Eric Handman Receives Faculty Small Grant Program Award

Eric Handman, associate professor in the School of Dance was awarded the Faculty Small Grant Program (FSGP) from the Office of the Vice President for Research for his choreography and AI research, "Dancing in the Air: Drones as Lighting for Live Performance.” In previous years, Handman has blended drone and dance choreography into works featuring School of Dance students.

Handman's work "Daedalus Dreams"  was presented at the Biennial for Arts and Technology hosted by the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology at Connecticut College. "Daedalus Dreams" is a performance for a solo movement artist and two drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). This work marks the creative collaboration between visual artist Zach Duer, dance artist Scotty Hardwig, and choreographer Eric Handman. In this postdigital pas-de-trois, the dance of human and drone asks questions that are both contemporary and mythical in the unfolding queerness of body and machine. Performance, refereed, completed November 2022.