Eric Handman on Dance, Drones, and AI

"Galatea Prime," Photo by Dat Nguyen

by Ashley Jian Thomson and Merritt Mecham

For U School of Dance associate professor Eric Handman, you could say it all began with a wish upon a star. Or, more accurately, a question upon an Intel shooting star drone in the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies.

“I started wondering about the creative potential of drones in live performance, and specifically about dancer drone interactivity,” Handman said. “Drones can be coordinated for artistic effect. Direction, duration, shapes, spacing, speed, and timing are all choreographic variables that can be applied to drones… But could drones be effective theatrically? Could they affect and be affected by human performers in proximity?”

In his new collaborative choreographic work, “Scylla_System­_(v.1),” Handman answers some of those questions as dancers perform with drones, blurring the line between real and programmed communication. Researched and developed with Scotty Hardwig and Zachary Duer (both Virginia Tech faculty) and School of Dance student performers, the piece will premiere at the School of Dance concert "cross·roads" on September 26.

School of Dance faculty Eric Handman teaching technique, Photo by Todd Collins

Handman first began pairing drones with dance when he collaborated with students in the School of Dance to create “Galatea Prime” in 2018. In this piece, the piloted drone movement was minimal, serving as a source of dramatic tension against the complex choreography of the dancers.

But Handman wanted more interactivity between the dancers and the drones. In 2019, he continued his research with the collaboration of faculty from the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering, using motion capture gloves to try and guide the drone movement. However, Handman discovered limits in a duet; the drone always hovered over its spot of origin and was restricted to flying at the same height and speed as the dancer wearing the gloves.

“[Seeing] the drones and how people respond to them and then seeing drones respond… I think that creates this theatrical illusion of intelligence and relationship. And that ambiguity is what I really like." 
- Eric Handman

It was at this point that Handman shifted course and began collaborating Duer and Hardwig. Duer is a visual artist, coder, and drone pilot, and Hardwig is a movement artist, performer, and sound designer who earned an MFA from the School of Dance in 2014. Together they worked on directing computer vision technology to follow the dancer’s –– Hardwig’s –– movements. With trial, error and a few crashes (don’t worry, Hardwig says they feel “like multiple heavy rubber bands hitting your skin”), the illusion of interactivity began to feel more real. This work culminated in “Daedelus Dreams,” a performance for solo movement artist and two drones. It was presented at the “Biennial Intersectional Symposium for Arts and Technology” hosted by the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology at Connecticut College and in the “ICAT Playdate” series at Virginia Tech Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT).

Photo by Christina Franusich for Virginia Tech

Now, in 2024, Handman, Duer, and Hardwig have dramatically increased their work’s scale. With the support of the U’s Faculty Small Grant Program and Dee Grant, they have been able to build on their research to create a new drone/dance project with five School of Dance students and 10 LiteBee drones.

In creating “Scylla_System_(v.1),” Handman depended on his process as a choreographer, but also came upon many new challenges. “I trust the methods that I've used over the years to keep generating unique outcomes,” said Handman. But so many of the variables in play were different when working with new dancers. “The dancers that I work with interpret my devices, my tools, my games differently,” he said.

Additionally, training dancers to work with drones presented not only technical challenges, but ethical questions. “This current project is the biggest…it's the most drones that we've ever had,” said Handman, “but how do we train dancers for this environment?…[The] ethics involved in that matter to me.” Not only did Handman need to prepare dancers to move around robotic devices with propellers, he needed to teach them “a new kind of partnership.”

For their part, the drones have a definite effect on the dancers, but aren’t truly aware of the dancers, despite their advanced technology. “(The drones) are pretty much completely passive,” said Zach Duer. “They have one little IR sensor on the bottom, which is just enough to keep them up off the ground if they come too close. They receive a programmed flight path, which is just coordinates in space… They receive a flight path, they receive time code, and then that's it. They don't know anything else after that.”

However, the idea of interaction and communication between the drones and dancers is at the core of the piece. “[Seeing] the drones and how people respond to them and then seeing drones respond… I think that creates this theatrical illusion of intelligence and relationship. And that ambiguity is what I really like,” said Handman. So, how do Handman and the dancers create that theatrical relationship? “We need to have practice,” says Handman. “This is what dancers do, right? Dancers practice. And we're good at that. We have patience for it.”

That patience has paid off. Through the careful programming of flight paths and sensors, the creation of sensor grids that allow the drones to use GPS to hold their choreographed positions, and the consistent practice, professionalism, and dedication of the dancers, “Scylla_System_v1” has become carefully coordinated magic. The painstaking choreography keeps the dancers safe, but also creates the illusion of drone intelligence and interaction. Audience members will likely succumb to the illusion and perceive the drones as sentient beings.

This unique piece of choreography may give the illusion of drone intelligence, but what about actual artificial intelligence? For Handman, that’s a logical next step of exploration. He was a part of the recently announced members of the College of Fine Arts team participating in the inaugural AAC&U Virtual Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum (IAIPC) who will learn and work together to deeply study the fine arts and AI.

Handman sees AI not as a threat, but as a tool. “The optimist in me thinks that live dance, live music, and live theater are going…to stick around. So, there may be aspects of AI that are sort of incorporated into [art], but I still feel like we're going to need live musicians, actors, dancers.”

In particular, Handman is curious about how AI can push the limits of what dancers do themselves. He has “this idea of training avatars just to see what they could do that might be inspiring for a live dance,” he says, “because I feel like at the heart of what I am or what I try to do is [investigate] what movement we can create.”

"Galatea Prime," photo Dat Nguyen

Overall, Handman’s experiences with incorporating technology into his art form have reaffirmed to him that problem solving is at the core of what he does: “For me, every creative process is trying to solve for X through the process. Art making is not a one-directional exercise in the will to power but a way to find out what we can do. What are the capacities? And what are the limitations? And how do all of those capacities and limitations point us towards making something artful and meaningful over the duration of the work?”

As for what’s next? Handman is looking outward.

“I think collaboration is the key here,” he said. “I want to be involved in collaborations that push me past the limits of my own imagination.” And, in the meantime, audience members can have the limits of their imagination expanded by viewing Handman’s work.

“Scylla_System­_(v.1)” will be the opening piece for the U School of Dance’s “cross·roads” shows available to watch September 26th through October 5th in the Marriott Center for Dance, or via livestream.