Body/Traces: 30 second trailer from Sophie Kahn on Vimeo.

Body/Traces (USA/Spain) was an EMPAC Dance Movies commission for 2008-9, supported by the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts – Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA.

Body/Traces is a digital stop-motion 3d animation composed of thousands of 3d laser scans, made with a DIY laser scanner made from LEGO.

It is designed to be shown projected in a darkened room for a small number of visitors, with the dancer at life-size and the video on a continuous loop.

Body/Traces premiered as part of the Fall 2009 Season of EMPAC’s Dance Movies Commission, supported by the Jaffe Fund for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. For more information, see the schedule of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, located in Troy, New York.

An article featuring the four works of the 2009 Dance Movies Commission appears in the online edition of the Times Union.

Body/Traces has been featured recently in Ghent, Belgium, at the DANSCAMDANSE Dancefilm Festival. More information may be found at the website for the International Festival of Ghent for Dancefilms/New Media.

In February, 2010, Body/Traces traveled to Tokyo’s National Arts Center. Body/Traces was one of the “Jury Recommended Works” of the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival.

In April, Body/Traces was featured in the Festival International de Vidéo Danse de Bourgogne.

Body/Traces will feature in two festivals on the same weekend this June: the International Videofestival of Bochum, Germany, and the Dance Camera West Dance Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, California.

Co-directors: Sophie Kahn and Lisa Parra
Choreographer: Lisa Parra
New media artist: Sophie Kahn
Dancers: Lisa Parra and Tina Vasquez
Sound: Sawako Kato
Editor: Lisa Parra
Editing assistance: Silvia Zaya Serra
Engineering assistance: David Barrett-Kahn

For more on my work with Lisa Parra and others please see lanaproject.org.