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Re: dancing loops
In a message dated 9/24/2002 3:08:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, srice44@yahoo.com writes:
....edited....
In a community dance class or jam there is much more
likely to be music, and for it to be "danceable" since
the non-purist enthusists prefer this. This is the
environment in which I'd like to play. I'm a bit in
awe of the gentlemen describing their experiences
accompanying academic dance classes, which sound more
like modern dance than any Contact I've seen. Not my
goal though.
Excellent description of contact Steve! You are also very right in your perception. When I play for an Improv class, it is Dance Improv, not Contact Improv. Dance Improv is mostly a class for 1st year dance students and theater students, and does use live music. Improv is also incorporated into technique classes of all levels. Contact Improv is a class for advanced students, and is in silence mostly. However, I have seen a lot of Contact Improv with recorded music.
If you are on the East Coast of the US, there is an annual Contact Jam coming up soon (In October I believe). In the past, this has been held in W.VA. The music director for VCU Dance usually attends this Contact Jam (as a dancer - not as a musician). I will ask him about it, and mention that there has been talk about this on Loopers Delight. If anyone on this list is near Richmond, VA., and is interested on sitting-in on a Modern Dance Class, send me an email (RandomLFO@aol.com).
Hey Ed Drake, I know that your days are pretty full with teaching and the kids, but if you have a free day, bring the EDP, Repeater, and Jamman to the Dance Dept.
For midi input from the dancers or myself as I dance,
I have the fairly simple idea of putting a potentiometer
in some hand-held wrapper(how about a Nerf ball!) and using
the MidiSolutions pedal-to-cc gizmo to tweak the looper or
effects processor. This would require only the midi
converter box, pot, and some wire to do(I think. Maybe
also a six-pack to bribe some local electrical engineer.
JW, what's your favorite brew? ;-) ) This would
definitely _not_ be traditional Contact, but lots of fun!
I remember seeing an article in Electronic Musician some years ago about a band Named D'Cuckoo (please excuse spelling). They had a large ball that they called the MIDI Ball. It was wired with MIDI sensors and was thrown out to the crowd. Each time the crowd hit back up into the air they would trigger various MIDI events. That would be very interesting to have at a Contact Jam.
Marc
