Toenjes-Marchant-Smith: Inventions Suite - Saturday
  Friday, July 25
9:00 - 10:00 pm
Ohio Theatre
Saturday, July 26
6:00 - 7:00pm
Ohio Theatre
Theatre/Dance, 50 minutes
Join collaborators John Toenjes, David Marchant, and Benjamin Smith after their Friday, 9:00pm dance performance at the Ohio Theater for an audience Q&A! |
Toenjes-Marchant-Smith(Urbana, IL)
A magical theatrical experience inspired by the question of the artist’s connection to technology, and man’s connection to machine! "Inventions Suite" is a 60-minute interactive work that explores (through a cyclical combination of video activated by music, music prompted by movement, and new improvised responses by both dancer and musician) the advent of computer interface dance, and the challenges and inspiration it sparks in these improvised dance/music performances.
About Inventions Suite“Inventions Suite” is a three-part multimedia theatrical experience wherein the audience is taken into a world of improvisational “musivideodance,” captivated with musical creations borne of beautiful movement and musical manipulation, and challenged with the question of man’s relationship to machine. The question first arises in Part One, “Leonardo’s Chimes,” wherein the audience observes the artist both manipulating and manipulated by technical instruments and video effects. In Part Two, “Songs of the Elastic Halloon,” the dancer’s physical performance is made into a “virtual product,” as a video system captures his image, sound, and movement, and produces a colorful artificial product with which the dancer interacts. Part Three, “Sound Wave Surfing” (premiered in its final, fully realized form at Ingenuity) is a musical/dance competition with undertones of hip-hop, in which each performer sings a vocal “challenge” for the other to remix by their physical movement. The complete 60-minute work explores (through a cyclical combination of video activated by music, music prompted by movement, and new improvised responses by both dancer and musician) the advent of computer interface dance, and the challenges and inspiration it sparks in these improvised dance/music performances. About Toenjes-Marchant-SmithJohn Toenjes, David Marchant, and Benjamin Smith comprise a collaborative team that creates immersive, interactive, improvisational performance environments, wherein the performers themselves can create music and visual art through full-bodied dance movement.
John Toenjes is an Assistant Professor and Music Director of the Department of Dance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who has written more than 30 commissioned dance scores including “The Ascension of Big Linda into the Skies of Montana,” a collaboration with choreographer Joe Goode which earned the SF Bay Area “Izzy” Award for Best Production of 1986. Recent collaborations include “Value Intensity” with choreographer Todd Williams and “e’s of water,” with choreographer Luc Vanier. In 2006, John won a Madden Fellowship in Technology and the Arts, and he spent that year making new works featuring interactive computer technology as it applies to movement-based arts. David Marchant is Senior Lecturer in Dance at Washington University in St. Louis, and currently serves as Co-Artistic Director of Zo Motion Arts, developing site-specific installations in natural environments, including tree climbing as a dance form. He is a former company member of the Utah Repertory Dance Theatre, as well as a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship for excellence in choreography. David has been a guest teacher at the American Dance Festival, University of Iowa, University of Illinois, and Purdue University, and his dances have been re-staged for Dance Repertory San Francisco, Suzanne Grace & Dancers, Chicago Academy of the Arts, and the University of Iowa's touring company. David is also a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique and member of the American Society of Alexander Teachers. Benjamin Smith is a doctoral student in music composition at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A brilliant Max/MSP programmer, Benjamin programmed much of the technical innerworkings behind the Inventions Suite. Ben is currently developing an online multiplayer music environment called “Musiverse,” which was shown at the international NIME conference in Copenhagen in August of 2007. Watch it now |