Dancing Through Light: Making Personal Space a Stage

As a Lighting Designer, I will be adapting Western lighting design techniques to be impactful, appealing, and cohesive for the entirely online performance of Random with a Purpose XXIX: Continuum. This project includes using at-home and accessible lighting tools available to the dancers, as well as natural outdoor lighting, to create a space that feels like a stage for the dancers and builds connections between people, audiences and company. The inspiration and connections are built from studying site-specific, screen and stage dances; as I work with dancers to create a variety of designs I will also analyze their responses to my questionnaire to find if a shift in lighting can re-center their personal spaces as a performative stage space. Through analysis of the responses, I found that communication and connection begin with acknowledgement of the tools and space to then allow creativity to stretch and grow as a community