CyberBallet is a dance installation in cyberspace: what does it mean to have a body, to move in space? Can an artificial intelligence really grasp the fundamentals of human experience if it lacks a body? In collaboration with the Badisches Staatsballett composer Micha Kaplan and choreographer Ronni Maciel created a project that changed again and again over the course of the last 18 months, an artistic research with the goal of learning the fundamentals of the performing arts in a completely new environment.
The visitors enter the virtual stage with the help of VR glasses. They encounter the various bodily forms of the protagonist, an artificial intelligence who, without a body, is unable to understand what it means to be human. With movement, light and in space, she invites the individual guest to a metaphysical dialogue in one of the world’s oldest universal languages: dance.
Extensive video footage and motion capture of dancers serve as the basis for machine learning to isolate, analyze, and respond. At CLB Berlin, the project returns to its roots as an installation: an individual dance encounter with an AI eager to learn.
CyberBallet, originally planned as a live VR installation in front of an audience, was moved to cyberspace in 2020 due to closures and became a performance in which the audience shared the virtual space with their avatars and the performers on a social VR platform. This version was first performed at the 2020 Ars Electronica Festival in Linz. At the CLB, two visitors at a time now take the stage for an exclusive and unique performance in VR.
TEAM
Concept, artistic direction
CyberRäuber (Marcel Karnapke, Björn Lengers).
Music
Micha Kaplan
Choreography, dance, concept
Ronni Maciel
Stage
Angelika Katzinger
Production management
Eva-Karen Tittmann
Choreography, dance
Baden State Ballet (Désirée Ballantyne, Anastasiya Didenko, Carolina Martins, Louiz Rodrigues, Emiel Vandenberghe)
Singing
Jessica Gadani
A cooperation with Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe and Landestheater Linz.
Supported by the Fonds Doppelpass of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.