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Temple University professor is teaching a dance class in England from his office in Philadelphia. Two dance instructors have teamed up for an international dance collaboration between students at Temple here in Philadelphia, and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. Using the internet, dancers on both sides of the Atlantic learn and perform together. Earlier this month, Temple participated in the LJMU Spring Dance Festival without leaving Philadelphia. The performance is part of a four year project, culminating this fall, to push the boundaries of dance instruction and performance using technology.
Professor Luke Kahlich, Director of
Temple's Center for Research in Dance Education, connected with Pauline Brooks of
Liverpool John Moores University in the UK at an international dance conference in 2006. "What happens if we try to challenge the creative process over the internet?" Adapting existing teleconferencing tools, the two schools set up cameras in dance studios in Philly and Liverpool, allowing dancers to practice and eventually perform together.
Students added their own spin with Skype, Facebook, YouTube and online chat.
"Dancers are so used to having their bodies next to another human body," says Kahlich.
Over time, that sense of distance faded. A field trip to Liverpool helped, but Kahlich also remarked that his students are way ahead of him technology wise, and are used to remote communications in so many other areas of their lives. Dance pieces were choreographed through video. Kahlich says that every Friday morning for three hours, he sat at his desk in Philadelphia and worked via the internet with the group in Liverpool, where students were divided into two practice studios.
"I would see both groups in different spaces on my computer," he says. "At the end of the session, they would come into one space, and I would be a giant head on a screen in Liverpool. At the same time we archived sessions from different angles. I could access all of those to send notes for the next rehearsal."
The resulting
dual performances in front of an audience took place in both locations simultaneously, with remote dancers projected life size on a screen in the theater of the corresponding event.
The Liverpool-Philly dance collaboration follows a larger trend in higher education, says Kahlich. More and more job postings require teachers to be tech savvy. And students add that dance needs to keep up with the technological world as well.
Source: Luke Kahlich, Temple University
Writer: Sue Spolan