BIPED provides the ever-shifting visual decor for Merce Cunningham’s dance of the same name. It is widely considered to have been a breakthrough in the integration of dance and technology.
from Berkeley premiere
BIPED is an extended digital animation created to serve as the visual décor for a 45-minute dance of the same name choreographed by Merce Cunningham and performed by his company. The sequences of animation vary from 10 seconds to 4 minutes, totaling 27 minutes; they run discontinuously through the performance.
The movements are largely derived from motion-captured phrases from the choreography, which drive abstracted images of hand-drawn dancers moving through spare and evocative spaces.
BIPED is perhaps the most widely seen of any Cunningham dance; it has been performed numerous times throughout the world (see venues.)
In performance, the imagery is projected on a huge transparent scrim covering the front of a large proscenium stage, giving the illusion that it floats in front of and among the live dancers behind it.
BIPED has also been exhibited as a stand-alone installation, with huge projections on a large wall, and accompanied by the Gavin Bryars score for the original dance.
Video
Though projections and dance are notoriously difficult to capture fully with a camera, filmmaker Charlie Atlas managed to videotape a performance of BIPED in Paris. Excerpts (with interviews) appear in his widely distributed DVD “Merce Cunningham – A Lifetime of Dance (2000).”
The full performance is featured in a DVD entitled “Biped,” which alas is only available in Europe.
Credits
- Projections: Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar
- Choreography: Merce Cunningham
- Lighting design: Aaron Copp
- Costume design: Suzanne Gallo
- Motion Capture: Modern Uprising
- Michael Girard and Susan Amkraut) provided software support.
- Support provided by the AT&T Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Compaq Computer, and Discreet/ Autodesk.