As the digital art renaissance explodes on the web3 platforms it is an epiphany to realize that dance too can behave as generative art. Up until now, this aspect in dance has been overlooked by the art world. Furthermore the NFT space is a bounty of sound and visual elements that can be used to support the production of live performance.
As a wild artist deeply invested in the experiment, my choreography and dance practice has long relied upon improvisation and the experimental score to generate motion and sequences with Contact Improv at the heart of my personal physical practice. Upon moving to NYC from lala land in 2015 to take a job at NYU, it was a frequenting of the local jams that kept me connected to my body, to motion, to touch and being touched, to dropping my weight, to being lifted into the air, to being curious and filled with wonder amongst a vibrant community of curious and wonder filled movers and their vapors. It was at this time that the Underscore showed up in my life. A prescribed set of symbols that are introduced by a guide that are then explored within a two hour time commitment where everyone involved must stay in the room and stay engaged in the dance. The first Underscore I participated in blew my mind and elevated my soul; it was spiritual.
Obsessed with circles, circling, questions, questioning, experiments, and experimenting, and the conversations that surround these things, my artwork continues to mysteriously reveal itself. It wasn't until the creation of "Auras", my first generative art NFT project this year on fxhash that it hit me; the experimental score in dance is a form of performance based generative art. Head smack. Ah ha!
The origins of the experimental score and its application to dance can be traced to the beginning of the 1960's spilling out of workshops at the Cunningham Studio with Robert Dunn who studied with John Cage and Richard Maxfield in experimental and electronic composition at the New School for Social Research. Encouraged by Cage, Dunn took what he learned from Cage's music improvisation courses and transferred it into his movement classes. Dunn's students performed at Judson Memorial church in 62, and included musicians, visual artists, and dancers such as Simone Forti, David Gordon, Steve Paxton, Meredith Monk, Lucinda Childs, Yvonne Rainer and Trisha Brown. At the time music was also investigating uses of the experimental score, chance procedures were favored by John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Cage and Cunninham worked together and separately using modes of chance, random and I Ching strategies to create experimental music and dance scores.
All this activity launched investigations by Simon Forti with her Dance Constructions, inspired the formation of the Judson Dance Theater community initiated by Trisha Brown, in 1961. Meanwhile Laurence and Anna Halprin's formulation of the RSVP cycles nested in Anna's Movement Rituals practice were housed in the San Francisco Dancers Workshop and fired up the west coast. The east coast continued developing as well with Meredith Monk's founding of The House in 1968, a company dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to performance and Steve Paxton's founding of the Contact Improv movement in the early 70's launched a thriving community of movers that I am now a member of. Contact Improv was the exploration of one's body in relationship to others by using the fundamentals of sharing weight, touch, and movement awareness. It evolved into a broad global community of social dancing around jams. Nancy Stark Smith's creation of the *Underscore in the 90's furthered the idea of CI and experimental scores with a set of instructions (score) for a group to improvise together over the period of two hours to create a dance. The Underscore is a generative dance. It has the same set of instructions,yet it is always different, based on who is in it and how the instructions are introduced, understood and interpreted.
For me, the experimental score offers a way of coding the motion of a body to generate a different dance every time it is performed; keeping the dance alive by allowing moments of random play within a structure. This can offer the choreographer the ability to cycle bodies in and out of the dance easily based on the premise of the score being performable by any "body". Experimental scores revolutionized dance and pushed back against a long lineage of choreographed works that relied upon specific technically trained (biased) bodies for the work to be performed.
The Underscore was key to informing the development of an experimental score focused on creating sacred space, "gorgeous creatures" that premiered in November 2022, for free, in New York City at the Tisch School of the Arts' Jack Crystal Theater. The work, a generative dance based on an experimental score, used NFTs for both the sound design and video art elements.
Taking three weeks to build the score with my collaborators Karsen Tengan and Demitris Charalambous, we began with research, journaling, and collecting images to inspire the improvisation; filling a shared google doc with links, videos and writing about circle dances. The "Book of Symbols" was found serendipitously on the street by Karsen weeks prior to our beginnings and became a reference for us. Light was key to building the world, and we rehearsed in a green LED light bath with two LED glowing fire lights on opposite sides of the room.
We each drew runes as a casting to inform the dance for us as individuals - they were all drawn reversed.
Berkana/birch Karsen
Tiwaz/warrior cari ann
Elgiz/elk Demi
We then began building, with loose improvisations around an element, tool, image, or idea and spent up to 50 minutes at a time inside of the score for the dance. Afterwards we would sit sweaty catching our breath sharing deep moments of awe and wonder, remembering, laughing, contemplating, and revising the score for the next iteration. We often worked with different tools to create sacred space; bells, rope, and a large skirt were employed during these sessions. At the end of our three week intensive we had a solid task based score to bring to our dancers.
Score:
Procession with bells.
Draw the circle.
Build the altar.
Greet and circle each other.
Put the bells down.
Dose.
Clapping.
Circle of fire.
Four directions.
Nymph.
Creature.
Flying.
Rave.
Spin.
Collapse.
Grounding.
Float.
Goddess.
Destruction of Goddess.
Flocking.
Visions.
Farewells.
Wunjo.
image by Yiyuan Li
We had the pleasure of taking this score and transferring it onto five gorgeous creatures in a six week period. We continued the use of light during all rehearsals; a flood of green and firelight from opposing sides helped to set the space. We started with archetype building and bells to establish characters for each of the dancers to work with. Partnering exercises to build trust and community followed. Then we began revealing the score in parts, non linearly, as investigations, allowing the dancers to have agency through interpretation in the process of the transfer. The score continued to shift and take shape as we allowed their bodies to translate it and our bodies to observe it from the outside. As we progressed the need to set certain cues, and movements arose, sometimes to lock a sequence or set a section for the dance to transition well between tasks. Overall the score stayed open and welcoming which ushered new elements in, magically, from the dancers, encouraging their entrance into authorship of the work. Other parts of the dance relied upon randomization, such as working with a set of gestural signals that the dancers had agency to choose from, or endurance situations: spin until you fall down. Certain aspects of the score were new territory for the dancers. The dance had no front, not everything was set, and it could vary in length. At first confused, the cast dug into these areas and ended up appreciating them profusely.
During the developmental phase we relied upon sound from generative NFT projects to improvise to. While it is popular to talk about the utility of NFTs in Web3 by collectors, curators and artists alike, this (for me) is a different conversation from a different lens. My use of generative NFTs goes beyond the platforms and blockchains and into the studio, into the proscenium space, and onto the stage for supporting live performance work. NFTs can create sound scapes, visuals for video projection, and interactive environments for the theater, studio and gallery space. (I am patiently awaiting an NFT band to pop up that uses instruments such as Loopy Boy by toys. https://objkt.com/asset/hicetnunc/354399)
For me it is awesome to have access to NFTs as a video artist. In the past it would be me and late nights creating content for the stage. Now it is so fun to find generative, interactive and compelling videos to consider for projections alongside my creations. As for sound, generative sound is a limitless playground.
In the first week of transferring the dance to the dancers I began to arrange the music for "gorgeous creatures" working with sound recordings from joey zaza's fxhash generative NFT project ░ ▒ ▓ █.
Arranging generative sound is like nothing else I've experienced as a musician and composer. To try and describe it…it is like working with multiple orchestras, several bands, hundreds of musicians, all at once, in harmony or discord; simply divine. Imagine working with a wall of sound rather than one instrument at a time and with a generative sound score that never ends. It is the most profound composing experience I've had as a musician.
Joey's project created variations based on speed, repetition, delay, and a random selection and ordering of sounds that were pulled from a library of 31 samples created from the software based instruments of Logic. When joey was initially creating the work, we already knew it would be employed for the dance and I asked for bells and voices. The rest of the sounds were of his choosing. The 64 generated soundtracks created from the NFT release each play to infinity if uninterrupted, continuously changing. It took awhile to go through all of them, and it was a tough cut, yet it ended up being a total of twelve that were used to create the sound score for "gorgeous creatures". They layered and mixed together well while retaining their own unique energy. I worked with them as is, and only adjusted levels in the mixing of the track. No additional effects were applied. There was an ease of layering, blending, and stacking because they were already built to exist together.
As a video artist, the use of projection was purposeful to the work. It served to first draw the circle, and then as a way to write symbols onto bodies and the stage that represented the layer of cyber magick. At first the visuals from joey's were on the table along with another project I was keen on utilizing, the fxhash generative NFT project "A Strange Loop", by Memo Akten & James Paterson.
gif by cari ann shim sham*
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1VWEdAR67MWLU11bhgLoRdALvtRsvGjgFM/0
Knowing ahead of time that the visuals were to be projected onto the stage I scheduled a test in the theater to see how they would read. "A Strange Loop" captured the visualization and sonification of cyber magick perfectly. I reached out to the creators, and combed the project. Using eleven of the loops (two of which I own), and projecting them onto the floor, they wrote onto the glowing dancers covered in led lights, white tights, swim caps and saran wrap creating a mysterious coded language of symbols. As the narrative arc progressed the loops increased in speed and color driving to the climactic moment of a vision of the goddess. It was a pure cyber magick spectacle.
gif by cari ann shim sham*
https://objkt.com/asset/KT1VWEdAR67MWLU11bhgLoRdALvtRsvGjgFM/3
image by cari ann shim sham*
In the process of making a generative dance based on an experimental score that allows for change each time, there needs to be set elements and space for random choices. There was a set of gestural signals that allowed symbolics to be at play. This allographic system was written in a sequence of symbols comprehensible to the performers and used as signals, signs and language inside of the dance to communicate and create a shared narrative-to create sacred space-understood by the dancers, and cryptic in nature to the audience. Each instance the dance is performed is genuine. Each dance is alive, not entirely set, at play with variation, speed and total running time. The authenticity rests on the intangible aspects of the performance of the dance. The sequence of symbols can be manipulated, rearranged by the performers, giving them agency inside of the score and allowing space for cyber magick to manifest.
image by Yiyuan Li
This was at times challenging for both the dancers and for the production crew, namely the lighting designer and the stage manager. It took many conversations to relay the concept that the dance was always different. There were set markers that always happened, and between those markers lived choice, chance, random play and the possibility of chaos. When I gave a set cue to the lighting designer, sometimes they interpreted it differently to the stage manager, giving them a cue that unbeknownst to them was an unset ever changing aspect of the dance, and were flabbergasted when calling the show; the cue they were looking for wasn't there.
The dance was created as a "two stage" art process- coined by Nelson Goodman. There was an act of composition followed by a performance. The dance was created on a set of three dancers and then transferred by those bodies to a set of five, using conversion, thus turning the original body memory information of the dance into a set of formal relationships in abstract motions to create a visual display thru a set of instructions turned over from the origin trio to the second iteration of the pentadruple / quintuple grouping of bodies.
The dancers loved the dance. On our final night tears were shed at the thought of it being the last time. Dance is fleeting. That it is. I am hopeful to continue touching this particular work, perhaps with a different cast in a different space. Only time will tell. For now I sit relaxed, with my feet up, dropped into deep gratitude to have had the pleasure to create this generative dance "gorgeous creatures" with all the collaborators and feel deeply honored and satisfied with the outcome(s) it has produced.
Making dances with an experimental score liberates the people who are performing. It allows for agency, for unique unexpected moments to arise, for chance, for play, and for learning. Repetition does not allow for learning. One must do something different in order to learn. As dancers we are conditioned in the discipline of repetition. At this I heartily push back with the offering of "gorgeous creatures", a generative dance for creating sacred space.
image by Yiyuan Li
program notes
"gorgeous creatures"
This is a meditation.
This is a vision.
This is a cleansing.
This is a risk.
This is a deep breath.
This is a dose.
This is a circle drawn on the ground at midnight.
This is a dance for darkness.
This is the club.
This is the nap you need to take.
This is a dance for the forest.
This is rest.
This is a memory.
This is resistance.
This is a dream we forgot we had.
An experimental task based score for creating and holding sacred space. An offering for the forest; for all that we've been through, and all that lies ahead.
This is a generative dance, every time it is performed it is different.
Developed by cari ann shim sham* in collaboration with Karsen Tengan & Demetris Charalambous & transferred into motion by Melinda Harrison, Alisha Khatwani, Meenah Nehme, Anna Speer, and Zane Tahvildaran-Jesswein
Sound score arranged by cari ann shim sham* with sound from the fxhash generative NFT project ░ ▒ ▓ █ by Joey Zaza #'s 2, 3, 6, 23, 30, 33, 35, 38, 40, 55, 60 & 62
video and sound design by cari ann shim sham* using cari ann's work and the fxhash generative NFT project "A Strange Loop" by Memo Akten & James Paterson #'s 39, 44 112, 152, 160, 195, 217, 219, 227, 276, 332
costume concept by cari ann shim sham* in collaboration with with Karsen Tengan, Demitris Charalambous, Anna Speer, Melinda Harrison, Alisha Khatwani, Meenah Nehme, and Zane Tahvildaran-Jesswein
Lighting by Andre Segar
Notes:
*"The Underscore is a long-form dance improvisation structure developed by Nancy Stark Smith. It has been evolving since 1990 and is practiced all over the globe. The Underscore is a vehicle for incorporating Contact Improvisation into a broader arena of improvisational dance practice; for developing greater ease dancing in spherical space—alone and with others; and for integrating kinesthetic and compositional concerns while improvising. It allows for a full spectrum of energetic and physical expressions, embodying a range of forms and changing states. Its practice is familiar yet unpredictable.
The practice—usually 3 to 4 hours in length—progresses through a broad range of dynamic states, including long periods of very small, private, and quiet internal activity and other times of higher energy and interactive dancing.
There are 20+ phases of the score—each with a name and a graphic symbol—which create a general map for the dancers. Within that frame, dancers are free to create their own movements, dynamics, and relationships—with themselves, each other, the group, the music, and the environment.
The phase called Assembly is a focused gathering of the Underscore players—coming together to meet, check in, sow seeds for practice in the early part of the score.
To participate in an Underscore, one should have some experience of Contact Improvisation and attend a talk-through of the Underscore, which often takes about an hour. The Underscore is not led with verbal cues; the idea is that people “know” it already and are coming together to share the practice. Participants come on time and stay for the duration of the event."
excerpted from https://nancystarksmith.com/underscore/