 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
A Most Modern Dance
Patrice Regnier sat on a bench in her Broadway loft last month, swinging her legs like an excited kid. “Okay!” she called out. “Here we go!” Her assistant pressed a button on a laptop computer. Suddenly, a dozen strangers wearing headphones began to move. They crouched down, then leapt up in unison. They hooked elbows, shuffled and spun, forming kaleidoscopic pinwheels. They giggled, Five minutes later the performance ended and Regnier, beaming, applauded. “You guys were great!” she yelled. The performance was Number 12 in a series of “experiments” Regnier is conducting in her loft as she fine-tunes a technology of her own invention. Called Terp—from ‘terpsichore,’ the Greek muse of dancing—the system allows total strangers with no dance training to perform together. Each wears a headset plugged into a little black box strapped to an arm. A computer program broadcasts a different series of pre-programmed instructions—“Grab your knees. Hop once. Do a slow twist”—to each individual’s unit. And the result, if the participants are obedient, looks eerily like a rehearsed performance. More than a dozen volunteers, from actors to technophiles to the just curious, came to Regnier’s loft at 392 Broadway, where she has lived for nearly 30 years. Many were lured by a posting on an online “Technology/Performance Experiment Meetup” group, promising “big fun.” Even as an assistant adjusted the electronic devises on their arms, most had little idea what to expect.
Though Regnier, who led her own dance company for more than 20 years, first conceived of Terp as a tool for dancers, she’s now focused on its potential with the wider public. She dreams of choreographing a stadium full of “dancers,” and would also like to market Terp as a party game. (Participants could download pieces or build their own, using a “dictionary” of verbal instructions.) Regnier is no stranger to hi-tech performance. Over the years, she has choreographed with electroluminescent costumes, robots, and even three-dimensional computer-animated humans. “My idea has always been to humanize the machine rather than mechanize the people,” she says. Following three performances, the last one a darkly funny tale involving confetti, a rolling chair, and a conical birthday hat, the Terpers talked about the experience over wine and cheese. “It was a blast!” said first-timer Chris Wild, an actor. “It was pressure-free performance.” “For me, the most interesting aspect is that we’re all doing this thing together but none of us knows what we’re going to turn out,” said Christian Fuenshausen, a graphic designer. “It’s sort of a metaphor for life." The next Terp event will be April 27 at 7 p.m. For an invitation, write to patriceregnier@earthlink.net.
[Home][Back][Search][Contact] The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709 |
