By Martha Schultz

Dance--traditionally considered a low-tech, human-centered discipline--is now much like its higher-tech academic counterparts in using technology as a teaching and creativity tool. In Mason's Dance Division, faculty and students alike are exploring new ways of studying and experiencing dance through use of the Internet, computer animation, and electronic archiving of video and audio data.

"Emerging technologies allow us to think in new ways and give us new ways to capture and use information," says Linda Miller, director of the Dance Division. "It's a two-way street. In return, dance can offer other disciplines information technology about the human body in motion."

Dance Moves on the Internet
The Dance Division's website, located at http://dance.gmu.edu, is updated by Terri Clemons, the division secretary, on her own Windows 95 Netscape server. It not only contains faculty, course, program, and performance information, but also features a live chat room in Townhall, full-screen multimedia presentations with real-time video and audio, an automated news clipping service customized by the division, and a link to high-performance servers that store video and audio data.

Peter Yorkunas, who teaches rhythmic analysis to dance majors, keeps his favorite shareware music notation and composition programs on the site, ready to load into the computers at Johnson Center's Room 311, an electronic classroom with 22 workstations. Buffy Price, who teaches modern dance, says the site can be used by her students for paper writing. They can get a comprehensive overview of an upcoming concert and gather examples of the "rich, creative language used to discuss dance performance and movement," she says. In addition, graduate students can use the site to compile information about their own work and then transfer the data, along with photos and video clips, to a CD-ROM that can serve as their resume.

Streaming video is another Internet application finding its way into the realm of dance. A video camera directly attached to an mpeg-video encoder on the Internet soon will bring together Mason dancers with a choreographer located in a different state, enabling the choreographer to participate in a live rehearsal for an upcoming performance. This technique saves the time and expense of copying and mailing videotapes, and allows the choreographer to see Mason dancers in action and provide immediate feedback.

New Ways of Preserving Dance
To benefit the dance community, the Dance Division is developing high-tech solutions in the critical area of dance preservation. As part of this effort, a video archive of Mason dance pieces is being compiled and put in electronic format. The archive will be searchable on several levels (e.g., by performer, choreographer, title; by style, type of dance, or movement; or by other search criteria, such as dance notation). Miller plans to expand the archive to include performances by important outside artists as well. The archive will be made available online via MasonLink so that students can do m ultimedia research from any Internet-capable computer. In addition, Mason's new Oracle video server will be used to deliver archived information to the classroom/studio for instruction and rehearsal.

To teach Afro-Cuban dance, instructor Jim Lepore has developed his own digital library containing a database of Afro-Cuban materials. The database contains music pieces and videotape footage that can be searched, clipped, and organized by various criteria. Using it, Lepore can quickly select from the same bits and pieces to assemble introductory overviews, individual lesson plans, semester reviews, and online exams with multimedia components.

Marjorie Summerall, Dance's program coordinator, notes that the ephemeral nature of dance has "promoted new technology solutions in the collection, storage, and archiving of video and audio recordings." Having such information available and readily accessible to students, faculty, and others "gives dance a new life." According to Summerall, the combination of dance and technology is a winning combination because it "supports the arts and humanizes the web."

Dance Takes on New Dimensions
This summer, the Dance Division will help put into general release a 3D application developed by John Simmons that allows anyone with a PC to improvise and notate dance movements using an animated human model (see Mason Gazette, Nov. 24, 1997). Simmons identified the computer linguistic attributes of Labanotation, a form of dance notation invented in 1928, and constructed a specialized authoring language called ADEL (Animated Dance Event Language), which animates one or more figures in three-dimensional space.

By capturing, organizing, and replaying either a series of specific, user-defined dance movements or its own series of movements, ADEL allows the user to explore dance composition and improvisation--either on a large-screen computer in the dance studio or in real-time over the Internet. "Unlike a videotape, ADEL allows you to replay a dance from any poin t of view to see every movement," says instructor Boris Willis, pointing to its value in archiving dance. Simmons teamed with Willis to design 3D models that move with the flexibility of a live dancer.

A demonstration of ADEL, including a photo of dance faculty member Susan Shields interacting with the ADEL model, recently was highlighted in the Washington Post and local papers as a feature of Governor Gilmore's inauguration event on campus. ADEL also will be demonstrated on campus for attendees at the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology this June. In a project using similar technology, Karen Studd, a certified Laban Movement Analyst with the Dance Division, is helping design behavior rulesets for computer models. Several of the models will be used in a 3D urban visualization study by the Institute for Defense Analyses and the National Capital Planning Commission.

Other Technology Applications
In addition to ADEL, Simmons has developed Music ID, a system that converts any music CD into a virtual CD-ROM without having to remanufacture the album. Using the Internet version, the dance instructor can bring up a highly visual website that contains hundreds of links to the music CD loaded in the CD-ROM drive. This gives the class point-and-click access to specific points within any track on the album--a time-saving feature for studio instruction and rehearsals.

Looking Ahead
The Dance Division continues to find new ways to use technological tools to support and expand the possibilities of dance for students and faculty. To supplement the internal support dance is receiving from the university, the division is sponsoring a Dance Benefit Concert on April 3 to generate greater interest in and support for the innovative dance programs being offered at Mason. For more information, contact Dance at x31114.