Conventional notions of dancing to music don't have much relevance to the music for dance composed by Todd Winkler. Winkler, a tall, loquacious American who's been tutoring on TCD's Music and Technology course since September, wants to integrate music and dance to the point that the dancer can take control of the unfolding of the music. He does this by mapping a grid onto the output of a video camera, and using a computer to analyse the dance movements captured by the camera. By means of familiar MIDI technology - the lingua franca of electronic keyboards and computer music - individual movements and gestures can "play" the digitally-stored electro-acoustic music he's written.
Most of his work over the last 10 years or so, with musicians as well as dancers, has involved computers. His goal is to use the machines in a way "that somehow reflects the expression of the performer". He's not really that interested in tape pieces, "because you have to throw out some of the things we like most about performers". What he's after is a marriage of the extended sound world of modern technology and the finely-detailed, expressive nuancing that makes each individual an unique performer.
His dance work is essentially collaborative, a two-way process of exploration through which he can establish the common ground between his personal sound world and the responses, expressive needs and taste of the people he's working with. For his new piece in next Sunday's Crash Ensemble concert he's been working with Cindy Cummings, integrating video imagery from Hitchcock movies as well as electro-acoustic music into a piece that is as yet untitled, but which the duo are thinking of calling Hitch's Bitches.
Todd Winkler's new work is premiered in a Crash Ensemble concert at project @ the mint on Sunday. The programme also includes works by Steve Reich, Cathy Berberian, Leon Milo, Ana Mi- hajlovic, Zack Browning, La Monte Young and Maarten Altena. For tickets ring 1850 260027.
