From July 12, 2007 David Michalek’s Slow Dancing will be projected in high definition onto three 50-foot screens on the front of the New York State Theater in New York City. IRIDAS’ FrameCycler VenueSystem is providing uncompressed playback and SpeedGrade was used for color correction. Captured with the Phantom HD high-speed digital camera, the Slow Dancing installation is made up of five-second sequences by 44 of the world’s greatest dancers. Shot at 1,000 fps, each of these sequences lasts for an astonishing 10 minutes in the final piece. The images are presented as a triptych: three different dancers at a time create a rich collage of color, gesture, and hyper-slow movement drawing on dance traditions from around the globe.

Acclaimed artist David Michalek has been creating large-scale performance and installation pieces since the mid-1990s. His work has appeared at venues such as the Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Hall, and Yale University. David is also on the visiting faculty of the Yale Divinity School. Married to New York City Ballet principal dancer, Wendy Whelan, David has had front line exposure to the world of dance. We spoke with David Michalek at his home in New York City.