Through the pandemic, we remembered how vital is the connection between people. Performing arts expanded its value and possibilities beyond the theater. It is important that the performers on stage will not only become central figures but also feel the world, move forward, and bring about change with the audience. In need of an emerging audience with the rise of the digital age, an increasing number of choreographers and dance artists are exploring new ways to create a different dance experience from traditional production with digital technology.
There are physical and mental boundaries between the performer and the audience; in some examples, choreographers have challenged these boundaries in contemporary dance history. Ohad Naharin, for example, repeatedly attempts to disrupt the ‘picture frame’ of the stage, the frame that divides the audience and the performer by breaking the fourth wall in pieces like “Anaphaza” (1993), “Mamootot” (2003), and “Kamuyot” (2003). The so-called “dancing with the audience” section from ‘Deca-Dance’ has been performed worldwide and is now one of the most popular parts of his choreographies. In this section, dancers generously invite the audience onto the stage to dance with them. The end of this section is ironic – dancers and audience members leave one by one, while the ‘soloist,’ the last audience member, stands alone in the middle of the stage. Nevertheless, it offers audiences a less formal and different perspective to dance.
From the performer’s side, this means that their performance should be different from the traditional way to do with the fourth wall. Ohad’s words, “Dancing is about listening, not about telling,” describes everything.
Bringing digital technology to concert dance can break the fourth wall and reach an emerging audience, but there is always tension between innovational technology and physical performance.
Digital technology and physical performance can be placed on opposite sides, and the process of creation and aims of digital content and physical performance are different. Therefore, the author chose augmented reality (AR) to experience, as a performer, a new way to engage with the audience. It was here aiming to understand the meaning of bringing digital technology to the technology of the body and demonstrate the process of creating a live performance where the audience used AR to extend their imagination.
Like any art, dance is the product of human social behavior and a romantic behavior of human thoughts and emotions in the virtual world.
The interest in using AR is motivated by a need to engage the emerging audience who wants to engage in the art differently. Some potential audiences can be away from dance because of its traditional setting and procedure, and emerging audiences are interested in participating and engaging in dance and performing interactively.
This paper examines the meaning of adding digital technology to the technology of the body and how AR can reach more audiences for dance through case studies. Moreover, and most importantly, it examines how AR can be helpful to make live performances beyond boundaries between performer and audience.