Direc­tor Car­rie Thiel is seek­ing to “cre­ate con­nec­tiv­i­ty using mul­ti­me­dia, motion cap­ture and vir­tu­al real­i­ty tech­nolo­gies in a the­atre set­ting.” Work­ing with pro­fes­sion­al dancer Lau­ra Jones, sound design­er Chris Win­ter and 3D180 VR film­mak­er Ed Davis, she’s brought togeth­er some­thing that’s quite spe­cial. 

The per­for­mance itself is short and is designed as a ‘proof of con­cept’. Com­bin­ing motion cap­ture, vir­tu­al real­i­ty, filmed and live per­for­mance it adds the ele­ment of an unre­hearsed per­former (wear­ing the VR head­set). The nar­ra­tive con­cerns Anna (Jones) who is in the stu­dio for the first time after the death of a long­time col­lab­o­ra­tor. She strug­gles to con­cen­trate until she feels some­thing (or some­one) in the stu­dio with her. 

There are two ways to watch. You can choose to be an audi­ence mem­ber where you’ll watch the per­son in the VR head­set inter­act with the live per­former while the scene from the VR is pro­ject­ed onto a screen at the back of the room. You can choose to wear the VR head­set (slight­ly prici­er tick­et) and con­trol the view on the screen as well as inter­act with the dig­i­tal char­ac­ter and Anna. I appre­ci­at­ed being able to watch the sto­ry first as it gave me an idea of how I could inter­act with Jones when I was wear­ing the VR head­set. (I wish I’d sat on the side fur­ther­est from the door so I could see the live, pro­ject­ed, and tech­ni­cal aspects all at the same time!)

This is a sto­ry about loss and Thiel has resources to help any audi­ence members/participants with grief should they react dur­ing the per­for­mance. Her and the team are very clear that any reac­tion is appro­pri­ate. 

One of the best VR expe­ri­ences I’ve had. I’m think­ing more about the sto­ry expe­ri­ence than I am the tech­nol­o­gy.

  • Dance Me to the End on at BATS The­atre as part of 6 degrees fes­ti­val to 15 Feb­ru­ary 2020. Ses­sions at 5:30pm, 6:45pm, 8:00 pm and 9:15 pm. Par­tic­i­pate onstage, watch from the audi­ence or book a pri­vate VR ses­sion.