129 East 7th Ames, Iowa 50010 515 232-7374  fax 515 233-9290 Email for more info

2002-2003 Season

Ashes to Ashes / Dance Driving
November 9 at 10am
Howe Hall Audiorium
Howe Hall, ISU Campus
VWC’MDT is very excited about using virtual reality to change the way dance is presented to and perceived by an audience. We are very fortunate to live in one of the few towns in the entire country that has a C6 Virtual Reality Cave. This interactive device that displays computer-generated environments is located in Howe Hall at Iowa State University. Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira of the School of Engineering will direct the technical aspects of the performance. Dr. Anne Deane, a professor in the Music Department, will be composing original music and spacialized sound for this work, and our own Valerie Williams will be choreographing.
The C6 is a room in which the walls, floor and ceiling are rear-projection screens capable of displaying high-resolution stereoscopic (three-dimensional) real-time computer graphics. During an interactive C6 experience, participants are able to freely move into and around objects and places that appear within the virtual space defined by the projection walls, as they would move in a real world space. Live dancers will be able to interact with virtual dancers.
After the performance, audience members will be invited to participate by putting on the system controls.
Ashes to Ashes - Dance Driving will be based on the personal memories of the survivors of the September 11 attacks of New York’s World Trade Towers. It will be a tribute to the resiliency of the American spirit. The second part of the title, Dance Driving, comes from the process of this project: that dance is driving the technology that will be used to exhibit and broadcast the performance.
This prototype of Ashes to Ashes - Dance Driving will move to the Supercomputing Conference in Baltimore, MD in November. The performance will then be maintained and broadcast throughout the USA.

Advent Vignettes
November 9 at 7:30 pm
Music Hall
ISU Campus
Valerie Williams will dance with Jeff Prater's music, played by Elizabeth Ann Sadilek.

Site Map
November 10 at 2pm
Brunnier Gallery
Scheman Building, Iowa State Center


(Kids' Co'Motion)
July 25 - 26, 2002    7:30pm
Ames City Auditorium
6th St. between Grand and Clark


Valerie Williams Co'Motion Dance Theater is in residence at Iowa State University Department of Health and Human Performance