Photo by Milton Adams
Back by popular demand, this collaborative work uses interactive technology to transform dancers' movements and gestures into sound using Nintendo Wiimotes (transmitting data wirelessly across Bluetooth and then routed to Kyma DSP software). A Wacom graphics tablet is also used to control and alter pre-recorded text passages in real time. Utilizing ideas from chaos and catastrophe theory as part of a dance structure, each performance is a unique event.First premiering at The Modern in 2009, the Star-Telegram praised it as "a fascinating kaleidoscope of sound and movement...it was a strange and wonderful scene."
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CD/FW dancers peel off in a section of the dance inspired by the "Fold Catastrophe" as composer/musician William H. Meadows performs his technological magic in the background. Photo by Milton Adams |
| See the CD/FW company in action at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth during previous festivals, including clips from "The Butterfly Effect and Other Beautiful Catastrophes" where dancers perform with Wiimotes in their tube socks! Below is our new video on Vimeo. |
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Kerry Kreiman: The development of this work started with the idea of using the WiiMotes and Bill’s technological explorations of their use, to create an interactive event where the dancers would be generating portions of the sound score as they move. We also knew we wanted to use chance elements as part of the structure for both the music and the movement. Having agreed on these initial concepts, we also agreed we still needed to find a "seed" to develop the work around and to keep it from being completely chaotic. One day, while doing brainstorming and contemplating about potential themes for the dance, I heard my own voice in my head randomly say the word "swallowtail." A minute or two later, when I was taking some stuff out to my recycling bin, there was suddenly a giant swallowtail butterfly sitting on the tree branch right above the recycling bin at eye level. It was HUGE. About the size of a sheet of paper! Blue, black, and brown. I couldn't believe it. I was pretty much stupified. I kept blinking, retracing my steps and re-examining it, but it was still there, and was not my imagination. It was unlike any other butterfly I have ever seen in Fort Worth or out in "the wild." I stood there staring at it for the longest time. It seemed perfectly content to be there. At a certain point I realized I didn't have time to stand out there staring at this butterfly, and that it was some sort of magical "sign" about the idea for the dance, so I ran back in the house and immediately started researching "swallowtail butterflies" on the internet, which led me to information about catastrophe theory and chaos theory in mathematics. At the time I had no idea in my conscious mind that a "swallowtail catastrophe" or a "butterfly catastrophe" even existed, but it all started to make "sense" on some level... It became clear to me that my search for how to avoid "chaos" in the dance had circled back on itself, and that "chaos" itself could be the seed that a work could be based around to keep it from becoming too chaotic! I liked the idea of the irony of this, and ran it by Bill, who also appreciated the humor in it, and after a brief discussion, we launched into our own ways to explore those ideas. I’d like to acknowledge that the development of this work would not have been possible without Bill’s brilliant and innovative use of technology, and the fact that we have previously collaborated on a number of projects since the inception of the CD/FW company in 1990. Infinite thanks to Bill for his role in our artistic lives over the years, and for his glorious sense of humor. And thanks to the butterflies, too.
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