Projection and Dance Come Together for a Good Cause in Abu Dhabi

Two dancers are left to themselves, occupying a giant stage, tiny in appearance beneath a massive wall. But as soon as the performance begins, their presence grows by way of luminescent particles and streams that react and extend their every movement. As it progresses, the entire wall is filled with shapes and colors, either moving around the performers and making space for them, or exploding with each motion to add emphasis to their subtle dance. And it's not just the performers that these visuals interact with, it's also the music. As new sections are introduced to the composition, fresh colors and designs appear on the wall. It's a tightly choreographed piece where all sections play off each other.

This is the second time Barcelona-based media studio Tigrelab and the Sacude dance company have worked together, the first being a vertical mapping project where the dancers performed high on a wall, dangling from wires. This new ceremony was created to honor researchers making advancements in the fight against thalassemia, a rare type of anemia. The whole performance was put together in one month, from the initial concept, to the live show in Abu Dhabi.

To create the visuals, Tigrelab used motion graphics programs After Effects and Cinema 4D with two full-HD, 20,000-lumen projectors, o​ne at the front and another at the back: "With this, we were able to play with two different video timelines, one projected on the dancers and another behind them to underline their silhouette, giving a more immersive personality to the piece," they tell The Creators Project.

At certain points in the performance, the visuals explode, firing high up the multi-story wall to encompass the full interior of the space. Once the team showed up for rehearsals (for which they were given only two days) they found out that the agency was already using extra projectors to cover the venue’s walls with animated wallpaper. They decided to take advantage of them at the last minute. "We worked all night on our laptop in the hotel room after rehearsals and designed four or five extra effects," they say. "It worked really well, it was awesome!"

To learn more about the production, click here.

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