Dance magazine published an article on how Technology is afecting dance until the extent that is replacing the need of the human body.
Imagine waltzing with someone who is 1,000 miles away. Or watching a ballet with no dancers at all, where wisps of light form the illusion of dancers performing. You are not dreaming. At places like Arizona State University (ASU), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), and Texas Christian University (TCU), dancers are using computers and other multimedia technology to do that and more.
"Dance has always existed within the context of society," says John Mitchell, ASU dance department faculty member. "As society changes, it reframes dance. Today, dance is framed by the technology that surrounds us."
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In 1983, Dr. Judith Gray, then assistant professor of dance at UW, organized the first UW Dance and Technology Conference so that dancers throughout the country who were beginning to work with technology could share information. In her book Dance Instruction: Science Applied to the Art of Movement (1989), Gray coined a word to describe one effect of technology: "`Illusionism' ... is defined as realism protracted to a point where the real and the non-real are indistinguishable," she wrote. "Ilusionism will be a movement style that aims to confuse the observer as to whether what is seen is object or artifice." Gray, now on the faculty of Antioch University in Seattle, says, "I believe that dance audiences are ready for such an innovation, including the philosophical discourse and choreographic challenges that accompany such a revolution."
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Telematics, she explains, is a Web cast made by placing a video conference call between two or more dance performances, so that dancers in those locations can react to each other's video projection and, thus, dance together. The performance is viewed by audiences at all locations, but each gets a different experience and perspective. At one location, it may appear that the real and projected dancers are moving together, while at another, they may be dancing in canon because of lag time, the delay inherent in current video-conferencing technology.
Dr. Keitha Donnelly Manning, from the department of ballet and modern dance at TCU, says software tools, such as Life Forms, can help economically by allowing a choreographer to create and edit movement sequences on a computer prior to assembling a group of dancers. "Studio time is limited and expensive. The more you can do on the computer beforehand, the better," she says. At the same time she emphasizes that she doesn't believe the computer replaces the physicality of dance. The multimedia classroom that Manning helped design at TCU includes a dance floor as well as fifteen computers, so that choreographers can easily go back and forth between developing movement in their bodies and on the screen.
Computer technology can save choreographers time and money and help dancers compete for jobs and funding. But when does technology support the art and when does it detract from it?
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Wolfram (2003)" Virtual dance: technology can help create and promote dance, but it doesn't replace the physical body. Or does it?" in Dance Magazine
This is not the whole article as it was very long to post it here, but here there are the parts that I found most interesting.
Here's the link to read the whole article
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_2_77/ai_97174131/pg_2/?tag=content;col1