With this new project, entitled Choreographies, I want to explore the intersection of choreography and algorithmic art. Choreography, although it can be defined in many ways, refers here to the practice of specifying the movements of x number of bodies.
Algorithmic art, on the other hand, is a mode of artistic creation in which the artist – instead of directly producing a work of art – writes an algorithm which, once executed on a computer, will produce a work of art shaped by the aesthetic constraints set by the artist when developing the algorithm.
Although the design of algorithms capable of generating works of art began in the 1960s, the majority of these experiments focused on the production of visual artworks, and few choreographers attempted to design systems capable of choreography.
Probably the most notable choreographic artist to have tackled this was Merce Cunningham, who in the 1960s with John Cage developed a procedural decision-making system, which he used throughout his career to shape aspects of his work; and who, in the 1990s, worked with programmers to develop Dance/Life Forms, a software program with which he could specify, generate and visualize the movements of dancing bodies…
— Cassiel Gaube
Cassiel Gaube
1994, Belgium, lives and works in Brussels and Paris.
Cassiel Gaube’s work is situated at the intersection of multiple kinaesthetic and choreographic practices. His artistic approach stems from a desire to experiment sensitively with the forms and methods specific to each of them and to bring in dialog these various approaches to movement.
In his solo Farmer Train Swirl – Étude, he crystallises a series of formal and compositional experiments that take as their main point of departure his experience of the practice of house dance. Soirée d’études takes this exploration of the kinaesthetic possibilities of house dance a step further and consists of a series of short choreographic objects, each focusing on a specific region of this space of possibilities.
In the research project ftwrk, he is developing and formalising a system of notation specifically designed to model and describe, in the form of numerical values, all weight shifts (from the support of one or two feet to the support of one or two feet) that the human body is capable of.
In parallel with his projects, he has a long-term collaboration with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. In 2019, she commissioned him to create choreographic phrases for the new stage version of West Side Story, which she then choreographed for the American producer Scott Rudin. And, in 2022, in a new collaboration, they co-created Dark Red – Neue Nationalegalerie, which they performed together in Berlin in March of that year.
In 2022, he is commissioned by Le Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon to create a solo for one of the dancers of the company in the context of the program Danser Encore. The work premiered at the Centre National de la Danse, in Paris, in October.
In 2019, he was an associate artist at the Parisian institution La Ménagerie de Verre and in 2021 artist in residence at the Centre National de la Danse, in Paris.
Cassiel is a graduate of the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S.), Brussels, and studied at the Juste Debout School, Paris.
Studio’s opening: date to come
Free on reservation: adriana.falcone@ccnr.fr
Artistic direction & choreography: Cassiel Gaube
Artistic direction & algorithm: Tyler Hobbs
Art design & video: Zéphir Moreels
Production: HIROS
Photo : Farmer Train Swirl, Cassiel Gaube, 2019 © Luc Depreite