Stirred by the ways in which schools and universities have had to pivot in 2020 for educational outreach, The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) at George Mason University in collaboration with its School of Dance, just announced the official launch of The LIVE Center. Also known as The Center for Live Interactive Virtual Education, it’s the new digital home for the School of Dance and all academic units in the college.
The project is the brainchild of Heritage Professor of Dance Christopher d’Amboise, who identified last year a method of video conferencing that would allow life-sized, full-body interaction in educational settings. That led to the Moving Story Window Wall, which enables a teacher working remotely to be projected live and life-size onto the wall of a studio at the same time a live feed of the students is projected for the teacher, allowing for more seamless interaction than traditional videoconferencing. Today, Window Walls are set up in four studios for up to 40 students with a minimum of 10-feet of social distance.
Once the pandemic hit and in-person learning was suspended, moving forward with the creation of The LIVE Center became crucial for dance and other instruction.
“The LIVE Center is a place where innovation literally is a moving target—a place where constantly changing ideas about exploring new technologies for teaching, creating, producing, and presenting work across all the disciplines can find fertile soil,” said Rick Davis, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, in a statement. “[It] has already made breakthroughs in how dancers interact with each other across vast distances.”
In addition to allowing for safer, physically-distanced dance classes, this new technology has been used for outdoor campus events including dance film screenings and student-choreographed performances.
On Dec. 10 at 7 p.m., the School of Dance presents the world premiere of Running to and Toward: A Dance Film by Hope Boykin. The piece features 38 dance majors and made use of the Moving Story Window Wall to allow the dancers to work with Boykin remotely from her home in New York City. Streaming on the Center for the Arts’ website, YouTube channel and Facebook page, it will remain available for viewing on the website after the premiere.
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