Wellington artist creates Dance with a Stranger interactive piece to 'break barriers' in community

A Wellington artist is hoping to break barriers in the community and bust people out of their shells with a new interactive dance installation.

Dance with a Stranger will debut at the Hutt Winter Festival over August 15-17, and will allow members of the public to engage and dance with people on an interactive touch screen.

"I'm trying to facilitate a scenario in which a whole lot of different people have fun together," said creator Daniel James.

He wanted to see people bridging racial or age gaps to interact with each other, "essentially trying to make a moment of community happen".

"[It's] breaking down barriers between different pockets of communities ... which is a crucial idea to engage with particularly at the moment.

"Anything that kind of acts to build and foster links between people and across boundaries as a good thing in my books."

Daniel James says his Dance with a Stranger interactive experience which debuts at the Hutt Winter Festival over August 15-17 is trying to facilitate a scenario "in which a whole lot of different people have fun together". Photo / Andrew Turner

James recruited people from around the Hutt Valley to join in the project in several community workshops, putting them out of their comfort zone by having them dance in front of a camera for several minutes.

Recruit "wrangler" Luke Hanna was in charge of directing the dancers, most times dancing alongside them and putting them at ease.

"My background's in movement, so it's trying to make the participants or the people who are going to be on screen, make them as comfortable as possible, as set up as they can be, sort of make them feel like they're going to be a part of something," he said.

"It's good fun ... nothing like going and acting a bit silly and making people feel good about themselves."

James said the interactive would work when a member of the public walked up to the screen and placed their hand on it.

A woman jumps and dances during filming for the project, accompanied by Luke Hanna. Photo / Andrew Turner

"A person will pop up with their hand to yours," he said.

"Hopefully the member of the public will start dancing with them."

There will be 50 different touch points on the screen, each with a different dancer and piece of music.

"I would hope it makes people smile ... I would hope that for some people there's a chance to do something they wouldn't have otherwise done."

This will be the third year the Hutt Winter Festival has run. More information can be found on the event's Instagram or Facebook pages, or at huttwinterfestival.co.nz.