This 74 minute documentary directed by Ron Honsa explores the pleasure, self-control, and courage one face’s when choosing a life in dance.  Live performances documented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, interviews with exceptional artists, rare archival footage, and behind the scenes footage brings the world of dance alive, as NEVER STAND STILL visits the iconic international nexus for dance: Jacob’s Pillow.  Winner of Best Documentary at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and the Dance Camera West Festival in Los Angeles, this remarkable dance film will be followed by openings in Los Angeles and additional cities.

Upfront and personal interviews offer an inside look at leading choreographers and dancers lives: Suzanne Farrell, one of the greatest ballerinas in the world; Tony Award-winner Bill Irwin; celebrated dancer Rasta Thomas; former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo star Frederic Franklin; creative and imaginative Mark Morris; and Merce Cunningham, in one of his last interviews.

Narrated by Bill T. Jones, NEVER STAND STILL Features Amazing Performance Footage
& Candid Conversations w/Luminaries of Dance
Preorder the DVD

On Sunday May 6th 2012, a crowd of 100+ people came out to The Wild Project in the East Village for a screening and dance extravaganza by the Girl Walk//All Day community.

Opening the show was a performance by the flex group Street’s Finest with a guest appearance by Anne Marsen (star of Girl Walk//All Day). Sporting new pink hair, Anne danced fiercely along side the six guys in the group, who popped, locked, and dropped it as soon as they walked onto the stage. In black preppy outfits with red sneakers, they danced to some of today’s hottest songs including Ellie Goulding, Starry Eyed. In between each song mix, a comedic voice would transition into the next song keeping the audience members on their toes. Throughout the performance were movements of slow motion, acrobatics, tutting, and freestyle clumps. One particular moment that stood out was when one male dancer supported all of his weight from his arms while being on top of another partner’s back. The audience embraced the high energy of this group with their comedic styles and facial gestures. At the end everyone got to their feet to applaud. Who knows maybe we will see them on America’s Best Dance Crew?!

Following the performance the noisy crowd started to settle down and take their seats as the film began. Girl Walk//All Day is a feature-length music video that follows three young dancers across the city of New York. In 12 chapters, this music video of epic proportions showcases some of the most fascinating places in New York City, while capturing the lives of average people. As the popular beats of Girl Talk’s music echoed through the hall, young adults in their 20’s began standing and bopping. As the upbeat music continued, more people began to stand and the knee pounding turned into full on jovial dancing. With beers in their hands, the crowd enjoyed the entertainment and continued to do their own thing. At funny moments in the film such as when Anne Marsen lays anxiously on the street in a white sign displaying, “Dance With Me,” audience members laughed, clapped, and hollered at the big projection in front of them. As the 12 Chapters were wrapping up, five young adults boogied their way onto the stage. Within seconds, a majority of the audience members were standing, skipping their way down the stairs and landing themselves on the open dance floor. As the end credits began pouring down the screen, the entire crowd eagerly clapped and roared and continued to dance wildly to the pulsating music.

After a while the crowd became smaller but some still continued to dance onstage including the film’s star, Anne Marsen. With her pink hair radiating off the overhead lighting, I made my way to her eager to ask some questions. Upon greeting the magenta colored hair-do girl, I realized Anne was one of the most down-to-earth people you will ever meet. In her black button down shirt, she stood before me still bouncing to the music and smiling. With the music still roaring out of the sound speakers, I asked her, “How does dancing make you feel?” Anne smiled and leaned forward simply stating that dance makes her feel, “alive and free.” I proceeded to ask her the most memorable aspect of shooting the film. Pondering for a second, Marsen commented, “pretty much everything” She later commented on the sections where she was filmed on Wall Street and with all the shopping bags. She continued to explain to me when walking with all the shopping bags, she would plow through people as if she was someone important. Not afraid to act snobbish and get a reaction from average humans, she would bump their shoulders and separate groups who were in conversations. As we laughed about what the people must of thought, I left her with one final question, “What could you say to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?” She answered by saying, “get a camera and just do it.” She mentioned that finding friends and working together is a great way to get started. Thanking Anne for her time, she humbly smiled and continued to dance on the stage as her pink hair glistened across the theatre. Stepping away, I wondered what’s next for this upcoming star.

New York City watch out for Girl Walk//All Day. Not only is it showcasing some of the area’s best talent but it’s keeping the passion of dance alive for generations to come.

Check out all of Girl Walk// All Day videos on vimeo.

The event includes a screening of Greenfield’s pioneering cine-dance and video-dance works that span 40 years and features the premiere of BODYSONGS, a work commissioned by WGBH TV in 1979 and made in collaboration with cinema verité filmmaker Richard Leacock. At the time Greenfield and Leacock shot a clothed version and a nude version of their film, but both ended up being banned from broadcast. When Leacock passed away in 2011, Greenfield revisited the nude video dance footage, restored it on today’s technology, and found in it a new concept of timeless nude duets as moving image art: BodySongs.

Other films on the program include MUSEic Of The BODy (2010), edited from Greenfield’s 1994 multimedia performance with video art pioneer Nam June Paik, the underground classic Element, and Wildfire from Greenfield’s acclaimed Club Midnight film cycle.

Greenfield and Haller will be present to answer questions and sign Flesh into Light at the reception following the screening.

In Flesh Into Light, Haller articulates the essential principles of cine-dance through Greenfield’s films, which re-invent dance as fundamental human motion not just for the camera, but as and inseparable from cinema. “For Greenfield, the body moving with and against the close-up camera can be the concrete image of inner human nature, an instrument for its expression and a vessel containing images and actions that crystalize the meanings and mysteries of experience: movement and memory, the past and the present moment.” – Robert Haller, Flesh Into Light

Admission is $9. No reservations required.

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. (@ 2nd Street)
Manhattan, New York.

Click here for more information on tickets.

Also of Note: Amy Greenfield will be present at Movement Media’s next Kinetic Cinema event on May 7th at Uniondocs, screening her film Wildfire and taking part in the discussion.

Additional screenings will be added to their website in the next few weeks, check the events page for a screening near you.

Check out one of their latest videos featuring  Flex group, Streets Finest.

The Dance Film Association (DFA) is inviting all members of DFA and Dance New Amsterdam (DNA) to submit films for their upcoming Dance Film Lab.* The next moderated screening is 7:30pm April 25, 2012 at Dance New Amsterdam Studio 5, 280 Broadway (entrance at 53 Chambers St.) New York, NY 10007 .

To submit:  Please e-mail brighid (at) dancefilms.org with DFL Screening in the subject line and include the following:

1) Artist(s) name
2) Contact E-mail
3) Title
4) Length
5) State of development (raw footage, rough-cut, final edits, etc.)
6) One sentence description

For futher questions please visit their website or call 212. 727. 0764

*Only DFA and DNA members may submit to screen their work. Screenings selected on a first come first served basis. Each Moderated Screening will include 4 works. All screeners must be on DVD and can not exceed 10 minutes.

PORCH STORIES, Photo: Gary Tacon

Marta Renzi’s Kinetic Cinema program “Let Me Entertain You” presented at Gibney Dance Center on Thursday March 22nd had a political and moral message behind it’s light title – Making an audience laugh is just as important and necessary a function of art as making them cry, or question, or think.

The evening was centered around a quote from Preston Sturges’ iconic 1941 film “Sullivan’s Travels” in which a Hollywood filmmaker sets out to make a “serious” film about poverty in America during the Depression. After a series of mishaps, the hero is believed to be dead and he ends up in jail, where he truly learns the dehumanizing oppression of poor people. The only light in the whole experience comes when he watches a movie with his fellow inmates, and he finds himself laughing tears of joy at the antics of Disney characters (just the sort of trite entertainment he was critical of when he set out on his journey). At the end of the film he tells his producers he wants to make a comedy, and leaves us with this unforgettable last line: “There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh! Did you know that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan! Boy!”

For filmmaker and choreographer Marta Renzi, this sentiment can be seen throughout her thirty years of art making, in which she has worked with people of all ages, classes, and races, both professional and amateur. Her mandate is to bridge art with real life, and she has done it in laundromats (The Welcome Table), auto mechanic’s garages (Year, Make, Model), neighborhoods (Porch Stories), and rust belt towns (Little Wild Heart) to name a few. In the mini-retrospective she showed at Kinetic Cinema we could clearly see her love for common people. Regardless of technique, budget size, or production elements above all else, Renzi wants to show the virtues of ordinary people in their daily lives, and the acts of celebration, joy, pain and pride that are there if only someone will shine a light on it. Interestingly, Renzi has approached this not as a gritty documentarian, but as an entertainer and a dancer.

In many ways, it is the archetypes of the working person that interest Renzi rather than the specific stories of individuals. In her films dance is a means of turning everyday tasks into ritualized sacred acts that defy normal space and time. In “The Welcome Table” working class black women look like high priestesses of the laundromat. As if by magic, the little white girls whose clothes they are washing appear in a procession through the laundromat and then disappear again, only to reappear in a hidden garden of a crumbling mansion. In Porch Stories the neighborhood characters evoke fairy tale counterparts including a “Pied Piper” old musician being followed by mischievous children, and a “Rapunzel”-like author trapped by her own writer’s block on her porch high on a hill.

Opening the evening was a short improvisatory solo and a video work by Arthur Aviles, a long time friend and performer of Renzi’s. Arthur’s video, “To Be Real” tells the story of a pheasant that was trapped in the Hunts’ Point neighborhood of the Bronx, and how the bird’s release inspired a dance (performed by the beautiful Althea Pace outdoors on the Bronx waterfront). Aviles is also concerned with bridging art with community and creating an atmosphere of inclusion. He is the founder of BAAD! (The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance), in an old factory space in Hunts Point that has become a beacon for creative talent in this notoriously poor and underserved part of the city.

In a world that is polarized by words such as entertainment vs. art, socialism vs. capitalism, liberal vs. conservative, it is so refreshing to see Renzi and Aviles’ work which seems to bridge these dualities and show us how we are all in this “cockeyed caravan” together. That is the beauty of art, especially poetic forms like dance. We can go beyond the either/or’s and see how we are connected in divine and beautiful ways.

To learn more about Marta Renzi and her work go to: martarenzi.blogspot.com.
To learn more about Arthur Aviles go to: www.bronxacademyofartsanddance.org

PORCH STORIES, Photo: Gary Tacon

Kinetic Cinema: Let me Entertain You

Screening and discussion with Marta Renzi

Marta Renzi, an acclaimed choreographer and filmmaker, curates a provocative program of Kinetic Cinema that reveals the real inspiration behind her work, and reminds us of why art matters:

“Asked to share something about why I make dance films, I find myself showing excerpts from feature films that include a prison gang, a drunken orgy, and run the gamut from Greek tragedy to Saturday morning cartoons. To accompany these, I’ve chosen bits from my own dance films featuring characters with everyday lives and actual jobs – nursing aide, garbage collector, fast food worker, bartender – and who dance like it.”

Arthur Aviles, a long time performer and collaborator of Marta’s will open the evening with a video and solo piece of his own.

Marta Renzi has been making dances professionally since 1976.  In 1992, Marta received a New York Dance & Performance Award (a “Bessie”), and in 1995 was the first recipient of a Dancing in the Streets award as “a fearless explorer of all manner of unconventional sites, integrating art into everyday life.” In 1981, she made YOU LITTLE WILD HEART, a half-hour video dance for PBS, followed in 1989 by a second for television entitled MOUNTAINVIEW, made in collaboration with filmmaker John Sayles. Since 2005, she has self-produced several short films which have been screened nationally and internationally.

Arthur Aviles is a Bessie Award-winning dancer and choreographer of Puerto Rican descent. Mr. Aviles was a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and toured internationally with the company for eight years 1987 to 1995. In 1996 Mr. Aviles founded Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre (AATT) in Paris and moved the company to the Bronx the same year. In December 1998, he inaugurated a new performance space in the American Banknote Building, a warehouse in the Hunts Points section of the Bronx. His company is the centerpiece of BAAD! – The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance.

Kinetic Cinema had a merry time with the Merry Makers last Sunday, February 26^th at Fort Useless.  The night involved video and performances by Jessica Flannigan, Kate Taylor, and the Merry Makers Rachel Sattler and Elizabeth Burwell along with their filmmaker Ethan Duff. Though quite different from one another the three acts were tied together by elements of nostalgia, parody, and feel good comedy.

During the screening of their film “Adventures In Anytown,” Rachel, Elizabeth, Ethan cued us in on their battles with freezing temperatures, venue changes, time cues, costume design and crunch deadlines.  They shared clips from films that influenced the formation of their stage and screen personas including segments from Annie, Moulin Rouge and Lavern and Shirley among others.

To hear of the Merry Makers process from start to finish was inspiring.  It also reminded us of what we already know but sometimes forget, which is that when it comes to art New Yorkers are by your side to make it happen.

Join us for our next Kinetic Cinema event with Marta Renzi on March 22^nd at the Gibney Dance Center.

For more information about the Merry Makers, visit them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MerryMakersDance?sk=wall

One of the world’s leading festivals devoted to short films, Clermont-Ferrand in France is a vital showcase and a market for shorts, attracting over 100,000 visitors each year. Often referred to as the ‘Cannes’ of short film, it is now in the fourth decade. Originally Clermont-Ferrand screened only fiction films and only on 16mm and 35mm. But with the arrival of new technologies, a new competition called LABO (The LAB) was established in 2002. The LAB brings audiences films at the crossroads of different techniques and genres such as Fiction/Documentary, Experimental/Fiction, Animation/Documentary, etc.

Dance Films Association in collaboration with Balagan Film Series (Boston) hosts Calmin Borel, one of the curators of the LABO Competition, and Alla Kovgan, a 2012 LABO jury member and filmmaker who put together three programs of films from the collections of the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (France).

Program 1

“Program 1: Dance and Rhythms of Life” celebrates choreography for the camera spanning over two decades. Absurdity and beauty of everyday life, personal dramas and comedies, relationships of people, objects and the machines are all expressed through dance, gesture and movement. Virtuosic, moving and inspiring! Approx. 90 minutes

WHERE: 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, Ground Floor New York, NY 10013, 212.601.1000

WHEN: Friday, March 2, 7pm

COST: $12

Program 2

“Program 2: The Clermont-Ferrand Highlights 2011-2012″ features a diverse and eclectic collection of recent favorites and awarded films from around the world. Approx.100 minutes

WHERE: 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, Ground Floor New York, NY 10013, 212.601.1000

WHEN: Friday, March 2, 9pm

COST: $12

Program 3

“Program 3: Dancing Frames” is the second program dedicated to dance and choreography for camera. A dance uprising against disappearing jobs, an orchestration of football fans, an exquisitely choreographed voyage through everyday life during the summer vacations, dances of light throughout the city of Tokyo, a dancing romance set against the backdrop of New York’s gay scene… A splendid musical mix! (Approx. 80 minutes)

WHEN: Sunday, March 4, 5.30pm,

WHERE: Barbès, 376 9th St, Brooklyn, NY, 11215

COST: $10, DFA members $8 (space is limited)

FRAMEWORKS rolls out 6 new, exceptional dance films from near (Northampton) and far (Warsaw). All New York Premieres. All under 20 minutes. All selected for their choreographic punch and cinematic prowess.

This Sunday, Feb 12th @ 3pm
Dance New Amsterdam
BUY before FRI for $5

Featuring:

If she needs a third eye, she grows it
Rosie Trump
Houston, TX
New York Premiere, 6min

Around the Styx
Clotilde Amprimoz
Clermont-Ferrand, France
American Premiere, 4 min

A Praça
Filipe Martins & Ne Barros
Porto, Portugal
American Premiere, 13 min

Breakdown
In Kyung Lee
Northampton, MA
World Premiere, 4min

Press
Sarah Friedland
Providence, RI
World Premiere, 5 min

InSide
Anna Zuzanna Blaszczyk
Warsaw, Poland
American Premiere, 12 min