josephine g. dorado [email protected]+1.646.228.9100 http://funksoup.com Page 1 of 8 Instant Online Collaboration: Just Add Dance Vision While there are many virtual world programs, there is no other program or methodology which leverages theater and dance specifically towards virtual cultural exchange and identity exploration, nor is there any other existing initiative that leverages a shared virtual space to realize a body of cross-cultural interplay frameworks based on the common language of dance, games, and theater. Given the state of migration worldwide and the growing globalization and cultural exchange made possible by pervasive technologies such as the Web, this project has the potential for far-reaching impact not only for the field of dance and dance scholarship, but for international youth development, cultural integration, education and other arts initiatives as well. Background Cultural exchange is at the heart of international conflict resolution, yet the experience of cultural exchange through traveling is not accessible for many youth. When I was awarded a Fulbright grant in 2003, the experience was transformative, both personally and professionally, and the value of learning about another culture was something that I wished to pass on to others. In 2005, the seed of an idea developed. Based on my previous background in dance and performing arts, technology and the hybrid platform of networked performance (theater in a virtual space which enables performers in geographically dispersed locations to perform together), I initiated the Kidz Connect project, which is a virtual cultural exchange program that connects youth in different countries through creative collaboration and performance in virtual worlds.
"Instant Online Collaboration: Just Add Dance" focuses on the use of dance frameworks for online collaboration and linking physical to digital actions. Written by Josephine Dorado for Fulbright's Selma Jeanne Cohen Award received in 2012 for international scholarly research on dance.
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Connect, was a mixed reality performance project that involved bringing kids together from
the Macondo refugee community using dance, mapping, storytelling and Teen Second Life
(see Image 1 below).
Image 1. Macondo Dance Connect: youth from the Macondo refugee community create dances based on their heritages and map them to their avatars, exploring different cultural identities. The video
screens in the background display the students dancing in ‘real life’. The mixed reality experience of virtual+physical bridges the gap between physical, digital and its mixed possibilities.
The Macondo Dance Connect project required reaching out to the Macondo refugee
community on the outskirts of Vienna, where the students originated from a myriad of
cultures including Chechnya, Cameroon, Syria, Pakistan, Chile and Iran. The objective of the
Macondo Dance Connect project was to re-connect youth from the refugee community to
their native cultures by allowing them to creatively discover their own history, current living-
Image 3. #IdentityMashup lab: participants in NYC and Seoul share improvisational dance movements while storytellers’ faces are mapped to shadow avatars, creating hybrid physical-online
identities that were simultaneously distorted and revealing.