Posts Tagged ‘Dance on Camera Festival’

"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.

In ”enchantress,” Turkish filmmaker Volkan Ergen creates a mysterious, otherworldly landscape, submerging us as voyeurs in a secret ritual. Watch for magical duplicity, fractured movements, layered apparitions, and shifting focus. Enjoy!

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!