The final project combines live dancing and recorded movements projected on the wall behind the dancers. Credit: Courtesy of Andi Pei
Urban Arts Space at Ohio State presents the brand-new project “Behind Body,” a combination of filmmaking and choreography put together by three dance students.
“Behind Body,” a dance film project, analyzes the digitalization of the world and of the body. Andi Pei, a Master of Fine Arts student in dance, said she created the project to look at what dance would look like in an entirely digital world.
Pei is part of the Master of Fine Arts cohort in the Department of Dance, which has been presenting various artworks throughout this semester. She set up “Behind Body” with two students, Gianna Buffano and Luyan Li, both third-years in dance, who she contacted last year pre-COVID about participating in her MFA project.
Pei learned Chinese dance growing up and later moved to contemporary dance. She also developed filmmaking skills over the years, and she said she used “Behind Body” to showcase her talent for interdisciplinary creation.
When in-person dance classes and performances were put on hold last year, artists resorted to different mediums of artistic expression, especially digital ones. Pei said she was lucky to be able to work with the two dancers in person.
“We had a chance to come to the studio to work with their real body to see how they can cooperate to correspond to the digital version of themselves,” Pei said.
Pei said she learned about COVID-19 earlier than most Americans because all her family lives in China, and the pandemic was a catalyst for her reflection on digitalization in dance and how it could impact the future of dance.
Along with the two dancers, Pei chose nine words that summed up their feelings during the pandemic such as “seeking” and “peeling.” They started discussing these feelings and Pei recorded the discussions and made them into the soundtrack for the film.
The dancers created their choreography based on those words and phrases. Pei said she put the dancers in various places around campus and filmed different pieces of their movement.
“It’s just the two of us, almost as a duet, but it’s also a duet with ourselves because of the projections and the videos that we are dancing with,” Buffano said.
The first performance of “Behind Body” occurred at the Chadwick Arboretum on the agricultural campus in 2020, without any projections in background. Buffano said this outdoor performance strongly contrasted with the one they recorded for the exhibition, which was performed in the motion lab inside Sullivant Hall, this time with video background.
“When you change the space, you change the way the movement is perceived and perceived on the body as well,” Buffano said. “In the motion lab, we have more space to move, as well as more freedom with the amount of projectors that there are to dance with.”
Buffano said she appreciated playing a large role in the creation of the project and not being just a “backup dancer.” Pei helped to shape the movement of the dancers, but they were free to bring their own stories to it.
“Dance is probably one of the most powerful things in the world. Movement is our first language,” Buffano said. “A lot of people forget that — especially now with art programs being cut — it is a voice for people to speak when they do not have the words.”
“Behind Body” is on view at Hopkins Hall Gallery from March 19-26.
