Adam Weinert

Adam Weinert in MONUMENT. Photo by Christopher Duggan.

Year: 2017-2018
DanceForce Member: Nancy Long
Artist: Adam Weinert
Community Partners: Cooperstown Central School; Paul Nigra Center for the Arts, Gloversville, NY; Utica Dance Foundation
Audience: 90
Counties: Fulton, Oneida, Otsego

The goal of the project was to bring Adam Weinert’s unique approach to the fusion of the arts and technology to students of all abilities. Once the funding by DanceForce was secured, detailed planning for the project began 3/28/17. I met Adam Weinert in Utica where he toured the Museum of Art at Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute–a potential site for a test of the Augmented Reality App. To support the scope and breadth of the project, a grant was submitted to the NEA in April, 2017.

So that I could better understand how the Augmented Reality could be implemented, we scheduled a day for an instructional test. On 6/17/17, the Film Shoot and App Build took place at MWPAI. Adam collaborated with dancer/choreographer Casey Loomis on a film that was used to demonstrate how the captured images of dance created in a non-traditional, site-specific location could be viewed at a whim at a future date. The installation was launched at the opening night of the Museum of Art exhibit, Roaring in to the Future. When the app was downloaded on one’s phone, the images of the dance could be viewed when the phone was focused on partcular triggers located in the art work from the exhibit and permanent collection. To this day, the app can still be used to view Adam’s film of the dancer.

During the summer of 2017, planning continued at Jacob’s Pillow and the Hudson Opera House, where Adam Weinert and Dancers were performing.

During the fall of 2017, Adam met with our community partners in Fulton and Otsego Counties: Wally Hart of Transitions, a program for Autistic and Learning Different young adults who have college and work potential, and Bill Crankshaw, the superintendent of Cooperstown Central School District. They formed a plan for the residency activity for each of their sites. With the funding from NEA confirmed, residency activities in Fulton, Otsego and Oneida Counties took place starting on 2/28/18. At each site, Adam Weinert and dancers facilitated the creation of original choreography and filming of the work to be viewed via the Augmented Reality App.

Cooperstown Central School District hosted Adam and his three company members in two sessions. A movement-based workshop to guide the students to create original movement pieces in small groups. Their dances were then performed, filmed and uploaded to the app with different trigger locations for each groups’ dance within their gymnasium.

The next day, 3/1/18, The Paul Nigra Center for the Arts and the Transitions Program hosted Adam and his three company members in two workshops identical to the workshops held for mainstream students in the public school in Cooperstown. For the movement workshops and filming, the resident college students, or Apprentices, were facilitated by a team of interns who participated equally in the activities.

On 5/30/18, Utica Dance, Inc. hosted two workshops with junior high and high school students in intensive workshops introducing the students to the techniques necessary for the execution of Adam Weinert’s choreography and also the use of improvisation and exploration in the creation of expressive movement.