Feasibility Study for Contemporary Dance E-Learning: An Interactive Creation Support System Using 3D Motion Data

This paper describes a new method of dance e-learning by which students can learn to create contemporary dance choreography using 3D motion data. The method is designed to promote discovery learning of contemporary dance. "Body-part Motion Synthesis System (BMSS) " is implemented on tablets, which allows users to select body-part motion clips of basic dance movement and preview a short dance sequence synthesizing them by 3DCG in real time. Body-part motions of contemporary dance performed by a professional dancer are captured and prepared as 3D motion clips. To evaluate the feasibility of the learning effects of the e-learning method using BMSS two evaluation experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, 18 students who majored in contemporary dance at universities in Japan and the U.S. Created short dance pieces using the system and performed them by themselves. In the second experiment, five Japanese dance critics evaluated the video of their performances comparing 3DCG animation. As a consequence of the experiments, we verified that our e-learning method for contemporary dance is effective as a trigger of discovery learning to find both a new choreographic method and original dance movements.