We are grateful and amazed to see ever more expressiveness and sensitivity between the human dancers, and between humans and dolphins, as well as the increasing complexity and nuance in the exchanges of improvised movement. We hope the teaser above stokes interest in seeing more of what was happening in these extraordinary moments. The contributions of our supporters will make that possible.

This year, we were fortunate to be able to continue the development of our underwater dance work with human dancers Kathleen Fisher and Jillian Rutledge, as well as with the dolphin dancers. Our summer session with the Atlantic Spotted dolphins was memorable for the relationships we continue to forge with two mothers Tipless and HalfPec and their young daughters, Eclipse and Demi (the first two dolphins in the video above). We first met Eclipse and Demi as newborns in 2015, and since then, we have seen them becoming more interested and more capable of diving and interacting with us, as we are also gaining skills to dance with them. Of course, we also love seeing long-time friends like Scratchy. He’s getting older and has less time for us, but nonetheless makes regular appearances to say ‘hello’ (buzzing the camera at night in the video above). Our fall session in the Pacific Ocean was also very satisfying, particularly for the increasing richness and expressivity that we see in the dances amongst humans in the deeper waters there.

This year was particularly memorable for the premiere of “Dolphin Dreams,” produced with generous support from many of our supporters and the New York State Council on the Arts. We were very pleased for the recognition it received, winning Silver at the Our World Underwater competition in February. In October, we visited with our collaborators/advisors Howard and Michele Hall, when “Dolphin Dreams” screened as an official selection of the San Diego Undersea Film Expo. Please stay tuned for additional screenings.

Earlier this year, we enjoyed working with our first intern. In case you missed them, you can still read her “Ask Chloe” posts, where she answered readers’ questions about dolphins on our blog.

Over the summer, we participated in an invigorating retreat on improvisation hosted by Susan Sgorbati, Elena Demyanenko and Susie Ibarra at Bennington College. In the beautiful new Center for Art and Public Action building, we gathered with an intimate group of scientists, scholars and artists.. Participants offered observations and experiences from a wide range of disciplines including not only dance, film and music, but neuroscience, physics, and philosophy. Recognizing how improvisation can be such a profound and powerful antidote to the social and environmental ills of modern civilization renewed our motivation to continue investing in our project and sharing our work as widely as possible. We thank Susan and Elena for the invitation to the conference which is still energizing our thinking and learning.

Our most recent blog post celebrates a sweet and meaningful moment with Anna Halprin, with whom we had the chance to share our work this fall. We were very touched by the response of this venerable dance-maker and teacher, who – at 97! – continues to inspire dancers, choreographers and audiences to discover and rediscover the beauty of their authentic selves, and of the natural world to which we belong.

Facing the future, we are not without trepidations. It was a near miss for our Atlantic Spotted dolphin friends with hurricanes Irma and Maria this year – and it’s likely that destructive hurricanes will become more common as the oceans warm. In the Pacific, we have seen coral reefs dying, and struggling to come back. The priorities and policies of our own government hurtle us ever faster towards environmental crisis that threatens the oceans, and the wellbeing of marine and terrestrial creatures alike. We feel how precious is our time with wild dolphins and this opportunity to increase understanding about who they are. We hope it contributes to the shift in priorities on which their future and ours depends.

We welcome your support of our mission. Your donations will help us produce our next film and reach new audiences with the extraordinary images you see in the highlights from this past year.

The post 2017 Highlights appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

Radiohead’s #RHVignette competition inspired us to work with a beautifully textured score, to reach new viewers, and to experiment in a more graphically creative way with the connections between dancing in the studio and underwater.

The competition offers a chance to be promoted by Radiohead on their website, and perhaps to make a video for a future song.  If you like our submission, please share it with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Below is the alternative, widescreen version:

The film features Kathleen Fisher and Chisa Hidaka, with cinematography by Benjamin Harley. Produced and Directed by Chisa and Ben, it is set to an instrumental version of ‘Daydeaming’, from Radiohead’s new album ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’. The film is dedicated to one of our most generous supporters, who is full of so much love she can embrace both Radiohead and Dolphin Dance Project with room to spare. Special thanks to Jillian Rutledge, Yuki Kusachi, and Kayoko Sawamura for their tremendous contribution to the development of this work.

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“Angle of Refraction” was an experiment to see if we could produce a live event that offers an immersive experience, just as we do for our film audiences. Our intent was also to share with the local community the work we do (without dolphins) to train and prepare for our on-camera improvisations with wild dolphins. It was a kind of ‘thank you’ to the humans who are always so welcoming to us, and who are so attentive to making this location a safe place for the dolphins.

An audience of snorkelers watched “Angle of Refraction” from the surface. For 20 minutes, the dancers (Kathleen Fisher, Chisa Hidaka, Yuki Kusachi, Jillian Rutledge and Kayoko Sawamura) repeatedly dove down 30 feet or more, spiraling, arcing and dancing our way up the water column in duets, trios and finally a quintet.

And there was also a dolphin audience that gathered as the performance progressed, repeatedly passing by as if to check out what was going on. Their unexpected appearance was a delightful surprise. I wonder what they thought of the event?

Johanna, who was in the (human) audience for “Angle of Refraction” observes in the video that dancers were ‘blending in with Nature’ and that through them she was able to feel ‘so connected’. That’s exactly what we hope for our audiences.   Instead of showing humans standing uniquely separate (and above) all other creatures, we embrace the possibility of being an integral part of our ecosystem as we dance in the ocean’s depths.  The angle of refraction refers to the shift in perspective that Johanna experienced and that we wish to convey to all of our audiences.

In 2014, we returned our focus to developing our dance on film.

In our recent films, the camera actively participates in the movement, so the audience also feels the sensuous, fluid motion of an underwater dance. In this example there is an attentiveness to the camera work, just like the ‘physical listening’ the dancers use to discover the spirals and arcs we do to compliment those of our dance partners. This is how we use the ‘magic’ of film to bring the experience of dancing in the ocean, of relaxing the separation between what is human and what is ‘natural’, to distant audiences.

Isadora Duncan said, “You were once wild here. Don’t let them tame you.” And the call to be more ‘wild’ or more ‘natural’ has remained a strong thread in the works of modern and contemporary choreographers in America to this day.  We feel privileged to extend this lineage into the ocean, dancing in the deep.

The post Angle of Refraction appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

Come See Dolphin Dance in 3D

on The Big Screen in NYC!

Sunday, December 7th at noon and 2pm

Tickets HERE

We are excited to announce a unique opportunity to see our most recent 3D work projected in a big screen theater!

The program will include a pre-release preview of  Dolphin Dreams* shot by Emmy Award-winning underwater cinematographer Howard Hall with an original score by Grammy Award-winning composer and cellist David Darling.

We will also preview several short 3D films featuring our full cast of beautiful dolphin dancers: Kathleen Fisher, Yuki Kusachi, Jillian Rutledge and Kayoko Sawamura.

Several talented members of our ‘pod’ of NYC dancers – Carly Czach, Elise Knudson and Tim O’Donnell – will grace the stage for a live performance amongst virtual dolphins.

Let’s fill the house! One of the most valuable things you can do to support us right now is to share this event with anyone you think might enjoy the show.

The one hour program will be presented twice:

SO CLOSE 3D: DANCE WITH WILD DOLPHINS

Sunday, December 7th
Screenings at NOON and 2 pm

SVA Theater
333 West 23rd Street

TICKETS are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. FREE for children under 16 when reserved in advance.

*It’s not too late to support the finishing of “Dolphin Dreams”. Even if you can’t join us at this screening, for a donation of $50 or more, you will receive a DVD of the film, when it is completed. Donations can be made at checkout when you purchase your ticket, or at our website, where you can also see a full list of perks. Thank you!

Co-produced with Dance Films Association, with support from Artist as Citizen.

So Close 3D is made possible in part with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, as well as funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. LMCC.net

The post So Close 3D: Dance with Wild Dolphins appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

If you have a pair of good old Red/Cyan 3D glasses, you can watch this video right on your computer (and if you don’t have a pair, we can send one to you).  If you have a 3D TV it will look even better. There are instructions for 3D viewing at the end of this blog post and in the comments under the YouTube video.

Dolphin Dance in 3D: Sample

We make our films to provide an experience where you actually feel what is being exchanged and communicated between the dolphins and the dancers. The 3D effect seems to enhance that feeling substantially by providing the sensation of actually being under the water with them.

We’d love to hear what you think.  Feel free to post a comment below or on our FB page.

If you don’t have 3D glasses, or you just want to compare and contrast, you can watch a high quality 2D version here:

Ultimately, our ambition is to share this experience and its story on giant screens in educational venues like discovery centers, natural history museums – all of these almost exclusively screen 3D films. So we decided to see for ourselves, how it might look … and we built our own custom 3D rig, with two high definition cameras, some optimistic thinking, and a fraction of what we would pay to use a commercial system.

After seeing the results, we are more enthusiastic than ever about seeing this work in giant screen venues. While we build the financial support we will need to do a feature shoot with a commercial system, we are also considering how we can share this 3D experience using our custom rig, perhaps by creating installations using 3D televisions.

We recorded this footage during our rehearsals this summer (see our last blog post). In addition to Hugs and Kisses, we were joined by a mother dolphin – who we refer to as Flower – and her less than one year old baby, Buds. In the close up shot, as Hugs hogs the camera, you can see Buds making a successful loop with Yuki by staying very close to mom.

(To learn more about how dolphin babies learn to dance with humans from their moms, see our previous video – Introducing Jalapeño.)

We want to give a big shout out of thanks to our dancers. We so appreciate their talent and commitment. It is thanks to their extraordinary ability to establish a moving relationship with the dolphins and with each other, that we are able to see a connection between species we might otherwise think impossible. We also want to thank Sophie Ellen for contributing a track from her debut album as our sound track.

We are immensely grateful to our donors who helped to make this experiment possible (and also to the extraordinary high seas skills of Captain Scott).

HOW TO WATCH IN 3D:

You can watch on your computer wearing Red/Cyan glasses, but the quality of the 3D effect and the image will be much better on a proper 3D TV.

To watch on your computer with Red/Cyan glasses (If you don’t have a pair, we can send one to you: donate through our online store):

1) Open the Youtube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrLsn7vIlrY

2) Go to the pop up menu in the ‘cog wheel’ at the lower right hand corner and choose 3D

3) Under ‘Options’ choose ‘Full Color’ and ‘Red/Cyan’.

4) If your internet connection and computer are reasonably fast, you’ll want to view in 1080HD.

5) Be sure to watch in Full Screen. If the image is too small, you won’t see the 3D effect.

To watch on a 3D Television with the specific glasses it requires:

1) If your TV is connected to the Internet, you can use the YouTube app to watch the video. Open the YouTube app on your TV and type in the identifier: UrLsn7vIlrY.

OR

2) Otherwise, you can connect your computer directly to your TV and play the YouTube video in Full Screen. Choose the 3D option ‘side by side’ rather than Red/Cyan.

3) Use the TV remote to choose to convert 2D ‘side by side’ to 3D.

posted by Ben Harley

The post Dolphin Dance in 3D appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

During our second week, we met a couple of delightful young Spotted dolphins whom we named ‘Hugs’ and ‘Kisses’. They had come for a bow ride with adult dolphins – their mothers or perhaps babysitters. But by the time we entered the water, the chaperones were out of our visual range, and although the youngsters were only 4 or 5 years old, it seemed the adult dolphins willingly trusted them to play with us. On that first meeting, we danced until twilight. We finally left the water when it became too dark for us to see. Young dolphins like Hugs and Kisses are at the age when developing alliances – best friendships – is important. So it wasn’t surprising that we saw these two together several days in a row. Eventually, they danced and twirled with us in such close proximity, we felt they were offering us hugs and kisses!

We were very happy to make new dolphin friends and happy also that our human ‘pod’ was able to rise to the challenge with grace underwater and above. We were pleased to see how all our rehearsal training – which we do in placid, tranquil bays – paid off in the chop and strong current of the open ocean. Even amid the challenges, we were able to hold our breath, keep our form, flow with the dance – so we could enjoy our new dolphin friends.

We were a ‘pod’ of human dancers: Jilly, Kathleen, Yuki, Kayoko – along with Ben and me. We’re so grateful to the talented group of dancers who are volunteering their time, and giving so much of their passion, energy and talent to developing the human-dolphin dance with us. Jilly is from Canada, Kathleen from Bimini, and Kayoko and Yuki from Japan. The last time this group worked together was in December, as seen in this video clip. We so appreciate the opportunity to continue our ongoing rehearsal and development process with this international cast.

Rehearsal dance featuring (in order of appearance): Chisa Hidaka, Kathleen Fisher, Kayoko Sawamura, Yuki Kusachi and Jillian Rutledge. Videography by Benjamin Harley.  Music by Loren Kiyoshi Dempster.

Our main work over the last few months has been to complete our next film, “Dolphin Dreams‘”. We captured one last critical clip on the most recent trip, so now we can finish editing and soon hand over the film to David Darling to create the original score. At the same time, we have also been busy keeping up with our outreach and education efforts.

In April, we made a presentation to the Dance MFA program at Smith College. Our presentations at universities, schools and other venues is an important part of the outreach/education component of our work. We really enjoyed our presentation to the advanced dance students such at Smith, and to colleagues such as Chris Aiken, the program director who extended us the invitation, as they gave us the opportunity not only to educate, but to participate in a high level of discourse about the artistic and other implications of making dance with non-human collaborators.

In a concert in NYC in May, Ben and I had the opportunity to experiment with presenting live dance (a duet we performed) with our underwater video footage of dolphins. We are grateful to the NYC Chinese Cultural Council for having given us the opportunity to present our work in this way. And we were pleased by how using live dance allowed us to show the connections between the human dance (contact improvisation) and the movement of dolphins and to demonstrate how the human-dolphin dance develops from there. We were also very pleased to share the evening with talented emerging choreographers Kevin Ho, Ching-I Chang and Nico Li.

Following our recent presentations and our challenging, but fruitful recent trip, we are more inspired than ever to share our stories of our dolphin partners and the dances we are able to create together. Join our mailing list, and you can stay tuned for our next film, and many new clips to come!

The post Human Dolphin Dance Continues To Develop appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

We were lucky to be working with a perfectly complimentary ensemble. Kathleen Fisher (previously featured in ‘Trio Corkscrew“) is an impeccably trained professional dancer with many years experience in the water, and a ‘natural’ at free diving. Jillian Rutledge, new to Dolphin Dance, is a trained free diver who is a ‘natural’ at the dance. Both have plenty of experience moving with wild dolphins in the ocean.

Perhaps, given all this experience, the surprising thing is that it took work and rehearsal to become coordinated! The dolphins make underwater coordination look effortless…but for the humans, it requires a real focused effort.

We worked not only on the technical aspects of diving and breath holding, but also on an approach to movement that honors an environment where the weight of our bodies is completely supported. We worked on expanding our peripheral vision and increasing our sensitivity to water flow on our skin, so we could ‘keep track’ of our fellow dancers, stay close to them, stay with them in their movement intentions. We danced on the beach, in the back yard of our rented apartment and of course, in the ocean. We regularly made 1 minute or longer dances that traversed a water column greater than 40 feet deep.

In some ways, it always felt as easeful and sensuous as it appears. But it is also a fact that no matter how warm the water, we were always freezing by the end of a rehearsal session. We were also often exhausted – working on limited oxygen can be profoundly tiring!

Just as important as the skills we honed was the development of our relationships. Working with an intention for ease, grace and harmony it felt very natural to develop a sweet camaraderie. I wonder if it is this way for the dolphins? They are always so gentle and generous with us. It is hard to resist imagining that the dolphins’ personalities may be shaped by their continuous practice of ease, grace and harmony in their every move.

We knew we had accomplished something when one day towards the end of our time together, as we made our long swim back to shore from rehearsing among ourselves in a bay where the dolphins had not appeared, we realized that we felt just as satisfied as if we had been dancing with the dolphins.

Posted by Chisa Hidaka

The post 60 Seconds Dance appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

(you can also view this video on youtube)

In this ‘sneak peek’ from one of our rehearsals, the dolphin we know as CrossBite patiently gathers Jillian, Chisa, and Kathleen, and leads them in a slow spiral.  When Kathleen gestures and takes the lead, CrossBite follows her and guides the other two dancers to sustain the quartet’s lovely arc.

As the second year of the Dolphin Dance Project draws to a close, we are grateful for all the support and encouragement that has allowed us to achieve so much.  Our first film “Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins” has screened at more than 20 film festivals, pro-cetacean events and educational programs all over the globe. Our PSAs and other online clips have been viewed more than 50,000 times.  In the last six months, we organized more than six weeks of intensive training with several dancers … and thanks to the renown underwater filmmakers Howard and Michele Hall, we have amazing footage to share in our next short film.

With your continued support, we will be able to realize the potential of Howard’s stunning super high definition video to marvel audiences on giant IMAX screens.  Interest in and development of our feature length documentary will accelerate. Please consider a holiday donation to the Dolphin Dance Project this season.  Your contributions help build awareness about who wild dolphins are and transform how our societies appreciate and care for dolphins and their habitats around the world.

… and please continue to enjoy our work and spread the word!

In January 2012 (exact date TBA), “Together” will screen at the Artivist Film Festival in NYC. We’re also very pleased to announce that in 2012 it will be a part of Earth Island Institute’s children’s cetacean education program. We are always pleased to offer this film in support of pro-cetacean events and educational programs…please contact us if you would like to screen our film at yours.

Thank you for joining us in our work – by watching, by sharing, and through your generous donations of time, expertise, equipment and funds.

Thank you for all you do on behalf of dolphins and their habitats – for becoming educated about the issues, for informing friends, family, colleagues and others and for making even small changes in your own life. A special thanks to all the organizations and individuals who devote so much of their resources to protect our dolphin friends and all the creatures of the ocean.

Most of all, we are deeply grateful to the dolphins for their inspiration and generosity. It is an absolute privilege to honor them through our work.  We would like to share our wish for the well-being of all dolphins and cetaceans:  our endeavor is for them, and we hope that our films combine with the efforts of the many other individuals and organizations dedicated to the cause of increasing harmony between humans and cetaceans everywhere.

Best wishes for a joyful holiday season from the Dolphin Dance Project to you!

The post Thank You for Sharing the Dolphin Dance appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

The precise coordination of the dolphins movements never ceases to amaze me, not only because it is so thrilling to experience, but because it speaks so clearly of the intentionality of the dolphins’ participation and also of the cooperative relationships between the individuals. Amid a group of beautifully synchronous dolphins, I wonder – can humans join together in this way? Can humans be harmonious and unified enough so that a second, even third human dancer could join in the swirl as elegantly as two or three dolphins might join in?

This was the challenge for Kathleen, Ben and me during a recent rehearsal week.

Working with a resident pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, we explored how to move in synchrony with the dolphins and with each other. We were fortunate to be on this trip with talented photographers Yukiyo Sakai and Takaji Ochi, a highly regarded nature photographer in Japan.

Kathleen, Ben and I all have experience dancing with dolphins. Yet joining another human dancer in a swirl of dolphins was not always easy…or even possible. Just keeping track of each other in the water was often difficult, with masks limiting our view. How do we keep our bodies aligned with each other when we are too close to see the other person fully? or when the other person is above, to the side, or otherwise out of view?

As we worked, we experienced what we already knew – that the dolphins are much more expert in this dance than we humans are. With eyes on the sides of their heads, their field of view is much, much wider than ours…their bodies are streamlined with no arms and legs to dangle this way and that…their skin is exquisitely sensitive to the flow of water all around them. For them to stay in sync seems much easier than it is for us.

For dolphins, it seems, unison is not only a skill for which they are anatomically and physiologically well-equipped, but an activity that is necessary for survival and full of social meaning.

The smallest calves are expert at following their mothers’ every move, maintaining ‘baby position’ under mom’s belly everywhere she goes. By necessity – mother can’t hold the baby’s hand or strap him on her back or in a stroller. Slightly older, juvenile dolphins tumultuously swirl around but then suddenly transform into an orderly unit as one of the moms or older siblings –  a babysitter – rounds up the troops.No doubt that moving in synchrony helps keep the pod – and especially its youngsters – safe from harm amid the ocean’s vast expanse. Perhaps through its lifelong practice, synchronous movement even becomes an expression of unity that gives the dolphins a sense of belonging or safety.

To think that the dolphins willingly invite humans into this dance of inclusiveness seems incredibly generous and trusting. It is hard not to feel grateful, being allowed to join the dolphins in this intimate way. It gives us motivation to learn to communicate through this important ‘dolphin idiom’ of synchrony as we work towards an ever-more communicative interspecies dance with them.

[See more of our rehearsal photos in a Flickr slideshow]

To support the development of future dance films and an upcoming documentary, please visit our Donate page, download our first film “Together“, and share our project with all your dolphin loving friends and family.

The post A Pod of Spotted Dolphins and Three Human Dancers appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.

Has the dolphin noticed that we were practicing moving with each other like dolphins?  Does he intend to show us?  Has his interest simply been piqued to join in?  One thing is certain, there is an attempt to engage in a moment of meaningful, shared movement – we are all listening to each other, we are all working hard to be connected.

Kathleen is a beautiful dancer, whom I met years ago, when she lived in NYC, dancing for the Trisha Brown Company. Kathleen has been living in Bimini for several years in order to spend more time with dolphins.  Following my week with Diana Reiss’ research trip last August, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with her as the Dolphin Dance Project begins to explore the possibilities for composing dances with multiple humans.

In 2011, our goal is to develop this work and for several humans to dance with each other like the dolphins dance amongst themselves – fluid groupings of synchronous members gliding and twirling, often in unison, sometimes in tender physical contact. I am  eager to experience the dolphins’ reactions. How will they dance with us if we can show them that humans can be cooperative and harmonious underwater, just like them? Will it mean something to the dolphins? As dancers, we can also explore the emotional impact on us of moving this way together.  We will be asking questions like these and documenting them on video as we develop the material for the feature length dance film and documentary we aspire to make.

As we work on the next phase of our project, we will offer more of these previews … and we will continue to let you know about additional screenings of “Together,” our award-winning debut film. In January, we have a few screenings in NYC:

On January 15 between 4 and 8.30 pm, “Together” will screen during the Japanese American and Japanese in America (JAJA) New Year’s party at the Japanese American Association (JAA) Hall at 15 West 44 Street, 11 floor. Admission is free and you will enjoy many performances and exhibits by Japanese and Japanese American artists living in NYC.

On January 27th at 6 pm, our festival tour continues with a screening of  “Together” on the Big Screen Project, a huge new outdoor screen near 6th Avenue between 29th and 30th Streets in NYC as part of the 39th annual Dance on Camera Festival. The best viewing will be from Bar Basque, which will be hosting the Dance on Camera short film celebration that evening; but “Together” and the other short dance films in the program will be visible from the street, the Eventi Hotel plaza and Foodparc.

If you can’t join us on the 27th, the Big Screen Project will show “Together” and the Dance on Camera shorts program several times following the celebration. For specific dates and times, please check their calendar.

As always – thank you so much for continuing to support us through your Facebook ‘likes,’ Tweets, word-of-mouth and your attendance at our screenings.

Happy New Year!

The post Popping the Cork on an Exciting New Year! appeared first on Dolphin Dance Project.