Matthias Sperling

Matthias Sperling is a contemporary dance choreographer, performer and educator based in London, UK. He is an Associate Artist with Dance4 and winner of a Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award.

Originally from Canada, Matthias studied with the Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre in Toronto before completing his training with Transitions Dance Company at Laban. A member of Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance for five years he has also worked with companies including Kerry Nicholls Dance Company and Matthew Bourne’s Adventures In Motion Pictures.

The DanceDigital commission for Thought Dance supports Matthias’s research into the relationship between mind and body. Matthias began an initial period of development with support from the British Dance Edition Research Project 2010 and now continues to develop his ideas in partnership with Nottingham Trent University.

Thought Dance will be developed into an interactive installation for two participants, each wearing an ‘Emotiv Epoc’ wireless EEG headset and positioned either side of a table surface containing an embedded screen.  Custom-designed software will create distinct real-time visual representations of each participant’s brain activity. The interaction between these will produce further visual and sound effects. The work will enable participants to intentionally cause particular events to occur on the screen by modulating their own thought activity, thus engaging in a visible and volitional ‘thought dance’ with one another.

The work stems from the Matthias’s interest in approaching dance as an exploration of the relationship between mind and body, driven by a fascination with the rapid scientific advances occurring in this area. The project proposes a viewpoint on dance as a cultural arena in which changing notions of mind/body relation can be examined and embodied in unique ways.

For more information on the artist visit http://www.matthias-sperling.com