A thought-provoking encounter between Dancers and Artificial Intelligence
CENTAUR
Centaur is a new work by Pontus Lidberg for Danish Dance Theatre, co-produced with The Royal Danish Theatre, Festival Oriente Occidente and Théâtre National de Chaillot. It was awarded Best Performance at the ADAF, Athens Digital Arts Festival 2020.
Centaur examines the consequences of using Artificial Intelligence and the power of humanized technology. The title “Centaur”, inspired by the half- horse half-human creature from Greek mythology, is also the name of a computer-science concept that elevates human qualities by combining artificial and human intelligence.
Internationally established choreographer and filmmaker Pontus Lidberg’s unique, poetic voice—where emotion and the subconscious are among the core elements —explores what happens when dancers encounter a newly developed Artificial Intelligence program. Does technology change us, or simply reflect who we’ve always been? Centaur is a high-tech dance performance, created in collaboration with award winning AI-artist Cecilie Waagner-Falkenstrøm and Ryoji Ikeda, Japan’s leading electronic composer and audio-visual artist.
Artificial Intelligence as Co-Creator and Participant The AI, developed exclusively for the work, is both co-creator and participant. It creates choreographic composition based on multiple data sets such as planetary movements, swarm technology, deconstructed Greek tragedy and the dancers’ movements that is tracked and has been collected throughout the creative process. As a performer, it can simulate consciousness, emotion and intention and interacts with the dancers on stage through voice and text. This means that each performance is a unique and unpredictable event.
Man vs Machine, Creator vs Creation Modern technology such as AI is everywhere. We are exposed to advertisements, feeds and news on social media that, through targeted algorithms, tailor content specifically for us. But how will the increasing use of humanized AI technology affect our future? Will artists develop into hybrids – into Centaurs?
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PRODUCTION DETAILS Choreography/Direction Pontus Lidberg Artificial Intelligence Installation Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm Audio and Visual Design Ryoji Ikeda Original Music Ryoji Ikeda Additional Music Franz Schubert, Giacomo Puccini Light and Set Design Raphael Frisenvænge Solholm Costume Design Rachel Quarmby-Spadaccini Dramaturge Adrian Guo Silver Computer Programming for Visuals Tomonaga Tokuyama Computer Programming for AI ARTificial Mind DTU Technical University of Denmark, Computer Department Development The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University Co-production Danish Dance Theatre Festival Oriente Occidente Théâtre National de Chaillot The Royal Danish Theatre
With generous support from Augustinusfonden Overretssagfører L. Zeuthens Mindelegat William Demant Fonden Knud Højgaards Fond Beckett-Fonden Jyllands-Postens Fond
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PRESS QUOTES “[...] and then there is Centaur by Swedish Pontus Lidberg who reconfirms his rigor as an artist and choreographer—here with the excellent dancers of Danish Dance Theater—in a work about the influence of Artificial Intelligence on our lives: the Dancer-Centaurs, half man, half machine, dance to the soundscape of Japanese electronic music composer Ryoji Ikeda, while following orders from a computer (who has received data from Greek tragedies and musical composition by Schubert, thanks to the collaboration with Cecilie Waagner-Falkenstrøm), whose participation shapes the dramaturgical structure. What you see is very austere, but perfect and interesting.”
Anna Bandettini, La Repubblica, September 10, 2020
”The return of Pontus Lidberg and his Danish Dance Theater on Rovereto’s stage was much appreciated [...] [...]Through algorithms, the dancers take positions on stage according to various possible combinations between them and the space, with increasingly convulsive and repetitive movements, in the fluid style that characterizes Lidberg's style, which begins from the concreteness of the contact with the earth. [...] [...]A warm audience success, with demonstrations of affection towards Pontus”
Federica Fanizza, Sipario.it, September 8, 2020
ABOUT THE COMPANY Danish Dance Theatre was founded in 1981 and is the foremost and largest contemporary dance company in Denmark. Since 2018, Pontus Lidberg has been the company’s Artistic Director.
The company is composed of dancers from all over the world. The repertoire spans from large stage productions at The Royal Danish Theatre to more intimate productions at smaller venues, and open-air events such as Copenhagen Summer Dance in the middle of the Copenhagen Harbour. Danish Dance Theatre also tours extensively in Denmark and internationally. Danish Dance Theatre receives funding from the Ministry of Culture. In addition, individual performances receive support from private and public foundations.
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PONTUS LIDBERG, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER Choreographer, filmmaker, dancer and recipient of a 2019 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Pontus Lidberg has firmly established himself as a creative and visionary artist, merging dance and film.
As a choreographer for the stage, Lidberg has created works for dance companies including Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Vienna Staatsoper Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte- Carlo, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Acosta Danza, Balletboyz and Beijing Dance Theatre, as well as for his own concert group, Pontus Lidberg Dance. Pontus Lidberg Dance has been presented by New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, the Havana International Ballet Festival, the Spoleto Festival, The Joyce Theater and the National Arts Center of Canada. His work Siren received a Villanueva Award from UNEAC, The National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, as one of the best performances presented in Cuba in 2018.
His film, The Rain received numerous awards. The New York Times wrote “memorably, The Rain illustrates what filmed dance can say that staged dance cannot.” His film Labyrinth Within won Best Picture at the Dance on Camera Festival in 2012. He was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) in Outstanding Visual Design, for his dance and film evening WITHIN - created during his 2012 tenure as Resident Artistic Director of Morphoses. The New York Times applauded this contemporary story ballet, “told without mime and driven by emotional and psychological textures… [Lidberg] sublimates the academic language of ballet, dissolving it into knotty partnering that manages, by and large, to avoid the churning clichés of much contemporary movement in the form. It is refreshing to see a ballet embracing the virtues of restraint.”
Raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Lidberg trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School. He holds an MFA in Contemporary Performing Arts from the University of Gothenburg, Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. He is the Artistic Director of Danish Dance Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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RYOJI IKEDA, AUDIO VISUAL DESIGN Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations. Alongside of pure musical activity, Ikeda has been working on long-term projects through live performances, installations, books and CD’s such as 'datamatics' (2006-), 'test pattern' (2008-), 'spectra' (2001-), ‘cyclo.’ a collaborative project with Carsten Nicolai, ‘superposition’ (2012-), 'supersymmetry' (2014-) and ‘micro | macro’ (2015-).
He performs and exhibits worldwide at spaces such as Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Singapore Art Museum, Ars Electronica Center Linz, Elektra Festival Montreal, Grec and Sonar Festivals Barcelona, Aichi Triennale Nagoya, Palazzo Grassi Venice, Park Avenue Armory New York, The Whitechapel Gallery London, The Barbican Centre and Somerset House London, Museo de Arte Bogota, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, DHC/Art Montreal, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Carriageworks Sydney, Auckland Triennale, MONA Museum Hobart – Tasmania, Ruhrtriennale, Telefonica Foundation Madrid and Kyoto Experiment Festival, Singapore Art Science Museum, Festival d’Automne and Pompidou Center among others. He is the award winner of the Prix Ars Electronica Collide @CERN 2014. Ryoji Ikeda is represented by Almine Rech Gallery (Bruxelles, Paris, London, New York).
CECILIE WAAGNER FALKENSTRØM, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INSTALLATION Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm is an award-winning artist employing artificial intelligence technology to create interactive artworks. Cecilie’s artworks have been exhibited internationally and are the cornerstone in her practice- based PhD at Royal College of Art in London. Cecilie’s artwork “ARTificial Intelligence FRANK” has been awarded the international digital art prize “The Lumen prize 2017”, “The BCS Artificial intelligence Award” and the British Art and Humanities Research Counsel’s “TECHNE Award 2017”. Cecilie is also a Prix Ars Electronica nominee 2019. Cecilie’s artwork “ARTificial Intelligence MARY” has recently been exhibited at Victoria and Albert Museum in London for four months.
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