Robert Wechsler

Robert Wechsler is a choreographer, dancer and interactive-performance designer who pioneered systems allowing dancers' movement to shape sound and projected media in real time. He began his career with training in both science and dance: after studying biochemistry and molecular genetics at Iowa State University, he earned a BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase and a graduate degree in choreography from New York University, where he trained with Merce Cunningham and worked with New York modern-dance companies. That dual background—scientific and artistic—became fundamental to his approach.

In 1982, Wechsler co-founded Palindrome Dance Company in New York and became its artistic director. A Fulbright Fellowship followed in 1983, and the company later relocated to Germany. From 1985 to 1995 he taught dance and choreography at the University of Erlangen. Throughout this period, Wechsler had experimented with body-linked electronic sound from the 1970s onward, but the decisive phase of his research began in 1995 through collaboration with computer engineer and media artist Frieder Weiss. Together they developed camera-based approaches to interactive performance, including EyeCon, through which motion features could be mapped to music or projected images. Palindrome evolved from a dance company into an intermedia performance group.

Wechsler's writing has consistently insisted that technological responsiveness is not automatically meaningful interaction. In workshops and publications, he emphasizes mapping—the artistic choice of how a particular change in movement, whether direction, activity, location or flow, will alter sound or image. He documented these lessons in a 2006 practical guide to motion tracking with live performers and continued to teach the subject internationally. From around 2010, Wechsler's focus expanded through MotionComposer, an interactive system developed by a multidisciplinary team and intended to let people with disabilities create music through movement. Rather than simply repackaging a stage effect, the project translated Palindrome's performance research into an accessible instrument. Wechsler and Andreas Bergsland later published design research on composing interactive dance pieces for the device.

Wechsler remains associated with Palindrome and MotionComposer, presenting the system and its relationship to artificial intelligence in 2026. His career links experimental choreography, software collaboration and inclusive instrument design across more than four decades.