"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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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!

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble of India

At Dance on Camera Festival: 

The documentary Nrityagram: ‘For the Love of Dance’ tells the story of the Nrityagram Dance Village, and the Dance Ensemble that has made it world famous.

 NRITYAGRAM: FOR THE LOVE OF DANCE World Premiere
 

Nan Melville, USA, 2009, 26M

This painterly portrait of an idyllic dance village near Bangalore offers a taste of the Indian dance style, Odissi.

Protima Bedi institutionalized classical Indian dance through the founding of Nrityagram; a “gurukul” where students could dance and live in close proximity with their master guru.

The internationally renowned Nrityagram Dance Ensemble continues to expand on Protima’s legacy; lead dancer and choreographer, Surupa Sen and Odissi Gurukul Director, Bijayini Satpathy have expanded the language of the traditional Odissi dance through the incorporation of choreographic techniques adapted from world dance. The Ensemble continues to push the boundaries of Indian dance and to perform to worldwide acclaim.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Q & A with director Nan Melville and choreographer Mark Morris, founder of the Mark Morris Dance Group, to follow screening.

Based in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the Mark Morris Dance Center fulfills the mission of the Mark Morris Dance Group to serve as a cultural resource to engage and enrich the community.

For directions, please see www.mmdg.org/directions.

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

Dance for the Camera Workshop

On Wednesday January 14th, Kinetic Cinema will kick off it’s new season at Chez Bushwick with special guest curator Ellen Bromberg, a professor of dance at University of Utah and a pioneer educator of dance for the camera.

photo: Kirk Schwartz

Bromberg will show dance films created by choreographers and filmmakers who have attended her workshops in Victoria, BC and Regina, Saskatchewan over the past five years. These workshops have attracted experienced artists in many genres providing them with the opportunity to explore dance film as a new way of seeing and framing the moving body.

Over the  years there have been many notable teachers and alumni of Bromberg’s Dance for the Camera Workshops. Former guest teachers have included Bob Lockyer (former producer at the BBC) and Douglas Rosenberg (video artist). Attendees have included Karen Kaeja (Co-Artistic Director of Kaeja d’Dance in Toronto), Kelly Hargraves (L.A. film-maker), Christopher House (Artistic Director of Toronto Dance Theater), Marta Renzi (New York choreographer and film-maker), Alejandro Valbuena (Filmmaker from Bogotá, Columbia), and Lee Henderson (Visual Artist from Univ. of Regina). Ellen Bromberg, recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship, is a choreographer, media artist, dance film curator and educator. Her choreography and films have been seen throughout the world and she has received numerous awards and grants for her work. Ellen is currently an Associate Professor of Modern Dance at the University of Utah.

Here are all the details:

Kinetic Cinema

Wed. January 14, 8pm
Tickets: $10 (pay at door)
Chez Bushwick
304 Boerum St., Buzzer #11
Brooklyn, NY 11206
Trains: L to Morgan Street, exit back of the train. Turn LEFT outside the station. Turn LEFT onto Boerum Street

In addition to curating this screening, Ellen is organizing four workshops in New York during the Dance On Camera Festival from January 6-9, 2009 2-4pm at Dance New Amsterdam. For more information and to sign up for a workshop click here.

Kinetic Cinema explores the intersection of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. Each month Pentacle’s director of Movement Media, Anna Brady Nuse invites a special guest from the fields of dance and the media arts to share films and videos that have inspired or moved them. These could be works for screen that feature dance, are kinetic-based, or have been influential on their work in some way.

Kinetic Cinema is a co-presentation of Chez Bushwick and Pentacle, and is part of “PRIME MOVER: Dance on Camera From Chez Bushwick” a weekly dance, visual & media arts series each Wednesday at Chez Bushwick in Brooklyn. The series includes Kinetic Cinema on the second Wednesdays of the month, Prime Mover (curated by Jonah Bokaer and other guest artists) in the third Wednesdays, and artist-moderated topical Salons on the fourth Wednesdays.

If you would like to receive announcements and email up-dates about future Kinetic Cinema programs please send us an email.

******************

Post Script:

For anyone interested in taking Ellen’s Dance for the Camera Workshop this summer in Victoria, BC, there is a special early bird discount for the workshop being offered right now in honor of her Kinetic Cinema program. Check it out here.

SCREENINGS

The DOCF shows a combination of dance for camera features, dance for camera shorts, revivals, and dance documentaries. I have tried to categorize the programs below, however please check their official schedule and program descriptions, as the dance for camera shorts get squeezed into many programs.

Most of the programs take place at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center Plaza. For tickets and info go to: http://www.filmlinc.com/buytickets.htm

Also check out the discounts on tickets available for Dance Films Association Members here.

Dance For Camera Features:

VSPRS Show and Tell

Sophie Fiennes, 2006, Belgium; 72m

I’m not sure if this is a documentary, a dance for camera piece, or archival footage of a performance, but it sounds intriguing. The description on the Dance Film’s Association’s website says it’s a “hybrid marvel—part performance, part documentary– in which dance, drama and music fuse to mesmerizing effect.” The filmmaker, Sophie Fiennes (“A Pervert’s Guide to Cinema”) collaborated with Alain Patel of Les Ballets C de la B, to create a contemporary interpretation of Verdi’s famous religious work “Maria Vespers.”

Friday, Jan 9, Walter Reade Theatre, 8:30pm (repeats on Jan 11, 6:15pm)

Historia

Karsten Liske, 2007, Germany; 2007; 45m

A young woman’s short life is visualized in the dramatic interplay of choreographic and abstract images. Awarded the price for best film work at NapoliDanza Festival 2008.

This program will also include Nora by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton with Zimbabwean choreographer Nora Chipaumire. A gorgeously shot portrait of a woman’s life growing up in revolutionary Zimbabwe.

Saturday, Jan 10, Walter Reade Theatre, 8:45pm (repeats Jan 11., 4:15pm)

Revivals:

Busby Berkeley Celebration – Saturday January 10

Don’t miss an entire day of programs paying homage to the great master of kinetic cinema!

Under the Influence of Busby Berkeley (Gallery, Sat. 1/10,2:30pm)

Dance Film-maker Kriota Willberg surveys a great range of films, music videos, and commercials that have been directly influenced by Berkeley, also notable because it will include an excerpt from Fünf ‘n’ Twist by yours truly! Other contributors in the line up include Richard James Allen, Jess Curtis and Kwame Braun, Michel Gondry, Kat Green, Jennie Livingston, Lucky Strike cigarettes, Anna Brady Nuse, Nuvaring®/Schering Corporation, Jonathon Rosen, Keith Schofield, and Kriota Willberg.

Dames - Ray Enright with Busby Berkeley, USA, 1934; 90m (Walter Reade, Sat. 1/10, 4:00pm)

It’s the 50th Anniversary of Dames! Revel in the pageantry, the  bathtubs, alarm clocks, blondes, and brunettes all dancing in perfectly geometric, kaleidoscopic style.

Gangs all Here – Busby Berkeley, USA, 1943; 103m (Walter Reade, Sat. 1/10, 6:30pm)

Featuring Carmen Miranda in her “Tutti Frutti” hat!

The Blue Bird

Maurice Tourneur, 1918 film, US; 81m

Celebrating dance in classic silent films, The Blue Bird is based on the play of the same title by Nobel Prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck.

Sunday, Jan 11, Walter Reade Theatre, 2pm

Ishanou (The Chosen One)

Aribam Syam Sharma, India, 1991; 91m

This film was one of the notable hits of the 1990 Cannes Festival.  Based on a story by Manipuri writer MK Binodini Devi, THE CHOSEN is a rich melodrama that contrasts ordinary domestic life with the strange rituals of the Meitei matriarchal cult.

Friday, Jan 16, Walter Reade Theatre, 3pm (repeats Jan 17, 1pm)

Dance For Camera Shorts:

EMPAC DANCE MOViES

Wednesday Jan 7, Walter Reade Theatre 9pm

This is a great collection of shorts commissioned by EMPAC in 2007 through The Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and the Performing Arts. I got to see this program at EMPAC’s grand opening weekend back in October (see my earlier post), and am so happy it is making the tour of other film festivals for all to see. Some of the gems of this program is the hauntingly beautiful Nora, an abstract portrayal of Zimbabwean dancer Nora Chipaumire’s life and coming of age during the Chimurenga revolution (repeated on Sun Jan 11th @ 4:15pm), and Propriedad Horizontal a clever choreographic study in a narrow space from Argentina.

Jiri Kylian & Hans Hulscher collaboration

Thursday, Jan 8, Walter Reade Theatre
4pm -  (repeat Jan 17,3:30pm)

Three productions by Jiri Kylian and Nederlans Dance Theater shot for television by Hans Hulscher. They include Wings of Wax, Petit Mort, and Sleepless. Kylian’s own dance film Car Men, was one of the best shorts shown at last year’s festival. The works on this program are  stage pieces adapted for television, and will likely be beautiful for screen.

Magnetic Cinema, Matchbox, Sens 1

Thursday, Jan 8, Walter Reade Theatre 8:45pm
(repeat Jan 16, 1pm)

I’m excited about this program of three dances for the camera that promise to be truly cinematic as well as choreographic. It starts out with Pierre Coulibeuf’s Magnetic Cinema inspired by French Canadian choreographer Benoit Lachambre’s “Lugares Comunes”. The program of Coulibeuf’s films shown last year was sufficiently intriguing and environmentally arresting to make me want to see more. Matchbox by Daniel Belton from New Zealand is an evocative “partnership game” played out on a jazzy dance floor with dazzling physicality. In Sens 1 two dancers—Francesca Bonato and Magalie Bouze from Compagnie des Indes- joined like Siamese twins by their left feet, move around a crackling bubble-wrap carpet that resembles a dimly lit boxing ring.

Innovative Shorts

Friday, Jan 9, Walter Reade Theatre 6:15pm (repeats on Jan 11, 8:30pm)

A marathon program of 11 shorts that cover subjects ranging from birth (Manuelle Labor by Marie Losier in collaboration with Guy Maddin) to Martha Graham (Bardo by Richard Move) to women imitating their dads dancing (Dance Like Your Old Man by Gideon Obarzanek & Edwina Throsby). I live for stuff like this!

Kinetic Cinema with Dance Film Pioneer Educator, Ellen Bromberg

Wednesday Jan. 14, Chez Bushwick at 8:00 pm

Kinetic Cinema will feature a program curated by Ellen Bromberg, a professor of dance at University of Utah and a pioneer educator of dance for the camera. Bromberg will show dance films created by choreographers and filmmakers who have attended her workshops in Victoria, BC and Regina, Saskatchewan over the past five years. These workshops have attracted experienced artists in many genres providing them with the opportunity to explore dance film as a new way of seeing and framing the moving body.

Admission is $10; tickets can be purchased at the door.
Chez Bushwick is located at 304 Boerum St., Buzzer #11 in Brooklyn, NY 11206.
Trains: L to Morgan Ave. Exit back of the train. Turn LEFT outside the station. Turn LEFT onto Boerum Street.

Showings on Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery Screen:

A program of dance for camera shorts will play continuously in the Gallery outside of the Walter Reade Theatre including: Arising by Ben Dolphin, Caution by Susannah Newman, Embodiments of Silence by Tim Glenn, An Issue of Trust by Allison Fischer, Multiplied Subtraction by Michael Cole, and Reincarnation by Takeshi Kushida.

Documentary Programs:

Ballerina

Bertrand Normand, 2007, France; 77m

For the balletomanes out there, Ballerina profiles six of the rising stars of the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg Russia. This film has been receiving rave reviews and was recently released on DVD from First Run Features. This program will be  accompanied by Play: On the beach with the Ballets Russes featuring archival footage of dancers from the Ballets Russes frolicking on the beach in Sidney, Australia during their 1936-1940 tours.

Wednesday Jan 7, Walter Reade Theatre 6:15pm  (repeats Jan 8, 1:30pm)

Antonio Gades: The Ethics of Dancing

Juan Cano Arecha, 2007, Spain; 56m

Here’s one for Flamenco lovers. This new documentary reveals previously unseen images of the dancer’s work, including his choreography for “Ad Libitum” danced with Alicia Alonso and an excerpt from “Giselle” in which he performed the role of Hilarion, among other surprises. The program is accompanied by two shorts by David Fernandez: Objects in Mirror are Closer than They Appear made with members of ABT and NYCB, and Icarus APR (Annual Percentage Rate) a solo based on a modern interpretation of the Icarus legend.

Thursday, Jan 8, Walter Reade Theatre 6:15pm (repeat Jan 9, 2pm)

The Dance of the Enchantress

Adoor Gopalakrishnan & Brigitte Chataignier, 2007, France; 70m

A film that explores the beauty of the Indian dance form of Mohiniyattam (“mohini means enchantress and attam translates as graceful movements) from the  southern state of Kerala. Both devotional and sensuous in nature, “Mohinitattam” lays emphasis on romance—the shades, colors and moods of love.

Friday, Jan 9, Walter Reade Theatre, 4pm (repeats Jan 16, 9pm)

American Masters Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About, with Panel

Judy Kinberg, 2008, USA; 112m

How does one describe a genius like Jerome Robbins—the choreographer/director who transformed the Broadway musical and left an indelible mark on the world of classical ballet? Here is a sneak-peek at an extraordinary documentary that explores this complex figure in all his contradictory colors. See it on the big screen prior to its PBS airing on February 4th.

Friday, Jan 16, Walter Reade Theatre 6:15pm

WORKSHOPS

Through the Lens

Study each day with four award-winning filmmakers

Jan 6-Ben Dolphin (director of ARISING)
Jan 7-Alla Kovgan (co-director of NORA)
Jan 8-Daniel Belton (director of MATCHBOX and AFTER DURER)
Jan 9-Douglas Rosenberg (co-director of OF THE HEART)

Workshop co-ordinated by Ellen Bromberg

Held at Dance New Amsterdam.

Click here for more info and to make reservations.

PANELS:

Judson Memorial Church Programs with Movement Research

Two discussions with screenings January 6 and 13, 2009, 7pm, Free

January 6th discussion led by Stacy Spence
Theme: Narrative/Abstract and Environments

With excerpts drawn from Helenka by Karen Rose, Black Spring by Benoit Dervaux, Mobius Strip by Vincent Pluss, and Night Practice by Susanna Wallin.

Stacy Spence is a New York choreographer, dancer, teacher who has worked internationally as a member of the Trisha Brown Company. He is a 2008 Movement Research Artist in Residence.

January 13 Discussion led by Karl Cronin and Pavel Zustiak
Themes: Power of Limits, Human/Animal Interaction & influence,
Cultural relationship to environment

With excerpts drawn from Alt I Alt by Tobjorn Skarild, Touched by David Hinton, Poem by Maia Sørensen, Inearthia by Simon Halbedo/Nazario Branca/Maren Sandmann, Reines d’un Jour by Pascal Magnin, and Lacho Drom by Tony Gatlif.

Jury Prize Awards Reception

Saturday, Jan 1oth, Walter Reade Theatre 7pm in Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery, RSVP

Presenters Roundtable Brunch

Sunday, Jan 11, Walter Reade Theatre 11:30am in Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery

PANEL on New Online Distribution Platforms for Dance Media