Last year Verb Ballets led a successful Choreography Intensive providing professional dancers throughout Northeast Ohio specialized training to step into the role of choreographer. For the 2017-18 season Verb Ballets will launch Intensive Inventions a continuation of the project funded by the Ohio Arts Council. Putting into practice what we learned in last year in the first year, the project will focus on extending the career potential and developing leadership among the region’s most talented dancers. While engaging audiences in the creative process in new and exciting ways through explorations in the process of integrating new technology, music and virtual reality into the choreographic effort. Throughout the 2017-18 season Verb Ballets invited nationally recognized professionals in the field of dance and creative technology specialists to offer a series of workshops, research trips and studio learning opportunities.
Verb Ballets Intensive Inventions is generously supported by an Arts Next grant of the Ohio Arts Council
New Territory Virtual Reality Arcade
October 4, 2017
Dancers joined choreographer, Sydney Skybetter with the Christy Bolingbroke of the National Center for Choreography to visit New Territory Virtual Reality Arcade to experiment with integrating virtual or augmented reality solutions into their workflow.
Jared Bendis
October 3, 2017
Jared Bendis lead a lecture on technology and application in physical integration. Jared Bendis is a specialist in photography, game design, virtual reality, interactive and new media. Jared received his MFA program in Contemporary Dance at Case Western Reserve University with a focus in Performance Media, his M.A. in Art Education from the Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Institute of Art joint program and his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University in Psychology with minors in Music and Art Studio. As a visual artist, he focuses on the way people see, augmenting their reality via technology and visual perception. His art practice also includes creating immersive installations that provide interactive social and sensory experiences for viewers.
National Center for Choreography
January 3, 2018
Christy Bolingbroke, Executive/Artistic Director at National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron lead a discussion around innovation and artistic excellence in choreography for the local dance community. Through a curated panel of videos Christy a moderated a reflective discussion on choreography.
NASA Glenn Research Center
January 4, 2018
Local dancers got to experience the high tech applications available at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. NASA scientists, Herb Schilling and Jay Horowitz, demonstrated the use of software that is easily available including Microsoft HoloLens, Projection Mapping and interaction with Kinect.
in2ative
January 5, 2018
Musical group in2ative came to Verb Ballets studio to talk with the dancers and experiment with some improvisation to their music.
Gary Galbraith
January 15, 2018
Local dancers went to Case Western Reserve University Dance Department on a tour led by Gary Galbraith. Gary Galbraith, named “Innovator in Dance Technology: Smart Creatives” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has been exploring, developing, creating, and producing dance works that utilize various forms of technology to enhance and augment the creative process and audience experience since 2000. He shared technology including infrared supported responsive media as a way to explore the potential of how dancer/movement controlled projected media can have an integral part in the entire dance experience.
Bill Myers
January 16, 2018
Bill Myers from New Territory Virtual Reality Arcade returned to bring a 3-D camera and other virtual reality technology that the dancers explored in studio.
Ballet UpClose works-in-progress showing
January 26, 2018
Work derived from the project was presented before an informal audience with the opportunity to gather audience feedback facilitated by Christy Bolingbroke as part of Verb’s studio series, Ballet UpClose. The audience was able to give immediate feedback to reactions and ask questions to the choreographers about the works-in-progress.
Bill Myers
January 30, 2018
Bill Myers from New Territory Virtual Reality Arcade returned to the studio to summarize the virtual reality exercise and show 3-D camera for dance applications.
