Drawing on their years of exploration at the intersection of choreography and technology, Bay Area dance companies Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts (SWDA) and Kinetech Arts collaborated with dancers at UC Berkeley to create two original films. This event will feature a premiere screening of these films and a panel conversation with members of the creative team.

In Search of an Outcome (directed by Sheldon B. Smith and Lisa Wymore of SWDA) investigates the similarities between machine learning and the creative choices used in making dance improvisation. The piece also examines how we form ourselves in relationship to our environment, other people, and the time in which we live. SWDA co-created the piece with eight dynamic dancers who explore computer augmented movement instructions and seek connections between themselves and their environment.

Detour (directed by Daiane Lopes da Silva and Weidong Yang of Kinetech Arts) is a reflection on two years of uncertainties, fear, and solitude, as well as a continuation of ongoing research on non-deterministic technologies, scientific concepts, and choreography. Kinetech Arts developed the piece in collaboration with seven dancers and four musicians, who brought playfulness and tenderness to the piece. Detour invites the audience into a space that is both familiar and strange.

Presented by Berkeley Arts+Design and the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

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