Interfaces Between Don Idhe, Merleau-Ponty, and Gretchen Schiller´s Embodiment Concepts Applied to Mediadance

2. Schiller’S Concept Of Mediadance

Gretchen Schiller (2003) coined the term mediadance to designate a category of art that encompasses all contemporary dance works in which the digital elements are integrated with the choreographic elements as compositional components; it explores innovative forms of body’s representation and seeks expansion of perception, sometimes including interactivity in its experiments. There are many examples in dance history, before the digital era, of choreographies in which technology was used to transcend the body’s biological limitations such as the introduction of the point shoes, in 1832, in the ballet La Sylphide; the use of wires to make dancers ‘fly’ or gas lighting to create ‘supernatural’ effects onstage in many romantic ballet pieces. However, we can consider together with Schiller that the work of Loie Fuller represented a breakthrough in dance history, in the late nineteenth century. Fuller used light artifacts to extend and multiply her body image, or even to transform it into animated shapes. By doing so, Fuller brought a new and revolutionary concept of body into the world of dance, which is now widely explored and implemented within the realm of mediadance.