Description

On the threshold of the new millennium, we are past the point of asking questions solely about the appropriateness of technology in dance. Innovators in both fields have been deepening our sense of how dance and technology can affect one another in complex and exciting ways. We can now begin looking historically and critically at how the convergence between these fields has developed, how this effects us, and how dance and technology can continue to give breadth to one another in the coming century.

International Dance & Technology 99 (IDAT99) will be held at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Through the generous support of the Dean of the College of Fine Arts, the conference will be co-hosted by the Department of Dance and the Institute for Studies in the Arts.

IDAT99 is a convergence of performances and explorations by established and emerging artists and scholars at the forefront of the field. The conference will highlight the efforts of individuals who make use of media and dance in experimental and provocative ways, with supporting lectures, roundtable discussions, panels and keynote speeches. Performance based and participatory events will challenge the traditional conference format; including presentations that posit new forms and research directions in the area of dance and technology on the stage, in the gallery, on the Web, in the classroom and in non-traditional environments.

From the way that we see ourselves to our relations with the global environment, recent technological developments have had a dramatic impact on our lives. The events scheduled for IDAT99 are designed to explore and examine how current technologies are extending the physical and creative potential of dance artists, as well as seeing how the moving body is, in turn, transforming the way we think about technology and its impact on central issues regarding identity, community and nature.

Eight fully produced performances and six works in progress form the core experience of IDAT99, along with the papers, lecture demonstrations, panels and roundtable events. The Night Club event, Web Cafe, Electronic Salon, Internet Performances, and Dance and the Camera installation provide dynamic alternative opportunities to explore culture's impact upon dance artists as articulated through interactive and web based applications, and how dancers' exploration of these media is extending the expressive potential of technology within society.

This is the fourth in a series of Dance & Technology conferences previously hosted by: