Maya Deren: 50 Years On

Fifty years after the death of filmmaker and choreographer Maya Deren, the art and influence of one of experimental cinema’s most inspiring and charismatic figures is celebrated and explored. The British Film Institute will present a dedicated program of Maya Deren screenings and events on October 4-12 2011, BFI Southbank, London.

For more information visit Maya Dean: 50 Years On

What do dancers need?

Many dancers want to post their own dance videos online for self-promotion and need help finding equipment for filming.  For example, if a dancer doesn’t have a video recorder yet, they may want one, or other equipment to help them get creative.

Here are 5 different gift suggestions (with links and and reviews on equipment) from seasoned Cameraman, Ron Kienhuis.

1.  Video Digital Recorders

Digital Recorder by Zoom.  Most camcorders (especially cheap ones) have horrible sound recording features, or are AGC (non manually adjustable).  If audio is important to you, here’s a Digital Recorder by Zoom (known for the H2 and H4n) that does video!  It’s very affordable at $249.00.  http://www.discmakers.com/duplicators/peripherals/zoomq3.asp

Other multi-purpose recording devices are Digital Still Cameras with video capabilities.  Here the choices are endless.  Almost every manufacturer makes them in all price ranges.  The most useful would be a camera with a Wide Angle lens and low light capabilities.
Canon’s Power Shot S90 for $429.99.  http://tinyurl.com/yfyxxe5
Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-LX3 for $469.00.  http://tinyurl.com/6zyxpo

At the same time nearly all Video Cameras can take stills, some at the same time as recording video.  One of the last tape based cameras is the Canon HV-40. It has the capabilities to shoot 24P the infamous “Cinema” look.
Canon VIXIA HV-40 for $699.00.  http://tinyurl.com/yarxynk

Flip Video Camera.  Easy to use, and affordable.  It costs $159.00.  http://tinyurl.com/yej764v

Video Enabled Cell Phone or Music Player.  Try Apple’s iPhone or iPod Nano.  A simple way to record video is with a 3G iPhone or the new Apple Nano iPod.

iphone 3GS 32GB starting at $299.00. http://tinyurl.com/rbwkab.

ipod Nano 8GB at $149.00 and ipod Nano 16GB at $179.00. http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

2. Creative Filming Options

Here are some fun cameras to try some different types of shots.

Waterproof Camera.  Want to shoot near the water, or in it?!! Then you’ll need a waterproof camera.  Check out the Sanyo XACHI VPC-E2 Digital Camcorder and Digital Camera beginning at 169.99  http://tinyurl.com/ycsyyfo

A Pet’s Eye View camera for only $49.99.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cameras-photography/afbc/

3. Tripods and Camera Applications

GorillaCam Camera Application. Prefer to have a video recorded that affords you steady and level shots?  Gorillacam is an iphone app that works with your camera to improve your camera capabilities.  It includes a self-timer for self-portraits and group shots, and time-lapse photography, and other features for  FREE.  Read more here.  http://joby.com/gorillacam/

GorillaMobile Flexible Tripods.  When cell phones and some video recorders do not have ways to attach a tripod you need to rely on a friend to operate it unless you buy a tripod that can do the job.  A GorillaMobile is a flexible tripod with a custom-designed iphone case for $39.95.   You can also purchase GorillaPod for regular cameras for a cost of $21.95.  http://joby.com/gorillapod

4. Micro Projectors

(Brief review of the first 3 products made)

Optoma Pico Projector.  A video projector so small, you can carry it in your pocket. Then, when it’s time for a little entertainment, you can whip it out, connect it to your iPod or iPhone, and project your videos onto a nearby wall, ceiling or airplane seat back–a far more satisfying experience than watching the movie on a little two-inch screen.

The Optoma projector is aimed almost exclusively at iPods, iPhones and other smartphones that can play video, along with video sources that have RCA cables–the red/white/yellow cable set–like camcorders, DVD players, game consoles, digital cameras and other sources.  But you can’t connect it to a laptop (for spur-of-the-boardroom PowerPoint presentations, for example).  The Optoma projects iPhone videos effortlessly–but not photos.  It is sold in most retail stores ranging from $229-$400.  As these mini projectors are new to the market, the costs vary considerably depending on where one purchases the product.   http://tinyurl.com/c7q28k

3M’s Micro Professional Projector, the MPro110.  The 3M Micro Professional Projector MPro110 costs about $359.00.  It’s about the same size as Optoma (2 x .9 x 4.5 inches), but it’s not quite as bright; it tops out at about six feet from your “screen,” casting an image about 40 inches diagonally. And whereas the Optoma projector has a tiny, feeble built-in speaker, the 3M has none at all.  If you plan to use it for movies, you’ll also have to plan to connect headphones or speakers.

The 3M projector, on the other hand, is the only micro projector so far that accepts a standard laptop video signal (it has a VGA connector). On one hand, it may seem a little silly to use a micro projector for a laptop; in the end, the projected image isn’t all THAT much larger than the laptop’s own screen. Still, it can make the difference between showing your slides to three people and showing them to eight people.  The 3M also accepts input from RCA cables, just like the Optoma.  http://www.3m.com/mpro/news.html

Aiptek’s PocketCinema V10.  The Aiptek PocketCinema V10 takes yet a third approach.  Whereas the Optoma seems made in heaven for iPods and iPhones (and comes with the proper cable), and the 3M is a better bet for laptops, the Aiptek has a slot for a memory card, and, more intriguingly, 1 gigabyte of built-in storage.

In other words, you can carry this thing around without any other equipment at all, preloaded, ready to make your elevator pitch at any time, without having to connect or set up anything. (You do have to convert your pictures and movies to the projector’s preferred formats, which can be a pain.)

Connecting a laptop is pretty much hopeless unless it has either RCA or S-Video connectors, both of which are rare on laptops these days, or a VGA-to-RCA adapter. (Once again, any video source with RCA cables will work.)

The PocketCinema ($249.00-$300) is bigger than the other projectors (4.9 x 2.1 x 0.9), but it’s the only one with a decent speaker, a remote and a tripod. (Maximum image and distance: 42-inch image, 5 feet away.) http://tinyurl.com/y9rfggu

5. Speakers

For rehearsals how about a set of portable speakers for your iPhone?  These portable speakers cost $49.99.
http://www.dlo.com/products/view/portspeakers_universal

Or turn your iPod into a boombox.  Prices range from $14.00 to $100.
http://www.nextag.com/ipod-portable-speakers/stores-html

Good luck with your holiday shopping.  We hope these gift suggestions were helpful!  Happy Winter Solstice everyone and Merry Christmas!

Charlie's Angels

“Bad Ass Babes: A Guide to Women Kicking Butt in the Movies”

Curated by Marýa Wethers
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
7:00pm
Tickets: $10 (purchase at the door)

————————

For the past 12 years, Marýa Wethers, has been a major contributor to the experimental dance community in NYC as a performer, administrator, and currently as the Associate Producer at Dance Theater Workshop. What you may not know is that she is also a huge action movie fan. At Kinetic Cinema on Wed March 11th, Marýa will share clips of selected scenes from some of her favorite Hollywood action movies with a female lead or a strong female character. The clips will follow themes such as hand-to-hand combat, weapons, and car chases. These scenes go beyond silly cat fights and show some bad ass women kicking some serious butt. Wowser!

Come on out and show off your own bad ass selves. Dress up as your favorite action heroine and we’ll post pictures of the best-dressed babes here on our blog.

About Kinetic Cinema

Kinetic Cinema is a co-presentation of Chez Bushwick and Pentacle’s Movement Media project, and happens on the second Wednesday of each month as part of a weekly dance, visual & media arts series at Chez Bushwick. Exploring the intersection of dance and the moving image, each screening features a different guest artist from the fields of dance and the media arts who 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 filmmakers.

Next month on April 8th, Lisa Niedermeyer, a performer, choreographer, and videographer will show a program of dance films with viewpoints from the world of professional sports.

For more info on Pentacle’s Movement Media project, visit our website: http://pentacle.org

Weekly Visual and Media Arts Programming at Chez Bushwick

Happening on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 7pm

2nd – KINETIC CINEMA, a co-presentation with Pentacle’s Movement Media project, explores the intersection of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage with guest artists who share the films and videos that have inspired them.

3rd – PRIME MOVER features artist-curated programs of cutting edge video and media art, with an international focus.

4th – ARTIST SALON features dialogue across disciplines around various artist-chosen topics. Anyone can bring questions, stories, artifacts, or material to add to the conversation.

CALLING ALL ARTISTS

For the next ARTIST SALON on March 25th, Jaki Levy, founder of Arrow Root Media and new media producer for Misnomer Dance, Martha Graham Dance Co. and others, will be looking at dance work created specifically for the web. Dance on Camera has already established itself as a viable medium for showcasing dance + performance. However, there is a growing trend of artists creating and adapting work specifically for the web. For example, New York City Ballet’s Tragic Love series, or more recently, Cedar Lake’s  Project 52 – all videos made specifically for the web.

Like site specific work, these (web)site specific pieces are showing that these new constraints are creating short format work, with new possibilities for distribution, creativity, and collaboration.

You are invited bring in your own examples of web-based videos to show at the Salon. If interested, please contact Jaki at http://www.google.com/search?q=jaki+levy

Visual & Media Arts programming is the fastest growing component of public exhibitions at Chez Bushwick. In 2004 the organization exhibited 14 visual artists working in video and new media; this number exceeded 75 in 2008, and is projected to increase still further in 2009 through a number of new public programs. More info: www.chezbushwick.net

Club Midnight: Spirit into Flesh

Amy Greenfield is an award-winning film-maker and cinedance pioneer. In her latest project, CLUB MIDNIGHT: FLESH INTO LIGHT she combines her films about erotic dancers with Leonard Nimoy’s  photography about the divine female presence and re-imagines it all for the stage with a cast of live dancers (featuring Andrea Beeman as the Enchantress of Bioluminosity, Bessie Award-winning dancer Tasha Taylor & Vittoria Maniglio). The result is a true multi-media feast for the senses.

If that isn’t enough to intrigue you, the music features John Zorn’s Masada, words are spoken by Emmy Award-winning actress, Maeve Kinkead, and Lyda Borelli is seen in a 1917 Italian Diva film.

I’m particularly excited to see how Amy, a master of the film image, is able to work with live dance and combine theatricality with the screen. The show has been specially designed for the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, which is intimate and cabaret-ish, but also allows her to project real 35mm film on a full screen. It’s rare to see a work of such  uncompromised vision. After my disappointment last year in Isaac Julien’s “Cast No Shadow” with Russell Maliphant at BAM, I’m hoping that Greenfield’s “Club Midnight: Flesh Into Light” will have a strong choreographic presence and the dancers will not be completely consumed by the seductive screens.

Still from Club Midnight

CLUB MIDNIGHT: FLESH INTO LIGHT
January 30 and 31, 7:30 and 9:30 Nightly
Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th Street, NYC

Reservations: 212-864-5400 or www.symphonyspace.org

More info: www.clubmidnight.net
www.cinemabody.wordpress.com

Don’t miss the last Kinetic Cinema before we break for the summer!

“Staying Alive” dir. Sylvester Stallone, “Showgirls”
dir. Paul Verhoeven

On Monday June 2nd, choreographer and dance
filmmaker Kriota Willberg will host The Worst
of the Best, a tour of inspiringly bad dance films from the early 1900’s to the
present. Truly awful dance is powerful art.  We react strongly to it as an
audience, we relate our horrible experiences to our friends and warn them away
from it, we laugh, we seethe, we remember it far longer than
“good” dance, and possibly longer than “great” dance.   Join us for
film and discussion as we chase that ethereal muse, Badness, through the work of generations of dance film artists.

Kinetic Cinema
Monday June 2nd, 7:30pm
$5 Admission (buy tix at the door)

@ Collective:Unconscious 
279 Church
Street (just south of White Street)
New York, NY 10013
Trains: 1 to Franklin;
A, C, E to Canal
http://weird.org/films.htm
212.254.5277
MORE INFO: www.movetheframe.com
 

Kinetic Cinema at Collective:Unconscious explores the intersection
of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. Each month curator Anna
Brady Nuse invites 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 come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers,
critics, and filmmakers. In the fall upcoming guests will include Elizabeth
Zimmer (Oct 5th),  Maya Ciarrocchi (Nov 3rd), and new films by
Anna Brady Nuse & friends (Dec 1st).

KRIOTA WILLBERG has danced and choreographed in Germany, Chicago,
and New York.
In addition to working with her company, Dura Mater, Willberg choreographs for
commercial, theatrical, and other dance productions. Dance choreography for
film includes The Bentfootes  (dir. K. Willberg and Todd Alcott),
Grasshopper  (dir. Todd Alcott), Dreamgirl (dir. Robbie Busch), and
On The Road With Judas (dir. JJ Lask). She has passed her basic proficiency
tests in Single Sword and Broadsword techniques from the Society of American
Fight Directors (SAFD) and occasionally includes fight choreography in her own
work and for others. Her article on dance and stage combat was published in the
SAFD magazine, The Fightmaster. Her ballerina tattoo was featured in Dance
Magazine.

I can’t claim credit for this great idea, that honor goes to Marilyn Ferdinand who publishes the Ferdy on Films, etc. blog. She is organizing this fabulous event to bring awareness to the important contributions dance has made to cinema since its beginnings from Edison’s Serpentine Dance to the latest Hollywood dance hits like Step Up 2: The Streets.

In her announcement post Ferdy writes:

Ferdy on Films, etc. is proud to host the Invitation to the Dance Movie Blogathon, May 4 through May 10. The last day of the blogathon just happens to be the birthday of one of
the greatest dancers ever to grace the silver screen–Fred Astaire.
Contributions on that date that discuss Astaire are particularly
welcome. Please RSVP to ferdyonfilms@comcaust.net. Link to this page before the event and to Ferdy on Films, etc. during the week of the blogathon.

I will be churning out posts about my favorite dance on screen moments, and you should too! Spread the word and the link to the Ferdy on Films, etc. blog.

Here’s a little clip of Fred from Puttin’ on the Ritz to get you ready.

So, here is something that gave me a lift at 10:42pm on a Thursday night. Time to get up out of your chair, push it aside, and give in to an inscrutably optimistic force of nature…

Dancing 4 fun + fitness with Paul Eugene

Alright, now that you’re warmed up, here is the final scene of one of my favorite dance movies of all time “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” (Warning: Age-specific content. People in their late twenties or early thirties may be the only ones to appreciate this.) This one goes out to my girl Nadine, who has been devoted to Sarah Jessica Parker since day one…

Ahhh, the smile is coming back to my face. Life isn’t sooo bad…

One more to send me off to bed. From my favorite master of cinematic fantasy, Busby Berkeley, here are three incredible clips from his 1934 classic, “Dames”. (For dance film geeks out there, see also Michel Gondry’s music video of the Chemical Brothers “Let Forever Be”, he obviously studied this film closely!)

I feel better now, I hope you do too

Clare Byrne and I have been having a discussion offsite about the way artists in the NYC downtown dance scene treat their audiences. I’ve been feeling that contemporary experimental dancers here tend to view and treat their audiences as enemies and antagonists rather than as friends, guests, or supporters. Clare reminded me that artists, especially experimental ones, aren’t making work just to entertain and console their audiences, but also occasionally to upset them and “ruffle some feathers.”  I agree that this is a very important function of the arts. Like good journalists, and wise fools, we need artists to shake people up and get them to see new things or think for themselves. But when I look at the dance scene in my city I see a bunch of rebels with no cause. Who are in their audiences? Basically other dancers who seem to take masochistic pleasure in the hate and apathy spewed at them from their friends on stage. Gen X’s irony looks like tin foil to Gen Y. And earnestness? Don’t even whisper the word ironically in passing or you’ll find yourself sneered and hissed right out of Bushwick.

I’m saying all this because I don’t feel like the lofty role of artist as social conscience, lighting rod, or martyr is what I’m seeing here. I see preaching to the choir, not risk-taking. I see insecurity and followers, not leaders and trend-setters.

Now that I’ve just pissed a lot of people off, I’ll ‘fess up to my
position. I’m an artist, but I’m also increasingly becoming a marketer.
I want to promote dance. What is the most important thing to a
marketer? Growing your audience. How do you do that? By identifying an
unmet need in your audience, addressing that need, and doing it better
than anyone else. Taken to the extreme, this results in corporate
cancer: ie Aol/Time Warner, NewsCorp (Rupert Murdoch), Microsoft,
ExxonMobil, etc. Perhaps the behavior of our marginalized,
impoverished, tiny dance community is subconsciously or consciously
reacting to the extreme imbalance of power in the world. I can accept
this as a valid reason for the preponderance of anger, helplessness,
and victimization being acted out on stage and in abandoned warehouses
all over the outer-boroughs of NYC. But, what I don’t accept is
misdirecting that anger onto our audiences.

Love ‘em or hate
‘em, you need an audience. I feel like the dance world is so eluded by
this fact. We seem diametrically opposed to thinking about what our
audience needs, how to address that need, and doing it well. Can there
be a balance between saying what we feel needs to be said and also
bringing the people in the room who need to hear it? I believe the
answer is yes but it takes a major shift in our outlook of ourselves
and our work.

I may have just failed at what I’m preaching for
here, and the people that should be reading this may have clicked away
after the first two sentences. However, this is a debate I struggle
with myself all the time. I’ve been a dancer all my life, and active in
the NYC dance community for seven years. Now, through my interest in
videodance, I’ve entered on a journey in media, and studying how other
performing arts have developed mediatized forms. Through the
accessibility of the internet, and the pervasiveness of video, I feel
like dance is at a tipping point right now. We can either embrace these
opportunities or fear them. I think a bit of both reactions is healthy,
but ultimately I want to confront and consciously grapple with this
polarity of audience vs. performer, buyer vs. seller, and artist vs.
marketer.

“Thriller” (original upload)

While one side of me is thrilled about this phenomenon of using dance as a therapeutic, community-building, grand-spectacle-making means, at the same time there is something so creepy about watching hundreds of incarcerated men in orange uniforms dancing in formation. It immediately evoked images for me of concentration camps, Maoist rallies, and Nazi propaganda films. It seems to be the embodiment of Fritz Lang’s industrial age nightmare in “Metropolis” in which the masses of humanity are reduced to nothing but machine like drones toiling underground in obscurity.

“Metropolis” – Molochmaschine (Moloch machine)

Still, upon further reflection I realized that my reactions were very much mired in a Western Anglo-American value system where individuality is prized above all else. In many parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, collective dance, music and ritual is a powerful, sacred thing. I had the privilege of studying Balinese Monkey Chant (kecak) at CalArts with the master dancer/musician I Nyoman Wenten. Performing in this incredibly complex group ritual was one of the most amazing artistic experiences of my life. To lose one’s sense of self even for a few minutes and to become just one cell in a greater organism is an awesome state of being which the Western world has become very afraid of. We’ve seen it lead to unfathomable destruction with two World Wars and countless hate crimes. However, we’ve forgotten that there is equal evidence of collective ritual being used to transcend despair and destitution and to heal and empower whole communities of people.

Kecak scene from “Baraka”

Ultimately I applaud the dance videos of the CPDRC inmates. Not only is the act of dancing having a powerful effect on these people’s lives, but their ability to share their work with the entire world through video transforms what they are doing into an act of artistic expression. They may be caged within four prison walls, but collectively they have reached farther and made deeper connections with the outside world than most of us “free” individuals ever could.

Now I’ll leave you with a little dream from the greatest collective choreographer of them all…

“Spin a Little Web of Dreams” (Busby Berkeley)