"Once There Was III" -- A Mesmerizing Blend of Dance, Animation and Tech | Nina McNeely | TED

(Music)

(Applause and cheers)

Helen Walters: Technology, entertainment, design.

Holy shit.

OK, that piece was called “Once There Was III”,

and it came from the brain of Nina McNeely, who is here.

And I’m going to invite her for that standing O, if you don’t mind.

Nina.

(Applause and cheers)

Please take the stage.

Take your moment, take your bow.

(Applause)

OK.

OK, Nina, I have a few questions for you.

I know that you don't always want to speak,

that your work speaks for itself.

But nonetheless, thank you for joining me up here.

So you are a visual artist, a choreographer and an animator,

and somehow you're bringing everything together.

What are you doing?

You're blending technology and dance?

What's happening?

Nina McNeely: Yes.

I've always been intrigued by the human experience,

the world of dreams

and whatever may be lurking in the shadows of the subconscious mind.

So I use dance to tell stories about sisterhood

and struggle and transcendence.

And I combine that with live projection mapping

to create surrealist environments that I can shift in and out of quickly.

So it feels just like a dream.

And it also allows me to create illusions

that the dancers are controlling the animations with their bodies.

HW: Tell us a little bit -- There's a lot of precision here.

What's actually going on?

NM: Well, this piece was actually commissioned

by Entity Contemporary Dance in Los Angeles, as a film.

And this is the first time it's ever been performed live.

HW: First time.

Oh, my God, that's so awesome.

NM: So my process always starts with music.

Music is like a psychedelic to me,

so I'm always searching for music that's going to take me

on the most imaginative journey possible.

And then I envision the piece, I set the choreography on the dancers,

I shoot that choreography, usually with my phone,

and then I bring that into my animation software.

I create the animations,

then we get back in the studio and combine the two together,

which actually takes hours and hours of trial and error.

And I heavily rely on the impeccable music timing of my dancers

and their talent and precision.

HW: They're amazing.

So I love that you brought up music.

Tell us about the music that we just heard.

NM: So this music was composed by an artist named umru

with a feature by another artist named warpstr.

And I found umru’s music on SoundCloud around five years ago

and was just blown away by his use of these visceral, crunchy sounds

combined with these angelic vocal samples.

And I really loved that his music sounded both ancient and futuristic

at the same time.

So I started choreographing to his music in my dance class,

and we started talking on Instagram,

and the collaboration was born.

HW: So this session is all about imagination.

Tell us a little bit about your creative process

and how imagination clearly plays into that.

NM: So at this point in my career as an artist,

I've decided to just let my influences flow into me without question,

even if they're not on trend or unpopular.

And this music really struck me with these visions

of the religious iconography I was exposed to

growing up in the Catholic Church.

And because of my Mexican and Filipino heritage,

that imagery was intense,

a little bloody and dramatic.

(Laughs)

And I just remember being surrounded by these paintings and figurines

whose faces expressed such sorrow and piety and ecstasy.

And I just remember being completely awestruck

and put in the state of pure, childlike wonderment

by their beauty and darkness.

And it's my greatest desire to recreate that experience

and share it with the world.

HW: Well, you sure did that.

Nina McNeely, thank you so much.

NM: Thank you.

(Applause)