Program Notes from Boris Willis' curated Kinetic Cinema

June 16th, 2009 | Author: pentacleblog

We wanted to provide you with the program notes and videos that Boris Willis presented at Kinetic Cinema, on June 10th at Chez Buskwick. Since his program was about dance vlogging, all the videos he showed are available online, which we have provided the links to. Coincidentally, Willis organized his videos along the theme of amateur/professional, fitting perfectly with our first Weekly Videodance Contest.

Reality Dancevision: An Intimate Screen Capture of Dance Vloggers- Program Notes and Videos

Curator’s Note:

Boris Willis by Paul Emerson

The dance vlogger it seems, is a rare person to find. It is relatively easy to find dance bloggers, dance writers and dance photographers but finding professional dancers/choreographers who use the web as a primary source for showing a dance is more difficult. We see the powerful influence of the web with the disappearance of newspapers and the emergence of e-book readers such as the Kindle, the emergence of iTunes Music Store as the world’s largest seller of music, as well as the question of whether DVD’s will soon be outpaced by movie downloads. Even in this digital age, people love dance, as evidenced by video sharing sites that are replete with videos of the latest social dances and sophisticated dance videos made by amateurs.. I think that just as reality television can take you into the lives of ordinary people, online dance can take you into the lives of dance makers. We can get an intimate look at the person, not just the performer, through online video. I can’t predict that the web will provide a revolution in theatrical dance. However, I do sense a shift by some artists who feel as I do that one does not have to wait for their two nights in the theater to share their work. For this program, I will present several works by amateur and professional dancers that reveal the artist as both a performer and a person in a way that illuminates the purpose of dance in our lives as well as acknowledge the value of web as a venue.

–Boris Willis
Enjoy…

Matt Harding

Inspirational dance done by an amateur dancer who has a corporate sponsor.

Where the hell is matt/ 3:42/2006/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4

Soulja BoyTell’em

Example of social dancing on the web and an example of how dances get passed down from person to person. Soulja Boy also had a hit dance and song that was replicated on the web by many.

Do Da Stanky Leg/ 1:53/2009/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro0DCOxxG18&feature=related

Leili

Belly dancing- Raks Al Baladi an example of social dance on the web.

Iranian Girl/2:53/2009 http://vimeo.com/3391786

Conor Clarke

Conor and Matt get inspired and dance for fans of their sketch comedy show. Amateur performance made entertaining through the use of editing.

Dance/:52/2009 http://vimeo.com/2529997

Dance2/2:18/2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPuh3Th-MmQ

Emma Noel

A response dance that shows the power of editing as well as show the differences in movement styles.

http://vimeo.com/76701

Mike Long

Mike did a year long dance video project posting a video everyday for a year and dance in various locations mostly around where he lived in Hamilton, Canada. Mike is a DJ and humorist with a large youtube following.

Picture on the Wall/2:32/2009/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMJAtQ-hrIo&feature=channel_page

Nick “Fresh” Puzo

NickFreshAlive is a friend of Mike Long who was inspired by him to make a video series of his own. This was a dance he did on a dare to dance in a crowed bar in front of people.

Shake Shake Shake Shake/2:43/2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kYkKqpKaFs&feature=channel_page