Well, it’s here!

Over the past month or so, I’ve been collaborating with Ben Peoples of Trinculo’s Attic, who’s got something really cool: a wireless lighting controller. This is a little tiny doohickey that synchs up to a light board to run light cues, and is portable enough to attach to nearly anything, including a dancer. Check it out:

There’s also a nifty behind-the-scenes video right here, and a detailed blog post from Ben about how the technology works right here.

Forgoing the use of sight gags and blackouts that are so common to these sorts of dances, Progressive Assembly uses the lighting technology to highlight and emphasize the quality of the movements themselves. Spirals of light on the limbs and torso highlight the three-dimensionality of the dancer and draw attention to the full contours of the movements, while pinpoint-bright LED’s mark out pulse-points and emphasize the spatial arrangement and rearrangement of the individual parts.

This is just the beginning–we’ve got lots of ideas for very cool places this collaboration could go! Stay tuned for some more exciting developments!

Had our first costume fitting for Progressive Assembly this afternoon, wherein Ben Peoples wrapped me up in lights and took pictures. It’s going to be a spectacular piece once the whole thing’s put together; our resident seamstress is hard at work tacking down the lights so they’ll stay put. We were even able to hook into the light board and run a mark-through with all the lights going! Filming day is scheduled for this Friday, so stay tuned!

The newest exciting development from Geeksdanz is that we officially have rehearsal space! Holly Kirby of Pittsburgh Dance Center has graciously donated us the use of her gorgeous Bloomfield studio, in exchange for some teaching. The space is huge, beautiful wood floors, glass-block windows, and high ceilings. She’s even offered to let us hold auditions there! So keep an eye on this page for announcements of auditions later this summer!