Cirque Du Soleil's Magical Choreographed Drone Dance

View fullsize

You get a thing of pure beauty when you mix Cirque Du Soleil with robotic drone quadcopter technology. The short film you're about to watch is called "Sparked," and it's a choreographed dance that features an electrician whose workshop becomes filled with flying lampshades. 

Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, and Verity Studios have partnered to develop a short film featuring 10 quadcopters in a flying dance performance. The collaboration resulted in a unique, interactive choreography where humans and drones move in sync. Precise computer control allows for a large performance and movement vocabulary of the quadcopters and opens the door to many more applications in the future.

I also included a behind-the-scenes look at how the short was made. This is a really delightful short, so I hope you enjoy it! Thanks to io9 for the tip.

Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, and Verity Studios have partnered to develop a short film featuring 10 quadcopters in a flying dance performance. The collaboration resulted in a unique, interactive choreography where humans and drones move in sync.

Get an exclusive look at the story behind the short film SPARKED: a collaboration between Cirque du Soleil, ETH Zurich, and Verity Studios. SPARKED demonstrates how state of-the-art technology can be used to combine human actors and quadcopters in a symbiotic, choreographed performance.