‘THAW’ Collaboration Brings Disciplines Together With Virtual Production Technology

Faculty members in the Music, Dance and Visualization programs have teamed up to create a performance shaped by climate awareness, all filmed using the state-of-the-art technology at the Virtual Production Institute.  

“THAW” is a 12-minute production featuring dancers perform in front of visuals of snowy and icy landscapes while faculty and students play percussion instruments.

The project was funded by a virtual production interdisciplinary grant provided by the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, and filmed on the virtual production stage in the Langford Architecture Center, Building A.

The project is a collaboration by Lynn Vartan, D.M.A., associate professor in Music; Stewart Ziff, M.F.A., associate academic graduate program director for Visualization and instructional associate professor; Michael Bruner, M.F.A., instructional assistant professor in Visualization; and Carolyn Pampalone Rabbers, M.F.A., instructional assistant professor in Dance.

Vartan said the project was inspired by a climate communication conference at the University of Maryland in 2025.

“After looking at vast and beautiful pictures of glacier landscapes, something clicked for us,” Vartan said. “We thought if there was ever a way to capture some feelings around that, virtual production would be a really interesting way to do it.”

“THAW” follows in the footsteps of “Disaster Divergence,” which debuted in 2025 as a multidisciplinary performance project shaped by the impact of natural disasters.

Vartan said the goal for “THAW” was to explore how the art of performance can change in a virtual production setting. The music, dance and visuals all developed within the collaborative team, she said.

“It feels very magical to be able to create art in this way,” Vartan said. “The feelings we depict in our performance, we’re able to also share on-screen, and I think audiences can embrace and really connect to it in whichever way they want.”

Creating the Performance

Vartan said the music follows an early morning, daytime and sunset look, using vibraphone, marimba and other percussion instruments and electronics.

“It starts out with this sort of icy and mysterious music,” she said, “and the middle is very energetic, with the last piece having a bit of melancholy.”

To create the choreography, Rabbers said she observed documentary materials around melting ice caps. Rabbers’ dance company, CPR Dance: Inhale Movement, worked on movement explorations.

They filmed 10 takes of the 12-minute dance piece during the single day of filming, Rabbers said.

“Discovering this structure for filming on set was one of the most interesting aspects of the collaboration,” Rabbers said. “It allowed for artistic discoveries for the camera operators, creating some really magical moments in the film.”

Developing the Visuals

The virtual environment for “THAW” wasn’t intended to recreate a specific location, said Bruner, who designed the visuals. He conducted research on glaciers and ice shelves around the world that are currently melting.

“I worked on making video time-lapses from satellite imagery to better understand how glaciers move and melt over time,” he said. “This and other glaciers informed my process, as I sought to animate and communicate the scale of these objects, and also the rapid rate at which they are disappearing.”

Bruner said the virtual environment simulates how the “northern latitudes experience long dark winters and endless bright summers, and how that plays into the polar regions experiencing the most severe effects of climate change.”

Justin Kirchhof, virtual production supervisor, said he was intrigued that “THAW” featured live music performance and dancers. The challenging part of filming was fitting all of the performers and instruments onto the stage, he said.

Two cameras were used, one of which was motion-controlled by a robotic camera arm, and the other with a specialized tracking system, he said.

“Bringing all of these elements together was a challenge, but both the creative team and our staff succeeded,” Kirchhof said. “I’m excited to see how this project might spark new opportunities to blend art and entertainment in virtual production.”

‘THAW’ Team

Creative team: Ziff, director; Vartan, executive producer; Bruner, virtual art lead and editor; and Rabbers, choreographer.

Virtual production team: Kirchhof, virtual production supervisor/robot operator; Christian Williams, stage manager; Grant Erdoes, technical director/stage operator; Chuck Primrose, systems engineer; Claire Chestnut, camera operator; and Ethan Evans, camera operator.

CPR Dance: Inhale Movement performers: Dennis Davis, Paige Mulick, Austin “Bucket” Panavong, Olivia Gray and Baylee Hertel.

Musicians: Vartan, Francisco Perez, JJ Wheeler and Grace Burton.

Operations team: Jam Martinez, Jeff Watson, Dan Monroe and D’Mya Tabron.