The movements at the end of Heartbeat Duet, for example, are very much like those at the start, yet because of the strenuous dancing they have just done, their heart rates have more than doubled. Together, they give the computer a 3-dimensional view of the dancing. Palindrome has developed two software for use with this system. The first is called Touchlines . These lines are sensitive to change.
Touchlines are programmable in many ways.
One line may be triggered with the tiniest of finger movements, while another may require the dancer to run the entire length of the stage to play all of its notes. Additionally, some touchlines can be used to control others, adding new lines and deleting old ones as they are called for in the course of a dance. Minotaur is our most sophisticated use of this system to date. It involves four dancers playing a composed musical score entirely by their movements in space. Coordinated through a series of scenes within the computer, over 250 touchlines are used in the six minute dance.