Audience Can Now Digitally Interact With The Show 'February Dance: Designed Environments'

Most public events like plays or concerts don't allow the audience to keep their cell phones switched on during the performances. A new show is going to change that age old unsaid rule by introducing a new application at the February Dance: Designed Environments where the audience can use it while the play is ongoing.

According to The News-Gazette, during the weekend dance program, February Dance: Designed Environments organized at the Colwell Playhouse at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana, people will be allowed to use their cell phones while the event is in progress. The audience will have to download an app by means of which they will be able to interact with the ongoing program and will even be able to shake a leg with the artists on the stage. During the first piece of the event "Critical Mass", the app named "CM2=E" can be used to give the viewers an engaging experience.

The audience members will get repeated invitations via the installed app to join the dancers on stage. The app will invite and inform the audience about the live participation. Apart from that, a large cube will be placed right in the center of stage displaying texts and selfies from the members of the audience through the use of the app. Some of the music composed by Ken Beck will also be audible through the app as well as the auditorium loudspeakers installed for the February Dance: Designed Environments. 

As per John Toenjes, the mastermind behind the groundbreaking idea of February Dance: Designed Environments, four pairs of dancers will be performing together at tandem at one portion of "Critical Mass". The audience will have the liberty to vote for their favorite pair using the app. In between the technical hustle bustle, sometimes there will be a dark graphic coming on the screen of the app users that will make them look away from the gadget and concentrate on the real dance happening on the stage.

February Dance: Designed Environments is not the first time that Toenjes and company will be using an interactive app at an event. The UI dance department did a technical gig earlier in 2014 February during their dance piece "Kama Begata Nihilum", where the audience pointed their mobile phones on a screen placed behind a giant robot called "iPad Man" on the stage to see interactive displays of color and increased reality on cue via the app.

According to the Krannert Centre, February Dance: Designed Environments will see performances from choreographers Charli Brissey, Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, with guest artist Chad Michael Hall, and Renée Wadleigh who will make most of these environments via computer interaction and ever changing social movement, submerging the audience in an incredible experience of live dance. 

This unique experience offered by the February Dance: Designed Environments will be a first for many in the audience and it is expected to amaze them all. Event will take place at the Colwell Playhouse on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 7:30 pm onwards.

TagsFebruary Dance, Krannert, Urbana, Performance Art, Interactive