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Choreographer Maya Patel shows AISOMA on a laptop while a dancer rehearses in a sleek Google Arts & Culture Lab studio.

Editorial illustration for Google Arts & Culture Lab and Choreographer Unveil AI Dance Tool AISOMA

AI Dance Tool AISOMA Reimagines Movement with Google Lab

Choreographer partners with Google Arts & Culture Lab on AI tool AISOMA

Updated: 2 min read

Dance meets artificial intelligence in a notable collaboration that's pushing creative boundaries. The Google Arts & Culture Lab has teamed up with a prominent choreographer to develop AISOMA, an new AI tool designed to transform how movement and technology intersect.

This isn't just another tech experiment. The project represents a deep dive into how artificial intelligence can serve as a genuine creative partner, generating original choreographic ideas rooted in an artist's unique movement language.

Dancers and technologists have long wondered whether AI could truly understand the nuanced, deeply personal art of choreography. AISOMA suggests an intriguing answer is emerging - one that blends human creativity with machine learning in unexpected ways.

The collaboration promises to do more than generate dance sequences. It aims to create a dynamic dialogue between an artist's accumulated work and modern AI capabilities, potentially reimagining how movement can be conceived, studied, and developed.

In 2019, I started a collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab to explore how AI could enable a more active dialogue with my 25-year body of work. AISOMA is a Google AI-powered choreography tool that acts as a creative catalyst by generating new, original dance rooted in my choreographic language. I initially used it in the studio to expand, challenge, and interrogate existing movement sequences.

Now, we're bringing a new version of this tool online for anyone to create with, as part of my exhibition: Wayne McGregor: Infinite Bodies at Somerset House. How You Dance with AISOMA You are invited to perform a short dance. A custom AI then analyzes your movement and extends your sequence with original choreographic phrases, all rooted in my movement vocabulary.

AISOMA has been trained on almost four million poses, extracted from hundreds of videos from my archive, spanning more than two decades of my work.

Dance and AI just got a fascinating new intersection. AISOMA represents more than just a technological experiment - it's a creative partnership between human choreography and machine learning.

The tool emerged from a deliberate collaboration between a choreographer and Google Arts & Culture Lab, starting in 2019. Its core purpose isn't replacement, but expansion: generating original dance movements rooted in an artist's existing choreographic language.

What makes AISOMA intriguing is its role as a "creative catalyst." Instead of producing generic movements, the AI seems designed to challenge and extend an artist's existing work. It's less about automation and more about collaborative exploration.

The project's most compelling aspect is its accessibility. What began as a studio experiment is now being made available to anyone interested in dance creation. This suggests an open, democratizing approach to AI artistic tools.

Still, questions linger about how artists will actually use such technology. Will AISOMA inspire new choreographic directions or simply serve as an interesting experiment? For now, it represents a thoughtful attempt to integrate AI into creative practice.

Further Reading

Common Questions Answered

How does AISOMA use AI to generate original dance movements?

AISOMA is an AI-powered choreography tool that creates new dance movements based on an artist's existing choreographic language. The tool acts as a creative catalyst by analyzing and expanding upon a choreographer's unique movement sequences, generating original dance ideas that are rooted in the artist's style.

What was the origin of the AISOMA collaboration between Google Arts & Culture Lab and the choreographer?

The collaboration began in 2019 when the choreographer started working with Google Arts & Culture Lab to explore how AI could interact with their 25-year body of work. The goal was to develop an AI tool that could serve as a creative partner, generating new dance movements while respecting and building upon the artist's existing choreographic language.

What makes AISOMA different from other AI creative tools?

AISOMA is unique in its approach to dance creation, focusing on expansion rather than replacement of human creativity. The tool is designed to challenge and interrogate existing movement sequences, acting as a collaborative partner that generates original dance ideas deeply rooted in an artist's specific choreographic style.