Between Us

How do choreographic structures and their digital presentation influence the visual arts? What can we learn from digital conversion processes and the potential errors in translation? For this research and exhibition project, the tanzmainz ensemble of the Staatstheater Mainz is cooperating with the Kunsthalle Mainz and the research project Motion Bank of the University of Mainz. “Between Us” examines conversion and translation processes in three disciplines and various aesthetic formats, and merges contemporary trends in dance, creative coding and the visual arts.
The project is based on a new piece by the Finnish choreographer Taneli Törmä. The choreography and the subsequent digitalisation of the performance serve as the starting point for the investigation of dance capture and presentation. As part of the research project, two workshops called “Coding Labs” will allow members of the creative coding scene to experiment with the data material.
For its concluding exhibition, the Kunsthalle Mainz has invited visual artists, such as Tim Etchells, Sissel Tolaas, all of whom venture across disciplinary boundaries. The dance and the resulting data material will serve as the source material for their installations. The exhibition will also include a performance of the choreography itself, and the dance data collected via video, annotations and motion capturing will be made publicly accessible as open-source material. Interfaces installed in the exhibition rooms will invite visitors to carry out their own experiments.

Artistic directors: Stefanie Böttcher, Honne Dohrmann, Florian Jenett
Choreographer: Taneli Törmä (FI)
Composer: Søren Lyngsø Knudsen (DK)
Fine artists: Tim Etchells (GB), Sissel Tolaas (NO), Tamara Grcic, Zilvinas Kempinas (LTN), Isabel Lewis