“I believe that AI will revolutionize everything,” said Tamara Rojo, artistic director of San Francisco Ballet, earlier this year. “We just don’t know exactly how.” The influence of artificial intelligence on the creative industries is already evident in film, television, and music, but dance, to some extent, seems immune due to its reliance on live performances by human bodies in front of an audience. However, this week choreographers Aoi Nakamura and Esteban Lecoq, known collectively as AΦE, are introducing what is being promoted as the world’s first AI-driven dance production, Lilith.Aeon. Lilith, the performer, is an AI entity who co-created the work with Nakamura and Lecoq. “She” will be showcased on an LED cube that the audience can move around, with their movements triggering Lilith’s dance.
Nakamura and Lecoq emphasize that their interest lies not in simply adopting the latest technology but in enhancing their storytelling. Their experience as dancers with the theater company Punchdrunk led them to immersive experiences, which then led to virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and now AI. Their primary question is always: “How can we bring this technology to life?” However, they are not interested in a scenario where robots take over the world.
The narrative in Lilith.Aeon is inspired by transhumanism (the use of technology to surpass human limitations) and initially started as a script written by an AI bot. Nakamura and Lecoq input all their research – images, audiobooks, discussions – into the AI, allowing them to collaborate and co-create the piece together. The duo established a set of movements, like a dictionary, which Lilith was trained on, but the AI went on to create its own new “words.” They were thrilled when Lilith performed something they had never imagined, but the choreography remains true to their aesthetic. “It’s not random,” Lecoq explains. “I’m not interested in seeing something that looks like a screensaver.”
You can’t discuss AI in dance without mentioning Wayne McGregor. Always at the forefront of technology, McGregor began researching AI 20 years ago. In collaboration with Google, McGregor developed AISOMA, a choreographic tool trained on his 25-year archive of work, analyzing thousands of hours of video to provide real-time suggestions, much like a dancer improvising in the studio. McGregor has utilized AISOMA to create new versions of his 2017 piece Autobiography that vary at each performance. His upcoming project, set to debut next year, is On the Other Earth, developed with Professor Jeffrey Shaw in Hong Kong, which utilizes a 360-degree screen with sensing technology to enable the audience to construct their own experience.
Choreographer Alexander Whitley is also incorporating AI to integrate the audience into his work. In a VR adaptation of The Rite of Spring, he is exploring using the audience’s movement as triggers for avatars trained on a database of Whitley’s choreography. This technology can enhance an amateur audience member’s movements, making them more artistic and synchronized with the music, similar to a dance version of Auto-Tune.
The advancement of technology is rapid. Motion capture technology, once exclusive to Hollywood studios, is now accessible through smartphone apps (such as Move.ai), with much progress driven by the gaming industry. However, there are also potential pitfalls to consider. Video game performers, including motion capture actors, are currently on strike in the US due to concerns about being replaced by AI (similar to the 2023 actors’ strike). Dancers are being recorded by companies to build motion banks, raising questions about rights and royalties for using dancers’ movements (and expertise) to train AI. McGregor notes that in the past, motion-capture contracts often involved a complete buyout. He now aims to collaborate with Arts Council England on intellectual property (IP), motion data, and “ethical AI.” When handled correctly, this could provide additional income for dancers. Jonzi D, from his hip-hop show Fray featuring an AI-generated dancing avatar, quotes, “Coding choreo creates coin.”
But what happens when this income benefits someone else? Dance is an evolving art form, passed down through dance floors, studios, and now social media, making it challenging to determine or prove the origin of an idea. While a dance work can be copyrighted, individual steps cannot, as demonstrated when dancers attempted to sue the creators of the Fortnite video game. Nigerian choreographer Qudus Onikeku is exploring the use of AI to identify and categorize movements in order to establish a dance database and protect intellectual property, particularly for Black artists who have often faced misappropriation.
Artists working extensively with AI are forming partnerships with major corporations like Nvidia, Amazon, and Dell. They understand the technology, and in return, the companies gain innovative ideas, prestige, and crucially, data. This mutual exchange raises questions about selling out versus pragmatism. McGregor advises against being mere technology adopters, emphasizing the importance of being at the forefront of innovation and shaping the conversation from the start. Commercial funding is often necessary to develop tools that could potentially democratize and demystify dance. Whitley is developing software that could be utilized in education, enabling students without prior dance experience to create their own choreography on screen.
“I believe that humans and AI can achieve beautiful things together,” Jonzi D states. However, he notes that much AI-generated content tends to have a similar appearance. “Ultimately, the creative use of AI depends on us,” he remarks. Lecoq agrees, emphasizing that without pushing boundaries further, everything will start to look the same, leading to artistic stagnation. He emphasizes that when creating technology as they go, like AΦE, AI is not a shortcut but a challenging and lengthy process.
Rojo envisions practical applications of AI in dance, such as an algorithm that could streamline the process of recasting a ballet in the event of an injury by quickly identifying available dancers with knowledge of the role, among other factors. However, she expresses concerns about the potential negative impact if composers, set and lighting designers, or choreographers were replaced by artificial intelligence. She warns, “And that is not beyond the realm of possibility.”
The integration of computers into creative processes is not a new phenomenon. “Computers are the future of dance,” declared choreographer Merce Cunningham in 1995, who had already been utilizing the LifeForms program for six years to manipulate avatars on screen and translate the results to his dancers. The goal was to break away from dancers’ natural tendencies, where one movement instinctively leads to another, and discover something new, a challenge that choreographers have always faced.
So, is the increasing role of AI in the dance industry a positive or negative development? Alexander Whitley avoids viewing technology as strictly a savior or destroyer, acknowledging the inevitable disruptions it brings to industries alongside the exciting possibilities it offers. McGregor remains unconcerned about the notion of dancers being replaced, focusing instead on using technology to deepen our understanding of the complexities of the human body. He emphasizes that technology is far from replicating the brilliance of the human body. Human virtuosity and creativity remain paramount. Watching dance involves recognizing the limitations of the human body intimately and seeing those boundaries pushed. This loses its significance if an avatar can perform anything. McGregor explains, “There’s no risk in the digital realm.” Even with AI interventions in choreography, Whitley insists that when performed by a living, breathing human, it becomes a meaningful and tangible experience. Nakamura agrees, emphasizing that a real person replicated on screen serves no purpose, but in Lilith.Aeon, she aims to create something unique that cannot exist in any other form. Although AΦE is at the forefront of AI innovation, Lecoq clarifies that they are not particularly interested in technology. “My favorite technology is my washing machine and microwave,” he jokes.
Lilith.Aeon will be showcased at La Filature, Mulhouse, France, on October 30-31. Alexander Whitley is curating the Digital Body festival in Hackney Wick, London, on November 15-17.
“