Dance Me, Ghost
Dance Me, Ghost is a multimedia installation exploring movement and memory through improvisation, a tool for creativity and social interaction. At its centre is a "memory board," a hand-held instrument inspired by the lukasa of the Luba people of Central Africa: a wooden device studded with beads and shells whose positions and textures help a reader recall history, places and stories.
At the beginning, each visitor is invited to read the letters left by those who came before, traces of others who have already passed through the piece. Part of the experience is learning to abandon oneself, to let go, to become a ghost.
Here, two people dance with their hands across the board to shape a collective memory. Piezo microphones beneath the surface turn every touch into sound, making each participant part of the composition. Through headphones, a fifteen-minute piece unfolds: the sonification of a dancer's movement, recorded with Anaïse Vallée at the IAS, ZHdK.
How can the movement of a dancer sound?
It became wind, breath, a puff of air, an invisible companion dancing alongside. At the end, each visitor is invited to leave a memory behind.
What's next?
Dance Me, Ghost is my first iteration on technology, movement and sound design. I learned a lot just trusting my instinct. Two directions I want to explore:
- A more tactile instrument. Building a richer, more sensory board, closer to the lukasa that inspired it — something hands truly want to touch and read.
- A deeper sonification. Refining how a dancer's movement becomes sound, finding sonic gestures that carry the real sensation of motion, breath and weight.
Listen
Watch
Symposium
Tracing: what we (don't) know so far — ZHdK, Zürich, April 2026.
Gallery
