New Telematic Technology for the Remote Creation and Performance of Choreographic Work

In this chapter we aim to offer an interrogation into the future of dance, framed by theoretical questions that have been raised by a collaborative interdisciplinary project that the authors have been engaged in. The project researches the potential application of a new generation of wireless, flexible and studio-less motion capture in the creation, rehearsal, teaching and performance of choreographic dance work. We offer first a thinking through of some of the concepts, discourses and technologies which contextualise this sphere of digital or ‘virtual’ dance practice and performance, before consideration of the potentialities and limitations of several forms of the actual software, hardware and platforms that are currently being used in the field. This will lead us to raise both practical and theoretical questions that can frame future research projects, including our own, with the intention of working towards a down-to-earth vision of a virtual choreographic art for the future.