Title: Eleven for Eleven
Premiere: Premiered by AADW in the Betty Pease Studio Theater, Ann Arbor, MI, April 26 & 27, 1997. Presented in lecture-demonstration format, May 30, 1997, Duderstadt Center Video Studio. Subsequently performed for President Bollinger's inauguration celebration, Ingalls Mall, University of Michigan, 9/97. Funded by the Executive Committee of the Media Union and the UM Office for Instructional Technology.
Duration: 15 minutes.
Music: The Continuing Story of Counterpoint Part 11, by David Borden
Dancers: Deborah Barron-Miller, Emily Berry, Missy Bischoff, Jodie Colone, Lindsey Dietz, Josh Majors, Amy Martin, Nancy Shevitz, Rosanna Taverrez, Leyya Tawil, Joseph Wozjinski
Costumes:
Videography and LifeForms animations: Jessica Fogel and Jason Marchant.
Lighting Design: Mary Cole
Description: This work was developed as an exploration of the animation program, LifeForms as a tool for choreography. It was created under the auspices of a special course I conceived of, held in the then new video studio of the Duderstadt Center Media Union. I received special funding for the course. The course brought together students from Dance, Video/Film, and Theatre/lighting design, and was a collaboratively taught by Terri Sarris (video production), Rob Murphy (lighting design) and myself (Dance Composition and Repertory). BFA alum Jason Marchant was hired to teach LifeForms and to assist in the choreographic process. The title came from the music title and the casting of eleven dancers in the work. When it was performed in the Betty Pease Studio it was presented with a video backdrop in which the live dancers interacted with the animation figures projected onto the white wall upstage of the dancers. When performed outdoors subsequently for President Lee Bollinger’s inauguration, the video was of course dispensed with, and the dancers performed to live music of the Burton Tower Carillon, played by Margo Halsted. The costumes also were rethought for the outdoor performance. The public talk I gave (linked below) provides a detailed description of the creative process. The process of working with LifeForms, a program that interpolates movement between shapes the choreographer inputs, led me to develop many with shape-driven phrases, which for me was a novel way of generating movement.
University Record article re Lee Bollinger inaugural events
“Dancing with a computer,” by Cynthia Roses-Thema, Sarasota Herald Tribune, July 20, 1997
Fogel notes for dancers Eleven for Eleven
Selected LifeForm animation shapes/Eleven for Eleven
Grant Application LifeForms/Eleven for Eleven project
Correspondence with faculty and administrators about the LifeForms project