Dances With Robots, and Other Tales From the Outer Limits

Mr. Skybetter and Ms. Cuan join a line of working artists who have experimented with technology to break new ground in dance. The pioneer was the choreographer Merce Cunningham who, working with the electronic artist Thecla Schiphorst, used a software program called LifeForms that could sketch movement. "Trackers" (1991) was Cunningham's first dance made with LifeForms, and roughly a third of the movement was created on the computer. Using the software opened up "possibilities of working with time and space that I had never thought of before," he said at the time. By the end of the 20th century, motion capture, wearable tech and virtual reality had arrived on the scene.