Lamentation: Dancing the Archive
Xin Ying (Principal, Martha Graham Dance Company, MFA Candidate NYU Tisch Dance ‘25), Katherine Helen Fisher (Visiting Assistant Professor, Collaborative Arts, NYU Tisch), Alan Winslow (Assistant Director of Technical Operation, Collaborative Arts, NYU Tisch) and Kate Ladenheim (Assistant Professor, World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UCLA) received a 2024 Google Artist + Machine Intelligence Faculty Research Award supporting "Lamentation: Dancing the Archive”, to create an immersive installation reimagining Martha Graham's iconic 1930 work,"Lamentation."
Using a volumetrically captured 3D film of Graham's original choreography, the team will build an interactive interface that captures audience movements in real time. Participants will be able to dance alongside and within the 3D film, revealing layers of historical context as they manipulate the footage with their own gestures and movements. Additionally, Xin and Ladenheim will develop a custom GPT chatbot that responds to users in the voice and style of Martha Graham, trained on her personal writings and dance historical research about her contributions to modern dance. Through the creation of this work, the collaborators will investigate how AI and machine learning tools can be harnessed to represent dance historical archives in interactive, embodied ways. The interactive installation “Lamentation: Dancing the Archive” will premiere at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2025.