CHOREOGRAPHY
Creating the movement for HOME X is one of the most exciting parts of the project. Si is in a studio in London and Suen in Hong Kong both studios are equipped with cameras. When they put on their VR headsets the camera footage of each is ‘holoported’ live into the HOME X digital world. They can see, interact and move with each other despite being 6000 miles apart on different continents.
It’s a duet in cyberspace!
Si Rawlinson:
Choreographer (uk)
I’m choreographer on HOME X, an exploration in the form of ‘Game Theatre’, of home and loss of home, and the different feelings and attitudes that go with that.
Suen and I both have backgrounds in hip hop, but also other styles, as well as lots of kinds of performances in theatre. It’s really interesting taking these skills and trying to collaborate across thousands of miles and then also implementing new technology, where we are being three dimensionally projected into a game space. When I look around through the VR headset I really see the inside of the game.
I’m used to making dance theatre, but in this piece it’s much more focused on simple and clear storytelling, especially early on when the audience come in as avatars and they’re seeing a completely new environment. The need for clarity, of us being able to set up what’s happening in this world, then giving them essentially the idea of what to do, means that the
choreography we start with is fairly simple – building up concepts that the avatars can then follow, and then later it starts developing into something like a kind of dance.
We’re mixing performance and game mechanics, interacting with audience avatars and Colette Wing Wing Lam, the singer, and trying to tell a story at the same time.
Suen Nam:
Choreographer (Hong Kong)
I am a Hip-hop dancer, street dancer, freestyle dancer and it’s the first time I have used VR to make a show and make
choreography, it’s very exciting!
It’s fantastic when Si and I are in the VR world, and we try to punch and play and high-five each other. And I look around the world – the big tree, and some of the small trees – and I’m just like a giant in the world!
My favourite part is when I look around and think wow, it’s the VR world and it’s real for me. I can make a real connection with Si – he is in London, I’m in Hong Kong, but we can see each other and we interact and dance together in the internet. It’s very amazing for me, because we’re so far away –– but when we get into the VR world, it’s very close for me. Just oh, Si is here! And then we can talk, we can play.
I think the audience will just have a fantastic moment when they see the VR world, and the dancers, the singer, the animations, and just enjoy the moment, enjoy the game.