Dancing In The Light

The prevalence of multimedia in contemporary dance is one of those so-called 'issues' that delight and divide critics and cognoscenti alike. However, away from the righteous thrill of dinner party pronouncements and reviewer angst, artists like Olaf Meyer are simply getting on with the business of animating pixels.

As a multimedia projection artist, Meyer's work has adorned building facades, gallery spaces and theatre sets. In March his video art for Antony Hamilton's Black Project 1 will once again light the stage as part of this year's Dance Massive event. “In essence I'm using the mechanism of the video projector as a light source,” he says with understated clarity. “Because I'm pretty experienced in controlling the pixels I can make that light source become an extra layer of movement. I can enhance the shapes that are being drawn on stage with bodies.”

It is notable (and clearly relevant) that Meyer refers often to movement. “Physical performance has always been a real attraction for me,” he explains. Indeed, his masters degree focused on the integration of “meaningful images into physical performance”. No surprise then that for Black Project 1 Hamilton commissioned Meyer “to superimpose virtual movement onto actual movement”. As Meyer prefers it, “I like the word symbiosis because that's what he wanted to achieve with elements of light and body and sound. I helped him translate the rhythmic movement in his choreography into rhythmic visual elements in the set design. I did that by using textural video maps that interacted with the choreography.”

All this fine point discussion is, of course, only natural in the context of an event like Dance Massive; which coordinates 18 shows in 13 days across four inner-Melbourne venues. More than a simple showcase, it represents a gathering of the dance tribe, with contemporary stars like Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin and Russell Dumas all on show. Dance nuts will not only get their fix, but also witness their share of multimedia.

Reflecting on the perceived mismatch between the dance and digital art cultures, Meyer says, “Working with dancers reminded me that high-tech solutions are not always needed. I mean, they're techno-phobes in a way, but that didn't really limit the outcome. I watched them draw abstract landscapes with their bodies and this analogue method, in my opinion, is what makes the work really cutting edge.”

However, with Black Project 1 and 2, choreographer Hamilton is also leaping across another of those 'discipline' chasms; bringing dance into the world of subatomic physics by exploring the relationship between animate and inanimate objects. As the presser says, where does the body end and the space around it begin?

In much the same blurring of the lines, Meyer regards his colour cycles and frame rates as being very much part of the dance. “That all relates to my fascination with the perception of rhythm in movement and the way it carries meaning,” he elaborates. “The great thing about dance and also the visual effects I produce when I'm VJing is that there is a similar use of visual rhythm.”

Whether light is a dancer or not will remain contentious, but the creative drivers of Australia's contemporary dance community will doubtless continue to embrace multimedia projection. For artists like Meyer, that can only be good news.