The Agora de la danse offers with Koros a unique experience, encounter between virtual reality and contemporary dance, declined in three short pieces. You will never have felt the breath of the dancers so close!
The Montreal broadcaster is taking its first steps in the production of a virtual reality show with Korosoffering interested parties, insiders or the curious a new way to experiment and experience a contemporary dance performance, directly on the stage, with a virtual reality headset. The Press was able to test the experience before it is offered to the public this week.
Quebec creators from three generations have been invited to design short pieces of around 10 minutes: Andrea Peña offers 6.58 manifestoHélène Blackburn signs Allegro Barbaro and Margie Gillis, The Complex Simplicity of Love. Each “performance”, lasting a total of some 50 minutes including reception and presentation, can accommodate 10 people at a time, who are seated on as many chairs scattered throughout the space.
Blackburn’s and Peña’s plays offer a very immersive, 360-degree experience. Installed on his swivel chair, the spectator-viewer can thus follow the action and the movements of the interpreters who evolve around him.
Quickly, we lose all contact with reality and the outside, immersed in this virtual world which nevertheless seems very tangible; we hear the breath of the dancers in our ears, we feel their movements in space… we even cringe when they get dangerously close!
Blackburn offers a creation in his image, with furtive, rapid, jerky movements executed urgently, in a very dark environment cut out with a knife by circles of bright white light, where the dancers appear and disappear. The gaze searches for the action, which is constantly moving, forcing the viewer to spin constantly in his chair. As for Peña, she creates a slightly disturbing dreamlike environment, populated by moving creatures to the sound of the voice of an opera singer who moves slowly among the performers. The camera is set up on wheels and the viewer is thus sometimes transported through the space – even if, in reality, nothing moves. The effect is quite striking!
PHOTO PROVIDED BY AGORA DE LA DANSE
Helene Blackburn signs Allegro Barbaro.
Gillis offers a more frontal piece, filmed at 180 degrees, which celebrates the simple pleasure of movement and dance, inviting viewers to share this moment with her and her performers by dancing with their hands – virtual hands then appear in our shot of vision. Quite a fun experience.
This is a convincing initiative, which has the potential to interest a completely different public in contemporary dance and which allows those who are already amateurs to experience it in a completely different way – we are far from digital capture! We can easily imagine Koros travel in the province or serve as a pre- or post-show.
From February 17 to 19 (several hours of performance), at the Agora de la danse