Between them, singer Viviane Houle and multi-instrumentalist Stefan Smulovitz have racked up an impressive list of collaborators; from former SNFU guitarist Brent Belke to the experimental-theatre mavens of Rumble Productions, many have made use of their flair for expressive vocalizing and innovative sound design. But with their new production company, Pictures for the Sky, the two are ready to step a little bit further into the spotlight.

"It just feels like the right time for us to take the lead," says Houle, reached at the Sunshine Coast home she shares with her laptop- and viola-playing partner. "It's always exciting to be part of someone else's work, but it just feels like a time when we have our own ideas about where we want to go and things that we want to explore. So it's time for us to break our own ground–and to dream big."

Old habits are hard to overcome, however. And so while Pictures for the Sky's inaugural show, gesture4, is an appropriately expansive undertaking, at its core is a very familiar concept: collaboration.

Granted, the new piece–which can be seen on Friday and Saturday (June 1 and 2) at the Scotiabank Dance Centre–began as a project for Houle and Smulovitz alone. The latter, who happens to be a gifted software designer as well as an accomplished musician, was working on a motion-sensing program that would allow a performer to generate visual imagery through gestures, and Houle was his test subject.

"I guess I move my hands quite a bit when I sing," she explains. "But as we got into it a little bit more, we got really excited about the idea of including other artists who specialize in movement and video."

Video artist jamie griffiths and dancer-choreographer Noam Gagnon were quickly invited onboard, and with their input gesture4 has been structured as an event in three acts. The first meditates on the question "What is a gesture?" using texts supplied by a number of friends and fellow artists. The next portion takes place on-screen, as griffiths mixes images of prayer and devotion with footage of Gagnon interpreting different ritual gestures. And the last act is a structured improvisation featuring all four artists and their three different disciplines.

For Gagnon, who's taking a year's sabbatical from the Holy Body Tattoo dance company, gesture4 is an opportunity to explore new media while reacquainting himself with on-stage improvisation. "I'm known for creating things that are extremely tight and extremely controlled in all elements," he says, on the line from his Vancouver home. "But every work I've ever done has been based on improvisation. The only thing that is a little bit more scary and frightening here is the element of risk."

"That's what's really exciting about this," Houle adds. "We're bringing these four intense, like-minded artists together in a fully interdisciplinary, improvised, live art show, and I think that's unusual. The audience will have the opportunity to see instant compositions by Noam, by jamie, and by Stefan and myself. It's really something that's raw and edgy–and it's a beautiful new exploration of ideas."