Posts Tagged ‘dance film’

For her Kinetic Cinema program, LIQUID FILMS, cinedance pioneer, Amy Greenfield, takes dance into the water in a splash of amazing classic and neo cine-dance from 1903 to the 21st century, to transform the very nature of dance as only a screen medium can. Anna Brady Nuse interviewed Amy to find out why this theme, “Liquid”  excites her:

Liquid is sexy and always in motion and catches the light. It dances. And I found over the years so many liquid cinedances I love and feel connected to because of my own film “Tides”. And I thought how great it would be to see them all flow together.

Tides

They break boundaries which I feel still need to be broken in the field – there’s no way you can take dance and a camera into the water and not have kinetic cinema. And the definition of dance itself changes, becomes re-united with natural movement and at the same time transformed in the liquid flow, breaking totally with a tradition of dance vocabulary. All of these qualities are wonderful for cinematic material – they deal with color and light in relation to the body in motion on a cinematic level – a dynamic, unpredictable flow for both dance and camera. I feel that too much screen dance is static, and flat and unaware of the essence of cinema, which is light in motion, and how it can replace the third dimension with a transposed heightened plasticity.

“Nymph Of The Waves” was one of the first liquid cinedances, and is now an early film classic, and was perhaps the first use of a superimposition in the history of cinema. The connection was made right at the beginning, because it was a natural fit. One of Isadora Duncan’s great sources of inspiration was the movement of the ocean, but only with cinema could dance and the rhythms and motion and world of water come together and be communicated.

Your program spans the entire history of cinema. How have technological changes affected filmmakers’ treatment of this subject – water and the moving body?

To me what’s marvelous is what we do with the technology we have. Technology itself changes the kinds of films we can make but not the quality.

Yet it’s wonderful that now an individual filmmaker can successfully shoot with a light portable video camera of high enough quality underwater for a not staggering price tag. When Reifenstahl made the diving sequence from “Olympia” she had to invent technology to shoot it – gigantic cameras with a gigantic crew. But here are underwater dance films being made one-on-one, and we feel the intimacy, as in “Rapt”. And Elle Burchill can be the filmmaker and underwater dancer herself, an autobiographic cinedance. And Ben Dolphin shoots digitally with the high speed Phantom camera which can create slower than slow motion, a camera he uses for shooting TV commercials, here used for an experimental, personal cinedance.

In your film, “Tides”, the choreography of the camera is as integrated as the movement of the body being filmed. How did you direct this duet and then shape it in the editing?

I’d worked with Hilary Harris before in my film “Element” which is the mate to “Tides”. By the time we made “Tides” we almost communicated by osmosis, because we had “Element” as a basis. In “Tides” I wanted him with the Lo Cam handheld, actually standing in the waves himself, experiencing the same movement I was subjected to. And unless the film ran out or I ran out of steam we couldn’t stop, so the communion could build. The physical set-up worked in relation to communicating some key kinetic concepts: the extreme slow-motion, the movement of the camera in flow and counterflow to the human motion, and never losing the essential kinetic point of tension, where the body and ocean met. After the first shoot, looking at and discussing the film rushes became paramount -my pointing out “I want more of that, but more like this” or “I don’t want that” etc. Sometimes I directed with my hands – one hand the human motion, the other hand the camera motion, moving the hands as I wanted the two to symbiotically relate. This sense came from the fact that I had a film image going on on automatic inside my head while I was performing. So when I saw some kind of correspondence in the actual footage to that imaginary ideal film, that’d be great. While Hilary could never be inside my head, sometimes he came close.

The artists on your program represent a great range of filmmaking styles and approaches. Which are most like yours and which are the most different? Have any had an effect on your filmmaking? How?

All the films on the program are different, yet united by the maker truly wedding the surge and flow and weightless state and viscosity to how the camera moves in relation to the mover moving through the water. In that sense I feel a commonness with all the films. I feel close to the daring to expose the nude body in Sara Joel and Jody Oberfelder’s “Rapt”, the kinetic tension combined with slow motion in Ben Dolphin’s “Arising”, the film-maker herself in a journey in the water in “Mother/Daughter”, and when I saw “Immersion” several years ago I felt I wished I could have made a film something like it and felt I’d show it some day.

Arising

But the film-makers which have had the greatest affect on my film-making are Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger. Not Deren’s “Study In Choreography For Camera” except for the editing, but the beginning of “At Land”, which had such a direct influence on “Tides”, “Meshes Of The Afternoon” and “Ritual in Transfigured Time” for so many reasons, including the always inner drama coming from the silent language of movement, the border between metaphoric and real, natural movement and unnatural states, the woman’s silent journey, the strictness of structure, the mystery, the intensity. And her writing on film and dance. Kenneth keeps a great deal of this but does away with psychodrama. I hadn’t seen most of his work when I made a lot of my films but I know I was influenced by “osmosis”. He’s so powerful. Mystery and simplicity and the ‘dance’ totally part of the fabric of the film, and between the cuts, everything so cinematically visual/visionary, yet corresponding to some unknown invisible world and force. “Eaux D’Artifice” is a masterpiece. “Tides” was also influenced by Reifenstahl’s Diving Sequence from “Olympia”: the sculptural athleticism of the camera, the off axis turn of the camera, the dramatic point of intersection of body and water, the use of slow motion.

Coming up next at Kinetic Cinema:

Liquid Films

Curated by Amy Greenfield

Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 7:30pm

Tickets: $10

Reservations: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/87612

Films include: “Nymph Of the Waves“, by American Mutoscope and Biograph, one of the first dance films ever made, superimposes the dancer with the ocean waves, as well as Amy Greenfield’s primal “Tides”, with Greenfield and camera operator, Hilary Harris, both braving the ocean tides in their symbiotic camera dance. Kenneth Anger’s restored “Eaux D’Artifice”, with his “Water Witch” in the Tivoli fountain, is one of the great classics of the American avant-garde, and Ben Dolphin’s “Arising” has us flying joyfully with his dancers inside a waterfall, blurring an artificial screen world and the natural world. Jodi Kaplan’s “Immersion”, Jody Oberfelder and Sara Joel’s “Rapt”, Elle Burchill’s “Mother Daughter” and Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof’s “Pulsion” all made recently, are original, daring, entrancing, lyrically beautiful new cine-dances envisioning women moving in real underwater worlds.

"Outside In" by Victoria Marks, Photo by Mark Lewis

Kinetic Cinema with Victoria Marks

Thursday, October 22nd, 7:00pm. $10 (at the door)

University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street, NYC

Kinetic Cinema explores the intersection of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. For each screening Anna Brady Nuse, Pentacle’s director of Movement Media, invites a different guest artist to share a selection of films and videos that have inspired them. This month, award-winning choreographer and dance film-maker, Victoria Marks presents a program in which she weaves together her main cinematic influences with her own dance film work.

Workshop: Choreo-Portraits in Film with Victoria Marks

Friday, October 23rd, 10:00am-2:00pm

Chen Dance Center

8 East 1st Street, (btw Bowery & 2nd Avenue), NYC

In dance, trained and virtuosic bodies often stand in for the universal or human figure. How can cinematic movement studies capture the “who” of the performer, particularly as they move with another person? “Choreo-portraiture” is the name renowned choreographer and filmmaker Victoria Marks has given to dances she makes that are about the people who inhabit them. In choreo-portraits, Marks searches not for extraordinary feats, but for the small actions and interactions that communicate who these people are, alone and together. In this workshop, participants will consider this idea as they serve to design and shoot one another’s movements.

Open to dance and film professionals and students, registration is limited to 20 ppl. Workshop fee $35.00. Register online, or contact movementmedia@pentacle.org.

Movement Media in Philadelphia:

Presented by the Institution of Contemporary Arts (ICA)

Kinetic Cinema Wed. Oct. 21st at 6:30pm

Choreo-Portraits in Film Workshop Sat. Oct. 24th 10:00am-5:00pm

Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)

118 South 36th Street

Philadelphia, PA

Victoria Marks will also present her Kinetic Cinema screening and Choreo-Portraits workshop at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia in conjunction with their ground-breaking Dance with Camera exhibition.

Go to www.icaphila.org for more information and to register for the workshop.

"Not About Iraq" by Victoria Marks

Victoria Marks recent work considers citizenship, as well as the representation of both virtuosity and disability. Marks has served as faculty in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA since 1995.  She is a 2007 EMPAC award winner for the creation of “Veterans,” a dance for the camera made with Margaret Williams.  “Veterans” won first prize in the Barcelona Video Dance Festival, 2008.  Marks is also a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and has received recent grants from the Irvine Foundation (Dance: Creation to Performance 2004 and DanceMaker 2002), the NEA (2005) and the Cultural Affairs Council (COLA 2001).  In 1997, Marks was honored with the Alpert Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography.  Over the course of her career, she has been the recipient of multiple grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and the London Arts Board, among others. She has received a Fulbright Fellowship in Choreography, and numerous awards for her dance films with Margaret Williams, including the Barcelona VideoDance Prize, the Grand Prix in the Video Danse Festival, the Golden Antenae Award from Bulgaria, the IMZ Award for best screen choreography and the Best of Show in the Dance Film Association’s Dance and the Camera Festival.

Movement Media is happy to announce:

• Kinetic Cinema Film Screenings each Month in 2009
• UMOVE Festival Screening & Launch Party on October 4th
• Workshops and Webinars on Filming Dance in 2009
• Kinetic Cinema Screenings and Workshops at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

CALENDAR of Events in NYC

SEPTEMBER 9th (Wednesday) at 7:00 7:30pm – Kinetic Cinema

“Kill the Ego” curated by Lisa Niedermeyer – Tickets $10

Location: The TANK, 354 West 45th Street, NYC  (btw 8th/9th Avenue)

© 2008-2009 Soundwalk, Rostarr & Label Dalbin - Photo by Ron Patane

Join us for the kick off of an exciting new season of Kinetic Cinema in which choreographer, performer, and videographer Lisa Niedermeyer curates an evening that explores a kinetic portrayal of New York City.  Conceived originally as a sound collage by Stephan Crasneanscki and Doug Winningham of the new media firm Soundwalk, ‘Kill The Ego’ draws on a decade’s worth of New York City field recordings “voices of pimps and engineers, poets and dominatrixs, visionaries and children, hope and sorrow.”

© 2008-2009 Soundwalk, Rostarr & Label Dalbin - Photo by Atsushi Nishijima

Fueled by this sound,   underground visual artist Rostarr experiments with gravity, momentum, torque and combinations of all three (break dancing on his canvases) as directors Jim Helton and Ron Patane bring to cinematic life Soundwalk’s original audio collage and Rostarr’s visual work, culminating in a uniquely kinetic representation of New York City.

© 2008-2009 Soundwalk, Rostarr & Label Dalbin - Photo by Atsushi Nishijima

View the Trailer
Soundwalk’s website

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SEPTEMBER 24th (Thursday) 1:00-2:00pm (EST) – Webinar on ‘How to Make a Great Dance Promo Video’

DanceBrazil - Promo reel by Reels4Artists

Videographer and founder of the production company Reels4Artists, Gerrit Vooren will present a live online seminar, or ‘webinar ‘ on how to produce a great promo video. Learn how to best frame and edit your work to help you acquire bookings, funding, and audience support. This one hour webinar will take place in real time, so that you have ample time to ask questions and get feedback from Gerrit.

Have a scheduling conflict? No worries, all registrants will have access to a recorded transcript of the webinar to view and listen to anytime.

Registration is limited to 50 ppl. Please contact: movementmedia@pentacle.org to register. Workshop fee $18 USD.

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OCTOBER 4th (Sunday) 7:30 & 9:30pm – The First Annual UMOVE Online Videodance Festival Screening and Launch Party.

As the First Annual UMove Videodance Festival kicks off online, join us to celebrate the launch with a live screening and party in New York City. Featuring a selection of cutting edge digital animations, 60 sec shorts, surprising combinations of dance and technology, and low budget wonders that represent the best of Youtube. Multimedia performances will entertain and inspire, and drinks and popcorn will flow!

Tickets -$40 Donation with Reserved Seating or $5 At the Door-Very Limited Seating.

To reserve a seat with a $40 donation, please go to our donate now page on our website or contact us at movementmedia@pentacle.org.

Location: The Tank, 354 West 45th Street (btw 8th/9th Avenue) . Directions to The TANK.

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OCTOBER 22nd (Thursday) 7:00pm – Kinetic Cinema

Title:   “Choreographic Portraits on Film” by Victoria Marks.

Tickets- $10 (at the door)

'Outside In on Mirror'-photo by Mark Lewis

Victoria explores ‘what moves us’ versus the specific ‘moves a dancer makes’…and the way in which this concept can be captured by the camera.  For Kinetic Cinema, Victoria showcases works which capture what she terms ‘Choreographic Portraiture’, and she offers 2 separate workshops in NYC and Philadelphia to teach others how to work with the camera to capture more intimate aspects of dance on film.

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OCTOBER 23rd (Friday) 10:00am-2:00pm - Workshop on Filming Dance.

Victoria Marks and dancers

Choreographer and award-winning dance film-maker Victoria Marks will teach a movement-based workshop on how to capture the essence of the dancer on film.

Open to dance and film professionals and students, registration is limited to 20 ppl. Please contact: movementmedia@pentacle.org to register. Workshop fee $35.00.

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NOVEMBER 11th (Wednesday) 7:30pm – Kinetic Cinema

Amy Greenfield -Flesh into Night

Cinedance pioneer Amy Greenfield presents poetic and alluring dance films.

Tickets – $10 (at the door)

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DECEMBER 9th (Wednesday) 7:30 pm – Kinetic Cinema

Dancer-Carlton Ward, Jody Oberfelder Dance Projects

Choreographer and dance-filmmaker Jody Oberfelder presents: The Phenomenon of Viral Dance Videos.

Tickets – $10 (at the door)

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CALENDAR of Events in Philadelphia

OCTOBER 21st (Wednesday) 6:00pm – Kinetic Cinema at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia

'Outside In Tango'-Photo by Mark Lewis

In conjunction with the ground-breaking Dance with Camera exhibition at the ICA, Victoria Mark’s curates a Kinetic Cinema screening in Philadelphia.  “Choreographic Portraits on Film”.

FREE

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OCTOBER 24th (Saturday) 10:00am-5:00pm – Workshop on Filming Dance in Philadelphia.

Dance with Camera-ICA in Philadelphia

Victoria Marks is offering her workshop on filming dance a second time in Philadelphia.  Open to dance and film professionals and students, registration is limited to 20 ppl.

Please visit www.icaphila.org to register.  Workshop fee $25.00.

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ABOUT MOVEMENT MEDIA

For more info on Pentacle’s Movement Media project and news about our upcoming Kinetic Cinema season, please check here regularly and visit our website: http://pentacle.org/movement_media.asp

ABOUT KINETIC CINEMA

Kinetic Cinema is a co-presentation of The Tank and Pentacle’s Movement Media project.  This screening series explores the intersection of dance and the moving image.  For each screening Anna Brady Nuse, Pentacle’s director of Movement Media, invites a different guest artist from the fields of dance and media arts to share a selection of films and videos that have inspired them.  These could be works for screen that feature dance, are kinetic-based, or have been influential on their work in some way.  The guest curators come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers, critics, video artists, and film-makers.

UMOVE Online Videodance Festival deadline has been extended to September 9, 2009!!

In order to celebrate the creativity and diversity of kinetic cinema in all its forms, from dance/film to gaming, from animation to mash-ups, we have extended the deadline for submissions for the following categories:

• Animation/Gaming – including digital animation, machinima, Second life, Virtual Reality games, motion capture.
• Cell phone – videos made using a cell phone, webcam, or Flip cam.
• Gone in 60 seconds – videos under one minute long

Please refer to our web site for details and rules for submission.

The First Annual UMove Online Videodance Festival will run from October 1-31, 2009 on the web with a live screening and launch party in New York on October 4th. Additionally we plan to tour a curated selection of videos to national and international venues in 2009-10.

Please send us your media! We look forward to seeing your work!

Movement Media is delighted to have Doug Fox as a guest blogger for this week’s posting.  Back in February 2009, Doug presented several movement-based animations as a guest curator for Movement Media’s Kinetic Cinema program.   Click here to read our blog posting featuring Doug’s Animation program at the screening.

Doug Fox’s Picks for Dance and Movement Animations

One of the captivating elements of dance and animation is the diverse range of forms it can take. Among the animation techniques that can be employed to represent the body in motion, whether in a more concrete or abstract manner, include:

• 2D
• 3D
• Stop motion
• Live-action and animation hybrids
• Real-time animated graphics using motion tracking
• Visualization overlays
• Special effects
• ASCII-based animations
• Digital puppetry
• Cut-out animation
• Motion-capture based
• 2D/3D lasers
• Rotoscoped
• Virtual worlds
• Pre-cinema era animations

For Doug’s round-up of some of his favorite dance and movement animations he made selections of each of these different types of animations.  A few videos chosen by Doug couldn’t be embedded onto our blog for your viewing convenience, but we encourage you to take a minute to check out these great videos, to learn about the many types of dance and movement-based animated videos artists are creating. Enjoy!

Rotoscoped Tango dance scene from “Waking Life”:

Gabrielle Lamb’s “Quizas” mixes 2D animation and live-action footage:

“En Tus Brazos” is a narrative-based 3D animation about a tragic accident that besets a famous Argentinean Tango dancer:

Also enjoy an ASCII-based animation “TextField” by Chirstinn Whyte and Jake Messenger:

http://www.jakemessenger.plus.com/textfield-h264.mov

The Converse music video “My Drive-Thru” is based on the cut-out animation technique:

Oren Lavie’s “Her Morning Elegance” is a stop-motion music video compiled from thousands of photographs:

The “Prodigy Warrior’s Dance” combines stop-motion animation and puppetry:

The Recoil Performance Group’s “Body Navigation” uses motion tracking and projectors to general real-time, interactive graphics in a performance environment:

“Trash Dance” features 3D animation and motion capture:

Lastly, Doug offers us “Anima Istanbul”, which re-creates the feeling of the pre-cinema era zoetrope effect:

http://motionographer.com/theater/if-2009-zoetrope/

Movement Media appreciates Doug sharing some of his favorite animated videodances with our readers.  As you can see, artists are making some extraordinary animations, and there will certainly be more exciting works in the future, as more artists are combine animation with dance and movement.

Doug Fox is the founder of Great Dance, one of the first dance blogs. His blog and speaking programs have primarily addressed how dance-makers can embrace the Internet and digital tools to enhance their marketing and promotional efforts. He is an active member of the dance community and serves on the Dance/NYC Advisory Board.

Doug began to study and research all forms of animation, especially as they relate to dance and movement. This research led to the creation of his dance animation educational program, which he was delighted to introduce at Movement Media’s Kinetic Cinema. Doug is continuing to expand this screening program and workshop and it will be shown on August 16th at the Hong Kong Science Museum presented by the City Contemporary Dance Company.

Doug can be reached at doug@greatdance.com and through his Great Dance website: http://greatdance.com. You can also follow his Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/dougfox.