Discover The Mix Of Moves & Media

gendance chatted with Francesca Harper on the day of her premiere at the Alvin Ailey 50th Anniversary Gala. Our topic of discussion? The trend of digital dance. Judith Jamison chose Harper’s piece herself for the red carpet event at the Apollo Theater. Here’s why…

Francesca Harper studied at the School of American Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet School, The Ailey School and was a principal dancer with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt. Harper also performed on Broadway in Fosse, All Shook Up, and The Color Purple and even starred opposite Molly Ringwald in a national tour of Sweet Charity. But this talented choreographer has a secret: she’s also a ‘techie’. She told us, “I’ve done computer programming and I enjoy film. I’m currently working with Fordham’s film program, and I’d like to do even more with dance/technology at Ailey.”

How’d she do it? Harper documented the entire creative process to supplement the live performance at Ailey with a digital aspect. “Documotion: 1- Rave” begins with the audition process playing on screen as people enter the theater. While the audience watches the piece, rehearsal footage is incorporated while dancers perform wearing deconstructed Victorian era costumes (think pieces of collars and uniform jackets). It ends with footage of dancers on NYC streets, portraying life outside the dance.

“This piece represents the uniqueness of the individual. I enjoy bringing the audience closer to the dancers as people. Video integration exemplifies how we’re all interrelated with real human connection,” Harper said.

Besides her upcoming photo shoot with the Lois Greenfield, she’s continuing work on the Francesca Harper Project, which she began in 2005. Her artistic vision fuses classical dance forms with cutting-edge text, music, film and video. “William Forsythe is my mentor. I also love musical theater and original songs and music. Sometimes we do pure singing, sometimes pure dancing.” She even allows her dancers to write text for each piece to stir up the pot.

We’d go digital with Harper anytime.

To see Francesca’s fab work live, check out her upcoming performances.