Posts Tagged ‘anna brady nuse’

Performa 11, one of two new festivals in NYC that defy artistic boundaries post-9/11

Like many people, the 10^th Anniversary of 9/11 brought up many “What if’s” for me. What would my life be like now if 9/11 hadn’t happened? What would my art look like? What would the fields of dance and dance film look like? And then after being baffled by those questions, I started to think about what actually did happen. How did September 11th, 2001 change my views of my artistic work, and my chosen field of dance?

For me, I wonder if I would have become obsessed with dance for the camera. Without the traumas of 9/11 and the political and cultural awakening it inspired in me, I might not have felt such an urgent need to seek other outlets for artistic expression. In an uncertain world, film and new media gave me hope that my artistic work could make a difference in the world. The feelings of mortality that were triggered by 9/11 made me desperate to be able to create work that would last (ie be able to be watched repeatedly) and the rage and violence that has surrounded the event (and still does to this day) gave me an urgent need communicate with people outside of my tiny circle of acquaintances. I felt that if we were to reconcile with our enemies and restore stability to our lives, then we had to start communicating and learning about each other. Live performance was too limiting for me, I needed to tap into media, and thankfully with the rise of broadband internet that became more possible than ever before. Read the rest of this entry »

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).  

by Anna Brady Nuse

The papers presented at last year’s Screendance: State of the Art 2 Conference at the American Dance Festival have just been posted online and are available for download. It is nice to revisit the ideas around curating that were presented at that conference, as I’m in the process of planning next Fall’s Kinetic Cinema series. My paper was all about the model of artist-driven curating that I have been cultivating through Kinetic Cinema. I wrote a couple of follow-up posts on this blog about the Screendance conference at ADF last summer here and here if you would like to follow the thread of the discussion.

You can download the latest essays for the Screendance Journal on the following topics here: http://dvpg.net/screendance2008.html

Thoughts on Curating: How to Bring About a Shift in Perception

Anna Brady Nuse

“Screendance is growing worldwide. Every year more dance film festivals spring up; new courses in dance for the camera are added to college dance curriculums; and symposiums, workshops and panels take place all over the world. Despite this trend, screendance is still virtually unknown in American culture at large.”

Does Screendance need to look like dance?

Claudia Kappenberg

This is an edited version of a paper, which was first presented at the American Dance Festival, ‘Screendance State of the Art 2’, Duke University, North Carolina in 2008, and re-presented at the conference ‘Exploring the Screen as a Site for Choreography’, University of Bristol, Department of Drama, Theatre, Film & Television, April 2009, in response to debates at the Bristol event. Drawing on a wider field of visual art, film, dance and theatre studies the paper proposes a new knowledge map for screendance aiming to articulate the complexities of choreographic sensibilities and identifying a set of Screendance strategies

Curating the Practice/The Practice of Curating

Douglas Rosenberg

This paper in a slightly different form was presented at the Curating the Practice/The Practice of Curating conference at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC, USA on Thursday July 10, 2008. Some of the ideas contained were originally posted (by Douglas Rosenberg) in a number of on-line discussions during the last year. Please use with permission. rosend@education.wisc.edu

Curator’s Notes for Linssin taka / Beyond the Lens

Sini Haapalinna

A national video dance screening program, coinciding with the dance and live arts festival Z – in – Motion, organized by Zodiak, Center for New Dance in Helsinki, Finland, and curated by freelance artist Sini Haapalinna.

Kerrie Welsh, cinematographer of Fünf 'n' Twist, a new videodance by Anna Brady Nuse. Photo: Susanna Christians

Jessica LaCombe wrote a great article in Dancer Magazine this month about making dance for screen, and I was honored to be included in it. My friends and colleagues, Ellen Bromberg (professor of dance at University of Utah and director of the Dance for the Camera Workshops in Victoria, BC) and Douglas Rosenberg (professor of art at University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Dancing for the Camera Festival at ADF) were also featured prominently.

The article gives a well-organized overview of the state of the field today, and some practical advice for new would-be film-makers coming from a background in dance. I’m pleased to see a more main-stream dance publication turning its attention to this burgeoning hybrid medium. As I say in the article, “This generation of choreographers have grown-up with media and been exposed to media so much more even than live dance, that they think in terms of media.” It’s time for dance teachers and educators to wake up to this reality and start helping the new generation navigate the vast media landscape of today and tomorrow.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Next Tuesday (Sept 2nd) I’ll be showing brand new footage from my latest videodance project, Fünf ‘n’ Twist. Two weeks ago I shot the prom scenes for this surreal Busby Berkeley-esque, satire that oozes with kitschy Americana, German expressionism, and Jungian symbology. Come see what a raw videodance looks like before it gets cooked!

Details:

The Dance Film Lab is moderated and organized by Zach Morris (Third
Rail Projects), produced and run with the assistance of Kathleen Green,
and in cooperation with the Dance Films Association. Hosted by Dance
Theater Workshop, this salon brings dance filmmakers together to
present raw footage, drafts, works-in-progress and newly finished films
to their peers for constructive feedback, to share information, and
address technical, practical and artistic challenges. The lab is free
and open to the public, though reservations are necessary.

For our upcoming September 2nd Dance Film Lab, where we’ll be screening the work of Leah Kelley Xylona and Anna Brady Nuse.

Dance Film Lab, Tuesday, September 2, 2008 8-10pm
at Dance Theater Workshop (DTW)
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)
Phone: (212) 691-6500 Click Here for DTW’s website.
Please contact Zach Morris to RSVP.
 
 (please note: Zach will out of town August 24th to the morning of September 2nd.  During this time he will not be responding to emails, so if you email him, simply consider your RSVP confirmed).

Photo credit: Production still from the set of Fünf ‘n’ Twist, directed by Anna Brady Nuse (Tika pictured as the Matron). photo by Susanna Christians.