Lara Croft comes alive with the MLD Tracking System

October 13, 2000

Lara Croft is the main character of the best-seller computer game “Tomb Raider”. She is now also the inspiration for a new multimedia dance production by internationally acclaimed choreographer Krisztina de Châtel.

In an unprecedented jump for modern dance, the show “Lara and Friends” recreates Lara’s virtual worlds and allows dancers to steer the objects, animals and demons from this virtual world.

At the heart of this production is the Martin Lighting Director (MLD) 3D tracking system. Each of the five performers wears a small MLD tracker that produces real time information about their position on the stage. This information drives a Silicon Graphics computer whose projected graphics constitute the main environment for the show. Director Raymond le Gué, one of the initiators of virtual television in the Netherlands, helped design a game world where the virtual becomes real and vice versa.

A control system developed by Lagotronics in Holland takes the MLD’s positioning information to control graphics, sound and video. In addition, Dutch lighting designers Avezaat and Hulzenbosch use the MLD in the show to control 12 moving heads which become automated followspots.

According to the Dance Company, “the MLD allowed this show to look interactive, for the first time the dancers themselves determine the progress of the performance”. “Lara and Friends” is touring extensively and so far has been shown in various cities in Holland, Germany and Switzerland.

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