[dance-tech] Re: How long do we linger on the edge of the subject? MDF look-back.

Dear Johannes,
Since I was scheduled to present my latest research at the Forum last December (had to miss it due health related issues). I am grateful to you and all the other contributors who helped to organize this report for the benefit of our community. I find the report both informative and very useful record to rely on. I am certain it will generate a great deal of positive responses followed by comments etc....Let's keep conversation and debate going. 

Many thanks. Yacov




At 6:57 PM +0000 3/21/07, Johannes Birringer wrote:

dear all:
it is spring-time now, and perhaps not too late to take a long look back to the Monaco Dance Forum which took place in December, and then catch up with current developments.
Personally, I wanted to say that it was great to meet all of those of you able to attend the events at Monaco Dance Forum. A week full of diverse programming and several highlights, provocative and entertaining, including some outstanding performance and several interactive installations. There were also a whole number of workshops and ateliers happening, and the selected artists who had been invited to MDF gave presentations on their new work. we owe thanks to the curators and the organizational staff of the DIGITAL DANCE at MONACO DANCE FORUM who managed to coordinate such a rich program and providing these platforms.
I also wish to thank (and Scott deLahunta joins me in this) all those who actively participated in the WORKSHOPS and helped us to have exchanges and debates. I briefly summarize the workshop structure, for those of you interested in the programming of such an international and transcultural event:
The four Professional Workshops (10 to 5 pm Monday through Thursday) in Salle C were seen to be occasions for professionals to raise questions, witness and meet; and to foreground in discussion and reflection the artistic aspect of the work of their peers (not just foregrounding the technology).
The Educational Workshops (5-6 pm Monday through Thursday) also in Salle C following the workshops were open to a wider public and functioned as an opportunity to become acquainted with some of the technologies and their artistic application within dance.
The final Digital Dance award selection group made one hour Presentations in SalleB. There were eight of these per day for four days for a total of 32 presentations. The Presentations ran parallel to the Workshops.
It should also be mentioned that there were post-show discussions and meetings, especially involving Franck 2 Louise, who presented KONNECTING SOULS; Jaychandran Palazhy whose Compagnie Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts presented PURUSHARTHA and who came along with Kunihiko Matsuo; & a round table with Trisha Brown, Curtis Bahn, Thanassis Rikakis and other members of the large interdisciplinary team that created "22" (with Bill T Jones) & "how long does the subject linger at the edge of the volume." On a different day, there was also a presentation by Paul Kaiser and Marc Downie on "how long...;" and on the particular conceptual, design and programming contibutions made to the creation of the stage work/choreography.
Various professional meetings took place which involved new and emerging research partnerships.
Towards the end, a meeting was arranged to found an international network: DIGITAL DANCE EXHANGE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK: Monaco Dance Forum here took the initiative to initialize a network of international cooperation and exchanges between the centers of development of digital dance implanted in emerging countries and those of the developed countries. Leaning on partnerships engaged in 2006, notably within the framework of the MDF?s call to candidatures, this network will formalize and to concretize international exchanges in technologies applied to the choreographic performances and to favor the distribution of the works. The concerned works will arise from the initiative of the partners from emerging countries and be coproduced with partners of developed countries (under financial shape but also, and maybe especially, in the form of residences and of transfers of technology). They can be the object of a programming in the next MDF.
On the final day of MDF, there was an award ceremony preceded by a post mortem discussion on the workshops, performances and installations. This was a very good meeting for most of us, having an opporunity to discuss what we experienced, new concerns in the community (i hesitate to say dance - tech community, as we are much larger and diversified now), as well as recommendations for the organisers and curators(of MDF and of events of such international scale).
Please feel free to send us any further comments or questions you have, since the dialogue, as always, has only just begun.
In a follow up mail, I will quote a press review (Monaco Times) detailing for us the results of the Prizes that were awarded to artists. We were all happy for those who received them, and felt that they all deserved the support: we send our congratulations to you.
It is rare that amongst our constant hectic searches for resources, studios, infrastructures, venues, funding, and opportunities for new creative work, and for research and collaboration, that we can gather, during a long week, see exciting work & meet in daily studio workshops, be hosted on the egde of the Mediterranean in a mild climate and dance in the cafés at night to various kinds of folk & retro rock, as well as see the dynamic curatorship of awards and supportive encouragement given to artists. 


Johannes Birringer
DAP Lab, London

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