Visualizing (the Derra de Moroda) Dance Archives

Dance archives provide a wide-ranged memory of the dance, dance studies attempt to access this memory - especially at Salzburg University where the academic and creative interaction of dance studies and the Derra de Moroda Dance Archives is seminal, significant, and - unique in the dance world. The particular Salzburg profile of a dance center aims to serve scholars and practitioners likewise, to bridge the traditional gaps of theory and practice, of history and presence, by providing verbal and visual and - most important - kinetic dance materials. Accessing this heterogeneous knowledge of dance challenges dance research due to the nature and quality of the given sources. For example, dance research on eras prior to the invention of film and video is based on the particular condition, that the availability of actual, visual, experiential movement material is limited. This project aims at creating a new way of using historical material in dance studies and practise. A new unique and methodologically highly potential technological tool in form of a computer application will be developed, which aids research in re-constructing dance through animated movement sequences. It allows to transfer movement content from a variety of sources into a visual, three-dimensional representation. This transformation process leads to a systemization of re-construction procedures, which in turn will enable further physical research of performative practises on a much wider scale than previously known. The development of a software allowing 3D animation of dance events will be accompanied by re-constructing case studies based on sources of the Derra Archives. The chosen materials will encompass the choreographic descriptions and annotations of A. Freising, the manuscript of the Opfermanns and an additional set of iconographic sources. Through these case studies, an initial version of a pool of virtually moving images will be created. This growing pool will expand the motoric and kinetic dimensions in the understanding of dance history, and thus, provide an important device for academics and artists to integrate history into their contemporary approaches to dance. In the landscape of recent manifold activities by contemporary choreographers to disseminate dance knowledge via virtual archives and online resources, the approach of this project is innovative and exceptional, as it provides an independent framework for movement re-presentation. As such, it does not rely on a fixed set of documentation materials, i.e. video of a specific person or a specific piece, and thus creates a unique and solid foundation for historically oriented research.

The project explores the potential of digital animation technology for historical dance research. In the course of the project an innovative notation-based 3d animation system was developed, applied and compared with already existing tools, approaching different methodologies of visualization of choreographic and stylistic aspects of historical dance documents.The movement content of historic dance documentation (including verbal descriptions as well as iconic and symbolic representations held in the Derra de Moroda Dance Archive at the University of Salzburg) is traditionally only retrievable via reconstruction processes of staged performances - processes requiring a large number of participants like dancers, musicians, stage technicians, set and costume designers and other specialists. Computer animation technology now offers an economic and thus applicable possibility of reconstructing the kinetic forms of historical dance. While the animation approach does not attempt to replace reconstruction through live performance, it can help to prepare for such performances. Furthermore it allows for and stimulates experimentation with the movement material. It also makes reconstruction available to researchers who only rarely have the means to realize (academic) projects by employing professional dancers in order to visualize archival sources. Thus the project's goal was to identify and to provide optimal animation software solutions for two specific tasks of dance research, which are movement analysis and choreographic studies. Movement Analysis: The development of a 3d animation system was envisioned as the innovative and central project goal. Based on the concepts of Eshkol Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN) and Labanotation this animation software addresses the challenge of articulating embodied movement knowledge by expanding the positional capacities of conventional key frame interpolation. The system is labeled MOVement-oriented animation Engine (MovEngine). The analytic capabilities of the program were successfully tested when MovEngine was applied to the reconstruction of specific historic dance practice, for example the French noble or Baroque style. Complex arm movements were reconstructed in several 3d animation sequences while the movement components for each limb were automatically documented in corresponding movement scores. This is another important built-in feature of this innovative movement-specific program. The researcher is thus able to develop argumentation based both on animation sequences as well as on the detailed movement scores. The MovEngine will be made available to the interested public as a test version for free download in spring 2013. Choreographic Studies: In terms of existing software tools the program 'LifeForms', also developed in a practical dance context and thus part of the exploratory field of the project, has been chosen for visualizing historic choreography through the option of multiple figure animations. The notoriously under researched period of the early to mid 19th century was selected and the program applied to rare sources representing the introduction of the Arabesque pose into the design of group arrangements and the use of the Corps de Ballet as an instrument for the production of visual effects. With examples from the sketchbooks of the choreographers and dancing masters F. Opfermann and A. Freising two contrasting choreographic strategies of that period were analyzed and visualized with the help of the Life Forms program. Examples can be watched on the website of the project.