AAPPAC Session 4

What new possibilities does AI bring to creation? What challenges does it bring to production? How does AI choreography initiate new imaginations of dancers' bodies? How does AI change the decision-making of choreographers? What kinds of new contemporary dance landscapes are presented to audiences?

Two case studies of AI applications are shared. The first is presented by Kathy Hong, Executive Director of The Cloud Gate Culture and Arts Foundation. In 2023, to mark Cloud Gate's 50th anniversary, Artistic Director Tsung-lung Cheng attempted to use AI to choreograph a new work for the first time. She shares the behind-the-scenes creative process for that work, entitled Waves, and explores the possibilities for integrating AI and creation with attendees. Waves is a collaboration between Cheng and Japanese new media artist Daito Manabe that connects dance and technology. It is also an all-new attempt at creation for Cloud Gate's dancers. Wave energy from dancers' bodies, muscles, and nerves was converted into fundamental AI data. Dancers' physical, sound, and nerve wave data were input into an AI program to generate images that interacted with them on stage, such that energy was conveyed to the audience through dance.

In the meantime, Pierre Caessa, the Program Manager from Google's Arts and Culture will share the creative process behind the collaborative dance production LIVING ARCHIVE, that developed in collaboration with British choreographer Wayne McGregor. An AI choreography support system was trained using hundreds of hours of choreography documentary recordings and solo dance videos of members of his studio. This system learned individual body movements from past dance productions and used original dance moves by studio members to respond to new movement vocabulary. Through fast real-time human-AI dialogue, innovative movements "hidden" within previous dance productions were revealed, creating new potential and expanding the possibilities for choreographic decision-making. This also served to establish connections and contact between contemporary dancers and their predecessors. 

We also invite one of Japan's leading avant-garde artists, Hiroaki Umeda, who is not only a pioneering hi-tech choreographer but also famous for his multiple identities as a composer, lighting designer, stage designer, and visual artist.  In 2000, he founded the S20 Dance Company, known for its strong digital elements and highly comprehensive artistic approach, which encompasses such varied aspects as the physical, visual, sensory, and temporal.  It thus offers a unique aesthetics that leads audiences to an unprecedented dance viewing experience. Additionally, Chieh-hua Hsieh, Artistic Director of Anarchy Dance Theatre in Taiwan and known for his interdisciplinary dance works that integrate spatial concepts with technological elements, will share how he utilizes new media to merge with body creation. This opens new realms of imagination for dancers' bodies and presenting a contemporary dance landscape.

Sep 6 (Fri) 09:30 @ Globe Playhouse