During 2007, members of the ASL designed, manufactured and programmed six life-size robots for a 60 min stage production of ‘Swan Breaks’ in collaboration with the Hip Hop dance company Robert Hylton Urban Classicism (RHUC) which premiered at the Laban Theatre, London on 11 October 2007.
A Dance Story of love and betrayal between the natural world, humans and technology, Swan Breaks is an adaptation of ballet classic Swan Lake. Hylton is the modern day Siegfried, bored with the same attention-seeking women he searches for his perfect virtual beauty. Hooked with his lust for Odette, he is dragged into a downward spiral of addictive love, masterminded by Rothbart. Who is she, Odette or Odile, a man made fantasy. Is this computer love gone wrong with the potential for reality in personal relationships present and future?
http://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/videos/1o1s
Length of work: 60 minutes
11 performers: 5 human and 6 robotic systems
- Supported by Arts Council England, Laban, Southbank Centre, with collaboration from Product Design & Engineering and Rescen, Middlesex University.
Reviewed at:
http://www.emmawee.com/page19.htm