"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.

Call for entries
Deadline: January 2nd, 2012
Application

Dance Films Association seeks New York City high school student dance film submissions in conjunction with the 2012 Dance on Camera Festival co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center to be held Jan 27-31, 2012. Dance Camera West is excited to be partnering with Dance Films Association in it’s first Annual High School Student Film Competition: Capturing Motion NYC. A jury will choose among the submissions for a special student film program during the festival, with the top film selection to screen at Lincoln Center. As a partner in supporting future filmmakers, Dance Camera West will be hosting the winner of the NYC competition at it’s annual film festival in June 2012. The selected film maker will be a guest of DCW and their film showcased in one of the many screening venues in Los Angeles for the 11th annual Dance Camera West Film Festival.

Submissions should be of 1-5 minutes in length. The jury is looking for documentary, narrative, or art films acknowledging the relationship between dance and camera.

Camera Operation and Shooting Strategies with Amy Greenfield & Jeremiah Story

Amy Greenfield

DNA (Dance New Amsterdam)
280 Broadway, Studio 6 (entrance on Chambers)
New York, NY 10007
212.625.8369

October 12, 2011
7:30-10:00pm

Topics will include: basic understanding of camera operation, shooting strategies, and concrete concepts and methods to enable artists to have a more formalized approach to their filming process.

$10 for Dance Films Association or DNA Members; $25 fee for Non-Members.

RSVP to brighid@dancefilms.org with Dance Film Lab in the subject line to reserve your place.

For more information visit the Dance Films Association website

Next Dance Film Lab events:

November 7- Dance Film Lab Screening

November 19 & 20- Moviehouse presents: Curated Screening of works by Dance Film Lab Participants

Proposals should include DVD or VHS of work-in-progress, budget, distribution plans, biographies of key members of the creative team, and a one page description of the project including how funds will be used. There is no form to fill, simply supply the above information.

DFA membership information can be found at http://www.dancefilms.org

The Film Society of Lincoln Center
and Dance Films Association, Inc.
proudly present

Dance on Camera Festival
January 25 – February 2, 2010

Imago-by Alwin Nikolais

Co-sponsored by The Film Society of Lincoln Center since 1996, Movement Research since 2008, TenduTv and Mark Morris Dance Center since 2010, Dance On Camera Festival (DOCF) celebrates the immediacy, energy, and mystery of dance as combined with the intimacy of film. Festival 2010 will include a tribute to Alwin Nikolais as part of a year long centennial celebration across the country in his honor.

2010 Schedule and NYC Locations of Dance on Camera Events

January 25, 7pm, Mark Morris Dance Center
3 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn Read details

January 26, 7pm, Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South, NYC
event curated and co-sponsored by Movement Research Read details

January 28, 2pm, The Beacon School, 227 W 61st Street, NYC Read details

January 29-February 2, Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln Center Plaza
4 shows daily – see schedule

January 31, 1pm, Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery, Town Hall Meeting read details

Buy Tickets for screenings at the Walter Reade Theatre
Dance on Camera Festival 2010 Tickets:
$11 General Public
$9 Affiliate (Friends of DFA)
$8 Senior (62+)
$7 Film Society Member/ DFA Member/ Student/ Child

Three Program Sampler Pass:
$27 General Public
$21 Senior (62+)
$18 Film Society Member/ DFA Member/ Student
Admits one person to three programs in Dance On Camera.

Buy Tickets and Passes Online Now!

Tickets are also on sale at the Walter Reade Theater Box Office,
165 West 65th St. between Amsterdam Avenue & Broadway,
and at CenterCharge, 212-721-6500.

Read Festival Blog by Artistic Director

See which artists scheduled to appear

During the 2010 Dance on Camera Festival, Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theatre will house an installation, “The Tiny Dance Film Series” a collaboration between choreographer Peter Kyle and sound artist James Bigbee Garver that consists of very short and very small dance films screened in 4 darkened kiosks for an audience of one.

Susan Braun began this festival in 1971 to connect dance film producers with users and distributors, to spur dancers on to preserve their work on film and to be open to filmmakers wishing to make documentaries about them and/or to collaborate on screen adaptations of their choreography. For almost twenty years, DFA’s Festival was the sole showcase dedicated to dance films in the world. For the last ten years, DFA’s Festival has offered a revenue source for the dance filmmakers through their tours.

“The Dance on Camera Festival is one of those NY stealth events, prized by its devotees…where the allusiveness of dance meets the intimacy of film to create a new kind of magic” John Rockwell, The New York Times

The Dance on Camera Festival 2010 is sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Canadian Consulate General, French Cultural Service, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, American Airlines, Mark Morris Dance Center, TenduTv, Gotham Wine and Liquors, Ariston Florist, New York Women in Film and Television, and the members of DFA. See full list of sponsors

The program for the digital component of Dance on Camera Festival hosted by Tendu.TV will be announced shortly.

Join the fun!

photo: Kerry Welsh

Calling all dance film-makers:

To close out this year’s Dance On Camera Festival, the Dance Films Association is holding a Town Hall Meeting for the Dance on Camera Community on Saturday January 17th from 4-7pm taking place in the Gallery at Walter Reade Theater (Lincoln Center Plaza on 65th Street btw Broadway and Amsterdam).

The meeting will begin with a half hour panel discussion led by Marlon Barrios-Solano dedicated to new on-line platforms for screendance with representatives from Kaltura and TenduTV. Following this, you are invited to participate in an open discussion about dance film issues that are important to you (moderated by Zach Morris from the Dance Film Lab). After the meeting, you are invited to continue the conversation informally over coffee/tea at the nearby Le Pain Quotidien at 60 West 65th Street.

In conjunction with this event, I have collaborated with DFA to produce an artist survey of the field.  If you are unable to attend, we would still like to get your input to help us improve our services and programs for you. Whether you are currently making dance for screen, or thinking about doing so, we want to hear from you about what your needs and interests are. Please take a moment to participate in this brief online survey.

Take this survey

Thank you for your participation, your feedback is very important to us. We look forward to compiling the results and will share them with you here in the early spring.

-Anna Brady Nuse

“Fünf ‘n’ Twist” by Anna Brady Nuse, photo: M. Saijo

Join us for a special Friday night Dance Film Lab as we celebrate our first meeting in our new home at Dance Theater Workshop! Please contact Zach Morris to RSVP.  If you are interested in presenting material at this lab, we have room for one more artist to show work.

Meeting Details
Dance Film Lab
Friday, January 25, 8-10pm
at Dance Theater Workshop (DTW)
219 West 19th Street
(between 7th and 8th Aves)
Phone: (212) 691-6500
Click Here for DTW’s website
 
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.

Contact Zach Morris for more information and to RSVP.

www.thirdrailprojects.com/DanceFilmLab

Feist’s 1234

Kinetic Cinema
Monday January 7th 7:30pm (and the first Monday of every month thereafter)
$5 Admission

@ Collective:Unconscious
279 Church Street (just south of White Street)
New York, NY 10013
www.weird.org
TICKETS: 212.352.3101
VENUE:212.254.5277

For the Dance On Camera Festival program I have selected  seven shorts from among 200+ festival entries that represent some of the freshest new visions by leading dance filmmakers today. The program includes “1234″ – an award-winning music video by Feist directed by Patrick Daughters with choreography by Noemi LaFrance (who will be in attendance); “BLUE” – a suspended moment before a pianist begins to play by Elif Isikozlu; “PANORAMA ROMA” – a rotating timelapse film shot over 24 hours in the center of Rome by Italian choreographer Anna de Manincor; “RAVEN STUDY” – a sleek duet between a beautiful Louise Brooks-like dancer and a Rock drummer by Charlotte Griffin; “ANIMALZ” – a crew of urban b-boys from Brighton that go feral by Sergio Cruz; “PLANT” – a haunting exploration of a decaying bomb factory by The Body Cartography Project and Olive Beiringa; and “NOT ABOUT IRAQ” – a dance film that questions the relationship of words and experience, government rhetoric and reality by choreographer Victoria Marks with dancer Taisha Paggett.
Click here for a video preview of Feist’s “1234″.

Kinetic Cinema explores the intersection of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. Each month I will invite a special guest from the dance community to share the films and videos that have inspired or moved them. These could be films that feature dance, are kinetic-based, or have been influencial on their work in some way. The guest curators will come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers, critics, and filmmakers. Upcoming guests include Brian McCormick (Feb 4th), Jonah Bokaer (April 7th), Levi Gonzalez (May 5th), and Kriota Willberg (June 2nd).

DFA’s 36th, annual internationally touring Dance on Camera Festival & Symposium January 2-19, 2008
DFA’s 36th annual Dance On Camera Festival is the oldest dance film/video festival in the world that sparked an explosion of activity amongst artists, curators, writers and a curious audience. The Festival has been co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center since 1996 and has toured to over 70 venues internationally.
For festival schedule, tickets and info: www.dancefilms.org

Panorama Roma by Anna de Manincor

Last January I was the festival coordinator of the 2007 Dance on Camera Festival. I spent several intense months from Sept-Dec 2006 soliciting and receiving entries, coordinating prescreenings, watching almost 200 submissions, and practically living at the Walter Reade Theatre during the first two weeks of 2007. It was a very rewarding experience, but I found that that very few dancers from my community, the New York modern dance community, came out to see the amazing work we were showing. There were many reasons for this, one being that the timing of the festival is right after the holidays, and it always bumps right up on APAP, the biggest gig-getting event of the year in New York. It’s hard to compete with a dancer’s chance to drum up some income, but I felt that more could be done to bring awareness to dancers of the power of dance for the camera.

In an attempt to address this, I curated a special program of videodance shorts by American artists at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I did this because the work of local and US based artists is generally under-represented in the Dance On Camera Festival outside of the documentary category, and I wanted to attract local audiences by showing work by people they knew. The strategy worked. We had more people than we could squeeze in standing, and we even had to turn some away at the door! This showed me that the community was interested and hungry to see dance for the camera, we just needed to involve them more.

In the spring, Zach Morris (of the Dance Film Lab) and I decided we wanted to build upon the momentum of the Galapagos showing and start a bimonthly dance film screening series. We had huge ideas for programming from showing the greatest videodances we knew of, to programs that showed the entire history of dance film. In May 2006 we produced “Wicked Cool Dance Films” featuring all our favorite films and had a rousing discussion with the audience and filmmakers after the screening. We seemed to be off to a good start. The only problem was that we had no money or time. Galapagos was cheap but it wasn’t free, and Zach had too much on his plate to continue. I wanted to keep it going, but I knew that I couldn’t do it on my own.

Fast forward to this fall. I started blogging on Great Dance which seemed like the perfect way to spread the gospel of dance for the camera without needing much to get it going. So far Move the Frame blog has been an incredible experience and has opened up many new networks and distribution opportunities for me and my mission. I’ve made oodles of friends from all over and love the interactivity the blog platform allows. But despite the new connections, I still feel like I haven’t been able to address one of the issues closest to home: how to get the New York dance community turned on to videodance.

In October Zach forwarded me an email. It was from Caterina Bartha, the director of Collective:Unconscious a theatre and screening space in Tribeca. She was looking for a curator for a monthly dance film series they wanted to launch in 2008. She had been talking to Deirdre Towers at the Dance Films Association about doing a screening for the Dance On Camera Festival there, but she wanted to continue this as a regular event. Zach declined because his work had taken off in a big way, but he recommended me for the position. My gut reaction was “Yes! This is exactly what I’ve been wishing for.” They were offering free space, a projectionist, admin support, and a regular time slot to do whatever I wanted. But at the same time I was worried I couldn’t make the time commitment. I’d be in school part-time, working almost full-time, blogging, and trying to work on my own videodances. Still I felt like this was too good to pass up.

Then I got an idea. What if I took the web 2.0 approach, and made this a user-generated series? If I wanted to attract dancers from my community, maybe I should give them the reigns and let them bring in the work? What media is turning them on? How has it shown up in their performance work? If I could get dancers to think about these questions and share their own ideas perhaps they would see the value of integrating videodance into their dance practice. The idea of Kinetic Cinema was born.

Kinetic Cinema explores the intersection of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. Each month I will invite a special guest from the dance community to share the films and videos that have inspired or moved them. These could be films that feature dance, are kinetic-based, or have been influential on their work in some way. The guest curators will come from a range of dance backgrounds as performers, choreographers, critics, and filmmakers. Upcoming guests include Brian McCormick, Jonah Bokaer, Levi Gonzalez, and Kriota Willberg, to name a few.

To kick off the series I’m taking a slightly different tack because it is being held in conjunction with the Dance Films Association’s 36th Annual Dance On Camera Festival.  On January 7th, 2008 at 7:30pm, Kinetic Cinema will present a special program of seven international dance film shorts I have selected from among 200+ festival entries. These films and videos represent some of the freshest new visions by leading dance filmmakers today. The program includes “1, 2, 3, 4″ a catchy music video by Feist with choreography by Noemi LaFrance (who will introduce her film), “PANORAMA ROMA” a rotating timelapse film shot over 24 hours in the center of Rome by Italian choreographer Anna de Manincor, and “NOT ABOUT IRAQ” a dance film that questions the relationship of words and experience, government rhetoric and reality by choreographer Victoria Marks with dancer Taisha Paggett. (click here for the full program)

On February 4th dance critic and founding board member of nicholas leichter dance, Brian McCormick, will present a program of videos and films that have been integral to his life with dance. Brian is particularly interesting because he comes from a background in video art which led him to dance. His first introduction to movement-based arts were through the experimental videos of Bill Viola, Mary Lucier with Elizabeth Streb, Shirley Clarke, and Joan Jonas. I’ve haven’t explored this type of work very much myself, and I’m looking forward to learning just as much from his program as the audience will.

Although the series hasn’t started yet, I already feel like it is fulfilling an important mission that began for me over a year ago with the Dance On Camera Festival. By galvanizing the local community and linking our efforts with the world community via the web and other forms of media, some large scale shifts can happen. The revolution will not be televised, but I will do my best to blog about it, and hopefully all the small actions by dancers and filmmakers happening around the world will link up and become a great wave of change sweeping the dance world
into the 21st Century!

If you are in the New York area on the first Monday of the month, please come see what’s playing at Kinetic Cinema. Screenings will start at 7:30pm. $5 admission.

Collective:Unconscious
279 Church Street (just south of White Street)
New York, NY 10013
www.weird.org
TICKETS: 212.352.3101
VENUE:212.254.5277

Kinetic Cinema is part of The Collective for Loving Cinema Series, a weekly themed-film series curated by Anna Brady Nuse, Stephen Kent Jussick, Matt Kohn and MM Serra and presented by Collective: Unconscious. Each week of the month has a specific theme: Week 1 – Kinetic Cinema (Dance on Film), Week 2 – Experimental Queer Film (MIX @ C:U), Week 3 – Speakeasy Cinema (a mystery film with post screening talk back with various film luminaries!) and Week 4 – Jewels and Gems (the best of the Filmmakers Co-Op) . The Collective for Loving Cinema Series is supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.