Dr Royce Neagle: Development Officer for Teaching Projects
I am the Development Officer for Teaching Projects at the School of Computing, University of Leeds.
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Contact Details
royce@comp.leeds.ac.uk
+44 (0) 113 343 5478
Room 9.11g
School of Computing
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
United Kingdom
I was appointed as Development Officer for Teaching Projects in the School of
Computing in February 2008. For more information see Current Projects.
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I was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1968 and trained professionally at The
Royal Ballet School, London in classical, character, neo-classical and
contemporary dance. In 1989, I joined Northern Ballet Theatre, England where I
obtained the rank of soloist and worked with esteemed choreographers and
teachers such as Christopher Gable, Graham Lustig, Flemming Ryberg, Gillian
Lynne, Ronald Hynd, Michel Rahn and Nanette Glushak. During htis time I also
guested in Japan and Germany. In NBT, I created roles included Paris from
Massimo Moricone's Romeo and Juliet and The Ghost of Christmas Present for A
Christmas Carol which were filmed for BBC2 in 1993 and 1994 and performed in
the 1989 Royal Variety Show with an excerpt from Gillian Lynne's Bafta award
winning A Simple Man. In 1996, I joined Ballet du Rhin, France touring France,
China, Taiwan and Singapore and in August 1997 I retired as a professional
dancer.
I received a BSc (Hons) in Computing at the University of Leeds 2001 and
funded by a University of Leeds scholarship, completed my PhD (Emotion by
Motion: Expressive Simulation in Virtual Ballet) in 2004. In 2003, I completed
my Cecchetti Associate exams, A.I.S.T.D.(CB) and have continued to do freelance
ballet teaching which has included the Nothern Ballet Theatre Associates,
Northern Associates, UK and Kate Simmons Dance including the annual school
productions (1998, 2000-2004, 2007 and 2008). In academia, I was
employed part-time at the University of Leeds as a teaching fellow in the
School of Computing lecturing Advanced Graphics for the MSc and from 2004 to
2008 was a research assistant for the Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientific
Research in Music (ICSRiM), working specifically on AXMEDIS: Automating
Production of Cross Media Content for Multichanneal Distribution supported by
the EC IST FP6. During this time I also taught the following undergraduate
modules: MUSI1614: Digital Media and the Internet and MUSI2611: Computer Music
Software Development.
Emotion by Motion: Expressive Simulation in Virtual Ballet (PDF 15505Kb)
Learning and teaching choreographies can be an arduous task. In ballet, most
dancers learn by emulation i.e. ``watch, copy and learn''. The teaching process
not only instructs the order of steps but also requires explaining the quality
required for the performance. Notational systems are used in almost all fields
of study, and dance notation with inferred domain rules are used to aid in the
teaching of choreographies and dance. Few professional performers can read
written choreography let alone visualise the movements involved, and this
represents a considerable barrier to the utility of choreography in its written
form.
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Real-time computer graphics are ideally suited to bridge the gap between
written choreographic notation and performance, via the creation of a virtual
dancer. It would be useful for professionals to better understand choreography
and notated ballet scores as well as assisting to teach dance at all levels. To
understand the needs and derive methods for a virtual ballet dancer system,
there are three distinct parts and these provide the structure for this thesis.
The first part researches into the fideli ty that is required for a virtual
ballet dancer. From this analysis, expressive motions are parameterised using
Laban's effort parameters and results presented how participants distinguished
between the different emotions performed at various levels of fidelity. The
results provide understanding on how Laban's parameters define variations
performed during the different expressive movement and the level of
interpolation required for a user to distinguish the expressive performances.
The second part presents methods for setting and evaluation of specified ballet
positions (key poses) which form the foundation for ballet steps. Mathematical
rules are developed and explained within the context of the ballet domain rules
being represented. The resulting poses defined by the dance notation and the
mathematical descriptions are evaluated by professional teachers and notators.
The results are presented showing how basic ballet positions are accurately
posed for a perfect dancer and variations from the perfect pose to the
real-world. These poses are used as the foundation for layering the expressive
algorithm on.
The final part presents how Laban's Effort factors can be used for expressive
interpolation between key poses, i.e.~the quality of movement. Methods are
analysed and algorithms implemented to develop variations in the movement
between the set dance positions. These variations are matched to the expressive
performances of real dancers analysed in the first part of this research in
order to evaluate the algorithms derived with actual expressive performances.
The results presented are the first major step s to produce an animated
``virtual ballet dancer''.
