Dance is

Architecture in
Motion.
About the shared vocabulary and concerns of
seemingly opposite art forms.
• Wk1: choreographic algorithm
• Wk2: choreographic object
• Wk3: choreographic construction
Dance is architecture in
motion.
Kinesphere — the total volume of a body’s potential
movement, the intangible space the moving human body
produces. It is best described by the geometrical form of an
icosahedron and its centre is the Solar Plexus, the pivotal
point for any movement.
“Movement is, so to speak, living
architecture – living in the sense
of changing emplacements as well
as changing cohesion.
The architecture is created by
human movements and is made
up of pathways tracing shapes in
space.“ (Rudolf Laban, Choreutics)
"As an architect I sit in front of my
computer, I click through
the different menus of the CD and I
get overwhelmed by a glaring
similarity to the interface of my
CAAD program." (Britta Callsen 1995)
“With the CAAD program I
construct a building with lines,
polygons, circles which are basic
geometric figures. I click the
command ‘line’ to define two
points and I draw a line between
them.
In order to view it in the right
position I take the line and turn,
twist, flip it in the virtual space. It
is the same operation Forsythe
demonstrates on his CD when he
describes the relationship between
parts of the body in motion.” (Britta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0bVWwmCiYY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X29OjcBHG8
“Dance and Architecture have much in
common. Both are concerned with
practices of space. For a dancer the
act of choreography as a writing of
place occurs through the unfolding of
spatial dimensions through gesture
and embodied movement. For the
architect space is the medium through
which form emerges and habitation is
constructed. For both, the first space
we experience is the space of the
body.”

(Carol Brown, choreographer)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzQazjw-4jI&feature=player_embedded#
“Space lays down the law because it
implies
a certain order [...] Space commands
bodies, prescribing or proscribing
gestures, routes and distances to be
covered.”

(Henry Lefebvre, The Production of Space)

4-dimensional 3-dimensional
Stasis Ecstasy (ex-stasis)
from Greek from Greek έκ-στασις
στάσις
"to be or stand outside
"a standing still" oneself, a removal to
elsewhere”

referring to referring to dance, the

architecture, the fugitive, ephemeral
immovable movement, the dynamic
building, the static
functional architectural elements

at rest put into relation

and action
http://synchronousobjects.osu.edu/content.html
choreographic algorithm -
a set of well-defined instructions for
moving
choreographic object -
a manifestation of choreographic
information; an alternative site to the
dancing body where choreographic
ideas can reside
choreographic construction -
the structure or the creation of a
kinetic event
1. Design a 5 min’
choreographic construction
for 5 dancers based on the
architect’s drawings.
2. Form groups of 5 dancers
and choose a choreographic
construction, which none of
you has designed and stage
it.
•Any choreographic piece is an
architectural structure or
construction.

•Any dancer is a body of

geometric forms or
architectural elements.

•Both can complement each

other.