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

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

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

Kinetic Cinema: “Dance on Camera Extended”

Kinetic Cinema’s Dance on Camera Extended program last Saturday, February 4th, was an intimate yet rich event. After the screening viewers conversed on the diversity in the six films shown that evening, as well as the wide array of films at the Dance on Camera Festival the weekend before. Why do we yearn for an element of surprise in modern dance?  How does a dance film weave in narrative and does it have to be a complete narrative? Is it important to know where a choreographer is from?  Does it change our perspective?  These were just some of the many questions debated.

Thank you to those, including dance film choreographer and director Jody Oberfelder, who came out to join and share their perspective.  As she eloquently said it is conversations like these that make the events so worth it!

Presented in conjunction with CRS and the Dance Films Association.

Come join us for our next Kinetic Cinema, The MerryMakers Make Movies featuring the vaudeville shenanigans and silent films of The MerryMakers at Fort Useless in Brooklyn on Sunday, February 26th at 7pm (doors open at 6:30)!

"Coup de Grace" by Clara Van Gool

Whether your interest is in ballet stars of bygone eras or edgy dance films that push at the boundaries of cinema, there is something for you at the Dance On Camera Festival. The question is just how to find it. The good news is that this year, the festival programming on the Dance Films Association’s website is quite easy to navigate. Arranged by genre, title, and schedule, it is easy to zero in on the programs that you most want to see.

For fans of screendance, the genre of dance made for the camera, the bad news is that there are only two shorts programs being shown at the Dance On Camera Festival this year, but luckily they are good ones. The first is the Dance Film Narratives program, playing on Jan 27^th and 29^th. Featuring two highly anticipated films by veteran dance filmmakers, Clara Van Gool and Pontus Lidberg, this program will be seeped in dramatic storytelling and breathtaking choreography for the camera. Coup de Grace the latest dance film by Clara Van Gool (director of the acclaimed screen adaptation of DV8’s Enter Achilles) features Jordi Cortes Molina and Damian Munoz, two adversaries who meet in a remote location and engage in a physical and emotional duel. Pontus Lidberg’s Labyrinth Within hauntingly depicts the suspense and jealousy surrounding a love triangle and features NYC Ballet Principal Wendy Whelan and a commissioned score by David Lang.

The second opportunity to see dance for camera is the Shorts Program, a free event at Lincoln Center’s new Elinor Bunin Monroe Auditorium on Saturday Jan 28^th. A lighthearted and whimsical selection will be shown here, and features some work by local favs including Jody Oberfelder’s case of mistaken identity, Come Sit Stay and Pooh Kaye’s romp on the wild side in Spring Cleaning.

There are several other other notable screendances sprinkled throughout the festival, including Ora, the first film to use 3D thermal imaging (part of Pilobolus and shorts), and Falling, a gorgeously rendered film about dancers and gravity made by Adrian Churchill the special effects creator of the BBC television series, Merlin.

Several documentaries in this year’s festival seem to blur the boundaries of reality and experimental art film. Examples can be found in the Dance Legacies program on Jan 30^th & 31^st featuring artful shorts about dance being passed through the generations (Cari Ann Shim Sham’s Sand) and as commentary on social changes (David Rousseve’s portrait of Indonesia in Two Seconds After Laughter and Bruce Berryhill & Martha Curtis’s documentary on Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s work after Hurricane Katrina, Re-staging Shelter). The roots of Robert Wilson’s enigmatic theatre work are exposed in The Space In Back of You an homage to the radical Japanese performer and choreographer Suzushi Hanayagi, whom Wilson collaborated with for 20 years.

Last but not least, you don’t want to miss Sally Sommers, Charles Atlas, and Michael Schwartz’s long awaited documentary Check Your Body at the Door, a tribute to New York’s underground House culture, featuring dances filmed over twenty years and never seen before on screen. Check Your Body will be preceded by freedom2dance, a short that examines the devastating impact of Mayor Giuliani’s strict enforcement of the Cabaret Laws on New York’s once thriving underground dance club culture. This program will also screen the winner of DFA’s first High School Student Film Competition, giving us a sneak peak at the future of screendance!

The 40^th edition of the Dance On Camera Festival will take place from January 27-31 at the Walter Reade Theater as well as the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center.  For more information go to DFA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s websites to see the full line-up, as well schedule and ticket information.

En Dedans, Gabrielle Lamb

New Yorkers and dance film-lovers from around the world look forward to the Dance On Camera Festival each year. For the past 40 years, this annual festival has been the central anchor and source for new dance on film. The 40^th edition of the Dance On Camera Festival will take place from January 27-31 at the Walter Reade Theater as well as the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center.

While we at Move the Frame tend to focus primarily on dance made for the screen, the festival’s programmers have always made an effort to encompass the vast range of styles and genre’s that make up dance film. “We try to reach far and wide to find films that connect dance and camera in ways that will surprise and inspire viewers to deepen their interest in both mediums,” says Joanna Ney, co-curator of the festival. “This year’s selection offers a diversity of subject, style and genre aimed at the traditionalist as well as the iconoclast.”

Dance enthusiasts will find many documentaries about dance luminaries such as Natalia Makarova and Robert Wilson, historic dance presenters and companies such as Jacob’s Pillow, the Joffrey Ballet, and Pilobolus, and innovative choreographer Wayne McGregor. Film enthusiasts will enjoy innovative shorts by inspired directors such as Clara Van Gool, Pontus Lidberg, and New York’s own Jody Oberfelder.

In another post we’ll share with you our personal picks for the festival, but for now, go to DFA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s websites to see the full lineup, as well as schedule and ticket information.

Dance Camera West announces its 11th Annual Festival with Dance Media: An Active Spectrum.  The event will bring together artists, innovators, educators, and others in the entertainment industry to discuss the increasingly active spectrum of dance media on screen.

Dance Camera West is now accepting submissions for its festival to be held in Los Angeles at the end of June.  Entries must be on DVD. Festival screening formats will vary depending on venue and will be communicated via email upon acceptance to the festival.  To be considered for the festival, the following are required:

• DVD submissions and entry fees must be postmarked by January 30th, 2012.
• Entries must never have screened or broadcast in Los Angeles. University or showcase showings allowed; local cable broadcast allowed.
• Upon acceptance into the festival, your film cannot be withdrawn.

Entry Fee:
$50 fee; $40 Members before December 15, 2011
$60 fee; $50 Members after December 15, 2011
$25 fee, Students

Early Deadline: December 15, 2011
Final Deadline: January 31, 2012 (postmarked)

For more information,visit dancecamerawest.org
Contact festival@dancecamerawest.org with additional questions.