This is an application that I created for Jane Franklin Dance called The Mouse of Amherst. Adapted from the book by Elizabeth Spires, this dance is targeting children and imagines a friendship between Emily Dickinson and a mouse. The setting is based on Emily Dickinson’s bedroom in Amherst, MA.

For this piece, I decided to create a new kind of projected work that is not pre-recorded but instead is played in real-time as a video game. Originally, I had wanted to have the choreography of the animation controlled by the dancers, but ultimately we decided to just have the game play itself automatically. This is called a ‘cut scene’ in video games, as it is not video but an example of the game graphics presented in a controlled manner. Click the small thumb to the left to launch the game. I’ve created an interface to allow users to jump to the various scenes. Scene 10 and 12 are a couple of my favorite sections and are what is playing in the video.

The video above is from a recent performance at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, you can view this section at the 17:45 mark on the Kennedy Center’s web site here.

media: projection, PC