Zaini’s choreography has been inspirational for the most part. He has been extremely easy to work with and its great that we have a very similar approach to the methodology and interpretation of the context. It helps that I have a keen interest in dance & movement, making discussions flow quickly without second guessing the visual vocabulary. I love the juxtaposition of ethnic and modern dance, though some may say it has been threaded on common ground now. As much as I admit to my lack of ethnic belief or practice, the traditional signatures ingrained through centuries of evolution are remarkably unique. Kudos to all traditional practitioners that keep the art form alive for many generations to follow.

I finally managed to get some time off work to sit in a run-through rehearsal for the Next Wave performance last weekend. I have been composing to a reference video from the last few rehearsals, and the dancers have been rehearsing to a straight-beat tango track for a few weeks. Last weekend was the second time the dancers used my sketches and a first time for me to review the piece performed together with my music. Initially nerve-wrecking to watch the reactions from the other dancers & choreographers, but thankfully the response has been excellent so far.

I’ve almost completed the music and it is looking like the most epic composition for a single choreography I have done so far. It could possibly be the longest piece of music I have written as well, stretching through four movements and timed at 16-minutes. There are some minor tweaks to be done for the 2nd and 3rd movement to gel the visual interpretations in place, as well as some additional accents to be added to the final 64 bars that close the performance. This has also been a good chance for me to get reacquainted with programming and sequencing with Logic. Sounds from the synths have a greater depth and character, remarkably polished ‘out-of-the-box’ without any mastering done on it yet. Logic Studio 8 has proven to be the best package I’ve purchased so far. I’m not even done experimenting with it, definitely not in a rush to upgrade to Logic 9 anytime soon.

We are about three weeks away from opening night for Next Wave, which will not feature the visual projection. This buys me an additional week to work on the media content that will be used for Dance Reflections the following week. I have sketched out a story-board in my mind, but will only be able to start filming the dancers this Wednesday. I’ll then have just over 2 weeks to complete everything. At times like this I wished I was still in the freelance business, with nothing to distract me from specific projects and deadlines. Focus focus focus!

On a side note, Zaini just shared with me a little bit of inspiration from The Royal Ballet‘s resident choregrapher Wayne McGregor. Infra first premiered as a triple bill at the Royal Opera House in November 2008. The performance itself was amazing. Such clinical setting, with the best ballet dancers in the UK performing in such complex unnatural movements yet organic in situ. McGregor’s collaborative effort with visual artist Julian Opie and composer Max Richter is truly stunning. BBC produced an in-depth program for broadcast in the UK, chronicling the processes involved with creating this new work. I have always admired the passion of artists pushing new boundaries in their art form, and this is a perfect example of why my heart will always be set in the performing arts.

Spend a little time to watch the videos in sequence. Enjoy…

What a beautiful image. The fluidity of human motion really does transform the figure when you can capture the images down to fractions.

http://humanmotions.com

The piece explores the relevance of “face value” in today’s modernized and technologically advanced/dependent world. With rapid adoption of communication devices like computers, mobile phones, and online media, even the traditional cultures in asia are fast losing that sense of personality and response.

My design approach would be to contrast the opposing worlds of old culture and the “faceless” modern world in layers, which are deconstructed and melded together in an edgy and narrative style. The electro-acoustic segments have not been pieced together yet, but I have a relatively clear vision for that. Have also been scouring for some material to work with, and currently hunting for voices speaking in the southeast-asian languages; Burmese, Tagalog, Bahasa, Thai, Chinese dialects, etc. I might have to record these myself, if I can get a hold of enough people who are native speakers of these languages.

As for the multimedia portion, there are ideas brewing. Mainly looking at some juxtaposed dancer vs. dancer rear projection on stage. The scenes will have to be filmed beforehand, so I do hope I get to see the rehearsals and sketches soon enough. This might be a great opportunity to try out some of the scripts I’ve found recently such as eMotion, but I don’t think I know Processing enough to attempt. Jitter would seem like a much easier option! There has been talk about adding some live camera inputs during the show itself, but we’ll have to see how much is permissible by the venue and programming team. I’ll have to do some tests in the next 2 weeks and start patching and clicking.

As I mentioned, it has been a while since I worked on a full production. It has been a great kickstart back into the swing of things. Here’s looking forward to more to come in due time. I will this journal updated with sketches of ideas as they form in the coming days.

In the meantime: some inspiration from my heroes.

More recently I’ve hung out and chatted with a number of interesting individuals that worked on multimedia artwork like visualizing software and projection mapping. This gives me a nudge back in the groove of things. A much needed boost to delve into the books and start clicking and patching again.

Keeping my eyes and ears open. Now I just got to dig up some time to actually get some work done.