World Dance Choreographic Exchange Prospectus

"A tool is shaped by the hands that use it".

Goal:

Develop dance' presence on the WWW using its own language and structural forms.
By turning the Internet to uses of dance articulated in dancers' mother tongue, movement, a model may be provided for furthering impetus to humanize the web environment as

diversity of expression is expanded to include underrepresented disciplines and regions of the world
artwork is experienced rather than referred to

Elements:

This project functioning through a World Wide Web site will facilitate a series of interdisciplinary choreographic exchanges between dancers in San Francisco and "remote" ( in terms of telecommunications) dance centers, called nodes, with special emphasis upon ( but not limited to) Africa, the Pacific Rim, South America and the Carribean as well as more remote areas of the United States.

Structure:

Exchanges between nodes are organized in 4 movements within specific time-frames; each movement is archived and retrievable via Exchange Web site.
1st movement: The Call-expository statement wherein each node introduces itself via dance recorded on video or whenever possible online in real time.
2nd movement: The Response-nodes respond to each other.
3rd movement: Chorus-The responses are interwoven to create a dance performance in real time on-line.
4th movement: Individual nodes respond to the overall experience.
These movements constitute a "season" and are archived so that far-flung dancers can form themselves into nodes and create their own responses which can then be uploaded and exhibited within the Exchange site.

Tools:

WWW (& the Internet for file exchange)
video
mail
movement vocabularies
satellite uplink for real-time transmissions

Timeline:

1st Season September-December '97 preparation during Summer '97 includes publicizing project among dance community, recruitment of nodes, establish communication process, design of "staging area" web site and real-time, performance interface design

Support:

In order to realize this project I have sought and obtained assurances of some support from the following:
Leonardo/International Society for Arts, Sciences and Technology
International Dance Institute
SF State University Dep'ts of: Dance, Conceptual Design and Information Arts
Embaje Modern Dance Company

To find out how you can participate

Emphasis: The World Dance Choreographic Exchange will provide access to artwork and the process of making it rather than the description of artmaking by secondary sources. The Exchange website will model access by people of color and varied languages as well as by those who have up until now have found little expressive use for computer networks. It is my belief that by including more people in development of the discourse that is the WWW we will have a more useful and humane "nth Dimension".