Adjunct professors Jason Schadt (MFA 2008) and Juliet Remmers (MFA 2022) are working on exciting research with Electrical and Computer Engineering professors Mona Garvin and Tyler Bell and Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science professor Ruth Chimenti. The project, entitled Towards an Immersive Community-Based VR/AR Ballet Performance Using Computer Vision, includes 3D motion capture of ballet movements on stage and in a laboratory setting.

Garvin (principal investigator) with Schadt and Chimenti (co-principal investigators) received $25,000 in grant funding from the University of Iowa NEXT Stages Community Feasibility Grant. Schadt is Artistic Director of UI Youth Ballet and Community Dance School, and Remmers is a ballet instructor in the program.

Douglas Baker, accompanist in the Department of Dance has been commissioned to compose and perform original music for the project.