The Ballerina and the Robot
The ballerina stood beside the robot. Both facing forward, towards a wall of glass. An uncanny scene with a graceful dancer accompanied by a skeletal metallic creature, covered in curves of plastic.
The team behind the glass were frantic. Energetically, pressing buttons, typing on keyboards and making notes on the whiteboard behind them.
“What do you want me to do?”, hollered the ballerina, into the cold echoing room.
The technicians momentarily stopped and looked at the svelte form of the dancer. One of the technicians pressed a button, speaking into a microphone. “Dance?”, came the vacuous voice.
The ballerina frowned with annoyance. “I thought I was here to help you develop robotic movement”, she said with a sharp cut-glass tone, “I thought I was employed to explain how a person moves in ballet.”
Silence persisted from the control room, so she continued “You asked me here. Told me to get changed and now what? What is happening?”
A sliding door opened next to the glass wall and a tall slender man walked towards the couple.
“Maria, I’m sorry”, he said with an inviting smile, “We are so pleased you could join us. We are hoping you will teach Anna how to dance.”
He could read the clear confusion on her face and continued to explain, “We have cameras perched around the room. They will record your every move. We will then send those movements to Anna, who will copy them exactly.”
He started to gesticulate in circles with his hands, as he walked backwards towards the door.
“Start walking around, so we can get a reading and then you can begin to teach her”, he said this while he disappeared behind the sliding door.
The ballerina began to tentatively walk around Anna. The robot stayed motionless. She moved close to it, and looked intently into the robot’s featureless face. Still no movement.
She took a step back. The robot jerked and made her jump. She placed her hand on her heart and breathed out the shock. The robot slowly copied this movement too. Maria stared at the mimic.
She then slowly raised her hands above her head. After half a second, Anna began to raise its arms in a similar manner. Maria was intrigued. She gracefully lifted up her left leg and Anna copied her as before, though a little quicker.
“Let’s do this”, whispered Maria to herself.
“Position one!”, she shouted so the technicians could hear. Maria moved her heels so they kissed and placed her arms out in front of her. The robot immediately copied.
Maria smiled and shouted “Position two!’
She moved her feet and arms apart in an open stance. Again, Anna copied instantly. Maria took Anna through the remaining main positions and each time the robot followed the move perfectly.
Maria continued the training. Speeding through plie, how to pirouette, followed by pique turns and pas da bourree.
She increasingly careered through the skill levels. Flinging herself around like a gas atom, spinning around in space and time.
With every move she made, the robot became more proficient. Wherever she went, Anna followed. Whatever position she engaged, Anna did too.
Maria had completed all she felt she needed to teach. Though not physically exhausted, she felt mentally drained. She had never given a lesson so quick.
The slender man returned through the sliding door. She twisted herself to face him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Gregory”, he said as he offered his outstretched hand to her.
They briefly shook hands, and as soon as they lost contact, she blurted, “Can you play music here?”
Gregory looked surprised, following up with a nod, he said, “What do you want us to play?”
“The Swan from Saint-Saens, Carnival of the Animals”, she said pointedly.
Gregory gave her a thumbs up and walked back to the control room. Maria stood up and went through her stretching exercises. The robot parodied Maria, though it was unnecessary for it to do them.
The music started. The ballerina closed her eyes and she disappeared into another realm. For her, time passed unconsciously.
As the music faded into silence, Maria raised her head. Anna had joined her on the floor, completely mimicking her position.
Maria sat more comfortably. Looking as the robot morphed into her same shape.
Gregory was speechless. The beauty he had witnessed held his tongue. It was not just the dancer, but the robot too. Both had captivated his gaze.
“Disconnect me. Rerun the robot. I want to see how good it is?”, she called to the control room, looking for approval from Gregory. He simply nodded.
She’d walked to the edge of the dance floor. The music restarted. The robot came to life. It danced the Dying Swan perfectly.
Maria was enthralled. A lump began to grow in her throat. Through the robot, she was watching herself dance. She could see all her little quirks. The ones her teachers had all pointed out to her over the years of training.
She suddenly noticed Gregory standing next to her. He too was ensnared in the moment.
“Where do I end and Anna begin?”, she said to Gregory.
“Good question”, Gregory replied, without removing his gaze from Anna.
A little silence rested over the dancer and the programmer.
“I know what you’re thinking.”, Gregory said breaking the quiet pause, “It’s the same question programmers have over AI. ‘Will it replace us?’”
Maria bit her lip. A clear sign that Gregory had verbalised her worries.
“Who would pay to see a ballet troupe of AI robots?”, he didn’t wait for a response, “Maybe a few, but not many. Punters will still want to see human ballet dancers. They want to have a connection with the performers. And even though robotics can be beautiful and fun, it doesn’t provide a similar emotional response, which a human performance can provide”.
Anna began to dance the finale. Gregory and Maria momentarily stopped speaking, holding their collective breath.
He then continued, “What we see here, isn’t you. It’s not even human. It’s a robot and a facsimile of the energy of a person. It doesn’t reflect your essence, but only your energy’.
Maria looked unmoved and clearly confused. Gregory looked heavenward and tackled the topic from a different angle.
“We feel the energy of the Sun, when we go outside on a Summer’s Day. But we can’t experience its essence. It’s too hot and its gravity would crush us within seconds”, he said hoping she understood.
He could see she was processing this and so continued, “Look at us. I only know you by how you express yourself to me. If we stayed friends, I’d get to know you more, but I’d still not know your essence. This is hidden from me. Unlike this robot, Anna.”
Maria replied in a pondering voice, “So Anna is only copying my energy, not who I am.”
“Yes. Humans are too complex to understand their essence, but like with a car, we can take a robot apart and understand it. We can even look at the software and track the processes.“
Maria stood in silence for a moment, until another question dropped into her head. “So, why are you building ballerina robots?”, she said with a smirk on her face.
Gregory gave one of his broad smiles and replied, “Walking is inefficient. It conserves little energy compared to a person already in motion. Dancing involves quickly moving one form of energy into another, from potential to kinetic and vice versa.”
“And ballet is the most technically accurate form of dancing. It’s easier to model this than breakdancing or salsa, for example”, he says trying to sell the idea to Maria.
Maria looked off into the distance and said, “Oh, I see. So it’s about making robots more efficient. Thinking ballet could help do this feels counterintuitive, but I guess it makes sense’. Her eyes still looking towards a nonexistent horizon, trying to grasp the concept.
“I know, it seems strange, but we really think it could work. And it will look so much more beautiful and majestic than doddering robot hulks”, Gregory says this through his infectious grin.
Maria smiled as broadly as Gregory had. She looked at him.
“One more dance”, she proposed. Gregory smiled in agreement.
Maria began to ask for the music for Giselle’s descent into madness, but stopped herself, instead asked for Sleeping Beauty Aurora’s variation.