On 30 and 31 March, in the Sala Verde of the Teatros del Canal, Taiwanese choreographer Huang Yi presents a performance piece in which he dances with an industrial robot from the KUKA company. This production is included in the latest edition of the CANAL CONNECT Festival.

Specifically, Huang Yi will be performing alongside a giant robotic arm commonly used in assembly lines. A machine weighing 250 kilos that has been programmed to respond to Huang Yi’s movements, in which the dancer had to spend 10 or 20 hours reprogramming the robotic arm for every one minute of performance.

The result is a poetic piece that intertwines modern dance and visual arts with the field of robotics by conceptualising our fascination with the union between humans and machines, business systematisation and digital data flows. In addition, the piece also explores themes such as the expression of loneliness, the essence of existence, self-realisation, and self-comfort.

The work was produced by Huang Yi Studio + and developed at the 3LD Art & Technology Center, in partnership with Sozo Artists and commissioned by the Quanta Arts Foundation. It has been highly successful in all the cities where it has been performed, and it has been included in major festivals such as the Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), the TED Conference (Canada), the Holland Dance Festival (Netherlands), and the International Cervantes Festival (Mexico), among others.

Approximate duration: 60 minutes

Use of strobe lighting