biology, philosophy, and technology. McGregor and Phillip Barnard were joined by Scott deLahunta, a researcher, writer, and consultant on international projects about bringing performing arts with a focus on choreography into conjunction with other disciplines and practices.

Jeremy Wade's there is no end to more delves into Japanese kawaii (cute) culture – from the infantile fluff of Hello Kitty to the doe-eyed teenage love stories of anime – and its ubiquitous global influence. Through dance, stories, animation and video, Wade peeks under the slick, silly surface of kawaii to reveal its more insidious subtext, in which societal norm becomes aberration and consumption gives way to delusion. The result is a funny yet disembodied spectacle in the style of a children's television show that exposes our relationship to the “endless more” that exists just beyond our grasp.

In conjunction with Jeremy Wade's performance, there will be an exhibit on the Mezzanine exploring the culture of Japanese manga and anime, whose exuberant visual style is a source for there is no end to more. The exhibition will include the first episodes from key anime and manga series, related movie and artist posters, as well as books on the powerful cultural influence of these forms of production.

This exhibit will be open from Wednesday, January 20 through Wednesday, February 3 and will be viewable from noon to 6 PM (longer if there is a public event happening).

Frieder Weiss, creator of the interactive media environment in Chunky Move’s Glow, will talk about his participation in and observations of the ‘dance tech’ genre over the last 15 years. Weiss calls himself an ‘engineer in the arts’. In an entertaining yet critical review, he will describe developments and achievements in the genre of interactive performance, illustrated with numerous videos of works from the recent years. As he will show, not only has the technology changed in this time period, but also the very paradigms of using interactivity have shifted tremendously. Weiss will describe a recipe for successful interactive experiences, including brief overviews and demonstrations of software and hardware systems. Artistic implications will be addressed. Weiss will also be giving an introductory workshop exploring artistic uses of video motion sensing technologies on Saturday December 5th. The workshop is FREE but limited to 15 participants and requires a reservation