Motion Capture Dancing

2016 AICP Sponsor Reel - Dir Cut from Method Studios on Vimeo.

Jitterbug! started out a screenplay. In the earliest iteration, I saw the climatic dance contest using SFX to reinforce the magic of the moment: to win it, to blow everyone's mind in the Savoy, Tharbis would be thrown straight up into the air directly above Billy. As she continued to rise like a helicopter, like an inverted top, her skirt flying out to the sides, Billy would fall away into a split in order to accentuate the distance between them. When she reached her zenith and began to fall back, Billy would rise in a smooth reverse split just in time to catch her and to throw her around his back in one seamless move. Now I don't think that is necessary any more. Now I encourage choreographers to "reach into the future" for moves the 1930's have never seen before to win the contest. In retrospect it seems right and natural to do that because it would compliment the music in the dancical, music that traces the evolution of jazz from a 1907 piano riff by an unknown tunesmith for tap dancers through the 30's collaborations between blacks and Jews, and into the sixties and seventies with the evolution of jazz by Ellington into symphonic masterpieces and the very modern disruptive influences of Ornette Coleman's dissonant "Free Jazz."  That said, I still think the above video showing how far SFX has come is muy inspiring especially when applied to dance.