Life in the fast lane.

Dancers pooped, but your ideas still popping? Need more time for rehearsal? Then you're a dancemaker who could use a new method for marrying choreography and computers: software that lets you take dance into a new dimension.

Imagine, for a moment, the dream of a hardworking, stressed-out choreographer: a studio that is open twenty-four hours a day; tireless dancers who will repeat a combination over and over until it feels right; immediate access to not just one, or two, but up to twenty dancers; and documentation of the work as it progresses.

Just a fantasy? No. It's a computer program called Life Forms. Yes, it's the one Merce Cunningham has used since 1991. And no, if you use it, your dance won't look like his (unless you want it to). Most choreographers who use the Life Forms program see it as a tool to enhance the creative process by providing additional ways to experiment with form and movement. It also offers solutions to some of the more mundane problems faced by choreographers: the cost of rehearsals and the availability of dancers and studio space.

LEARNING ABOUT COMPUTERS AND DANCE

I first came upon this program when I attended a computer graphics conference. My background is in architecture--more specifically, using computers in architecture--and I already know what a boon computers have been to my profession. When I saw Life Forms, my first thought was, "What a great tool for choreographers!" But how would a dancer take to using a computer program?

A well-designed computer program should entice the beginner with enough useful effects to make him or her want to spend time exploring its more powerful features. This, of course, results in a better and an even more spectacular outcome. In this article we'll examine the first step in the process because if the first step doesn't work, there will be no second step.

Carla DeSola volunteered to be our test subject. She's an experienced choreographer, currently working on a liturgical performance piece, but a novice with computers. I also enlisted the aid of Jason Marchant--a professional dancer who is familiar with Life Forms--as the instructor, because communication from dancer to dancer would make learning easier.

A QUICK TOUR OF LIFE FORMS

Start with the Figure Editor. Figure Editor is where you pose a three-dimensional figure to resemble the dancer in your mind. With thirty-seven articulated segments (seventeen sections in the back alone), it's easy to shape dance positions and attitudes--even express emotions. Toes can be tapping or sur les pointes; hands can be gracefully opened or clenched; backs can be bent and cowed or heads uplifted and defiant. The choice is determined by your vision. You can select a female or male figure in one of four different styles that range from a stick figure to one that looks like a slim Michelin man. To perform a dance sequence, you pose the figure in the beginning position (establishing what is referred to as a keyframe) and in an ending position (another keyframe), then place them on a Timeline.

Think of the Timeline as your score, which shows dancers' positions and the relationships among multiple dancers. Place your beginning figure in the first frame, then place your ending figure ten or so frames away. The program will create all the in-between positions. If you don't like the way that Life Forms interprets the transitions, select one of the figures in between, change its position in the Figure Editor, and the program will redo the sequence using the new form. Of course, this is just the beginning of manipulating the Timeline; you can extend or compress the length of the dance, view multiple dancers, repeat dance sequences, play them backwards, and synchronize your dance to music. The figures you placed in the Timeline will automatically appear on the Stage.

The Stage is where you take your figure (which has, up to now, been dancing in place) and block its movement. It is also where you control the elevation of certain steps. (Be reasonable. Jimmy Gamonet De Los Heros, resident choreographer and ballet master of Miami City Ballet, says that some of his dancers have been known to exclaim, "You don't really expect me to do that!") Blocking the sequence onto the Stage takes the most time because you have to place each step. On the other hand, if you just want to roughly block the dancers to see how the configurations work out and to rectify any collisions, you can do so by sweeping the figures though large paths. The Stage can be manipulated to show various views. You can see your dancers from the balcony, first row, or even from the back--which is useful when teaching other dancers. Three- to five-minute sequences involving twenty or more dancers can be created.

Along with these three basic tools--Figure Editor, Timeline, and Stage--Life Forms has one other that can help the beginning choreographer. Palettes are libraries of dance positions that have already been created. Instead of starting with a brand-new figure, it is often easier to start with one of the existing palettes of poses, then modify it. Life Forms currently comes with a library of thirty palettes. An additional library of three hundred palettes, called Power Moves, is available on a separate disk.

DANCER MEETS LIFE FORMS

I watched and took notes while Jason introduced Carla to Life Forms, observing how uniquely dancers work with a computer. I've watched architects and designers interact with computers, but dancers are different. Only dancers get into dance clothes before sitting down to a computer with Life Forms running. Only dancers spend half of a computer session dancing across the floor. Only dancers refer to a movement as being "in the body" or "not in the body." In our sessions, the term "not in the body" was reserved for figure positions on the computer which were not in the dancers' vocabulary and had yet to be integrated into muscle memory. Whew!

Our sessions were four hours long and spanned three consecutive days. In three days Carla learned enough about Life Forms to create a sequence for her dancers. She didn't use all the bells and whistles that the program has to offer, but she brought her dancer's judgment, and that led her to recognize which of the evolving shapes she wanted to translate into dance.

Day 1: Jason started by showing Carla how to use the mouse and how to open and close the various windows on the screen. After a brief tour of Life Forms, Carla wanted to block eight dancers onstage and move them in a spiral fashion to reflect her labyrinth dance. By the end of the session, she had eight differently colored figures moving in and out of the spiral and could evaluate how the pattern would appear from various angles.

Day 2: The first thing Carla said was, "I can't think with my stockings on." Although palettes of dance shapes were available, Carla set out to create her own figure shapes. As she manipulated the figures, she recognized almost immediately the shape she wanted transformed into movement. It was as though her vision had been captured by the eye, then transferred to the body. Jason demonstrated how the program's "in-betweening" function moved the figure from one pose to the next, but Carla preferred to do it herself, maintaining that that was how she brought the movement into her body.

Day 3: Carla had a rehearsal scheduled that evening, so she worked on choreographing a sequence. Once she created a figure she liked, she took to the floor to see how it felt on her body. Jason and Carla discussed contractions and where on the body the movement was generated. They went back and forth--trying out the movement, then sitting down at the computer.

LIFE FORMS MEETS DANCERS

In the studio we projected Life Forms onto a full-height screen. The computer images were put into motion, with Carla's own dancing adding depth and humanity to the movement on the screen. Her dancers, unfamiliar with Life Forms, started out with arms akimbo, a show-me attitude. After a short explanation of how she had used the program, they quickly took to the lesson, even asking more about the process. The four poses Carla had prepared blossomed into a diagonal entry sequence and a circular passage.

CARLA'S REACTIONS

When the sessions were over, Carla shared her responses to Life Forms. Working with the image on the screen was very much like a collaboration between the choreographer and the computer, she said, with the computer improvising and the choreographer evaluating and making the choice of movements to use. She added that this kind of process encourages you to work outside of your habitual patterns, making a richer choreographic vocabulary. Carla also thought that having unlimited options for shapes trains the eye to see with more exactness and forces the choreographer to distinguish differences in line.

What Carla found out was that you don't abandon your dance skills when you sit down in front of a computer. In fact, it is exactly your dance skills, judgment, and muscle response to the figure on the computer that make Life Forms work. The trick is to use the program in a way that suits your individual style. Work can be very sketchy and still be useful. As Jason constantly reminds his students, "The choreographer's primary task is to make dances--not animations."

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW TO LEARN MORE

How can you learn more about Life Forms if you don't have the benefit of a teacher like Jason (who is writing a guide with tips and tricks designed especially for dancers)? Credo Interactive Inc., the manufacturer of the program, offers demonstrations of Life Forms on its Web site (see below). Credo also maintains a list of more than 100 colleges and universities that use Life Forms; you can search for one in your area.

There is also an electronic mailing list which you can use to exchange information with other Life Forms users. To subscribe, send e-mail to [e-mail]. In the body of the message, type "subscribe" (without the quotation marks) followed by "life_forms_list" (again, without the quotation marks), followed by your e-mail address. For example, Jane Doe, who uses America Online as her lnternet service provider, would type: subscribe life_forms_list janedoeaol.com.

The lnternet offers another new way for far-flung dancers and choreographers to work together. With software like Life Forms, worldwide collaboration with other dancers and choreographers becomes easy, economical, and last.

For example, I wanted to create a ballet passage while working in my office in California. I sent an e-mail request to Rhonda Ryman, Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, for her electronic library of ballet dance forms. (She is compiling electronic dictionaries of ballet vocabulary that will include Life Forms animations.) I received her reply the following day. When I needed help in constructing an animation of a ballet dancer's distinctive walk (remember, I am not a choreographer), I e-mailed my animation file to Lisa Naugle at Simon Fraser University, where she teaches an online class in Life Forms, for an evaluation.

Besides offering easy collaboration, Internet access offers many online treasures for dancers: reference materials, news groups, grant information, reviews from around the world, professional postings--even Dance Magazine (http://www.dancemagazine.com).

HISTORY

How did this spunky little program get started? In the 1980s Dr. Tom Calvert, who holds a triple appointment in kinesiology, computing, and engineering at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, started work on movement analysis, concentrating on dancers and choreographers. This grew into a computer-based system for editing and interpreting dance notation, which is now known as Life Forms. Credo Interactive Inc., which was formed by a group of the original developers, continues to market and enhance the product.

COST AND HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

Life Forms 3.0 for Mac or PC is available directly from Credo Interactive Inc. for $299. Telephone: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; Web site: www.credo-interactive.com. An enhanced version, Life Forms Studio 3.0 which includes Power Moves I and II, lists at $695. (A limited-time introductory offer reduces the price to $495.) Check Credo's Web site for special promotions and the most up-to-date information.

You don't have to have the latest or most expensive computer to use Life Forms. So-called low-end systems currently on the market are more than adequate to run the program. A Power Mac 6500 costs approximately $1,500; a Pentium PC that would do the job, approximately $1,000.

Genevieve Katz writes and reviews computer programs. A balletomane who stopped dancing when she was told she was too tall, she is working on computer-enhanced activities for girls.