After the COVID-19 pandemic viewing dance digitally became increasingly popular. As viewing dance in theatres became impossible as a result of national lockdowns and social distancing guidelines, there was a subsequent rise in dance works being posted online for audiences to watch. This meant that dance had to be viewed through a screen instead of live on stage which created a different experience for audiences. This links directly to the discussion surrounding liveness of a performance. The liveness debate looks at the degree to which a dance style can be considered as live. According to this debate, the way in which a dance work can be considered as live is if the audience and performers are temporally and spatially co-present. The debate pitches a ‘live’ dance performance against a recording of the dance work posted online for the audience to view through a screen.
This dissertation looks at live dance and digital performance in comparison to recorded versions of dance, specifically how they offer a different experience to an audience. There is consideration of changing perspectives of liveness from theorists as technology develops. It is suggested that digital performance can be considered as live to a further extent than screened dance. This is because digital performances are able to be performed live in front of an audience sharing the same time and space as the performers, with technology playing a key role. Digital performance allows for the concepts of immersivity and interactivity to change audience experience as they become a part of the performance which is not something that screened dance has the ability to do.
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