First Steps

watch a quicktime movie of the premiere showing

The key idea behind this work is that we think not just with our heads, but with our whole bodies. Our intelligence comes not only from our mastery of logic, but also from the physical and emotional interactions we have with the world and with each other.

For this project, we have not been teaching dance to the children, but rather learning with them what dance can become. Thus, we haven't instructed them in ballet techniques, for example, but rather encouraged them to explore the full range of ordinary movements (walking, running, turning, jumping), and then let them invent new movements of their own.

The same approach worked well in constructing the MindStorms Lego robots. Here again we weren't teaching computer science to the children, but rather allowing them to discover it as they invented new ways for the robots to move.

Of course, constructing and programming a robot is in fact of matter of pure physics and logic, but a curious thing happens when you put these robots onto a dance stage with the children. Suddenly you start seeing the robot's expressive qualities emerge. They start to seem like characters. Since they're considerably smaller than the children, they perhaps seem like their pets: but rambunctious pets, not perfectly obedient ones.

When the children are dancing and interacting with the robots, what theyŐre really exploring is our future: for our future will involve ever more complex interactions between software and people.

What better place to explore that interaction than on the dance stage?"

The first public presentation to come out of the Movement workshops is called "First Steps". It will be presented as a work in progress at the Interactive Concert of the 3rd World Summit on Media for Children. Lead choreographer Ana roman describes this work as follows:

"First Steps is the first public presentation of the Movement project. For the creation of this piece we decided to invite non ballet or dance trained children to experiment with the possibilities of developing and relating their own movements with the building and programming of LEGO MINDSTORMS robots; we then combine these elements.

The intention of "FIRST STEPS" is to have the children interacting with the robots and to support the childrenŐs creative thinking, rather than creating a finished product.

We would like this process to be a fun period by keeping the spontaneity of the children's movement alive as well as the spirit of art, learning and playing.