AUTOMATIC COMPOSITION OF DRAMATIC MOVEMENT

Analysis and Algorithm for Creating Contemporary Dance Sequences

Asako Soga and Bin Umino*

Faculity of Science and Technology, Ryukoku University, 1-5 Yokotani Oe-cho, Seta, Otsu, Japan

* Faculty of Sociology, Toyo University, 5-28-20 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Keywords: Human Animation, Dance, Automatic Composition, Motion Capture.

Abstract: We have developed an automatic composition system for contemporary dance by using 3DCG animation.

Our goal is to develop some useful tools in dance education such as creation-support system for teachers

and self-study system for students. Our approach is not creating natural connection but creating conceptual

sequences. As a result of previous experiment, we recognized the connecting method was not so important

for contemporary dancers. We try to create short sequences that have dramatic stories according to the

structure of Chinese poetry in ancient times. The basic movements of contemporary dance are classified and

analyzed. The algorithm for automatic composition is integrated to create utilitarian choreographies for

lessons. This system is valuable for online virtual dance experimentation and exploration by teachers and

choreographers involved in creative practices, improvisation, creative movement, or dance composition.

1 INTRODUCTION

Our research approach focuses on creating and

composing choreographies for dance. Our goal is to

develop useful tools in dance education and creation

such as a self-study system for students and a

creation-support system for teachers. We have been

developing a Web-based interactive simulation

system with automatic composing function for ballet

using 3D motion archive (Soga et al., 2007). Using

our proposed system, one can interactively compose

or automatically create ballet sequences. As a result

of past evaluation, we verified that the created

choreographies had a possibility to be used in the

actual lessons.

In this research, we suggest an automatic

composition for contemporary dance. Ballet

encompasses the most basic movements and its

method is strictly defined. The method complies

with esthetics of formal beauty of ballet which has

been brought up for 400 years. It is easy to consider

and integrate into the system. On the other side,

contemporary dance has no basic steps and no limit

of motion. Therefore creating automatic composition

algorithm for contemporary dance is our present

challenge.

In 1980’s, Merce Cunningham used the

computer software called LifeForms to discover his

original movement. This software is the most

famous application that can compose and edit dance

scores. In recent works (Calvert, 2005), it has been

extended to computer notation systems by using

Labanotation, which is one of the most famous

dance notations. By using this system, the user can

simulate strictly scored dance animation. However,

it is difficult to compose creative and effective

choreographies. Our basic concept is “to separate

dance movement into elemental motions and use

them like building blocks.” The basic approach is

creating rough list of a sequence for contemporary

dance.

In recent years, 3-dimensional motion data is

often used in researches because it is getting easy to

record human motion by using a motion capture

system. There have been many studies for creating

new motions by using human motion data such as

controlling parameters of motions (Perlin, 1996),

blending some resources (Pullen, 2002). Our

approach is not creating natural connection such as

motion graph (Kovar, 2002) but creating conceptual

sequences.

We conducted an experiment on the automatic

composition system for ballet and contemporary

dance to evaluate its practicality (Soga & Umino,

2007). Three professional contemporary dancers

who well know ballet evaluated the ten sequences.

322

Soga A. and Umino B. (2008).

AUTOMATIC COMPOSITION OF DRAMATIC MOVEMENT - Analysis and Algorithm for Creating Contemporary Dance Sequences.

In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications, pages 322-325

DOI: 10.5220/0001100003220325

 SciTePress

Each sequence was created by automatically with

a simple algorithm that is selecting each movement

from beginning to ending randomly.

As a result, no sequence was evaluated as

“cannot be performed.” In the case of contemporary

dance only, no movement was evaluated as “difficult

to perform.” This means that whatever sequences we

create they can dance. The dancers enjoyed how to

connect each movement and they said that they do

not want the exact choreographies because the

connecting way is the originality. We recognized the

connecting method was not so important for

contemporary dancers. What they want is creating

unexpected but conceptual choreographies. Owing

to these ideas, we aim to create a rough list of basic

movements so that the dancer can arrange and

express their own choreographies.

We suggest an automatic composing algorithm

for contemporary dance. As we mentioned before,

there is no rules in contemporary dance and strict

algorithm is not recommended for them. However,

in the case the algorithm has no rules the created

choreographies have sometimes no meaning.

Therefore, we try to create short sequences that have

dramatic stories according to the structure of

Chinese poetry in ancient times. Before describing

the algorithm, we classify and analyze the basic

movements of contemporary dance.

2 CLASSIFICATION AND

ANALYSIS OF MOVEMENTS

2.1 Classification of Contemporary

Dance Movements

First we have archived motion data of contemporary

dance. As there is no basic step in contemporary

dance, a choreographer made a list of basic

movements that can be used in contemporary dance.

In the present we have archived 53 kinds of basic

movements performed by a professional dancer by

using motion capture system.

Table 1: Classification of contemporary dance

movements.

Family Number Examples

BodyParts 22 NeckRoll, ArmsSwing1,

Balance 14 LegRound, OffBalance1

Jump 5 Jeté, SideDive

Pivot 4 ContractionStenu

Floor 8 BackRolling

Total 53

Table 2: Analysis of basic movements.

Family Start Repeat Once End

BodyParts O O X O

Balance:On O X X O/X

Balance:Off O X O X

Jump X X O O

Pivot O X O O

Floor O X O O

Then we classified these movements into five

categories: BodyParts, Jump, Balance, Pivot, and

Floor. BodyParts is a movement that can use one or

more body parts such as neck, arms, shoulders and

hip. Balance is the movement that is related to body

balance such as standing in one leg. Jump and Pivot

are almost same to ballet but it is used in the

contemporary dance choreographies. Floor is in the

case they do not stand on their legs such as lying

down or rolling. This is one of the typical

movements of contemporary dance. Table 1 shows

the number of basic movements and examples of

each category.

2.2 Analysis of Basic Movements

For creating choreographies automatically, we

analyzed four features of each category. They are

“Start,” “Repeat,” “Once,” and “End.” Table 2 is the

analysis result of these features. For analyzing these

movements, we divided Balance into two families;

Balance:On and Balance:Off according to the

existence of balance.

“Start” is the movement that can start a

sequence. We defined that all category movement

except Jump can be started because a jump needs a

preparation such as a hop.

“Repeat” and “Once” are related but not

exclusive. “Repeat” is the one that can be

continually repeatable, while “Once” is that can

appear only once during a sequence. In the case of

short sequences, most of dynamic movement is

enough to appear only once. Therefore, we define

that each movement of Balance:Off, Jump, Pivot and

Floor can be used only once. We also define that

BodyParts movements are repeatable. Balance:On

movements are not “Repeat” and not “Once”. These

are not continually repeatable but they can

intermittently appear some times.

All category movements except Balance can end

because off balance movement is difficult to finish

the sequence. In addition, some of Balance: On

movements such as a hop are not allowed to end

because a hop is the preparation of a jump and

expected to continue other movement.

AUTOMATIC COMPOSITION OF DRAMATIC MOVEMENT - Analysis and Algorithm for Creating Contemporary

Dance Sequences

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Table 3: The course of order and our interpretation.

3 AUTOMATIC COMPOSITION

3.1 Basic Concept

For contemporary dance lesson, considering how to

connect movements by dancers is important.

Therefore we prepare a rough list of basic

movements in order that the dancer can connect each

movement freely.

We make a rough list of movements by selecting

each movement randomly. To create a dramatic

sequence, we have integrated the structure of

Chinese poetry in ancient times to the algorithm,

which is the course of order; Introduction,

Development, Turn and Conclusion. The basic

concept is that a movement starts and lasts smoothly

then something changes and ends. In this research

we define that most dynamic movement can be

appeared in the Turn section. Table 3 shows our

interpretation of each section for creating dance

sequences.

3.2 Algorithm for Automatic

Composition

Figure 1 shows a transition diagram for creating

contemporary dance sequence. We suggest an

algorithm for automatic composition.

At first a movement for “Turn” is selected from

Jump, Pivot, Floor and Balance:Off. This is the main

movement and can appear only once.

In the second step, a movement for “Conclusion”

is selected. This should be different from the

selected movement in the first step. In the case of

short sequences such as 8 beats, selecting no

movement is acceptable unless the movement is

Balance:Off.

In the third step, a movement for “Introduction”

is selected. This is selected from except “Jump”

because “Jump” cannot be a starting movement.

This should be also different from the selected

movement if that has the “Once” feature.

(a)

Introduction

(c)

Turn

(d)

Conclusion

Start

End

(b)

Development

Figure 1: Transition diagram for contemporary dance

sequence.

At the last, movements for “Development” are

selected until the sequence has enough beats. In this

step, we consider if a movement is repeatable or not.

We also consider the selected movement is used

once or not.

4 CREATION RESULT

Figure 2 shows an example of created sequence by

automatic composition. This is a 13 beats sequence

created by the proposed algorithm. At first JumpHop

was selected as a “Turn” movement. Then

BodySwing3 was selected as a “Conclusion”

movement and ShoulderUpdown was selected as an

“Introduction” movement. The rest of movements

were selected as “Development” movements.

5 CONCLUSIONS

We tried to create short sequences that have

dramatic stories according to the structure of

Chinese poetry in ancient times. The basic

movements of contemporary dance were classified

and analyzed. The algorithm for automatic

composition was integrated to create utilitarian

choreographies for lessons. We verified the created

choreographies have short story and our system has

possibility to create dramatic movements.

In future works, we try to analyze longer pieces

and create more complicated sequences for creative

works. We aim to develop a system that can

automatically create some sequences like a specific

choreographer by introducing the function of the

choreographer.

Section Interpretation

(a)Introduction Starting movement

(b)Development

Similar and repeatable

movement

(c)Turn

Most dynamic movement that

can appear only once

(d)Conclusion Ending movement

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My special thanks are due to for providing us with

the motion capture studios in Kanagawa Institute of

Technology to capture the contemporary dance

movements. We also wish to thank to Motoko

Hirayama and Kazuya Kojima for their cooperation.

This research was partly supported by the Grant-in-

Aid, The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,

Science and Technology, Japan.

REFERENCES

Soga, A., et al., 2007. Automatic composition and

simulation system for ballet sequences. The Visual

Computer, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 309-316.

Calvert,T., et al., 2005. Applications of Computers to

Dance. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications,

March/April 2005, pp. 6-12.

Perlin, K., Goldberg, A., 1996. Improv: A System for

Scripting Interactive Actors in Virtual Worlds. Proc.

of SIGGRAPH 96, pp. 205-216.

Pullen, K. , Bregler, C., 2002. Motion Capture Assisted

Animation: Texturing and Synthesis. Proc. of

SIGGRAPH2002, pp. 501-508.

Kovar, L., et al., 2002. Motion Graphs. Proc. of

SIGGRAPH2002, pp. 473-482.

Soga, A., Umino, B., 2007. An Attempt of Dance

Sequence Composition - Blending Ballet and

Contemporary Dance -. In ENACTIVE07, Proc. of 4th

International Conference on Enactive Interfaces, pp.

409-412.

Introduction Development

Development

Turn Conclusion

Figure 2: Example of created sequences by automatic composition.

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