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Music

WIFE Uses Animated Projections To Reinvent Dance Performance

A new choreographed dance piece with music from Amon Tobin.

In yet another installment of “Technology Taking Art Into Uncharted Territory,” L.A.’s technology-based choreography trio, WIFE, just teamed up with TEDxSoCal to present “The Grey Ones,” a live, choreographed performance that meshes projection mapping with dance and an Enya-falls-into-a-dubstep-circuit-grinder soundscape by Brazilian DJ Amon Tobin (and I mean that in the best way). Check it:

As far as my explanation, the piece seems to be an interpretation of sentient man’s (or woman’s, in this case) eternal struggle for apotheosis; ascension into the form of “The Grey Ones,” a sort of trans-human (alien, even), all-seeing consciousness… but that’s as far as I’ll go. To each his own, of course, especially with performance art.

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What’s most intriguing, perhaps, is the conversation formed between body and animation, and the whole projection-on-organic thing always seems to work wonders (cough cough Danny Perez cough…). Below, another mesmerizing piece by WIFE:

From their artist statement:

WIFE is visceral, live, contemporary, dance, interacting with original, projected, animations and music. She is the creation of Nina McNeely, Kristen Leahy, and Jasmine Albuquerque. Her three members are dancers, choreographers, teachers, editors, animators, and performers thriving in the underbelly of L.A. subculture. She finds inspiration from myth, folklore, archetypes, and the subtleties of everyday human behavior.

Influences include Jim Henson, Chris Cunningham, Akira Kurosawa, Kathy Rose, Wendy Carlos, Yayoi Kusama, Planningtorock, Aleister Crowley, her friends, and you. WIFE can only be seen in the dark. WIFE works well with others. WIFE likes to play. Visually, WIFE is bold. Physically, WIFE is daring. Dreams are her driving force. She is metamorphosis. (9d9).