Devising from a distance : a study of the difference in process, composition, and audience response between in-person and digitally-mediated choreographic collaborations

This paper argues that dance devising shares a value system with that of the digital age, justifying the use of a virtual choreographic site to facilitate geographically distributed collaborations. The presence of technology in our social lives, working environments, and creative practices is steadily increasing. Before we passively let technology digitize and make virtual the choreographic process, or before we expedite this seemingly inevitable trajectory, we need to know what the consequences and opportunities might be. Through use of a controlled empirical investigation, this study analyzed the process experience, composition, and post-performance audience response between in-person and remote choreographic collaborations. While the data ultimately presented several implications of choreographing remotely, a digitally-mediated process required the dancers and choreographers to deeply question their dance-making and performance assumptions, a fundamental value of devising practices. As a pedagogical tool, supplementary rehearsal component, or method of facilitating geographically distributed collaborations, digitally-mediated dance devising has a promising future.