Fleming collaborates on dance work video to be presented at Gold Series No. 3

A still from “A New Kind of Weather, No. 1,” created by Jesse Fleming, Laurel Jenkins and Lewis Pesacov.
A still from “A New Kind of Weather, No. 1,” created by Jesse Fleming, Laurel Jenkins and Lewis Pesacov.

Fleming collaborates on dance work video to be presented at Gold Series No. 3

calendar icon02 Dec 2020    

Lincoln, Neb.—University of Nebraska–Lincoln Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Arts Jesse Fleming has collaborated with a team of artists on a dance work video to be presented at Gold Series No. 3 on Dec. 4-5.

Gold Series No. 3 is a performance series that includes a virtual gathering and dance event on Dec. 4 at 9pm CT and Dec. 5 at 7pm CT on a live stream via YouTube and Zoom.

The Gold Series is an annual experimental dance event curated by Gold Collective, bringing together performances that address ever-changing ideas and themes of gold. This year’s Gold Series No. 3 considers what we find most valuable right now: the gold we find at home, resting within, at the bottom of our being, alone together, engaging in the world to repair and right the wrongs, even as balance becomes more difficult to maintain.

The evening includes five dance works and conversations with the artists. 

Fleming, along with dancer and choreographer Laurel Jenkins at Middlebury College in Vermont and musician and composer Lewis Pesacov of Los Angeles, will present “A New Kind of Weather, No. 1,” a new choreography that interacts with technology to expand the interiority of the dancing body.

“I’ve been working in virtual production for years, but this is the first time shooting a film entirely in a virtual space,” Fleming said. “It’s unified my background in cinema/video art with my background in virtual production. I’m really excited to open up to this and chomping at the bit to keep doing more. I have lots of new ideas.”

The project was created remotely and simultaneously over three states—Vermont, California and Nebraska. 

“At my lab, the Perceptual Technologies Lab (PTL) at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, we created custom software for a room scale living instrument in which Laurel could dance through while wearing a motion capture suit,” Fleming said. “Lewis programmed the sounds and designed the midi system and thought through the generative process of chance music triggered by Laurel’s compositions. The three of us worked together directing our parts from Zoom during one day of performance and capture. Then using the motion capture and audio, I created the virtual world and video with PTL Technical Lead Shane Bolan. We have many iterations to come, including a live version with spatial audio and midi driven lighting for a theater in the round environment.”

To join the virtual studio on Dec. 4-5, visit https://www.coretocoeur.com/app/teacher/3124/profile and click “Count me in!”

For more information on how to view Gold Series No. 3 and join the virtual gathering, visit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nxt1iYGzSY7ARv39x0QHHupjt7uOQNHviyfKycp528o/edit?ts=5fb5b661 or send an e-mail to goldseriesla@gmail.com.