Myriam – the sound of dancing project (+blueprints)

The sound of dancing is an experiement to capture and enhance the sound of dancers while they are performing. Microphones will be integrated in their costumes and mouth, triggered my their dance and interaction.

The sound of dance is a team project with dancers Zack Winokur and Michelle Mola and their current team. 

1. Zack Winokur and Michelle Mola
Michelle Mola's website

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                                                            Picture by Collin Lafleche

You can watch below their current performance, where in the end Michelle has a microphone in her mouth that display her breathing and other mouth sounds. The system not being stable enough, the you can hear as well the cables moving, which create an interesting sound.
Zack and Michelle's perform with few music. It is the sound of their own dancing that makes the music.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4259589&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

For this performance, they added the paper sheet Zack is tearing off of this jacket.
They want their show to evolve and experiment new ways of dancing.

2. The sound of dance

How to create new unheard sounds from their dancing?
How to enhance their own movement to make music during their performance?
How can this music be a whole part of the performance?
And how this music will change and create new ways of performing?
For this project, I will be adding material to the costumes, working with the costume designer for the integration of the circuit.

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                                                            Pictures by Collin Lafleche

In the performance, Michelle is wearing a structure up her
shoulders. It was originally supposed to be covered with fabric to hide
her head, with her arms going out from holes. But the fabric wasn't
stable enough, so she kept only the structure for the show.
I want to put back this fabric to pursue their idea of "Balloon girl".

GirlBalloon

In Michelle's structure, an Led would be on top to illuminate the hole balloon. The Led would fade on and off, visualizing her breath.

For both Michelle and Zack, I want to use a conductive fabric that will be torn off during the performance. The fabric on, the microphone will be on. They will be turned off as the fabric is off.

Some parts will be permanent, and used as switches for the dancers to turn on and off as they dance.
They will turn on different microphones set on various parts of their bodies.
ManJacket