Danse Danse Receives $700,000 Grant to Explore New Possibilities in Dance Through Digital Technology

Danse Danse has announced an innovative partnership with Scènes Interactives Technologiques (SIT), a support program for digitally adapted works that will benefit the dance community. Designed and developed by artist-researchers Nicolas Berzi and Armando Menicacci, the program has received a $700,000 grant from Quebec's Ministère de la Culture et des Communications.

SIT represents a major advance with implications for the entire dance creation chain, right up to the audience's experience of the work. The program is intended to be unifying, adaptable and sustainable. More than a technological toolbox, SIT is a complete digital reinforcement solution, designed by and for performing artists.a??

Several major presenter-partners are enthusiastically participating in the project, including Danse-Cité, Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur, La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, La danse sur les routes du Québec and Tangente. SIT has also attracted the support of dozens of dance companies eager to make the most of the current situation and demonstrate their proactive approach to the digital shift.

Dynamic, even on a screen:

As we knew long before the start of the pandemic, webcasts will never replace the experience of an evening attending a live performance in a theatre. However, the initiatives born out of the pandemic have shown that the potential of interactive and digital broadcasting is real and exciting, and can reach a wide audience. The reality is that the shift away from in-person performance must be compensated for by improving the virtual audience experience. The use of digital technologies in stage production is a promising solution to this problem, making it possible to deliver works on the Web in a more immersive way without distorting them.

Digital for the arts:

Scènes Interactives Technologiques (SIT) is a program designed to help creators explore interactive and digital broadcasting media, in order to facilitate the transition from stage to screen by promoting the design and development of performance works.

In order to equip and support the cultural sector in the new creative context, SIT has enlisted major technological partners. This research group aims to develop software extensions for live streaming, interconnectivity (allowing reactions from remote audiences), and innovative telepresence possibilities, all through a single operating software. At the same time, SIT will create webcasting and telecasting options that are financially accessible to both artists and presenters. These options will comprise both software and hardware innovations, producing a unique and immersive audiovisual experience.

SIT will deliver its services in three areas:

1. Technological assistance for artists and presenters, through support and ongoing training in interactive stage creation;

2. Software innovation and the development of technological tools adapted to stage creation and presentation;

3. A plan for discoverability and knowledge transfer with regard to artistic projects.

In this way, creators will be well equipped to present their work to the public without artistic compromise and without the risk of distortion by intermediaries. The technologies will be adapted to the artists' artistic approach, and not the other way around. Far from wanting to turn performing artists into digital artists, SIT aims to broaden creative practice to include new ways of producing and presenting stage works.

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