The Evolution of Digital Dance: Choreography in the Age of Motion Capture and Avatars, a case of Nairobi City County

Abstract

This study examines the redefinition of stage art within Kenya's distinct cultural scenes through the lens of innovative digital technologies, encompassing both viral social media choreography and avatar-based heritage projects. This is linked to an exploration of artificial intelligence (AI) in a country as diverse as Kenya, where many novelties still have to be adapted or even made from scratch. This study seeks to investigate how dances on social media, which are disseminated in a way analogous to the passage of a virus, both shape the content of choreography and expression a performer must use, but also threaten traditional cultures to the point that they vanish. The paper employs a netnographic approach focused on three key digital field sites: the group Matata, the "Heroes of Kenya" avatar project, and the infrastructure of Nairobi-based motion capture studios. This paper, drawing on the Afrofuturism theoretical lens while analysing academic articles, reports, and social media (Instagram/TikTok, for example) from Kenyan artists, examines how Kenyans manage traditional dance on digital platforms at the same time that they are pioneering new contemporary forms. Kenyan artists today may be called weavers of digital culture. They blend tradition with artistic vocations and look for social media to influence dance style again, as a way of providing a mass experience over distances to make their new forms--hybrid homilies to an African future? Despite concerns about data ownership, loss of authenticity as folk arts migrates to the internet, and assertions that technology would taint the spirit in our own cultures, these technologies are new tools for artists to tell their stories and make people feel close by.