Dancing the Digital Age after lockdown

Dr. Adesola Akinleye and Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza have just published the article Dancing the digital age: a survey of the new technologies in the choreographic process in the Journal of Genius and Eminence (edited by Mark A. Runco) by the International Center for Studies in Creativity in New York. Akinleye and Preciado-Azanza join the list of dancers, choreographers and researchers who are integrating new technologies into dance.

This choreographic research project has been carried out in the past months looking at the notion that new technology challenges where the human body begins, ends and is present in the digital age. This article considers fifty-eight selected dance works created during the time period of 2000-2018 by renowned choreographers who work with new media such as Wayne McGregor, Garry Stewart, Dawn Stopiello and Bill T. Jones. The article reviews the impact of new technologies as an essential tool in the creative processes of dance and exploration of the moving-body, as innovative technologies in the 21st Century have offered choreographers new capacities for the creation of movement.

Their new work continues this research into Dancing the digital beyond-body and the ecological connected-body. The preliminary explorations were presented at the international conference Re:generations -dance and the digital space in Manchester. Akinleye and Preciado-Azanza created for it Dancing the Digital Age, a brief dance work where they explored the concept of collaboration between two artists interacting both with the real and the digital environment, challenging how dance happens beyond the dancer’s body. SPACE+DIGITAL+DANCE is an area of research with DancingStrong Movement Lab. looking at creating dance in the digital age.

Dr. Adesola Akinleye: Choreographer, artist-scholar. She began her career dancing with Dance Theatre of Harlem later working in UK Companies. She is a Theatrum Mundi Fellow & a Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University. She creates works, from live performance to film, to text. She has won awards internationally for her dance works, as well as published in the areas of dance and cultural studies. Her work can be seen at www.dancingstrong.com

Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza: International dancer, choreographer, researcher & author. Gonzalo is a member of The Latvian National Ballet in Riga since 2015, having finished his training at English National Ballet School. He graduated in Dance at Middlesex University in 2018 and he holds a MA in Cultural Management from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Since 2020, he is a critic and writer at the journal Dance Europe. Member of UNESCO International Dance Council and has been included in the Latvian Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet. His work can be seen at www.gonzalopreciadoazanza.com