Methodology
Practice Based Research
This project follows a practice based methodology built on collaboration between dance, music production and digital fashion design.
Movement Exploration
Mimi is the dancer and movement collaborator of the project. Her role is to explore improvisational dance responding to specific musical environments. The movement is not choreographed in advance. Instead, the body reacts freely to rhythm, energy and space.
Musical Environment
The dance sessions take place using two original beats produced for the project.
The first track, Whitney, is a deep house composition encouraging fluid and sensual movement. The second track, The Call, is inspired by ndombolo rhythms and introduces more grounded and energetic body dynamics.
Video Capture
During each session, the movement is documented through video recording. These recordings capture the gestures, body lines and spatial dynamics produced during the improvisation.
Movement Analysis
The recorded material is then analysed to identify specific moments where the body generates interesting visual structures.
Selected frames from the videos are extracted and used as references to study the lines, curves and directions created by the dancer’s movement.
Pattern and Textile Design
These movement lines become the starting point for the design process. They are translated into visual patterns and textile designs that reflect the rhythm and structure of the body in motion.
Digital Garment Development
From these textile patterns, digital garment prototypes are developed using digital fashion design tools. The garments therefore emerge directly from the dancer’s movement vocabulary.
Final Outputs
The final outcome of the project will include several forms of documentation:
• rehearsal sessions
• movement exploration recordings
• the final dance performance using the combined mix of Whitney and The Call
• a digital fashion animation where a ghost avatar wears the movement generated garment
Generative Body
Through this process, the dancer’s body becomes a generative design tool, transforming movement into textile pattern and digital fashion form.
The Call
The Call is a track I produced in collaboration with a beatmaker from Central Congo, Malatrack. The full version of the track also features Guccima, an atalaku based in Paris, whose vocal performance adds an additional rhythmic and cultural layer to the composition.
The origin of this track is deeply connected to my personal journey in music. Before becoming a DJ, I had already experimented with beatmaking when I was very young. After a long period in my life where I had completely stopped producing music, I went through a moment of deep reflection about my creative path.
During this time, I experienced what I can only describe as a powerful internal call. It felt like a strong force or energy urging me to return to music production. The feeling was so clear and intense that it shaped the identity of the track itself.
This experience is what inspired the title The Call. The track represents that moment of reconnection with a creative energy that had always been present in my life.
The Call is the first track of my upcoming EP Mwana Mama, which will be released in the future.
Within the Body as Pattern project, the track plays an important role in the movement exploration. Its ndombolo inspired rhythms create a grounded and energetic physical response in the body, contrasting with the fluid and continuous movement encouraged by the deep house track used in the sessions.
By introducing these contrasting musical energies, the project allows different movement qualities to emerge, which later inform the visual and textile translation of the body in motion.