Sound – [object] – dance: a holistic approach to interdisciplinary composition

In this chapter, the author writes about the creative process behind her dance and sound collaborations that are mediated by interactive technology. The author argues that gesture-driven computer music often misses the aesthetic aspects of creating choreography in collaboration with dancers by lacking investigation into the process of contemporary dance composition. For this reason the author investigates fundamental principles of choreography on the basis of Rudolf Laban’s choreutics theory, and also the choreographic methods of contemporary choreographers such as William Forsythe and Wayne McGregor. In the initial experiment Locus, motion-sensing device Gametrak controllers were used as objects primarily to challenge the dancers to move beyond their habit during improvisations by restricting the size and shape of the kinesphere. The movements that are created result in a sound composition. In the later work The Music Room, the total condition of the piece – Gametrak controllers, the performance space and the sound triggered by the dancer – challenges the dancer as a physical enforcement of the restriction. Ultimately, the author draws out not only the technological development, but also the holistic collaborative compositional cycle with dancers as an interdisciplinary composition.