PRACTICE By Helen Bailey, Principal Lecturer in Dance and Artistic Director Ersatz Dance,

Abstract: This paper will focus on the practice-led research of dance-theatre company, Ersatz Dance and how the Company has negotiated and defined the relationship between live and mediated performance in their work. It will track the evolving relationship the Company has with a range of technologies. It will focus on the impact of recent research using virtual research environments (VREs). It will consider the ways in which VREs can provide a new context for practice-led research in dance. It will focus on the role VREs have played in defining new methodological approaches to composition and the contribution to the ongoing debates concerning ‘presence’, ‘liveness ’ and ‘virtual embodiment’ in performance