We have arrived at the end of our month-long exploration of dance and line. Have you kept up? To return to the beginning, visit these videos by de Keersmaeker, Orrico, and Forsythe.

We will end with a video by Rashaad Newsome and Darrin Prada called Untitled (New Way). (Unfortunately you will have to click the link to see this one as embedding has been disabled).

http://vimeo.com/10696932

From Newsome’s description:

“Untitled (New Way Study)” features Darrin Prada, one of New York City’s top “New Way” Voguers’, and serves to shape a careful and loving visual study of both performer and performance. I invited Darrin to my studio to be filmed demonstrating the “New Way” style of Vogueing. New Way is characterized by a more rigid, geometric pattern movement coupled with “clicks” (limb contortions at the joints) and “arms control” (sleight of hand and wrist illusions, which usually include “tuts” or “tutting” and locking). New Way can also be described as a modified form of mime, where imaginary geometric shapes such as a box are introduced during motion and moved progressively around the dancer’s body to display the dancer’s dexterity and memory.

"Coup de Grace" by Clara Van Gool

Whether your interest is in ballet stars of bygone eras or edgy dance films that push at the boundaries of cinema, there is something for you at the Dance On Camera Festival. The question is just how to find it. The good news is that this year, the festival programming on the Dance Films Association’s website is quite easy to navigate. Arranged by genre, title, and schedule, it is easy to zero in on the programs that you most want to see.

For fans of screendance, the genre of dance made for the camera, the bad news is that there are only two shorts programs being shown at the Dance On Camera Festival this year, but luckily they are good ones. The first is the Dance Film Narratives program, playing on Jan 27^th and 29^th. Featuring two highly anticipated films by veteran dance filmmakers, Clara Van Gool and Pontus Lidberg, this program will be seeped in dramatic storytelling and breathtaking choreography for the camera. Coup de Grace the latest dance film by Clara Van Gool (director of the acclaimed screen adaptation of DV8’s Enter Achilles) features Jordi Cortes Molina and Damian Munoz, two adversaries who meet in a remote location and engage in a physical and emotional duel. Pontus Lidberg’s Labyrinth Within hauntingly depicts the suspense and jealousy surrounding a love triangle and features NYC Ballet Principal Wendy Whelan and a commissioned score by David Lang.

The second opportunity to see dance for camera is the Shorts Program, a free event at Lincoln Center’s new Elinor Bunin Monroe Auditorium on Saturday Jan 28^th. A lighthearted and whimsical selection will be shown here, and features some work by local favs including Jody Oberfelder’s case of mistaken identity, Come Sit Stay and Pooh Kaye’s romp on the wild side in Spring Cleaning.

There are several other other notable screendances sprinkled throughout the festival, including Ora, the first film to use 3D thermal imaging (part of Pilobolus and shorts), and Falling, a gorgeously rendered film about dancers and gravity made by Adrian Churchill the special effects creator of the BBC television series, Merlin.

Several documentaries in this year’s festival seem to blur the boundaries of reality and experimental art film. Examples can be found in the Dance Legacies program on Jan 30^th & 31^st featuring artful shorts about dance being passed through the generations (Cari Ann Shim Sham’s Sand) and as commentary on social changes (David Rousseve’s portrait of Indonesia in Two Seconds After Laughter and Bruce Berryhill & Martha Curtis’s documentary on Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s work after Hurricane Katrina, Re-staging Shelter). The roots of Robert Wilson’s enigmatic theatre work are exposed in The Space In Back of You an homage to the radical Japanese performer and choreographer Suzushi Hanayagi, whom Wilson collaborated with for 20 years.

Last but not least, you don’t want to miss Sally Sommers, Charles Atlas, and Michael Schwartz’s long awaited documentary Check Your Body at the Door, a tribute to New York’s underground House culture, featuring dances filmed over twenty years and never seen before on screen. Check Your Body will be preceded by freedom2dance, a short that examines the devastating impact of Mayor Giuliani’s strict enforcement of the Cabaret Laws on New York’s once thriving underground dance club culture. This program will also screen the winner of DFA’s first High School Student Film Competition, giving us a sneak peak at the future of screendance!

The 40^th edition of the Dance On Camera Festival will take place from January 27-31 at the Walter Reade Theater as well as the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center.  For more information go to DFA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s websites to see the full line-up, as well schedule and ticket information.

ReelDance is currently inviting submissions of Australian and international screen dance work in the following categories*:

1. single channel (looped for installation)
2. multi-channel (looped for installation)
3. screen dance short – under 10mins (single screening)
4. mid-length screen dance – 10-60mins (single screening)
5. dance documentary (single screening)
6. online and/or mobile environments

*Entries must fall within the following definition: the work must contain within its main concerns dance and/or dynamic expressions of movement created specifically for the screen, be it human movement, the dance-like movement of inanimate objects, dance effects achieved through filming or post-production, or abstract motion studies. NOTE: Recordings of live dance performance will not be considered (unless as part of dance documentary).

*Only works created after 1 January 2010 will be considered.

Closing date for submissions: 29 February 2012, AEDT 17:00 hrs

For more information and to submit online application form go to: http://reeldance.org.au/reeldance-2012-submission-form

ReelDance is an internationally recognized arts organisation supporting innovative collaborative practice across dance, film and new media art. We provide a forum for dance screen culture, developing and defining this artistic field of practice in Australia and New Zealand, and promoting local work both nationally and internationally.

ReelDance curates, presents and consults on programs of single and multi-screen works for exhibitions, broadcast and festivals. Other activities include professional development for those working in the field of dance screen through workshops and forums, creating distribution opportunities for Australian dance filmmakers. Also, ReelDance has established the Moving Image Collection, a significant archive of Australian and New Zealand dance screen works.

Here’s another well-loved favorite. You may have seen it already, but perhaps this week we can watch it with specific attention towards the ways that Forsythe works with lines and texture.

Feet rubbing on the floor, violin bow rubbing against strings, muscle rubbing against bone—etching, cutting, weaving, and shaping himself and the space around him. Moving quickly from one thing to the next, we remain with the ghosts of himself that he leaves behind.