Philippa Cullen: Dancing the Music

This paper discusses one aspect of the work of Philippa Cullen, a dancer, choreographer, community artist and electronic experimenter who worked in Australia and in Europe for a brief period from 1969 to 1975. Covered here is her experimental work with electronic systems that allowed dancers to produce sound and music from their movements. Her primary instrument was the theremin, for which she and her collaborators produced a variety of innovative extensions, from very large aerials, to use with synthesizers. She was an important early exponent of interactivity in the arts, inspiring and teaching many others on her way.