Two New Dance in Performances Open in SL
by Alphaville Herald on 24/11/08 at 6:47 pm
La Performance and Ballet Pixelle present virtual ballet controlled by arrow keys
by Lora Constantine
Two virtual world ballet companies premiered new productions on Sunday, November 23, 2008 – with a little help from IBM and Second Life.
At 2 PM, “La Performance,” a new dance company, opened its high school gym-style performance of “You Are So Beautiful” in Shakespeare. La Performance’s “You Are So Beautiful” featured several acts of modern dances on a large sky platform, “SL Style” with music by Zucchero, and choreography by Jie Loon.
“Ballet Pixelle (formerly known as Second Life Ballet)” opened their Winter Season at 5 PM with a formal production of “The Nut: A Slightly Abridged Telling of The Nutcracker” in IBM 10. Ballet Pixelle’s “Nut” featured a more traditional rendition of the familiar story of The Nutcracker with music by the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre Orchestra, and choreography by Inarra Saarien.
Although one does not need to possess a lithe or athletic body to dance in a virtual world, many hours of rehearsal times were devoted to perfecting the acts, especially in training the dancers’ entrances and animation activations.
Both companies feature “free form” dancers, where the dancers are not on scripted paths, but have to maneuver with their arrow keys precisely in finger acrobatics. Ballet Pixelle features original animations created by their artistic director Inarra Saarien.
While lag is always an issue with virtual performances, about 50 audience members flocked to each premieres. Each show ran for about 45 minutes. Shows are every Sunday at 2 PM for La Performance, and every Sunday at 5 PM for Ballet Pixelle.
Sen
Nov 24th, 2008
I attended the opening night of La Performance, mostly because my RL friend dances with them. I know how much effort goes into the production and how many hours of hard work they’ve all invested and it paid off because the show was highly enjoyable and I thoroughly recommend it
Alyx Stoklitsky
Nov 26th, 2008
“Although one does not need to possess a lithe or athletic body to dance in a virtual world, many hours of rehearsal times were devoted to perfecting the acts, especially in training the dancers’ entrances and animation activations.”
Oh yes, I can only imagine the difficulty involved in having everyone’s ao’s change animation at the correct times. It must taken a whole five minutes to code!
Off the top of my head:
default
{
attach(key pubfag)
{llRequestPermissions(pubfag,PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION};
llListen(911,”",”",”");
}
listen(integer hurr, string durr, key derp, string lol)
{llStopAnimation(oldlol); llStartAnimation(lol);
string oldlol=lol;}
}
Pathfinder Linden
Nov 26th, 2008
The dancers’ moves are not all pre-scripted. They trigger the dance moves manually. So it’s kind of like playing a musical instrument, relying on the skill of the artists to give a synchronized live performance. Similar to what DanCoyote Antonelli has done with his amazing “Sky Dancers” live music and dance performances.
I remember attending the first Ballet Pixelle performance. A wonderful collaborative experience. Great to see things continuing to innovate.
mootykips
Nov 26th, 2008
no, I’d say it’s more like clicking a bunch of buttons at a certain time, sort of like a pretentious Guitar Hero
Sen
Nov 27th, 2008
Mootykips said – “no, I’d say it’s more like clicking a bunch of buttons at a certain time, sort of like a pretentious Guitar Hero”
And no different from tapping keys on a keyboard to play Counterstrike and enjoying the result.
And of course watching patterns of light particles being twisted via electrical charges as they pass through liquid crystal cells to create colours as we enjoy watching a movie on our LCD television is not really any different.
Ultimately, we can break down any experience in life into the basic physical components and so deride it and yet the result is more than its component parts, right?
I was lucky enough to be invited to rehearse with La Performance last night (I was terrible lol) and no, we weren’t following scripts etc and not one of the dancers was lost in some immersive belief that they were really a dancer in a stage performance. It was a lot of fun and hard work and ultimately a rewarding experience but no one believed it was anything but what it was – enjoyable. And that’s what made the performance I saw good I believe. Watching skilled people demonstrate those skills together whilst clearly enjoying what they were doing.
mootykips
Nov 28th, 2008
sorry, clicking a bunch of blue buttons does not make you equal to even the most retarded pubbie counter-strike player and ridiculous strawmans do not help conceal that fact
DF
Nov 29th, 2008
“And of course watching patterns of light particles being twisted via electrical charges as they pass through liquid crystal cells to create colours as we enjoy watching a movie on our LCD television is not really any different.”
Ehm doiesnt the average movie take months to make, and some real skill from everyone involved, from actors to the humble cameramen and their assistants?
Or all the effort, time, and research it took for people to create that big ass LCD TV (just go plasma, willya?) in the first place. Thousands of years I believe from when we discovered fire.
If your point is that it takes only a few buttontaps for you to turn your TV to a certain channel, okay, but any tard can do that. Just like SL.
I also partially agree with Mootykips, but I don’t think you can compare Counterstrike much with Guitar Hero or SL.