Student dancers glide into the virtual world

By Steph Mostaccio

Six Rider students joined a dance class at New York University (NYU) on Friday, Sept. 29. They watched the dancers at NYU perform several different movements and performed the same movements with them. Their dancing was then critiqued and perfected by an instructor in New York.

However, the Rider students were in the Communication and Journalism Department’s TV studio. The Rider Dance Ensemble, a new performing group on campus, has stepped into the virtual world of dance.

“Indeed we were virtually in New York on Friday,” said Kimberly Vaccaro, assistant professor of the Fine Arts Department and director of Performing and Visual Arts for the Department of Education.

Through The Dana Project, the 11 student dancers who comprise the ensemble will be able to work with an out-of-state instructor through live interactive residencies.

“We are learning so much about technology tools for teaching, which will be extremely important in the near future,” Vaccaro said.

The students had the opportunity to work with Gus Solomons Jr., the NYU dance instructor who is a master artist of the 20th century who has choreographed dances and trained dancers for more than 40 years, according to Vaccaro.

“For a small university to be able to interact with artists of his stature is an unparalleled opportunity,” Vaccaro said.

Vaccaro wanted her dancers to work with Solomons because of his innovative style of
teaching.

“We are interested in finding a way to learn about his work and pass on his ideas and methods of understanding, which we have never had in dance before because we don’t have scores, and we don’t have scripts,” she said.

However, Friday’s dance class was marred by some problems with the technology. The image of Solomons and his dancers was pixilated and delayed a few seconds.

“Part of the problem is the technology,” said Vaccaro. “The technology is really high-end. It’s feasible, but there is that delay, and that is hard.”

But Vaccaro commended the technicians in the TV studio.

“The technology people at Rider are phenomenal,” she said. “They are forward-thinking professionals and have exceeded my expectations.”

According to Vaccaro, The Dana Project was created to study the ways technology can be used in teaching dance and to study its effects on learning, focus and retention of information, as well as to write a curriculum that uses technology to record and pass on the methods of the great dance artists.

The project will benefit the students in several ways, according to Vaccaro.

“They will get to work with one of our great artists, they will be on the cutting edge of learning technology in the 21st century and they will be well prepared as the technology age advances to use interactive learning methods in their teaching,” she said.

The students will also create a dance from the movements they learned from Solomons, which will be presented at the spring event, Rider Dances with the Band.

The Rider dancers enjoyed working with Solomons as well as using the cutting-edge
technology.

“It’s an honor to work with Gus, period,” freshman dance minor Chelsey Alston said. “It’s neat to do this over the camera with New York.”

Senior Danielle Nolen, a double major in English and dance, added that the project will lead dance into the 21st century.

“It’s a step forward for dance itself because it will be easier to contact people like NYU and get interactions with people who are so experienced in that form that can teach you without being there,” she said. “It makes it a lot easier.”

The live interactive residency is scheduled to occur three more times this
semester. However, Vaccaro sees The Dana Project continuing in future years.

“The potential for expanding opportunities in learning and building communities through interactive residencies and exchanges is very exciting,” she said. “I can see this becoming a permanent part of what we offer.”