Armadillo Dance Project

Armadillo Dance Project uses real-time computer-interactive dance technology to meld movement and sound (and sometimes other media) into performances that intimately entwine dance and music. It is an ongoing collaboration between choreographer Kathleya Afanador and composer Allen Fogelsanger that is devoted to producing dances in which the dancers interact with their stage environment.

We use interactive technology as a creative and collaborative tool for making dance. Our aim in using this tool is not to spotlight the technology but rather to create interesting and unusual relationships between sound and movement. These relationships exist within expanded fields--the sounds are often not music and the movements often not dance as traditionally conceived. The resulting audio-visual performance may offer experiences ranging from the cerebral to the sensual, that combine into a challenging puzzle of formal structures and playful juxtapositions. Dancers do not so much dance to the music as engage in a clever and witty game with it, while the audience is allowed the fun of discovering multiple ways of seeing a dance.

Image from Perimeter of a Parameter by Armadillo Dance Project with projected graphics by Ryan Spicer, March 2006, Ithaca, New York.

Revised April 6, 2008.