A slender dancer in white roamed a bare stage haltingly in half-light. Several sets of wires were attached to her shirt and to a single glove she wore on her right hand. Computer-generated music emerged, seemingly produced by the dancer's movement.
As she moved, the music changed. Almost in mid-step, she turned to face downstage and stopped dancing - the music stopped too.
"Well, it's still a work in progress," she said.
The dancer was Paulina Pagan '11, and she was rehearsing a piece titled "Candela" for Brown University Movement Experiments' inaugural performance, Dance/Music/Play, running this weekend in Production Workshop's upstairs space.
Annie Rose London '11, the group's founder and the producer of "Dance/Music/Play," said BUME began to coalesce last semester, developing into a "movement collaborative" project comprising student dancers, musicians and choreographers. She said she started the group because "other dance groups on campus are not really experimental," and she was looking for a creative outlet for innovative choreography.
Dance/Music/Play aims to exhibit how music and dance influence each other, London said. The show's name stemmed from the way she would consistently refer to the performance in e-mails to BUME members as a "dance/music/play/thing." London highlighted the importance of the word "play" in the show's title, which represents the "spirit of exploration" involved in the creation of the performance.
London described the show as a "first-time-ever showcase" of original collaborations between dancers and musicians, as well as the links between music and computer science.
"The show is not just original choreography, but also original compositions by musicians," said Carolyn Lee '10, who coordinated publicity for the performance.
Lee said there is "very little opportunity" on campus for students to create their own choreography unless they are already in an established dance group. BUME offers a "good platform" for experimentation with movement, she said.
"I am really excited to see what everyone has come up with," Lee said.
The show features several short pieces, some of which require audience participation to create the full effect.
"The audience is involved in providing some of the sound," London said. "They are very much a part of it."
Sam Tarakajian '10, who choreographed and supplies music for "Candela," described his piece as an experiment in mapping a dancer's movement to music.
A computer science concentrator, Tarakajian created the white costume Pagan wears in the piece, which is covered in wires and "light-sensitive parts" called phototransistors. Pagan's movements determine the way the ambient light onstage hits the phototransistors, which in turn changes the nature of the music. Tarakajian controls the sound levels throughout the piece.
Tarakajian echoed Pagan, saying the piece is "still very much a work in progress," adding that he would like to continue exploring new ways to combine music with dance and chart a dancer's movement.
Tarakajian said his favorite part of working on the show was the way it forced him "to think of music and dance in a different way."
"It's a totally new fusion kind of thing," he said.
Although this is only the first BUME performance, London and Lee said the dancers, musicians, choreographers and assistants involved in the production hope that this experimental dance show will become an annual event.
"I just love it," London says, smiling, "I just feel like there's so much potential. It's just wild."
Dance/Music/Play runs Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. in PW's upstairs space in T.F. Green Hall. Tickets will be available at the door on both nights. Doors open at 8 p.m.
