Equal parts multimedia installation and participatory performance, Dance Like No One is Whale Watching is an immersive interactive experience for audiences based on whale myths, personal dreams and forming a whale pod. This project is the brainchild of choreographer Emily Beattie and video artist Cari Ann Shim Sham*. The two invited Mary Hale to collaborate by designing and creating a soft, ephemeral enclosures for dreams brought to life inside via Beattie's dance art, Shim Sham's projections, Eric Gunther's sound art, and live performances by all four of us. This installation avant-debuted at the inaugural Imagine Festival of Dance and Technology at Earthdance.

Special thanks to Gediminas Urbonas, director and Seth Avecilla, shop manager at MIT's program in Art Culture and Technology for hosting Mary Hale for a summer research affiliation, during which she realized the inflatable component of this project.

Emily dancing inside the inflatable prototype.

Photo credit: Eric Gunther

Full scale inflatable prototype, launched during summer 2017 residency at Endicott College.

The antechamber, a mediated threshold between reality and the dreamworld within the main performance environment.

The antechamber, with a view of Eric Gunther's sound booth.

An ongoing effort in studying the interaction between body and architecture, during an interactive component of the piece when Emily wears and moves the performance space.

Collaborators, from left: Mary Hale, Cari Ann Shim Sham*, Emily Beattie, Eric Gunther

Photo Credit: Bruce