Les Gestes

Bringing the dialogue between dance and music to new heights in the choreography-concert Les Gestes.

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Summary

Les Gestes is a collaboration between four groups: the Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (IDMIL), the Digital Composition Studios (DCS) and CIRMMT – all at McGill University – and Montreal-based choreographer Isabelle Van Grimde and her dance troupe Van Grimde Corps Secrets. Bringing dance and music into a heightened dialogue, the piece features a string quartet made up of two musicians and two dancers, whose movements generate and transform sound through innovative digital instruments.

Objectives

This project is the sequel to an initial collaboration, Duo pour unvioloncelle et un danseur (2008), where live music was transformed and spatialized by the dancers through a cutting edge digital musical instrument known as the T-Stick

Two dancers manipulating motion-sensitive digital instruments during a performance of Les Gestes
Les Gestes: Marjolaine Lambert & Sophie Breton; photo credit: Michael Slobodian

Stemming from a three-year collaboration with CIRMMT, the goals of this project were to:

  • Explore the interaction between dance and live music using motion-sensitive digital instruments.
  • Extend the dancers’ bodies through technology to create new sonic and spatial experiences.
  • Fuse artistic performance with technological innovation to expand perception and understanding of the body and music.
  • Design and build new DMIs addressing key challenges:
    • New form factors appropriate for dance and musical performance, building on the T-Stick.
    • Advanced mapping strategies for digital signal processing.
    • Robust wireless data transfer between instruments and computers.
    • Integration of vibrotactile feedback in DMIs.
    • Embedded synthesis engines within the instruments.
    • Extending gesture-sound relationships into the domain of dance.

Timeline

2010-2013:

  • Following Duo pour un violoncelle et un danseur (2008), Les Gestes designed musical instruments as extensions to the human body that would react to changes in movment and to many other types of parameters: pressure, heat, speed and displacement, etc.
  • Status: Completed in 2013 with a culmination of works at Agora de la Danse and performed internationally, showcasing the fusion of choreography, live music, and interactive technology.

Context

This project continues the artistic and research trajectory of Duo pour un violoncelle et un danseur, where the live music was captured, transformed and spatialized by the performers by a new digital musical instrument, called the T-Stick. Les Gestes deepens this exploration by using prototypes developed at the Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory (IDMIL), blending contemporary choreography with real-time sound transformation. The work highlights how art and technology can converge to open new perceptual worlds and creative possibilities.

Approach

A dancer and cellist interacting on stage during a performance of Les Gestes
Les Gestes: Soula Trougakos & Elinor Frey; photo credit: Michael Slobodian

Dancers perform with custom-built digital musical instruments designed at IDMIL and CIRMMT (Schulich School of Music, McGill University). These instruments extend the performers’ physical gestures into sound, enabling direct musical expression through movement. The piece merges live instrumental performance, choreography, and interactive technology in a single sensory experience.

Dancers and musicians create an intimate fusion of sound, movement, and technology throughout the performance. On a four-sided stage illuminated by geometric projections, luminous sculptural instruments respond to the performers’ gestures, producing ethereal harmonies intertwined with live violin and cello music. A dancer explores these futuristic instruments through tactile, animal-like movements, forging a primal connection between body and sound. As the performance unfolds, the boundaries between dancer and musician dissolve—gestures and music become one. The result is a poetic, sensory experience where technology enables “music that can be seen and dance that can be heard,” transcending traditional choreography to inhabit the space between movement and sound.

Outcomes & Impact

The project demonstrates new ways for dancers to become live music performers, transforming physical motion into musical expression. The collaboration advanced sensor-based instrument design and artistic integration, showing how technology can become an extension of the human body in performance.

Key outcomes include: 

  • Expanded artistic vocabulary at the intersection of dance, music, and digital media.
  • Inspired further research and artistic creation within CIRMMT and IDMIL, with a continued influence on interdisciplinary performance research.
  • Audiences offered a refined, visceral sensory experience that redefines the relationship between movement and sound.

People Involved

  • Instrument conception: Joseph Malloch*, Marlon Schumacher*, Isabelle Van Grimde*, Soula Trougakos, Sophie Breton
  • Instrument design and fabrication: Joseph Malloch, Ian Hattwick*
  • Composition and mapping: Sean Ferguson* and Marlon Schumacher*
  • Direction: Sean Ferguson (music), Isabelle Van Grimde (dance), Marcelo Wanderley* (research)
  • Choreography / Artistic Director: Isabelle Van Grimde
  • Dancers / Performers: Soula Trougakos and Sophie Breton
  • Musicians: Aiyun Huang (percussion), Bryan Holt (cello), Marjolaine Lambert (violin), Elinor Frey (cello)
  • Costumes design: Pascale Bassani
  • Lighting: Bruno Rafie
  • Costumes: Pascale Bassan
  • Electronics: Eliot Britton*, Marlon Schumacher*
  • Research Assistant: Anthony Piciacchia

*CIRMMT regular, collaborator and student members

Partners

A dancer lying on the floor with a motion-sensitive digital instrument during a performance of Les Gestes
Les Gestes: Sophie Breton; photo credit: Michael Slobodian

Granting Agencies / Funding Sponsors

Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et la Culture (FQR-SC) - Programme Appui à la recherche‐création

Resources

Keywords

Research-creation, Dance-music interaction, Interactive performance technology, Gesture-based sound generation, Digital musical instruments, Interdisciplinary research-creation

Opportunities for Engagement

Performances, workshops, and research collaborations through CIRMMT and Van Grimde Corps Secrets:

Potential engagement with technology and dance research groups for further exploration of gesture-based instruments.

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