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Plugged in: dancers turn to technology to amp up performances.

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A magician's goal is to astonish an audience with seemingly impossible feats through illusion. There is a skill behind it, but the crowd only sees the magic. Dance, an art form sometimes built on pleasing through illusions, has reached a new level of sleight of hand.

Computers have invaded the scene. Stages become moving images--cars crash or rain falls--and the dancers perform through the elements. Bodies are duplicated, triplicated, contorted, and then paired with themselves through the power of projection. And digital dancers bend, turn, and jump on computer screens as they are choreographed on an X and Y axis before ever reaching the stage.

Welcome to the age of dance and technology. It's a magical place. It isn't a "new" era, but an ever-evolving one that is inspired by dance artists past and present. These include Loie Fuller and Alwin Nikolais, as well as current choreographers Merce Cunningham and Bill T. Jones, legends who pioneered metaphor using lights, cameras, and computers. But each new generation of dancers pushes the field's technological capabilities, like those today who tap their iPods. The groundwork has been laid, and the possibilities are endless.

Choreographer Dawn Stoppiello and composer/media artist Mark Coniglio have been working in multimedia since they met at CalArts in 1989. Coniglio, a self-taught computer programmer, created the MidiDancer, a wireless movement-sensing outfit that transmits a dancer's positions to a computer. The information can be used to control video, audio, lighting, and set.

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In Plane (1994) was their first piece with the MidiDancer. Stoppiello conducted an orchestra with the flick of a finger. Electronic drums and symbols crashed and echoed when she rolled a shoulder or lifted her arms. She could make instant choices in dynamics and silence with the real-time score. The computer was programmed to sense her movement phrases and detect when to begin...

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