Dance Culture in the Digital Age

The purpose of this article is to analyze the existence of dance culture in the context of its active interaction with media technologies. The modern theatrical repertoire offers a large number of experimental performances, which provides a basis for a cultural understanding of dance culture, based on the works of researchers of culture, theater and dance, as well as on the basis of the results of creative searches of choreographers and dancers (lectures and individual performances). The synthesis under consideration generates new stage techniques (formation of space without the use of decorations, direct “interaction” of the dancer with electronic “props”), technical means for rehearsals (tracking movements in space, remote work of the choreographer and the performer). This makes dance art accessible to the viewer making it a part of media culture through musical films and television projects. The article pays special attention to the wide opportunities of the dancer’s self-presentation in the digital space, which requires not only beautiful dance technique, but also technical skills (filming, editing).

It is important that the synthesis of technology and dance is a special case of the relationship between the classical and the modern. This manifests itself in unusual musical works, where genres and musical instruments of different styles are combined, as well as in experimental dance performances in which there is a place for both classical dance and digital technologies as decorations or even participants in the stage action. The article concludes that dance culture continues to develop with the help of media technologies, but it should be borne in mind that further technical transformations will never replace the live movement and expressiveness of the human body with digital effects.

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