This project introduces an approach for translating traditional dance knowledge into interactive computational models extending beyond static dance performance recordings. Specifically, this research presents the concept of “Human-AI co-dancing,” which involves integrating human dancers with virtual dance partners powered by models derived from dance principles. To demonstrate this concept, the project focuses on the choreographic principles deconstructed from the knowledge of traditional Thai dance. The principles are analyzed and translated into computational procedures that dynamically manipulate the movements of a virtual character by altering animation keyframes and the motions of individual joints in real-time.
We developed an interactive system that enables dancers to improvise alongside the virtual agent. The system incorporates voice control functionality, allowing the dancer, choreographer, and even the audience to participate in altering the choreography of the virtual agents by adjusting parameters that represent traditional Thai dance elements. Human-AI rehearsals yielded intriguing artistic results, with hybrid movement aesthetics emerging from the synergy and friction between humans and machines. The resulting dance production, “Cyber Subin,” demonstrates the potential of combining intangible cultural heritage, intelligent technology, and posthuman choreography to expand artistic expression and preserve traditional wisdom in a contemporary context.
Klunchun deconstructed the embodied knowledge within the Mae Bot Yai, the fundamental poses underlying Thai traditional performance. He created diagrams and annotations analyzing the 59 constituent movements and postures to catalyze a reimagining of classical Thai dance from a novel perspective. This approach offers an introduction to Thai dance that is free from mythological or ideological influences. Through meticulous movement analysis, Klunchun sought to extract choreographic principles from the Mae Bot Yai fundamentals and gain new insight into their possibilities. His work aims to deconstruct and reassemble the elements of traditional vocabulary, creating innovative combinations that could revitalize the form.
While the digitization approach can preserve the visual form of dance, the deeper knowledge and improvisational techniques remain frozen in time rather than flourishing as living practices.
In 2024, a multidisciplinary team analyzed and translated the principles of Mae Bot Yai and No. 60 into an interactive computational model that extends beyond a mere static recording of a dance performance. They developed an interactive system that allows the dancer, choreographer, and even the audience to participate in altering the choreography of the virtual agents by adjusting parameters that represent traditional Thai dance elements.
The project was debuted at the National Theatre in Taiwan in March 2024. As the human dancer physically challenges, resists, follows, and improvises with the virtual dance partner's computational interpretations of traditional dance vocabularies, intriguing frictions arise that highlight each intelligence's distinct perspectives and capabilities. This dynamism suggests rich questions around autonomy, influence, control, and co-dependence as humans and virtual agents entangle through points of resonance and dissonance. Such interplay prompts vital discourses on the essence of the human spirit and freedom when choreographically coupled with non-human outputs operating in the same social and cultural space.
Co-creator: Pichet Klunchun & Pat Pataranutaporn
Choreographer/Director: Pichet Klunchun
Dancers: Padung Jumpan, Tas Chongchadklang, Chang Hong Chung
King Fai Tsang