Lately, with the success of So You Think You Can Dance we’ve seen a resurgence of dance in main stream media. Now there is also emerging a progressive vision for dance in the internet age. Film director John M. Chu cut his teeth on the blockbuster hit: “Step Up 2: The Streets.” Today he is working on an interactive web series featuring “The League of eXtraordinary Dancers” (LXD), a band of hip hop dancers with “supernatural” abilities that battle it out over broadband. Everything about this project is Web 2.0. First Chu posted video announcements on YouTube asking dancers to respond with their audition videos. From the hundreds of video responses he received, he selected his cast, to make an interactive web series. So far they have been doing an impressive PR circuit. The LXD dancers have made appearances on SYTYCD, the Oscars, and TED. If this blows up, it could mean dance gains a strong foothold in the future of media. Below is their recent TEDtalk. I love what Chu says about how dance is flourishing and evolving through exchange on the internet. My hope is that the concert dance community takes some tips from these hip hop dancers and take to the digital streets!

Enjoy!

ICA KINETIC CINEMA SCREENING  

Eko & Sen Hea: A Journey Beyond

The 2010 Kinetic Cinema series kicks off with a night of dance on film curated by renowned filmmaker Carmella Vasser-Johnson.    

Wednesday, February 24 @ 7:00pm · FREE   

Institute of Contemporary Art · University of Pennsylvania
118 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289 · 215.898.5911   

Victoria Marks & Deborah May: Mother's and Daughters

Kinetic Cinema  

is a New York based screening series that explores the intersection of dance and the moving image.  Organizer Anna Brady Nuse invites a special guest from the dance and film communities to share the films and videos that have inspired and influenced their own work.       

Note on Program from Carmella Vasser-Johnson:     

When I was first approached about sharing a program of dance films that influence and inspire the work that I produce, I was immediately reminded of a pivotal point in my career: in 1999 I joined a group of dance-media makers from across the country and Canada for a fellowship program mentored by a prestigious group of leaders in the field. Over the course of many months I worked with pioneers of dance film like Jac Venza, Merrill Brockway and Girish Bargava (of Dance in America) and with the talented and culturally diverse dancers of the UCLA community. I was enriched by the beauty of California’s ocean and mountains. My cup runneth over. I had only recently changed hats from being a dancer myself to working on the other side of the lens as a videographer/editor/producer. Through this program, I was immersed in a milieu that allowed me to see work from my colleagues and other artists from around the world, stretching my perspective on how to capture dance in two dimensions. I could not get enough of watching and dialoguing with other creators on how they approach their work.  

The films that I share with you in this program represent images, ideas and relationships from that time that remain vital for me today. My work now, as at the beginning, takes an archival or preservational approach. But I also long to see dance in everyday spaces, done by all kinds of people. Some of the selections here satisfy that wish as well.    

Photo: "Dancing Camera Girl" by Flickr user geishaboy500, used under Creative Commons License.

Attend the ‘Dance with Camera’ Exhibition before Kinetic Cinema at The Institute of Contemporary Art.

An exhibition and a screening program that explores a crossover between artists and dancers who make choreography for the camera. The exhibition features art works in film, video, and still photography that exemplify the ways dance has compelled visual artists to record bodies moving in time and space. Screenings elaborate the show’s theme with iconic dance films, ranging from Busby Berkeley’s Hollywood musicals to Maya Deren’s avant-garde films.  

The exhibition’s curator, Jenelle Porter, offers more than a century of filmed dance and dancing film, from the Lumière Brothers in 1896 to Flora Wiegmann dancing beside an LA freeway in 2007.  

Carmella’s Bio: 

Carmella Vassor-Johnsons’ connection to dance began as a performer having been a member of the Philadelphia Dance Company, Civic Ballet Company and Anne-Marie Mulgrew & Dancers Co.. Through her video production company Wild Child Productions, Carmella lends her sensitivity and knowledge of the craft to the arts community through the documentation of dance and the integration of media in stage works. Ms. Vassor-Johnson was awarded a Pew Fellowship for the National Dance/Media Project at the University of California (Los Angeles) and began her relationship with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2000 as resident videographer and editor. She has produced four educational documentaries for this prestigious organization. She co-directed, with Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer, the documentaries Eko & Sen Hea: A Journey Beyond, World Tea Party, part of the feature-length World Festival of Sacred Music for PBS-Los Angeles, Creating Across Cultures, commissioned by the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance, and Standing at the Edge, We Dance for WYBE-PBS Philadelphia. Her other credits include the experimental video, Endangered Species, an adaptation of the stage work created and performed by hip hop pioneer Rennie Harris, and Quasi Normal, which follows choreographer Susanna Linke as she creates a new work for Jeanne Ruddy Dance. Her documentaries and experimental work have been broadcast on public television and have screened throughout the country including at the Festival of Independents (Philadelphia) and Dance and Camera Festival (New York).  

Doug Elkins with Kaya, a student at Beacon High School, NYC Screen Grab

Tuesday, February 23 at 8:00 pm

WHERE THE DANCE IS: Doug Elkins at Beacon School.  A 16-minute documentary directed by Marta Renzi

at
Duo Theater
62 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave & Bowery in NYC

At this Audience Choice screening you’ll see five short movies and will be given a ballot to rate each film. The highest rated films will be screened at the Festival in April, 2010.

The Duo Theater screening room is a charming and intimate turn of the century theater with wide aisles for viewing comfort. Each evening’s programming will last approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Here’s the info on tickets and the other films showing in the series:

https://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?EID=&showCode=6TH4&GUID=

For news of other upcoming Renzi events:

http://martarenzi.blogspot.com

Announcing Movement Media’s YouTube Channel: FilmingDance4web Video Dance Channel

Featuring Artistic Video dances made by amazing choreographers, dancers, video artists, film directors, dance companies, and beginning film makers interested in making dance for camera.   

Join Our Videodance Community of Artists by sharing your work with us.

Choreographer, Christine Soriano. Photo by Rex Miller

Types of videos featured on Video Dance Channel: 

• Dance Installations from Museums 
• Works created for Video Art Festivals
• Dance Films featured in Dance Film Festivals
• Urban Dance Projects
• Dance Company Artists: Choreography and Movement for Camera
• Creative Stories and Video Art developed by Artists from across the Globe.  
• Flashmob Dance Videos
• Dance ‘Webisodes’
• Silly, ‘Just for fun videos’
• Videos by Emerging Artists within the Videodance Community

Movement Media helps Emerging Film Artists develop creative projects.  

Photo by Lois Greenfield

• Attend our Meet-up Groups to Practice Filming Dance (dates and locations to be announced in up-coming weeks).  
• Your videos can be featured on our channel for viewing, feedback, and discussion by artists in the videodance community.  

Your videodance may be:

• featured on our Video Dance Channel 
• chosen for our Kinetic Cinema Screenings,
• or showcased at our annual UMove Online Videodance Festival

 

Movement Media also offers services to help dance companies, choreographers and other artists develop work for film festivals, art installations, and other film projects. 

Urban Playground Quartet at the Awesome Arts Festival

• After the touring of your work, we would be happy to feature your work in Movement Media’s Kinetic Cinema Screenings or for other educational purposes. 

• If you would like to work with Movement Media on a dance film, contact us at movementmedia@pentacle.org  

Catch the video ‘Passion Pants’

from Moscow’s 2007 Video Art Festival PUSTO

http://www.youtube.com/user/FilmingDance4web  

Choreographer and Dancers:  Dina Khusejn, Olga Dukhovnaya

Video Art:  Konstantin Telepalov

FilmingDance4web:  Movement Media’s NEW Video Dance Channel