Dance: Will robots be able to dance Tango?

I saw a CNBC news video that hundreds of robots dancing. That reminded me of the mass Tai chi demonstration in 2008 Beijing Olympics. (In fact, the robots are made by a Chinese company, aiming at the Guinness world records for the number of dancing robots.)


Dancing robots https://www.facebook.com/cnbc/videos/1848834661844690/


They say Artificial Intelligence (AI) will take people's jobs in near future, and to some extent, it will be true.

Even my scientist job may not be safe. A couple of months ago or so, in a prestigious magazine "Science", there was a cover article titled "The AI revolution in science". In an associated article, they were analyzing scientific process, breaking down the science research process into five major steps, and discussing if/how each of the process may be performed by AI.

Link to http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/07/ai-revolution-science


Adding some hope to our side, there is another prediction. 

"If you find yourself on the side of programming (or "teaching") AI, your job would be safe" (for a time being). 

Such teaching of AI involves step-by-step breakdown of what humans do, and enabling robots to imitate each step.



Humans are not made perfect for everything. I'd predict fishes will be better swimmers than humans, so will be fish-shaped robots. But if we limit the ideas to humanoid robots, standard instruction to humans should have usefulness.  


The news footage made me think if you can teach robots to dance Argentine Tango (or other partner dances). It's a challenge.

It is a challenge involved in engineering. It may be difficult, but it may not be impossible.



This is a thread appeared in my Facebook with a friend JL when I posted the robot video.

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HY: Next challenge: a partner dance. (dare to dance Tango)

JL: NEVER!!! 

HY: In 2036 first Tango robots are created. In 2037, by mass-production, a large milonga is demonstrated. In 2039 four variations are added to the production line, indicating "individuality" of the couples,......engineering wins 

JL: No connection however!

HY: They can program basic patterns like walking and ochos. Axis-based auto-balancing may be done with gyro and weight shift sensors. Musical interpretation could be a challenge. Another challenge, "connection", may be translated to a responsive feedback circuit attached to pressure/balance sensors. For emotional connection, program them to kiss after a dance (easy fix). 😉 

JL: Ain't buying it 

*******************************

The chat was actually thought provoking. 

Joking on emotional connection aside, how do you teach musical interpretation to robots? How do you define connection? (which is poorly-defined and arbitrarily-used word in Tango world, by the way).


With motion capture technology and shape molding, the robots may even look like champion dancers in appearance and in motion. Making 2-dimensional "fantasy sports" to 3-dimension robots.


Such technologies may be used for refining interpersonal (or robot-human) interactions. They would be immediately useful in medical or nursing industry, for example.

On the downside, of course someone may want to use the technology to create killer Karate master robot or some other robots with "refined inter-robot-human technology" for military and police. For civilian use, UFC guys may rejoice for having great training partner. 


It's easy to imagine. And if it is easy to imagine, it can come true easier.


I don't work at MIT nor at the Chinese robot company, so I don't fancy myself building Tango-dancing robots any time soon. But diagnostic and breaking-down-the-steps skills for dancing should certainly help to teach robot's AI. Any robot maker interested in hiring me for helping to build Tango-dancing robots ?(with a good pay, of course). Tango dancing robots may impress higher-ups in Pentagon with the underlying technologies. Haha.

Dance: Hugo & Celina in OKC (8/17-21/2017), "Dance for miracle" fundraising (8/19)

Summer time in college setting is almost over. In the lab, we have been taking up an interesting (or should I say, ambitious?) project. Several thousand dollars and 2.5 months of Research Assistant's working time have been invested. Ongoing RNAseq and other assays would provide final pieces to the project. Looking forward to knowing the answers to the research questions/hypotheses in a few weeks' time.


Last week (8/17-21) OKC was welcoming Hugo Patyn and Celina Rotundo from Buenos Aires for Argentine Tango workshops and performances. The workshops were good as always.


For my dance-related project, I requested an interview to Celina on how she prepare for stage dance and create a show. I got interesting stories that are certainly helpful to the project. 

The way I use my private lesson slot may not be common. Most people use it to fix their Tango or get a few new moves, for sure. But the time was worthwhile for me and my project.

[after workshops 8/20/17]

There was a fundraising event for OU Children's Hospital on 8/19 (Sat). The event has been organized by 3Sixty Ballroom Dance studio in OKC, and local dance instructors and fundraising people team up and dance in the event. Thus "Dance for miracle" is the name.  Disney-themed stage dances were presented this year. Hugo and Celina were performing Tango as guest dancers at the event.

This year marks the event's 10th anniversary. I heard that the event was a great success, with over $500K raised. 


You can decipher a city by its money-making industries. If we call "Oil and Gas (energy) industry and agriculture" traditional industries in OKC, medicine, education and research are newer industries housed in OU and associated complex. Apparently, money is there somewhere in the city. And it is good.

Dance: "Stage dancer=Actor+Musician+Athlete"

I was seeking other disciplines whose training methods can help stage dancers. Merit of finding similar disciplines is that we can use cross-over approach to improve skills, possibly quicker than traditional methods.

An idea would be, "Stage dancer = Actor + Musician + Athlete"

They are all highly technical professions, like it or not, and have methods for improvement developed in each discipline. 


Following are some notes and thoughts to be refined later. They are piling up from recent reading.


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Acting is not dependent on an actor's "sense" or "talent", but on a body of techniques and skills. The techniques and skills are the basis of consistency in his performance.

Weak actor stands out in an ensemble. Director wants to avoid such a situation. (it's the same for dancing).


Stage acting is a part of team efforts to create a stage. Producers and directors will choose someone with skills and techniques who is easier to work with to create the stage (or movie/dance/show).


Actors express human emotions and present stories with their body and voice. Their training methods are designed to develop technical skills for expressive body and voice. Since voice skills are closely connected to breathing and its control, acting skills involve high degree of body control skills (much like dancers, but dancers' skills focus more on external appearance). 

Actors are also required to interpret the script, which is a hard brain work (you need good brain to act). Dancers are also required to interpret the music and design/choreograph the dance, which is also a hard brain work. There are many technical advice for actors that can be immediately useful to stage dancers.

Dancers express, but main narration is done by the music. Or rather, dancers are a part of the music. Dancers are like instruments of the music, presenting interpretation of the music in a physical form. 


Training methods for dancers are designed to acquire expressive body. Technical skills are built around the purpose of acquiring expressive body.


Dancers and athletes share this point in common; the main tool-instrument is the body. Since bodies operate in a similar manner for sports and for dance, there are many methodologies that work for both. 

Understanding a dance move in your head can come quickly. Usually body understands it much slower. The gap is something you need to deal with. With a certain type of training, you can shorten the body's understanding time.

Dancers and musicians are close, because both serve the music. The training methods have a lot in common.

Musicians practice hours every day to be able to play decent music not hindered by the lack of skills. Dancers would require same degree of training to build basic skills. "Make it look easy" takes serious practice hours. It is common among all technical professions including dancing.

Good news is that you don't have to tell the audience how many hours you practiced. They will only see results, then they may guess the process.

Life: Summer reading

In past two weeks I ordered 34 books for pleasure/research reading for reminder of this Summer.

Among the 34 books,

11  Business and finance 
8    Acting                    
6   Athletics
6   Philosophy
2   Methods for manga
1   Biography

Apparently I was interested in business, money, acting skills in theater, athletic/physical skills, philosophy, mangaka's professional techniques and life in the industry, and successful people's lives.

Now I have all the books and zapping here and there. Two were already finished.



I got 6 books on acting. Because acting is a major part of stage arts, yet I realized that I knew very little about the art of acting.

One of the books is "The Art of Acting" by Stella Adler, who is considered to be one of great teachers of the art of Acting in the 20th century America. I only read through the class (chapter) one so far, but it looks quite promising.

The writing style is direct (or it looks like a record of her college class on acting). I particularly like the passion her writing oozes out.

Another book pointed out that acting is a part of stage arts, and stage business is essentially a business of creating something, a maker. Until the author pointed it out, I overlooked the viewpoint, so it felt fresh.


I'll be enjoying the books for coming weeks.

Dance: Argentine Tango showcase 2 (7/28, 29/2017)

As in the last entry, this past weekend (7/28,29) we went to Dallas and participated in Tango performance group's showcase at the Latino Cultural Center.

There were total 38 dancers listed. Backstage, they were very friendly. I tried to watch the rehearsals and shows as much as possible, both from the audience's seat and from side stage. Obviously a lot of work went in to the production. Much praise and thanks to the teachers/producers George and Jairelbhi.

Hugo and Celina were on the US tour, but they came back to Dallas temporarily and provided advice and feedback to the students and overall production. We benefited greatly from their inputs, too. Much appreciated.

Following are some photos from our group number with "Lo Que Vendra". This choreo will be retiring, so I put the photos here for the record and sentiment's sake.

[Kira, Hiro, Martha, David]

There are  many small things that you'd never know unless you experience the stage dance.

For example,

# Floor will be sticky

Most theater floors are not hardwood dance floor. It is made of something similar to rubberized concrete or vinyl to withstand weights of equipment, and is sticky and "slower" to dance on. Theaters use fog machine, which is basically blowing out vapor/mist/fog. That makes the floor humid and even stickier. If you are used to ballroom hardwood floor that allows you to pivot and slide easily and move fast, you'll need serious readjustment.

Instead of skimming the floor as Tango textbook would say, you'd have to subtly lift your foot to step (or really "walk") to exactly where you want to step.

Using masking tape on the soles can help to lessen stickiness.


# But don't ever blame the floor

The sticky floor happens to everyone on stage. Your next step or pivot can get stuck. But do not ever acknowledge it. Indicating "Sorry, it was the floor" to the audience is the lamest thing you can do while dancing on stage. Keep dancing. 


# Confidence and attitude

Chances are, most audiences don't notice small snugs. Especially in a group number, each audience is looking at a different couple at a time. Besides, most audiences do not know the original choreography and how it is supposed to look "correctly". They will take the dance as is. Confidence can cover up much and add some on stage.


 .........

Well, I can go on. But I'll write about them in some other place. There are many more that would help dancers if they knew. Such knowledge may help audience as well to appreciate the stage dance in a finer manner.

It was interesting. Thank you for fellow OKC dancers David, Martha, and Kira.