A method for controlling aspects of an artistic performance with a motion capture system includes modeling movements of a performer with a biomechanical skeleton, selecting parent and child segments on the biomechanical skeleton, positioning motion capture sensors on a motion capture subject at positions corresponding to the parent and child segments, selecting actions associated with movements of the child segment according to positions of the parent segment within at least two predefined spatial zones, executing actions in a first action group for the child segment when the parent segment is in a first spatial zone, and executing actions in a second action group for the child segment when the parent segment is in a second spatial zone.