Table of ContentsSpillOutTracing a PathThe Concept of BodyspacebodySPACEIt's surprising how much commonality someone can find between dance and architecture. Starting from a fundamental principle, all architectural constructions, to be able to stand, must obey the laws of physics, such as that of gravity. Additionally, there must be complete compliance with the geometry and overall shape of each construction for it to stand upright. This is also the case for certain dances. From classical ballet to more recent dance genres like tango, the figures and movements will be incomplete or even unrealizable if the dancer is not completely in tune with the geometry of the space. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In my experience over the years, classical ballet is one of the strictest and most demanding disciplines to teach and learn. Taking it as the first dance reference in this research, the basic principle around which ballet has evolved is symmetry through the body and space. From the initial posture, which must be vertical, to the ground in balance with gravity, through several figures and combinations between them, everything requires a concrete and symmetrical approach. Moving on to leg, head, and arm positions, angles are a crucial entity. From an angle of 45° up to 180° and straight lines, the body can create various shapes and be able to cope with any demanding dance combination. As we delve deeper into ballet geometry, we will begin with the simple rotation, an essential figure, which hides so many complex machinations that every dancer must be wary of. The most famous rotational movement in ballet is the pirouette. All a dancer has to do is rotate around their own center 360 degrees, with the sole point of contact being the tip of the foot. The center of the body (located at approximately stomach level) should remain strong throughout the figure to promote balance and control the ground force used by the dancer. An important detail for a successful pirouette is the alignment of the head and hands. Both hands should alternate in circular opening and closing positions to give the appropriate weight, and the head should remain upright with the eyes using the "spotting" technique (keeping the head fixed for as long as possible, then quickly turning the neck to catch). with the body)(Mathscareers).In her ten-minute talk in TEDXLAU, architect Lidea Hajjar confirmed from her own point of view the similarities between dance and architecture, this time sharing a new perspective on buildings and tango. Having the latter as a real hobby, she proved that there are several principles that coincide in both areas such as “foundation, axis, space and form” (Hajjar). The buildings around the cities and the tango figures are so different and yet so similar because they obey the same laws. Even when these rules are not followed, the results can be exceptional and original, worthy of inspiration and admiration. The principles of the architecture are similar to what is described above. For a construction to stand upright and remain immobile, an architect must take several axes into account when creating a building. These axes come in various forms such as walls, columns and beams. A deviation from the axis can lead to fatal collapse of any construction. Analogously, a dancer who deviates from his axis misses the figure. AAnother postulate is symmetry. Closely related to proportion and balance, symmetry is about respecting personalized spatial relationships that follow geometry. In other words, as Klaus defines it in his book, symmetry “seems to represent perfect order, beauty and divine harmony.” The same principles also apply to a dancer, as the entire body must be in perfect symmetry to achieve any figure. Ready-made space and space-in-the-making Initially, dance and architecture seem like two totally different worlds, and the truth is that they are. From the artistic spectrum to the functional spectrum, one is traditionally called art and the other science. Even though they don't seem that similar at first, they both share a common factor that connects them: creation. The architect Bernard Tschumi defines architecture as “a spatio-temporal form, intertwined with time, space and successive events”. (Tschumi, B. cited in Ersoy, p. 129). From this brief but significant definition, it emerges that architecture is not just about assembling space into a visual result. This also involves the notion of time, since a construction can be experienced throughout a particular moment. The notion of movement seems important here, because the point of view changes – sometimes drastically – depending on the perspective from which a construction is seen. So, movement means perspective. Therefore, moving through space can impact the final experience in an architectural context. This is where they encounter dance, because dance is primarily focused on the movement of a body in a certain space. Having found common ground in the relationship between dance and architecture, their correlation may still reserve some limits. Doris Humphrey, a major figure and one of the founders of modern dance, devotes a special place to architecture as one of her chronicles of inspiration throughout her career. Characteristically, she states that “architecture, especially for those who live in cities, speaks to us and for us with the most insistent cry” (Humphrey, p. 29). Witnessing a new aspect of architecture beyond visual satisfaction, she goes on to add "in the extremely complex web of influences that surround it, architecture impresses me most because it not only provides a visual inspiration but also speaks to the social attributes and values ​​of the city” (p.30). Architecture then appears to have another, more ethical dimension. Not only about Humphrey herself, but also at the same time about all dancers, she notes that "there is an inevitable relationship between the young dancer's reserve of the accumulated visual and mental models dominant in our time ( cities and architectural works) and what it will do. propose in composition” (p. 30). Therefore, the conclusion is that architecture has such power to penetrate into a dancer's own influence and sometimes to affect and even change his dancing style. Since the last century, architecture and dance have begun to cooperate more and more, giving a new perspective to this final combined performance. Thus, new ideas began to inspire the science of architecture by dedicating itself and creating a new branch, which mainly focuses its attention on the construction of pieces that will assist or play a protagonist role in a dance performance. It is a fact that many of them represent brilliant works of spatial art, but when it comes to performances with which they have to interact, they tend to be seen as exclusively solid constructions due to their independence.As analyzed in more detail in the book Geographies of Dance: Body, Movement and Body Negotiations, this condition can force or prohibit certain movements and interactions with dancers, causing disturbances in artistic creation in what is called space ready-made. On the other hand, there is the notion of “space in progress”, which mainly concerns constructive progress within a certain space. Exploring this notion mentioned above, Adam Pine and Olaf Kuhlke, in their book on the body and space, borrow the initial concept of the philosopher Bruno Latour on the opposition between ready-made space and science in the making and by developing it, they emerge with the notion of “space in the making”. Latour's fundamental idea opposes the notions of “ready-made science” to those of “science in the making”. He also cross-examines “whether the profile of an experiment and its outcome will change depending on its context” (Latour cited in Pine & Kuhlke, p. 159). In short, it seeks to know if there will be a different result depending on the context used each time. To illustrate this phenomenon, the work of Frances Bronet can demonstrate in an essentialist way the space of becoming in action. In the dance performances SpillOut (2006) and Beating a Path (2005), the constructions on stage interact with the dancers in real time. Each movement that the performers make serves as a starting point for the space in the making. What this principle basically means is that every action causes a certain reaction on the architectural environment that is happening live on stage, and the combinations that can be made are endless. These actions escape any directed movement, in the sense that each time the result produced is different due to the difference in the bodies that produce them. “One of the most innovative regional performative works of the year” (Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company) as said According to the American newspaper Times Union, SpillOut constitutes an avant-garde idea that uses more than one type of art to achieve a new way of expression. For its part, Beating a Path examines the reciprocal relationships between movement and architecture in an original environment.SpillOutIn the space of an hour, dance, electronic music, video and lighting collaborate and present themselves “within a complex installation of 'a length of 40'. , 12' high and 3' wide box wrapped in hundreds of electric blue elastic bands” (Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, par. 2) The show begins the moment the audience enters the Gasholder building. With an interesting but original architecture, marked by its circular shape and the industrial atmosphere both in its interior and exterior environment, this building hosts Bronet's complex installation at its center. Once the audience is seated and everything is settled, the show begins with the music, which includes the soothing chirping of peepers, causing the dancers to wake up. Reviewer Tresca Weinstein addresses these thoughts by considering SpillOut's concept and performance: so organically, stretching their limbs as they slide along the bars. As our vision is obstructed by the spandex walls, they appear to be suspended in water or air. Those at the top walk tall like long-legged birds. When they stop to survey the public, they do so with authority. They clearly have control of their environment. When the music changes, which is often abrupt, the quality of the movement also changes. It oscillates between serene, strange and violent. Rather than caged creatures who have mastered their limits, they resemble humans resting. When they wake up, getting rid of thedead, they begin to bounce and pass through cuts in the expandable walls. They throw their bodies out of the spandex, causing them to ricochet backwards with frightening force. Eventually, they emerge from their cell, like toddlers who have discovered how to escape from their playpen. As we celebrate their release, once the dancers are out of the box, the spell “Spill Out!” The castings are unfortunately broken. Regardless, there's a lot to talk about, including the video by Ralph Pascucci and the costumes by Kim Vanyo (Weinstein).Beating a PathFollowing the same artistic logic of Spillout, Beating a Path is also an interactive performance setting . Dancers are asked to express themselves by hanging from spandex bands, rolling on the floor or dancing on moving platforms. “The idea is that, just by moving in our environment, we modify it” underlines the creator F. Bronet (University of Oregon), an assertion which makes more than obvious the fact that space and the movement, even if they are different in their nature, perceptions, seem dependent on each other. A revolutionary detail that this performance brings is the fact that the audience is constantly moving. The extreme case is that of rolling platforms. Each time the dancers moved them, these platforms would be pushed towards the standing spectators. Due to the phenomenally uncontrolled reaction of the performers during the dance, objects on stage move and can hit anyone in the audience. Therefore, the spectator must be careful and move so as not to get hurt. As a result, part of the performance also consists of the constant movement of the spectators, giving a dynamic dimension to the final result (Pine & Kuhlke). The main principle on which this project is based are the interactive links between pure movement and architecture as the creator F. Bronet explains:… the work was born from a concern according to which conventional architectural designers and pedagogy of architecture work to develop spatial envelopes independent of how people move in and around them. This project deliberately aimed to explore how dancers moved and how to construct or evolve the space generated by their movements… We study how design in movement can motivate new, liberating ways of building and inhabiting that challenge the hegemony of design in the (ready-made) space (quoted in Giannachi & Stewart, p.285). As the performances mentioned above show, both productions are based on the principle that the architectural installation makes no sense without the dancer and vice versa. This is what we call “creating through doing,” as it is used in the book Geographies of Dance. With this term, the authors want to present the perspective that space and movement are so closely linked that “the space of construction and habitation cannot be fully determined without movement, without face-to-face interaction” ( p.160). With these installations, which promote the simultaneous interaction between the space and the performer, architectural design reaches another level by encouraging the creation of original constructions and therefore buildings in constant evolution (Pine & Kuhlke). However, when it comes to how space and movement cooperate, the connections begin to become less distinguishable, forming a kind of fluidity in their interactive relationship. It is another dimension of space in the making; the boundaries are so thin, almost non-existent and therefore several fusion combinations become possible. The book mentioned above refers to two fundamental conditions that an architect must.).