Foci blends video, dance, music elements in one

Nestled intimately in the dimly lit room, the dozen or so audience members laughed together and traded professional experiences at Windfall Dancers' production of "Foci" Friday. According to the press release, "Foci" is designed to explore the tension between multiple perceptions of the present. It specifically explores dancers performing in real time against dancers on screen via digital imaging, looping and other imaginative uses of video technology. The dancing is then set up against a soundscape that underscores and draws attention to itself. \nSaxophonist Marty Belcher said he likes performing the project in front of new audiences. \n"The improv audiences tend to be other musicians who understand the language we're using but that limits the turnout," Belcher said. "It's nice playing to people who have never heard or seen anything quite like this." \nThe press release described the music played by the Guth 3-tet as a rhythmic underpinning through hand drums and an avant jazz and classical vocabulary made by two saxophones. It is a blend of ancient sounds and has a modernist feel. Though the music was featured in the Windfall 2003 performance, it had to be approached differently with the added element of live video. The musicians have to know exactly where the the audience's attention is focused. \nThe performance featured the dancing of Laura McCain and Kay Olges, music from the Guth 3-tet Belcher, Lee Guth and Chris Rall, and videographer Rob Dietz. \nMcCain said the video component of the performance was exciting. \n"It's amazing to see your own image projected on a large screen and then see the same image transformed into something else entirely," she said.\nThe projection of the dancers allowed the audience to see the dance as more than bodies moving through space. The dance became light, color, texture and sounds. \nDietz taped and filtered the dancing through a computer that reflected, mixed and merged images onto a white screen behind the dancers. This process amplified and modulated the movements of the dancers and generated shifting environments with which the dancers interacted. \n"I can't think of a similar production that has been shown in Bloomington," he said. \nIn the future however, the group may take on another multimedia project. March 24, Dietz will be involved with "Projections and Selections" at Bear's. He described the event to be much like "Foci."\n"It will feature cut up video with DJs providing the soundtrack," he said.\n-- Contact staff writer Stacey Laskin at slaskin@indiana.edu.