16 [R]evolutions, it is a multimedia work that condenses 100,000 years of evolution into an evening-length performance. Featuring Troika Ranch’s signature integration of dance, theater and interactive media, 16 [R]evolutions traces a path that begins with the pure drives of the pre-human animal and ends with today’s post-intellectual man – who has subjugated these drives to the point of abject confusion.

You can read reviews of the New York premiere on this page.

Using live camera tracking technology, the movements of the dancers generate interactive 3D imagery in real-time. At one moment suggesting delicate, living strands of DNA that envelope the performer, at another, becoming a gigantic digital rib cage that ripples and breathes in direct response to the movements of the performers.

An example of how the dance, theater and media combine can be found early in the work, as we begin with an abstract interpretation of the Adam and Eve myth – mythologically, the moment at which we lose our animal nature. Two performers are lit only by the aforementioend digital rib cage; the "ribs" move in direct response to the dancers' movement, creating a sublime animal triad as the duo performs within it. But, at the penultimate moment the scene cuts with a loud “crack” to a seated duo, each with a bowl of cereal before them, the hum of a transformer suggesting a location deep in the bowels of some institution. After methodically preparing utensils, milk, and napkins, they both lean in to take a bite. The sound of their crunching is amplified to a deafening level – the unexpected change of scale magnifying the banality of their activity. Through such contrasts we will emphasize the two polarities of human nature that are the focus of this work.

Funding and Institutional Support

The creation of this work is supported by essexdance, England's leading centre for dance and technology, along with the Art Council England East and the International Workshop Festival. Troika Ranch Artistic Directors Mark Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello spent two months developing 16 [R]evolutions at essexdance during May and June 2005, working with a new cast of dancers based in the U.K.

Development will continue with a residency at the Forum Neues Musiktheater in Stuttgart, Germany in November, followed by a final work-in-progress showing at the Digital Cultures Lab in Nottingham, England.

Troika Ranch has also received major funding from The Jerome Foundation, along with reserach support from Dance Theater Workshop through their ARM Fellowship program.

Technological Requirements

Troika Ranch is self-contained technologically. All that we expect from the venue is a stage of the appropriate size with a floor suitable for dancing, a sound system suitable to the space, and a reasonable inventory of theatrical lighting. Read the technical requirements for further details.