Tiptoe to the Annunciation
ballet for 12 angelinos
Gabriel’s announcement to Mary is a common theme in Western art. Particularly during the Italian Renaissance, artistic portrayals of the Annunciation have revealed subtle details in geometric perspective.
Some say that we are experiencing a whole new era, often associated with a new Renaissance, a digital Renaissance. Does this mean that a new, digital perspective has arrived to reveal our increasingly digital world?
Has our world become too digital, when we become so cradled and overwhelmed by the flow of communications that we are swept away and sucked into our screens? The poetry of objects is being overwritten by a deaf mechanism of zeros and ones.
Tiptoe to the Annunciation is inspired by these themes of interpreting the Annunciation and online poetry, attempting to reintegrate humans by breaking the inexorable, unbearable rhythm of the Internet.
Finding and drawing poetry in online networks has become a major challenge in reintroducing a natural, human rhythm.
With support from DICRéAM , dispositif pour la création artistique multimédia, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
Ballet for Angelinos is an interactive ballet for 12 mechanical dancers.
The Ballet interprets the work « À petits pas vers l’Annonciation », a very specific reading of the Annunciation to Mary.
Each individual dancer interprets one of 12 different chosen words from the text of the Annunciation to Mary, Gospel according to Luke, chapter 1, 26-38.Chaque danseuse est l'interprète d'un mot choisi, issu du texte l'annonciation à Marie, évangile selon Luc chapitre 1, 26-38, 12 mots sont choisis et interprétés par une danseuse en particulier.
Each dancer is contained in a bottle connected to the Internet, called an angelino (created in 2009).
More about The Angelino
Each angelino is activated by a predefined word taken from the text.
The ballet company comprises the following 12 dancers:
Dancer n°1 dances to the word « ange »
danseuse robe rouge - étiquette Bols - avec filet doré
musique : Valse de l'Empereur - ré majeur - durée 2 min 40 s - écouter
Dancer n°2 dances to the word « gabriel »
danseuse ancienne robe rouge - étiquette Bols
musique : inconnu - durée 4 min 00 s - écouter
Dancer n°3 dances to the word « nazareth »
danseuse robe blanche - pas d'étiquette Bols
musique : Limelight - la bémol majeur - durée 2 min 55 s - écouter
Dancer n°4 dances to the word « vierge »
danseuse robe blanche - étiquette Bols
musique : La Traviata - ré majeur - durée 3 min 10 s - écouter
Dancer n°5 dances to the word « grâce »
danseuse robe blanche - étiquette Bols
musique : Valse de l'Empereur - mi bemol majeur - durée 5 min 40 s -écouter
Dancer n°6 dances to the word « dieu »
danseuse ancienne robe blanche - étiquette Bols - avec filet doré
musique : inconnu - durée 2 min 45 s - écouter
Dancer n°7 dances to the word « fils »
danseuse ancienne robe blanche - étiquette Bols - avec filet doré
musique : Sang Viennois - si bémol majeur - durée 2 min 50 s - écouter
Dancer n°8 dances to the word « marie »
danseuse robe blanche - étiquette Bols - avec filet doré
musique : Limelight - durée 5 min 40 s - écouter
Dancer n°9 dances to the word « ombre »
danseuse robe rouge - pas d'étiquette Bols
musique : inconnu - la bémol majeur - durée 4 min 25 s - écouter
Dancer n°10 dances to the word « saint esprit »
danseuse ancienne robe rouge - étiquette Bols - avec filet doré
musique : inconnu - fa mineur - durée 3 min 30 s - écouter
Dancer n°11 dances to the word « éternellement »
danseuse ancienne robe rouge - étiquette Bols - avec filet doré
musique : inconnu - la majeur - durée 3 min 30 s - écouter
Dancer n°12 dances to the word « impossible »
danseuse robe rouge - étiquette Bols musique : Valse de l'Empereur - ré majeur - durée 3 min 20 s - écouter
Hence, the music of the Annunciation is played entirely by the flow of “chosen” words mentioned in published Twitter messages.
Every minute, Twitter is searched for these 12 words, and each dancer whose word is found begins to dance, according to the following ballet score:
Twitter is searched, every minute.
The score is reset to zero, every minute.
If, for example, the word « ange » (dancer n°1) and the word « impossible » (dancer n°12) are found in the Twitter feeds, then dancer n°1 dances from the 11th second to the 24th second, and dancer n°12 dances from the 21st second to the 34th second;
This is how the Annunciation is interpreted.
This installation of dancers nonetheless requires manual intervention. The angelino’s bottle contains a music box, which must be wound up by hand; within one complete cycle, the dancer can interpret her chosen word up to 20 times.
In order for her to continue, the angelino must be manually wound up again.
During the ballet, both live and online viewers can interact remotely with the angelino of their choice by Tweeting one of the chosen words. For example, mentioning the word “ange” in a Tweet will activate Dancer n°1, while the word “ombre” will activate Dancer n°9.
Without human intervention, the duration of the piece depends on each angelino, which consumes the music box’s mechanism little by little with each published word.
Without human intervention, each angelino can interpret her chosen word up to 20 times.
2010 – Albertine Meunier
