Sneak Peak behind the Curtain. Picture courtesy Fauve Aeon
Ballet Pixelle is a group of individuals dedicated to ballet and dance in Second Life. The company is under the direction of Inarra Saarinen, who also creates the original hand-crafted and motion captured animations and original choreography for the productions. A distinctive feature of the productions are that these animations are never encoded or synchronized as is usual in Second Life, instead being triggered, ‘danced’ if you will, by the dancers themselves individually on cue in the proper sequences. No poseballs, no scripts. Real dance.
Since I am a life-long dance student in RL, it was natural for me to seek out ballet and dance performances in Second Life. My first attendance of a Ballet Pixelle performance was The Nut (based on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker) in 2008. I was lonely over that Holiday season and sought out a tradition from my childhood. While expecting something closer to a student dance recital, I was amazed to find a performance of professional quality.
The company produces full length original ballets as well as highlights and shorter works. Dancers with real life training work with professional choreographers, often using original music too. It is amazing that the dancers come from all different parts of the world and yet are able to “dance together”, timing their original animations to the music with such artistry. Just like in RL, it took many hours of rehearsals inworld to make complex choreography seem ‘effortless’.
Most recently, Ballet Pixelle was featured at the Immersion 2014 conference. Ms Saarinen had this to say after a recent performance:
“If we perform without an audience, is it dance? We were proud to perform live in Los Angeles yesterday at the Immersion 2014 conference on immersive technology in education, arts, and entertainment sponsored by Disney and Target. We were one of 15 featured presentations. We have several very exciting shows coming up as a result. We were also starting to motion capture some LA hip-hop dancers…so watch out ballet! Stay with us for the ride.”
The ride began officially in 2007 and 14 full original ballets and countless performances later, Ballet Pixelle is still one of the most fascinating and magical things I know of in Second Life. And now the reach of the company is growing as global real-life auditions for choreography studies and motion capture began in early May of this year.
Ballet has skilfully made the lofty leap from the real to the virtual and back again.
Ballet Pixelle performance. Picture courtesy Fauve Aeon