Posts Tagged ‘dance film’

Opening May 18th, 2012 at the New York’s QUAD Cinema,  the award winning dance documentary NEVER STAND STILL starts its theatrical release.

This 74 minute documentary directed by Ron Honsa explores the pleasure, self-control, and courage one face’s when choosing a life in dance.  Live performances documented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, interviews with exceptional artists, rare archival footage, and behind the scenes footage brings the world of dance alive, as NEVER STAND STILL visits the iconic international nexus for dance: Jacob’s Pillow.  Winner of Best Documentary at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and the Dance Camera West Festival in Los Angeles, this remarkable dance film will be followed by openings in Los Angeles and additional cities.

Upfront and personal interviews offer an inside look at leading choreographers and dancers lives: Suzanne Farrell, one of the greatest ballerinas in the world; Tony Award-winner Bill Irwin; celebrated dancer Rasta Thomas; former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo star Frederic Franklin; creative and imaginative Mark Morris; and Merce Cunningham, in one of his last interviews.

Narrated by Bill T. Jones, NEVER STAND STILL Features Amazing Performance Footage
& Candid Conversations w/Luminaries of Dance
Preorder the DVD

Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli announces a call for participation to “Choreographing with the lens” -a workshop of video-dance by Isabel Rocamora.

From May 14^th-18^th 2012, Isabel Rocamora will host this workshop sponsored by the Napolidanza Association and II Coreografo Elettronico festival (art director Marilena Riccio), Rocamora will lead a research workshop on video-dance techniques. This hands-on workshop explores the stages of making a ‘dance for camera’ film, specifically considering the relationships between the language of video and the individual choreographic creativity of the participants. The focus will be on providing the practical tools for the development and completion of a choreographic film.

This workshop will take place at the PAN-Palazzo Roccella, Via Dei Mille 60, 80121, Naples.

• Day 1: brief presentation on Isabel Rocamora’s work; what is a dance film/ the creative process; digital photography for movement (technical workshop, basic understanding of camera, light, location, space)/ collaboration methodologies
• Day 2: the body and the lens – choreographic exercises choreographing the body for the camera and the camera to the body; working with place – the moving body and site (the city, a park, a building)
• Day 3: creating material / storyboarding and shoot planning
• Day 4: shoot
• Day 5: reviewing material / basic editing (dependent on resources)/ presentation and distribution strategies

May 19^th 2012 will be devoted to the public screening of the movement-based short film produced during the workshop and a Forward Motion Screening presentation.

**The workshop is open to a maximum group of 15. It is designed for early professionals (in dance and film) and students of film, dance, physical theatre/performance who wish to develop their skills and understanding of these forms.  There is no age limit or condition in order to participate in the workshop. The attendance at the workshop and the participation at the Forward Motion screening is free.  Travel, accommodation, transport and per diem costs are charged to participants.

All interested parties can send a brief bio and letter of motivation to the following addresses: info@napolidanza.com ; annalisa.piccirillo@libero.it

Deadline: April 22nd 2012

Info and Contacts:
Direction: Marilena Riccio – Associazione Napolidanza/art director Il Coreografo Elettronico
info@napolidanza.com

Curator: Annalisa Piccirillo – PhD, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”
annalisa.piccirillo@libero.it

Girl Walk // All Day, a music video of epic proportions will be coming to New York, NY Sunday May 6th 2012 for a screening at The Wild Project in the East Village. There will also be a special dance performance by Flex group, Streets Finest.  Tickets are available here.

Additional screenings will be added to their website in the next few weeks, check the events page for a screening near you.

Check out one of their latest videos featuring  Flex group, Streets Finest.

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

FRAMEWORKS rolls out 6 new, exceptional dance films from near (Northampton) and far (Warsaw). All New York Premieres. All under 20 minutes. All selected for their choreographic punch and cinematic prowess.

This Sunday, Feb 12th @ 3pm
Dance New Amsterdam
BUY before FRI for $5

Featuring:

If she needs a third eye, she grows it
Rosie Trump
Houston, TX
New York Premiere, 6min

Around the Styx
Clotilde Amprimoz
Clermont-Ferrand, France
American Premiere, 4 min

A Praça
Filipe Martins & Ne Barros
Porto, Portugal
American Premiere, 13 min

Breakdown
In Kyung Lee
Northampton, MA
World Premiere, 4min

Press
Sarah Friedland
Providence, RI
World Premiere, 5 min

InSide
Anna Zuzanna Blaszczyk
Warsaw, Poland
American Premiere, 12 min