Whatever Dance Toolbox is a specific technological tool that enables an expansion of the field of research development and analysis of dance and movement. It is a product of a long-standing research-oriented collaboration around computer-dancer interaction between BADco. and German human-machine interface developer and artist Daniel Turing. It is a suite of free software tools designed to assist in generating, developing and rehearsing choreographic work. Whatever Dance Toolbox is used as a connection between a camera that records movement in real time, computer and video beamer.

During the rehearsal dancers can manipulate the image of movement and work with an ”active mirror” that emits qualities which they haven’t produced yet. Body is thus placed inside a different relation to its environment which, in turn, determines and changes its expressivity. Tools, conveniently dubbed What the Machine Can See or WTMS, employ visual analysis, delay, reverse-play and jitter functions to allow dancers and choreographers to study and complexify their movements and relations. The machine-factor generates an organization of choreographic elements different and alien to what other choreographic methodologies can produce.

Needing no more than a well-lit white or black room, a camera, a beamer and a computer, BADco. implements the tools in its day-to-day rehearsals, public presentations, professional dance workshops or interactive workshops with non-professional dancers and non-dancers.