FRAMEWORKS accepts submissions of original works of choreography for the camera, less than 20 minutes in length and made within the last 7 years. Videos of staged work and documentary films are fabulous but won’t be reviewed in this series. On average, 30-75 films are submitted for each screening, and 4-7 are selected. Submission is and always will be free.

Deadline for the Winter 2012 Series is January 31st. Please note this is the received by deadline.

For more information and application forms go to: http://www.frameworksdance.org/

Now in its 10th year, Philadelphia Dance Projects’ MOTION PICTURES has become a mini-festival unique to Philadelphia that explores how film and video serve as natural collaborative mediums for dance. MOTION PICTURES’11 will feature 4 different programs that highlight the power of image in motion including shorts, features and an “informance” artist/audience conversation with Filmmaker, Nadine Patterson.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011 – 6:30pm, 8:00pm
Thursday, October 6, 2011 – 6:30pm, 8:00pm

Location:
Performance Garage
1515 Brandywine Street
Philadelphia, PA, 19130
United States

Admission is $10-$15

For More information visit Philadelphia Dance Projects

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

National Conference
Pavilion Dance, Bournemouth (UK)
8-10 September, 2011

Digital Futures in Dance is an opportunity for artists, promoters, producers, venues, academics and creative and digital companies to come together to discuss future possibilities for dance and technology. With an increasing growth in interdisciplinary practice, Digital Futures in Dance investigates how new digital technologies create new conditions for choreographing and presenting dance. The conference is structured around three interrelated themes explored through presentations, workshops, performances and installations:

The Expanded Stage: Stage, screen and bodies – What will be the stages for dance in the future?

New Body Intelligence: Body data as raw material – How will new intelligence of the body influence choreography in the future?

Social Interaction: Mobile and interactive technology devices – How will increased interactivity influence the creation and reception of dance in the future?

The programme will feature international artists and researchers across the dance, technology and media spectrums including Jonah Bokaer, Billie Cowie, Marlon Barrios-Solano, Harriet Macauley | Pair Dance, Johannes Birringer, Renana Raz, Mark Coniglio, and Marina Tsartsara.

See the full programme here.

Ann Robideaux, Sternberg Park Dances

August 22, 2011, 8pm

Sternberg Park (map)

Bushwick, Brooklyn

Local park-goers of all ages, encouraged by choreographer Ann Robideaux, participate in a community dance collaboration resulting in a montage of movement and other talents for the camera. Open to everyone, this site-specific dance film celebrates Sternberg Park’s unique personalities and social community in one of Williamsburg’s most historic parks.

Full details on the MovieHouse website.

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;” – Shakespeare

"B.A. Ches" by Marta Ares & Susana Barberá

Last week I found myself on the west end and ducked into the Chelsea Art Museum for a cool respite and to see some refreshing perspectives on the urban chaos outside. The new “Streetwise” video art exhibition reflects Shakespeare’s sentiments very well with over a dozen short pieces that depict the drama of “the streets” and the complex interactions that occur there.

The streets represent both liberation and the hazards of life. From dog poop to crime, we  create elegant ways of moving around obstacles and intractable social problems. This mutability is illustrated to lovely effect in Marta Ares and Susana Barberá’s B.A. Ches where a tango couple dances around pot holes, mud and trash in the streets of Bueno Aires.

"Bandits" by Tiong Ang

The various faces of traffic are shown in Tiong Ang’s Bandits as Thai motorcylists are depicted in close-up wearing bandanas to battle the smog. Their covered faces and the loud roar of engines gives them a menacing look, like a pack of outlaws waiting to entrap innocent wayfarers. In III Crossing, June Bum Park uses her hand in front of the camera while shooting a busy intersection below her to give the effect of corralling pedestrians. Park’s simple technique seems to reveal the “invisible hand of god” pulling the strings of the tiny ant people below.

The friction between performance artists and unwitting pedestrians is also endlessly fascinating to observe. In Halil Altindere’s Miss Turkey, various performers try to disrupt the flow of traffic in outlandish ways, from a volley ball team that sets up a net across a busy street at every red light, to a bride in a wedding dress walking through a mall with a gun in her hand and a three piece marching band behind her. We see almost no interest from passersby to these various stunts, and this is particularly disturbing when a masked gunman lurks around a doorway waiting for someone to come out. Scores of pedestrians walked by him, impervious to the impending violence.

Miyata Jiro: Business in Rio de Janeiro

Interestingly, it seems that non-living performance artists get more attention than their human counterparts. In Miyata Jiro: Business in Rio de Janiero by Momoyo Torimitsu, a robot that looks like an aging Japanese business man crawls through the streets attended by a Japanese woman in a nurse’s uniform. The sight of this crawling robot startles people wherever he goes — in poor favelas and up-scale business districts alike. I was left wondering why this robot elicits more feeling and concern from people than a real person would. Perhaps his artificiality helps people take down their guards, and indulge in feelings of curiosity and compassion.

Watching these witty and poignant videos also allowed me to let down my defenses for a bit and reflect on the outside world. When I reemerged into the hot, sticky streets I felt cooler and more even-tempered than before. I was able to see beauty in the flow of life around me and dance around the pot holes with a light step and an open heart.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here for more information.

Deadline: July 20th, 2010
Festival date: August 19-20, 2010

Eko & Sen Hea: A Journey Beyond

The 2010 Kinetic Cinema series kicks off with a night of dance on film curated by renowned filmmaker Carmella Vasser-Johnson.    

Wednesday, February 24 @ 7:00pm · FREE   

Institute of Contemporary Art · University of Pennsylvania
118 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289 · 215.898.5911   

Victoria Marks & Deborah May: Mother's and Daughters

Kinetic Cinema  

is a New York based screening series that explores the intersection of dance and the moving image.  Organizer Anna Brady Nuse invites a special guest from the dance and film communities to share the films and videos that have inspired and influenced their own work.       

Note on Program from Carmella Vasser-Johnson:     

When I was first approached about sharing a program of dance films that influence and inspire the work that I produce, I was immediately reminded of a pivotal point in my career: in 1999 I joined a group of dance-media makers from across the country and Canada for a fellowship program mentored by a prestigious group of leaders in the field. Over the course of many months I worked with pioneers of dance film like Jac Venza, Merrill Brockway and Girish Bargava (of Dance in America) and with the talented and culturally diverse dancers of the UCLA community. I was enriched by the beauty of California’s ocean and mountains. My cup runneth over. I had only recently changed hats from being a dancer myself to working on the other side of the lens as a videographer/editor/producer. Through this program, I was immersed in a milieu that allowed me to see work from my colleagues and other artists from around the world, stretching my perspective on how to capture dance in two dimensions. I could not get enough of watching and dialoguing with other creators on how they approach their work.  

The films that I share with you in this program represent images, ideas and relationships from that time that remain vital for me today. My work now, as at the beginning, takes an archival or preservational approach. But I also long to see dance in everyday spaces, done by all kinds of people. Some of the selections here satisfy that wish as well.    

Photo: "Dancing Camera Girl" by Flickr user geishaboy500, used under Creative Commons License.

Attend the ‘Dance with Camera’ Exhibition before Kinetic Cinema at The Institute of Contemporary Art.

An exhibition and a screening program that explores a crossover between artists and dancers who make choreography for the camera. The exhibition features art works in film, video, and still photography that exemplify the ways dance has compelled visual artists to record bodies moving in time and space. Screenings elaborate the show’s theme with iconic dance films, ranging from Busby Berkeley’s Hollywood musicals to Maya Deren’s avant-garde films.  

The exhibition’s curator, Jenelle Porter, offers more than a century of filmed dance and dancing film, from the Lumière Brothers in 1896 to Flora Wiegmann dancing beside an LA freeway in 2007.  

Carmella’s Bio: 

Carmella Vassor-Johnsons’ connection to dance began as a performer having been a member of the Philadelphia Dance Company, Civic Ballet Company and Anne-Marie Mulgrew & Dancers Co.. Through her video production company Wild Child Productions, Carmella lends her sensitivity and knowledge of the craft to the arts community through the documentation of dance and the integration of media in stage works. Ms. Vassor-Johnson was awarded a Pew Fellowship for the National Dance/Media Project at the University of California (Los Angeles) and began her relationship with Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2000 as resident videographer and editor. She has produced four educational documentaries for this prestigious organization. She co-directed, with Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer, the documentaries Eko & Sen Hea: A Journey Beyond, World Tea Party, part of the feature-length World Festival of Sacred Music for PBS-Los Angeles, Creating Across Cultures, commissioned by the UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance, and Standing at the Edge, We Dance for WYBE-PBS Philadelphia. Her other credits include the experimental video, Endangered Species, an adaptation of the stage work created and performed by hip hop pioneer Rennie Harris, and Quasi Normal, which follows choreographer Susanna Linke as she creates a new work for Jeanne Ruddy Dance. Her documentaries and experimental work have been broadcast on public television and have screened throughout the country including at the Festival of Independents (Philadelphia) and Dance and Camera Festival (New York).