Archive for the ‘theory/criticism’ Category

Filmmaker Amy Ruhl is fascinated by the body in film, particularly when it becomes mutated, dismembered or perverted by the cinematic medium. For her Kinetic Cinema program presented this past Monday at Uniondocs in Brooklyn, she focused on the rich history of the female body in film, especially that most intriguing of female archetypes, the femme fatale.

In her first short film, “How Mata Hari Lost Her Head and Found Her Body” Ruhl reimagines the famous courtesan and spy as if she lived her life the way it ended (by execution with her body donated to science and her head put on display at the Musée d’Anatomie). Ruhl’s Mata Hari is quite literally a person split in her allegiances – between mind and body, warring countries, sexualities, high and low art. There was no reconciling her contradictions, and in trying to have everything both ways, she enraged the very public she was trying to seduce and was destroyed.

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The 2nd issue of The International Journal of Screendance-Scaffolding the Medium is now available.
Scaffolding the Medium brings together a variety of historical texts within the context of screendance to both create a common knowledge base and also to support a kind of cantilevered interest. This issue opens with an edited transcript of a presentation by Professor Ian Christie in which Christie surveys a history of cinema under the title The Cinema Has Not Yet Been Invented. This transcript is followed by five curated discussions on this initial idea as it relates to contemporary screendance.

Edited by Douglas Rosenberg and Claudia Kappenberg, this issue also features a report on the recent Screendance Symposium in Brighton by Claudia Kappenberg and Sarah Whatley.

PORCH STORIES, Photo: Gary Tacon

Marta Renzi’s Kinetic Cinema program “Let Me Entertain You” presented at Gibney Dance Center on Thursday March 22nd had a political and moral message behind it’s light title – Making an audience laugh is just as important and necessary a function of art as making them cry, or question, or think.

The evening was centered around a quote from Preston Sturges’ iconic 1941 film “Sullivan’s Travels” in which a Hollywood filmmaker sets out to make a “serious” film about poverty in America during the Depression. After a series of mishaps, the hero is believed to be dead and he ends up in jail, where he truly learns the dehumanizing oppression of poor people. The only light in the whole experience comes when he watches a movie with his fellow inmates, and he finds himself laughing tears of joy at the antics of Disney characters (just the sort of trite entertainment he was critical of when he set out on his journey). At the end of the film he tells his producers he wants to make a comedy, and leaves us with this unforgettable last line: “There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh! Did you know that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan! Boy!”

For filmmaker and choreographer Marta Renzi, this sentiment can be seen throughout her thirty years of art making, in which she has worked with people of all ages, classes, and races, both professional and amateur. Her mandate is to bridge art with real life, and she has done it in laundromats (The Welcome Table), auto mechanic’s garages (Year, Make, Model), neighborhoods (Porch Stories), and rust belt towns (Little Wild Heart) to name a few. In the mini-retrospective she showed at Kinetic Cinema we could clearly see her love for common people. Regardless of technique, budget size, or production elements above all else, Renzi wants to show the virtues of ordinary people in their daily lives, and the acts of celebration, joy, pain and pride that are there if only someone will shine a light on it. Interestingly, Renzi has approached this not as a gritty documentarian, but as an entertainer and a dancer.

In many ways, it is the archetypes of the working person that interest Renzi rather than the specific stories of individuals. In her films dance is a means of turning everyday tasks into ritualized sacred acts that defy normal space and time. In “The Welcome Table” working class black women look like high priestesses of the laundromat. As if by magic, the little white girls whose clothes they are washing appear in a procession through the laundromat and then disappear again, only to reappear in a hidden garden of a crumbling mansion. In Porch Stories the neighborhood characters evoke fairy tale counterparts including a “Pied Piper” old musician being followed by mischievous children, and a “Rapunzel”-like author trapped by her own writer’s block on her porch high on a hill.

Opening the evening was a short improvisatory solo and a video work by Arthur Aviles, a long time friend and performer of Renzi’s. Arthur’s video, “To Be Real” tells the story of a pheasant that was trapped in the Hunts’ Point neighborhood of the Bronx, and how the bird’s release inspired a dance (performed by the beautiful Althea Pace outdoors on the Bronx waterfront). Aviles is also concerned with bridging art with community and creating an atmosphere of inclusion. He is the founder of BAAD! (The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), in an old factory space in Hunts Point that has become a beacon for creative talent in this notoriously poor and underserved part of the city.

In a world that is polarized by words such as entertainment vs. art, socialism vs. capitalism, liberal vs. conservative, it is so refreshing to see Renzi and Aviles’ work which seems to bridge these dualities and show us how we are all in this “cockeyed caravan” together. That is the beauty of art, especially poetic forms like dance. We can go beyond the either/or’s and see how we are connected in divine and beautiful ways.

To learn more about Marta Renzi and her work go to: martarenzi.blogspot.com.
To learn more about Arthur Aviles go to: www.bronxacademyofartsanddance.org

After hearing about it for months, I finally got a chance to see Pina, the 3D documentary by Wim Wenders at Lincoln Center last week. It definitely stands up to the hype. Not only does the film capture the emotional impact of Pina’s work for stage, but the artistry of the filmmaking and storytelling completely renewed my faith in the power of dance, film and performance.

I have been a reserved skeptic about the 3D trend in cinema. I still don’t fully believe it will take off and become a permanent format, but Wender’s use of 3D for this film went to another level that was highly gratifying. Pina’s dances pop out and feel alive, while the intimate framing of the choreography was so satisfying to watch. The opening scene is of a performance of Bausch’s Rite of Spring. The shot places us right there in the dirt with the Virgin, and we feel the dust rise up and the stampede of life rush over us. As the piece builds to the sacrafice, we are increasingly pulled into the drama and the terrifying emotions of performers on a collision course with a violent fate.

Woven between scenes from Bausch’s famous dances, are vignettes highlighting each dancer in the Tanztheater Wuppertal Company. The intimate portraits of the dancers gave me a great appreciation for their craft and Pina’s unique method of directing through observance. These vignettes, shot out of doors and in public spaces are like gifts offered up to the memory of Pina, disseminating her spirit throughout the world. I particularly loved a scene shot on a suspended cable car with the elder dancer, Dominique Mercy in cardboard elf ears sitting coyly in back while a raven haired Aida Vainieri enters the car like a terminator monster in a white cocktail dress, ready to devour towns and villages. As she stomps her way to her seat, the reactions of the innocent bystanders are priceless.

I must admit, I have never been a huge fan of Pina Bausch’s choreography on stage. While I respect the work and the theatrical breakthroughs she achieved, I have always found myself unable to sit through an entire evening of her work. After two plus hours of vignettes, I would become desensitized to the emotional subtleties of the performance and mentally fatigued. My reaction to her work on screen has always been the exact opposite. I fall in love every time. I gushed over the scenes of Café Müller in Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her,” and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the documentaries made about Pina over the years. The power of film editing is what I need to appreciate Pina’s brilliance, and Wender’s Pina does this supremely well. I hardly realized two hours had elapsed, and I was left wishing it would never end.

Wender’s film does not give Bausch’s life story nor explain how she died, it simply captures the world she created and lived in everyday. “Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.” This quote is the mantra of the film, and we come to believe it with our whole hearts, minds and bodies. If you want to renew your vows dance, or make someone else fall in love with dance, go see this film. You will be transformed and feel much better for it.

How media sharing is changing the value proposition of street dance

Since its inception, street dance has benefited from it’s organic connection to hip hop music and urban culture. Arising in the 1970’s out of disco, funk, and the black and latino urban cultures in America’s inner cities, hip hop culture encompasses all the art forms including music, visual art, dance, and poetry, as well as fashion and design. As hip hop has spread from the underground to the mainstream culture, it has gained a foothold in large entertainment and media industries as well. The Sugar Hill Gang and Run DMC became some of the first Billboard topping hip hop music groups, sparking megastars like Michael Jackson and Blondie to embrace and emulate this new vibrant street culture in their music and videos. Along with hip hop’s rise in popularity, street dance forms such as break dancing (or bboying) became well known and dance crews arose on every street corner and club where hip hop music spread.

Still to this day, street dance styles develop in tandem with new strains of hip hop, electronic and club music. The two disciplines of dance and music virtually exist to support each other. Club music is made to get people dancing, and the dance styles form around the different rhythms and vibes of the music. Since the decline of hip hop music sales, simultaneous with the rise of video’s popularity online, the power dynamic of the two art forms are shifting. Previously the hip hop music industry was the giant, and hip hop dance played a supporting role in music videos and stage shows. Now however, hip hop dance seems to be moving ahead through its popularity with viral video hits. Today dance videos are becoming important ways for music tracks to get noticed, rather than the other way around.

Marquese Scott, aka Nonstop, is a streetdancer from Inglewood, CA. He started dancing in high school after jumping in a dance circle at a local skating rink and getting “maxed” (laughed at and humiliated in front of his friends), which spurred him on to practice and win other dance battles. Today he is part of the Atlanta-based dance crew RemoteControl and his specialty is “animation”, a robotic style of motion that comes out of poplocking and autobot dance styles.

After a special appearance on So You Think You Can Dance with Remote Control, Nonstop began posting solo videos on YouTube that garnered a great deal of attention. His biggest hit was a solo performed to Butch Clancy’s dubstep remix of “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People. Seen over 24 million times, Nonstop’s simple video was done in a single take from a camera he left on a tripod. What follows is a mindblowing display of movement that seems to defy gravity, time, and any other human constraints. The video was immediately picked up by bloggers and major media outlets who fueled its viral fire. While Foster the People’s single was already a break away hit, Nonstop’s video elevated the dubstep remix version to chart topping levels as well.

Since his YouTube success, Nonstop has become a sought after dancer for commercials, music videos, and live appearances. His story reveals an alternate path to a career in dance that is becoming more common in the era of online video. As streetdancers continue to post viral video hits online, videodance is poised to become a major pop culture phenomenon, akin to music video on MTV thirty years ago. Dance and music will still be inexorably intertwined, but this time, the dancers will get credit and esteem as well.