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Up until April 24, 2024, you can visit the interactive exhibition at the Memorial Union by Ariann Rousu called The Native Dancer Project. Rousu is an active member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation in Minnesota and graduated from UND in 2022. Her project has been in the works for over two years, and recently debuted at the Memorial Union Art Gallery on March 11.
The goal of the Native Dancer Project is to integrate digital technologies with traditional native dances. Using Unreal Engine Meta Human and other advanced computer models, Rousu created digital characters dressed in regalia from Dakota, Lakota, Sioux, and other northern plain tribes for the digital exhibition. Alongside accurately portraying how they dressed, Rousu utilized motion capture data from live recordings of powwow dances by the UND Computational Research Center to help bring the dances to life in the digital world.
Rousu successfully accomplished her goal in bringing these traditional native dances to life in a digital space. Within the art exhibition aside from the VR experience, there are also several physical art mediums including some incredible acrylic paintings depicting Native Tribe Members in traditional clothing.
However, the exhibition’s focal point is the VR experience that depicts a traditional powwow dance. Your’re instructed to put on a VR headset that transforms your surroundings to a scenic field in the middle of a valley depicting a Native American encampment. Standing across from you is a digital character dressed in traditional dance regalia, and with the click of a button, a two-minute dance commences. Between the traditional music being played through the headset and the digital character performing, it feels as if you’re experiencing the dance in real life.
This is an incredible experience that enables one to gain a new appreciation for Native American Culture, effectively accomplishing the projects’ goal to be a “space for all people to learn, have fun, compete, and in many ways, heal.” I encourage you to visit the interactive gallery at the Memorial Union yourself and learn about the rich culture that the Native Dancer Project seeks to share with us.
Daniel Silva is a Dakota Student General Reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].
