Digital dance writing. A teaching tool to support the understanding of Digital Choreography

ABSTRACT

The document reports on the use of digital dance annotation in teaching students who come from different disciplines how to apply their own forms of dance-writing to support reading and making choreography. During classes, the Motion Bank System PieceMaker was used to support processes of investigation including the movement analysis of different dance techniques and the reenacting of body traces inscribed in choreographic paper scores. This report will describe three experiments conducted by students of the interdisciplinary classes in Digital Choreography at the Sapienza University of Rome. It will conclude with some speculation on the role digital dance annotation can play in the creation of new teaching methods in performing arts.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital Choreography
• PieceMaker
• Dance score
• Digital dance writing

Acknowledgements

My heartfelt thanks to:

The Motion Bank Institute to allow me to use PM in my classes of Digital Choreography;

Professor Vito Di Bernardi to have supported Digital Choreography course and my teaching program.

A special thanks to Alessandra Battaglia, Fiorella Cardinale Ciccotti, Zaira Grosso, Marta Pella and Emanuele Polani, for giving to me the permission to name them in this paper, and for the curiosity and passion they demonstrated during my course.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Some words are not translated since the author decided to keep the original code of expression. The symbol ‘+’ is used in some phrases of annotation with the meaning ‘add’, while the symbol ‘-’ is to separate one step from another.

2 «Continenza is a small step to the side with knees bending, usually executed in pairs. It is somewhat similar to the branle». See: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/culture-magazines/basse-danse-and-bassadanza

3 See: Lo Monaco and Vinciguerra (2005), The passo doppio and the contrapasso in the Italian balli of the Fifteenth Century: Problems of Mensuration and a Conjectural Reconstruction, Dance Research, 23, 51–78.

4 «Volta tonda is a full turn, executed by using the same steps as the mezza volta, but requiring twice as many steps and taking twice as long to execute». See: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/culture-magazines/basse-danse-and-bassadanza.

5 The screendance work by Fiorella Cardinale Ciccotti, Trinadi, class of Digital Choreography by Prof. Letizia Gioia Monda, Sapienza University of Rome, 2018, can be watched at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms1HuezwOOg&feature=youtu.be (accessed 15/08/2020).

6 The screendance work by Zaira Grosso, Marta Pella, and Emanuele Polani, Score 0.0, class of Digital Choreography by Prof. Letizia Gioia Monda, Sapienza University of Rome, 2018, can be watched at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9UCpC0JMQY#action=share (accessed 15/08/2020).

7 By training the body-mind through a dance technique, a dancer is able to embody choreographic principles re-configuring the geometry of his/her dancing experience. This dance score is an artificial structure a creator can move/transit through. It should be meant as a technological creative tool to support the performer’s self-expression by the movement language, (see: Monda 2016, 24–94).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Letizia Gioia Monda

Letizia Gioia Monda is adjunct professor of Digital Technology for Dance and Theatre Performance at Sapienza University of Rome, where in 2014 she got a PhD in Digital Technologies and Methodologies for Research in Performing Arts. For the project Clash! When Classic and Contemporary Dance Collide and New Forms Emerge (Creative Europe Program – EU), as part of the team from Sapienza University of Rome directed by Vito Di Bernardi, she developed the methodology Clash! Professional Empowerment Strategy on Dancer’s Training, Audience Development, Marketing and Communication (Di Bernardi – Monda 2019); furthermore, she coordinated the development of the Clash! eBook and of the digital event Clash! International Festival. Actually, as a member of the équipe from Sapienza University of Rome, she is curating the screendance archive of Il Coreografo Elettronico Festival stored at Museo Madre of Naples. Her publications are about: choreographic counterpoint, the concept of score in dance field, screendance, digital choreography.