Studying Choreographic Collaboration in the Wild

Abstract

Dance making is often a highly idiosyncratic, collaborative endeavour between a choreographer and a group of dancers that constitutes a rich context for designers of creativity-support tools (CSTs). However, long-term, ecologically valid studies of collaboration in dance making are rare, especially when mediated by digital tools. We present a 5-month field study in the frame of a dance course, where a choreographer and six students used a CST originally designed for choreographic writing. We contrast our findings with our initial assumptions about the role of the tool to mediate a diversity of notating styles and hierarchical roles. We highlight the value of and the challenges behind this in-the-wild study in uncovering needs and roles as they emerged over time.