On October 21 & 22 the company will premiere their latest performance project, Bound at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, examining the lives of nine individuals living under occupation. For Kinetic Cinema, they will provide a demonstration of their unique working technique with Samar Haddad King live on Skype, along with a curated selection of videos related to Bound.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre has been hailed as “awesomely athletic” by Chicago Stage Style, and “Like a ray of light coming out of the arid desert…leaving the audience mesmerized in their seats” by Hussein Daaseh, Al Rai. You can more about their long distance creative process in this article by Jennifer Edwards for the Huffington Post.

Here is a video about the making of Bound.

Click here to view the embedded video.

BOUND

October 21-22, 2011 at 7:30pm

LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Mainstage Theater
31-10 Thomson Ave, Long Island City
7 Train to 33 St/ Rawson St
Tickets: $15 Advance / $20 at the door / $10 Students
www.ysdt.org

Kinetic Cinema with Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre

Saturday December 3rd, 4:30pm

CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing)
123 4th Ave, 2nd FL
New York, NY  10003
212.677.8621
info@crsny.org
$10 suggested donation

HERE ARE THE RULES:
Your dance muse be no longer than 3 minutes.
Your dance must happen in a cool location (no stages or dance studios).
You must wear a bright color
You must have a moment where you are completely still.
You can’t spend any money on making this video.

HOW TO ENTER YOUR VIDEO
Make a Video of your dance.
Go to Vimeo to upload your video.
Add it to the Vimeo Group “Everywhere: Contest“”

Thank you to everyone who submitted a video for this week’s theme of “Public or Private.”  We were thrilled with the interest and enthusiasm that the exploration of this theme sparked.  Next week’s theme is “Pop Dance Phenomenon”.  For this theme we are asking you to nominate your favorite Youtube viral dance hit, rather than submit a work of your own (unless you happen to be the hit-maker!).  All nominations are due by July 21st, and the contest winners will be announced on July 24th.  Please scroll to the bottom of this post for more information.

This week’s winning videos are:

“Pretending to be Something, Now Coming from Nothing” by Adam McKinney and Agulhas Theatre Works representing our Public category

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Eye Vanish” by Marisa C. Hayes representing our Private category

Click here to view the embedded video.

Public or Private
As the use of social media networks continues to rise, individual’s privacy has become increasingly difficult to maintain. A huge trend on YouTube are private dances captured on video and then posted for public viewing. On the other hand, public performances not before possible, such as a site-specific work filmed in the middle of the desert, can subsequently be put online and viewed by millions. As we watched the submissions for this weeks theme, it became obvious that the formerly clear distinction between private and public is now totally ambiguous. Nearly all of the submissions could have easily fit into both categories. Ultimately, we chose two videos that we felt most strongly embraced each category.

Public: “Pretending to be Something, Now Coming from Nothing”
Adam McKinney and Agulhas Theatre Works’ “Pretending to be Something, Now Coming from Nothing,” captured the essence of a public work because it documents events performed for audiences in their native South Africa. This touching video draws attention to people who are not usually in the public eye, and generally ignored by society. Able-bodied and disabled dancers perform fluidly side by side on stages ranging from an abandoned drug house in a shanty town to a modern dance performance venue. The video evokes a sense of comradery through movement. By weaving the performances together through editing, it shows that beauty can be found everywhere, if one just gives it an opportunity to be seen.

More about Adam McKinney and this project: http://www.dnaworks.org/

Private: “Eye Vanish”
Originally created for the Moscow Outdoor Video Festival, Marisa C. Hayes’ “Eye Vanish” is a poetic and concise visualization of how new technological mediums have led us to question and alter our sense of privacy. By using a web cam, a very personal communication channel, Hayes explores where or even if a separation can be established between private and public. The dancer seems to be performing for us, the voyeurs behind the camera’s lens. Her movements are curious and deliberate, as she chooses what to reveal. In the end, she tries to break through to see into the eye that is watching her. Her eye and the camera’s eye merge and obliterate each other in a futile attempt to know what the other sees.

More about Marisa C. Hayes: http://www.marisahayes.com

Please leave us a comment, and let us know what you think about private and public, this week’s winners, and anything else you’d like to share!

Next Week’s Theme for Movement Media’s Online Video Dance Contest:
Theme: Pop Dance Phenomenon
Submissions are due by Tuesday July 21st.
Winners will be announced on Move the Frame on Friday July 24th.

As technological advancements continue to create seismic shifts in society and culture, Youtube has emerged as the new hit-maker of today. Videos by amateurs and professionals alike that would never be shown on TV are discovered all the time, and spread like tidal waves through virtual word of mouth. Video killed the radio star, and now YouTube is killing the MTV star.

In dedication to the King of Pop himself, who’s music videos defined a generation and inspired dozens of YouTube hits alone (remember the Philipino Prisoners’ “Thriller”?), for this theme, we would like you to nominate your favorite viral dance video.  What pop dance phenomenon has captured your attention?  Do you love the “Where the hell is Matt” video? Perhaps your favorite is the “T-Mobile dance.”  Whatever your favorite video may be, pass it along to us to we can showcase it on next week’s blog.  We’re excited to see your nominations.

HOW TO SUBMIT

* Submissions may be made by anyone – artists, film makers, and anyone who knows of online videos that fit the weekly themes.
* The video submitted must be under 10 minutes long.
* Pick/Submit one video to represent only one of the weekly themes.
* Send the link of the video to Movement Media
* The video submitted needs to be embeddable, ie hosted on YouTube or another sharable online video platform.
* Include a short biography/artist statement (if it is your work).
* For every submission, include a short summary that describes why you have chosen a particular video for the contest and describe how it relates to the weekly theme.
* Include a brief synopsis of the video.
* Include a link to your website (if you have one)
* Include your email address

Email all information to movementmedia@pentacle.org
If your submission is chosen for the weekly contest, we will contact you directly.

Impetus for Contest Participants

* Have your videos seen by an online audience who’s interested in movement-based video.
* Receive publicity for your work/work of others
* Receive comments and feedback
* Automatic consideration for live screening at Kinetic Cinema in NYC.
* Automatic consideration for UMOVE, Movement Media’s Online Dance Film Festival in October 2009.

UP-COMING THEMES FOR JULY:

The final week of July will be guest curated by Doug Fox of Greatdance.com.

In August, we are seeking submissions for the First Annual UMOVE Online Videodance Festival! Please see submission details here: http://movetheframe.wordpress.com/umove-festival/

Pentacle’s Movement Media announces the First Annual UMOVE Online Videodance Festival from October 1-31, 2009 on the web and at select screening locations across the US and around the world in 2009-10.

UMOVE Vision Statement:

The medium of video has exploded on the web, and consequently, the web video format for dance and kinetic-based films is erupting within the media arts.

The web format has its own set of characteristics and conventions, and makes it possible for all disciplines and levels of film-makers to showcase their work.  Movement Media’s goals are to highlight new works and assist Internet audiences in finding artist’s videos specifically dedicated to movement and dance. We also aim to challenge film-makers and audiences regarding their ideas of what dance film or movement media can be.

To date, the web format for dance and kinetic-based film has been under-recognized and under-valued by dance film presenters and curators.  It’s time to give these videos a platform to receive both feedback and critical praise. We seek work that is strong in concept and execution, rather than sporting fancy production values or large budgets. Film-makers are free to use a variety of high and low tech media to create their work. We welcome work that is visually “moving” on intimate viewing devices such as laptops, mobile phones, and ipods.

Therefore, UMOVE is seeking interesting blends of dance and kinetic-based films that explore the full range and scope of this burgeoning genre.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: August 15, 2009

If your submission is chosen you will be required to submit digital stills and a finished copy of your video on DVD (NTSC only) for screening and publicity purposes by September 15, 2009. All submissions regardless of selection will be made available for public viewing on our blog, Move the Frame.

UMOVE submission categories

• Animation/Gaming – including digital animation, machinima, Second life, Virtual Reality games.

• Cell phone – videos made using a cell phone.

• Gone in 60 seconds – videos under one minute long

• Low/No Budget – videos made for under $1,000

• Surprise me! – unique uses of new media or digital technology

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The First Annual UMOVE Online Videodance Festival will take place October 1-31, 2009. The festival will feature short dance and movement-based videos that were made specifically for the web and other new media formats including cell phones, gaming, virtual reality worlds, and mash-ups. In addition to online programming on YouTube and Movement Media’s blog, Move the Frame, the festival will include a launch party and live screenings in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, UK, and other locations to be announced.

UMOVE was started by three dance film-makers: Kriota Willberg, Marta Renzi, and Anna Brady Nuse (Pentacle’s Director of Movement Media) who are passionate about promoting dance film through any means possible. We seek to find the most innovative and engaging dance videos on the web and to highlight rising talent in the field.

October  1st will mark the launch of UMOVE online, and on October 14th there will be a live screening and party in New York after which the festival will tour to select locations around the country and the world in 2009-10.

MISSION & OBJECTIVE
Movement Media’s mission is to provide services, strategies, and opportunities for artists making dance for the camera, and to help dance artists use media to promote and enhance their artistic pursuits.

For more info on Pentacle’s Movement Media project, please visit our blog: Move the Frame and our website: http://pentacle.org/movement-media.asp

GENERAL RULES

All submissions must exist online and be embeddable (i.e., hosted on YouTube or another sharable online video platform). All videos must be under 8 minutes long. Only one video may be submitted per entrant. Student, professional, and amateur film-makers are all encouraged to apply.

Please submit the following materials via email:

• URL address of your video (double check the link works).

• Short biography/artist statement.

• Clearly label which category the submission should be reviewed under (see category list below).

• Brief synopsis of the video.

• Principal Cast and production credits listing

• Include a link to your website (if you have one)

• Include your email address (if different from the one you are sending from).

• Paste in the Terms and Conditions (see below) and type in your signature

• Email all information to movementmedia@pentacle.org

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• I/we have read all of the rules and regulations for the UMove Online Videodance Festival (hereafter called the “Festival”).

• I/we understand and have complied with these rules.

• I/we warrant the submission of my/our original work and that there are no disputes regarding the ownership of the submission.

• I/we warrant the submitted material does not defame or invade the rights of any person living or dead

• I/we fully indemnify the Festival against any claim made for such violations of law.

• To the best of my/our knowledge, all of the statements herein are true and correct.

• I/we understand that failure to adhere to Festival rules and regulations will result in disqualification.

• I/we hold the Festival harmless from and defend against all claims, demands, losses, damages, judgements, liabilities and expenses (including attorney’s fees) arising out of or in connection with any all claims of third parties, whether or not groundless, based on any film/video submitted to the Festival or on any film/video developed out of such submission.

• By submitting this entry, I agree that the UMove Festival may publicly screen my work as well as use stills and descriptive material in the official program and any other publicity efforts.

• In the event that I am selected as a Finalist, I will provide a finished copy in the format indicated no later than September 15th, 2009.

• I agree to hold the UMOVE Festival harmless in the event of loss or damage to my entry tape or material provided for Festival screening.

The conference was a production of Kaltura (developers of the world’s first full open source online video platform), Yale Internet Society Project, Participatory Culture Foundation (creators of the open source Miro internet TV player) and, in partnership with Mozilla, Red Hat, Creative Commons, Level3, Akamai, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and more.  In addition to talks from internet luminaries, screenings of video art, and demonstrations of the newest internet video technology, the event served as the inauguration of the Open Video Alliance, an umbrella coalition dedicated to furthering best practices in online video.

Yet as the medium matures, we face a crossroads. Will technology and public policy support a more participatory culture—one that encourages and enables free expression and broader cultural engagement? Or will online video become a glorified TV-on-demand service, a central part of a permissions-based culture? Web video holds tremendous potential, but limits on broadband, playback technology, and fair use threaten to undermine the ability of individuals to engage in dialogues in and around this new media ecosystem.

The world of online video is pretty proprietary, but there are plenty of cool companies working toward widening the playing field and offering viewers more variety, flexibility and interactivity.  Amazing people spoke at the conference, including Clay Shirky, Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing, Yochai Benkler, Jonothan Zittrain and film producer Ted Hope, plus many others talking about the idea of Open Video – the growing movement for transparency, interoperability, and further decentralization in online video, which would provide more fertile ground for independent producers, bottom-up innovation, and greater protection for free speech online.

Now that online video has gone supernova, will its future be shackled by intellectual property and copyright wars and other restrictions? Will it become television on the internet, owned and managed by the few and sold to the many (along with mind-numbing ads)? Or will it evolve to become a more participatory workspace, where suits, artists and surfers alike splice media into open-sourced masterpieces?

I attended a seminar by Ross Harley, “From Open Circuits to Open Video,” in which he argued that the “radical challenges to television, art and culture made by video artists in the 1960s and ’70s find their echo today in the principles of Open Source, Creative Commons, Open Content and other emerging principles of participatory culture.” Starting with quotes from Nam June Paik and moving on to a discussion of the online UbuWeb (“More than mere promotion of artists’ work, it is a global distribution outlet that increases the value of the work,” he said), that video artists can increase their audience by embracing the technological forces their creative ideologies presaged.

He quoted Lawrence Lessig (Founder of Creative Commons), saying, “The more you share something, the more valuable it becomes,” and while that dictum is indeed central to the thinking of many artists, there’s another group that believes differently. There wasn’t enough discussion of the role of scarcity in the creation of some video art’s value, the role of the viewing environment in constructing its meanings (most specifically with regards to site-specific work and videos intended to be viewed in gallery environments), and the way in which a mode of distribution can form part of its actual content. Harley seized on the stated political ideology of a generation of video artists without really examining their social practices, in some cases ingrained Ludditism, and, for some, their resistance to upending traditional support structures. On a more practical note, Harley advocated against YouTube and its corporate terms of use, saying “FLOSS platforms give artists more freedom” and “creators need to use the publishing services that work best for them.”

This report wouldn’t be complete without the mention of “Sita Sings the Blues” by Nina Paley

While I feel we are reaching independent content producers way more than I would have thought at this point, some of the big companies still don’t get it or are afraid of Open Video implications.

Nothing is perfect, but we are off to a really good start. In the end it is up to us to keep the momentum going and eventually produce a better experience within the complete Open Video stack, from content production to delivery. The web was built and exploded around the concept of open technology. Let’s continue to make sure this is the case going forward. The last thing we want is the web to become the domain of a few, with creativity being stifled by restrictions in the non-open parts of the stack.

What kind of future does the Open Video Conference, and all of its bright minds, wish for?

“One where video is ubiquitous,” explained the Open Video Alliance’s media coordinator Adi Kamdar in an e-mail to Wired.com. “Everybody has access to low-cost, or even free, tools and software, and open standards allow all devices to be interoperable. It’s also a future where everybody knows how to manipulate video, and where video is freely created, edited, shared, remixed, quoted and archived. Participation is king and free expression is the norm.”

Whether it’s text, music or video, the future demands digital sharing.  If we have any hopes of success in bringing the general public an understanding of our views on the importance of openness and freedom, forming a larger community with like minded content creators is the next logical step and another piece of the puzzle.

Watch the closing remarks from the first day of the conference and share your thought with us.

This week, as a tribute to the first days of summer, we explored the theme, “Summer or Winter.” Here in the Northeast United States at least, summer has not really been evident yet. We’ve had weeks of rain and coolish temperatures. Solstice was marked by more of the same. While no one relishes sweltering heat and humidity, it would still be nice to know if summer is ever going to arrive… Against this strange weather back-drop, it was delightful to watch the submissions for this week, which were unambiguously rooted in their appointed seasons.

Most of the works we received were site-specific and dealt with the elemental nature of the seasons. Others took an abstract/conceptual approach, and explored the inner psychological states of winter (isolation, sparseness, coldness) and summer (nurturing, abundance, warmth). For us, this pair of themes seemed like a good opportunity to acknowledge the attraction dancers have to making site-specific videos. One of the first things most dancers do with a camera is to escape the studio and the stage, and go outside to dance. Who can resist frolicking in the grass or rolling in the snow? Dancers are endlessly fascinated with trying to capture the experience of moving and interacting with the natural world. Just like most poems are about nature, most dance films are too. As humans, we tend to think that we are separate from the rest of the animal kingdom, but our biology seems to belie this belief. Dancers, being more grounded in their bodies than most, are particularly attuned to the wild/animal sides of our natures. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that they use the camera to practice their craft closer to the elements that truly inspire them to move.

Without further ado, the winners this week are…

“Thaw” by Marta Renzi to represent the winter category

And

“Summer Day Daily Dance” by Lee Atwell to represent the summer category.

“Thaw” by Marta Renzi

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.844817&w=425&h=350&fv=]

“Thaw” emanates a sense of winter through every aspect of the piece from the landscape and lighting to the choreography. The bare trees and wintry colors accentuated by the lighting of the film render a bleak portrayal of the season, as well as the earthly magic that a thawing winter creates. The film explores the fluidity and beauty that emerges from the seemingly lifeless frigidity of winter. The gracefulness of the dancers’ movements accompanied by their long flowing costumes personifies the melting of the ice. Additionally, the use of the swan, a symbolically graceful animal, further emphasizes the constant flow of the seasonal cycles.

Marta Renzi’s first dance video was YOU LITTLE WILD HEART, a half-hour for PBS, to music by Bruce Springsteen, made for the WGBH New Television Workshop in 1981. In 1989, collaborating with independent filmmaker John Sayles, she made MOUNTAINVIEW, for Alive From Off-Center. Many years after those well-funded projects, Renzi began self-producing video dances in 2005. They have shown in festivals nationally, internationally and on the web. http://martarenzi.blogspot.com

“Summer Day Daily Dance” by Lee Atwell

Click here to view the embedded video.

Similarly to “Thaw”, this video portrays an deep relationship with the landscape and embraces the spirit of summer. Although initially the camera is focused on Atwell, as the view pans up, it captures the absolute beauty of the surroundings. This video doesn’t try to make a statement or define summer in a particular way. Rather, it embraces the ever-shifting presence of the moment, a core value of the Eastern inspired Butoh dance form that Atwell practices.

Lee Atwell writes: i am new to dance and butoh (less than 6 months experience), and my mentor is maureen ‘momo’ freehill who created ‘daily dance’ honoring 50 years of butoh in 2009.  i have been dancing daily and recording them since the beginning of january of this year. it is my hope and intention to embody the soul through this incredible creative expression. http://www.youtube.com/user/pamelaleeatwell

Let us know what you think about site-specific dance videos, this week’s winners, and anything else you’d like to share!

Next Week’s Theme for Movement Media’s Online Video Dance Contest

Theme: Rehearsal or Performance

Submissions are due by Tuesday June 30th.

Winners will be announced on Move the Frame on Friday July 3rd.

Video is an important part of most dancers’ rehearsal processes, as well as documenting the finished work in performance. Sometimes, when approached creatively and with attention, the documentation becomes a work of art in itself. We are seeking interesting ways of capturing rehearsals and performances on video. Please let us know which category your video applies to, and why.

HOW TO SUBMIT

• Submissions may be made by anyone – artists, film makers, and anyone who knows of online videos that fit the weekly themes.
• The video submitted must be under 10 minutes long.
• Pick/Submit one video to represent only one of the weekly themes.
• Send the link of the video to Movement Media
• The video submitted needs to be embeddable, ie hosted on YouTube or another sharable online video platform.
• Include a short biography/artist statement (if it is your work).
• For every submission, include a short summary that describes why you have chosen a particular video for the contest and describe how it relates to the weekly theme.
• Include a brief synopsis of the video.
• Include a link to your website (if you have one)
• Include your email address

Email all information to movementmedia@pentacle.org
If your submission is chosen for the weekly contest, we will contact you directly

Impetus for Contest Participants

• Have your videos seen by an online audience who’s interested in movement-based video.
• Receive publicity for your work/work of others
• Receive comments and feedback
• Automatic consideration for live screening at Kinetic Cinema in NYC.
• Automatic consideration for UMOVE, Movement Media’s Online Dance Film Festival in October 2009 (information and submission guidelines to be announced in early July).

UP-COMING THEMES FOR JULY:

Week one: Rehearsal or Performance
Submissions due by June 30th. Weekly Contest winners will be announced on July 3rd.

Week two: Classroom or Stage
Submissions due by July 7th. Weekly Contest winners will be announced on July 10th.

Week three: Private or Public
Submissions due by July 14th. Weekly Contest winners will be announced on July 17th.

Week four: Pop Dance Phenomenon
Submissions due by July 21st. Weekly Contest winners will be announced on July 24th.

The final week of July will be guest curated by Doug Fox of Greatdance.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Capitol Spring 2 by Boris Willis

Boris writes:

Why should artists create a dance vlog? I believe the answer lies in the number of times we have to explain what we do and have little in our culture to point to as an example. We have an opportunity to reach out to the public to show and explain the process of what we do, why we do it and how we feel about it. Here are some tips for you to think about as you make your dance vlogs.

1. Have a vision
   Find a way to make videos that you feel express who you are and what you want to say as a dancer. That being said, don’t just turn on your camera and dance, find a way to make an interesting and exciting video. Look at commercials and other short videos as inspiration.
2. Vlogging is personal and performative
   Make your vlog about you because it is the one subject that you know more about than anyone else. Dance, talk about dance, talk about making dance while you are dancing, dance about making dance.
3. Understand how the web is used
   Just because you have twenty minutes of footage doesn’t mean you should post it all to your vlog. Generally speaking three minutes is the most someone will watch. In other words keep it short, a sixty second video is plenty. As you gain more skills you will be able to make longer videos compelling by the way you edit them. It is always better to leave them wanting more than to bore them. Make stuff that people want to see and make it short enough that they watch it all.
4. Edit
   Learn how to use the tools of video editing. There are free editing tools that come with your computer operating system, Window’s Movie Maker for Window and iMove for the Mac OS. If you want to be able to do more sophisticated editing you can get Final Cut Express for the Mac and Premiere Pro Elements for the PC. For professional level editing you will need something like Premier Pro CS 4 for the PC and Final Cut 6 for the Mac. The great thing about video is that you can take the time to get it right and make your content compelling. However, the most important edit you make is at the end of your video, use a black out when the video is over and put your credits at the end of each video without a blackout so the credits are the last thing your audience sees. That way if your video gets distributed around the web everyone will know its yours.
5. Get the best camera you can afford
   You never know what will become of your work it is always best to get the highest quality video of your original work. When you put it on the web it will get compressed and lose quality but that is what we expect from the web. Having a high quality version for showing offline is a very good idea. I also recommend that you use a camera that records to video tape so that you have a backup. I always shoot in HDV but down-convert to SD to save disk space then compress it to the Quicktime format which eventually gets converted to flash.
6. Find a video host that you like
   I have been in debates about whether it is better to put your videos on Vimeo or YouTube or Blip.tv. There is no reason not to try all three and of any number of others. Just find one that you like. If image quality is what is most important then Vimeo is for you. If ease of distribution is what is most important then Blip.tv is for you. If getting your videos seen by a large number of people then YouTube is the way to go. There are pro’s and con’s for all three services and I use all three and others as well. Once you decided on a host for your videos choose a host for your blog. Blogger and Wordpress are two popular services that give you a variety of tools to enhance your content.
7. Be Consistent
   Follow your vision, update on a regular basis, make videos in manageable viewing times for your audience. You are not going to make money from advertising on your vlog but you can use your vlog as a tool to get work by showcasing your skills as a performer, choreographer, editor and artist. Let your followers know what you are up to especially when you are taking a break. People want to know that when they go to your blog there is regularly new content there that they want to see. Your dance vlog should be fun and informative. You should do it because you enjoy it.
8. Say hello
   How do you get people to follow your vlog? Email your friends, comment on other people’s vlogs, tell people you meet, get cards made. You can get free cards online from Vista Print.
9. Music
   Don’t use copy-written music. Find a musician among your friends or on the web that will let you use their music in exchange for some cross promotion. You can find plenty of music at this url http://www.archive.org/index.php Learn about Creative Commons use and credit the musicians for their work.
10. Describe the videos you make
    Write a description of the videos you post and use tags to help yourself and others find them. It is time consuming at first to describe your work but the value in doing so cannot be underestimated. Describe what you are doing in the video, give the location, who is in the video, when it was done and what the video is about.

-Boris Willis

danceaday.com

(re)Action by Victoria Murphy

At Victoria Murphy’s talk and screening at Kinetic Cinema last Wednesday, she proposed a set of terms and definitions for classifying and identifying different forms of dance on screen. Murphy’s lexicon had similarities and differences with other proposed frameworks for screendance that have been presented and discussed at various forums and conferences in recent years. There is no doubt that this kind of discussion and debate is extremely important for the development of the genre (or some would say art form), so I would like to point out some of the main theories that exist today, and discuss how they intersect and overlap.

Screendance, cinedance, videodance, dance film… Which term to use?

In most debates about dance on screen, the first question that pops up is what is this genre called? Many different terms are in use, and in some cases they point to different genres while others are a catchall word for all dance on screen.

I think one of the best explanations of the different terms in use is by Karen Pearlman of the Physical TV company in Australia. In her article, “A Dance of Definitions” published in RealTime Arts, an Australian-based art and media blog, Pearlman reported on the dialogue at the first Screendance Conference at the American Dance Festival in 2006 around a question she raised which was: “Is dance on screen a dance art, a cinema art or a visual art?” In her estimation many of the different terms used today describe specific mixtures of two or more of these art forms at play. For Pearlman, screendance is a catchall term which could include any combination of dance and movement with “film, video, new media, installation, and future media.” The other terms are more specific in their focus. Videodance “is based in the thinking of a video art maker, a performance art maker or a visual artist will have its effect through techniques, schools, theories and premises of those disciplines.” While dance for screen “prioritises dance as its central discipline [and] will foreground the composition and exhibition of the danced movement.”

Screendance Venn Diagram by Karen Pearlman

For Murphy’s Kinetic Cinema program “Is it Live or Is it Cinedance?” she focused primarily on work that fits within the definition of “cinedance”. For Pearlman, cinedance and the term dancefilm are the same thing. Here is her definition for the term:

A dancefilm that is working in the overlapping areas of cinema and dance will prioritise the directorial vision and emphasise the collaborative coordination of all of the elements of cinematic production from script to mise-en-scéne to sound mix.

Murphy elaborated on this definition a bit more, and named three essential elements that must be present in a work for her to consider it a “cinedance.”

1. It must be Art (as opposed to a film about art – a documentary, or a record of art – a recording of a performance.)
2. It is Poetic (generally wordless and journey oriented, as opposed to narrative driven, spoken-word, and destination oriented which would be a prosaic film).
3. It is centered around Movement or a moving body (this could include choreography that is made through editing).

Another defining characteristic of cinedance that many people consider  important, is that the work can only exist on screen, and is not replicable onstage or in a live performance setting.

Categorizing films

For her screening, Murphy presented a variety of films that ran the gamut of what what is often shown at dance film festivals. Some of these fit within her criteria of “cinedance” while others clearly did not, and still others could be considered close cousins.

Of the Heart

The first film she showed was “Of the Heart” directed by Douglas Rosenberg and Allen Kaeja and performed by David Dorfman and Lisa Race. A short duet set in a cornfield, with simple choreography and camera movement, “Of the Heart” was definitely movement-based art (unable to be replicated live and not about another work of art), and poetic in nature. In this film, all the criteria for a cinedance were clearly present.

The second piece Murphy showed was an excerpt from “Latcho Drom,” a film about the Romany people and their culture that journeys across eight countries. Murphy contended that this film was not a cinedance because it was primarily a documentary about culture, and therefore should be considered a work of cultural anthropology. There are some blurry lines here though, because the film has no narration, and most of the dance scenes were staged specifically for the film. Perhaps the main purpose of making the film was cultural anthropology, but the end result is quite poetic, artistic and movement-driven. It is understandable why a curator for the Dance on Camera Festival this year included an excerpt from this film in his program. Not only does it educate us about a beautiful and rare culture, it also seems to stand as a piece of art in its own right.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Another genre that seems related to, but not exactly cinedance is the movie musical. Murphy showed two examples from this category: a dance number from the 2003 film “Chicago” and a song number from “Across the Universe” by Julie Taymor. In analyzing these films Murphy found them to be both music and movement-driven, which makes the cinedance distinction really exist in the eye of the beholder – dance film enthusiasts will see these numbers as dance-driven, while music-lovers will find them music-driven… Also, many musicals, including “Chicago” are narrative films with spoken language and a  prosaic structure. Murphy observed that the song and dance numbers in musicals are usually dream-like interludes that take place out of real time and space and have a poetic structure. For Murphy, movie musicals are hybrids, in that they are prosaic/narrative films with poetic interludes that could be considered cinedances.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why bother?

If you are obsessed with dance film, as I am, you probably notice dance pop up all the time in mainstream media – in commercials, music videos, movie musicals, experimental films, and even in the middle of sitcoms. All of these are established genres in which dance has and continue to thrives in today, so why bother establishing a separate category for dance film that no one knows about?

This is a debate that many dance artists and film-makers are engaged in, and it often comes back to one’s personal self-identification as an artist. Some makers come from visual arts backgrounds and have been drawn to dance and working with dancers, but they do not consider their work to be different from video art or experimental films. Some makers come from film backgrounds, and happen to specialize in making films with a lot of dance and choreography in them, but they call their work music videos, commercials, or musicals.

What has been emerging more recently is a strong contingent of makers from dance backgrounds as choreographers and performers turned film-makers and videographers. It is this this group of people that are very invested in claiming a genre of their own in which dance and movement is of primary importance. The trade off for this unwillingness to conform to already existing genres is that makers contend with a lack of recognition in the market and among audience members and funders. I believe that it is just a matter of time and persistence until the perfect conditions for a tipping point are in place, and screendance will break through into the common lexicon.

If we look at current trends in the cultural landscape, we can see that we are now living in a video age. All of the major art forms are being subsumed by this dominant medium of our time. Art museums must devote more and more space to video art, music videos are consumed more than the songs they are promoting, and dancers are starting to create work for video in conjunction with their performance work, or in some cases instead of. Video is an essential component of any marketing strategy today. To reach and sustain audiences, dance companies must make videos. Out of these practical reasons, dancers are also finding new artistic possibilities in the medium, and exploring all that a camera and editing has to offer.

We are still at the dawn of screendance. While it may seem like an obscure genre today, the ranks of artists working in the form are growing, and with them will come wider audiences and recognition. The names and terminology for the form will likely change, and the distinctions will become more clear, but what is certain is that this is a separate category of it’s own. Someday it will have its own body of theoretical knowledge, complete with its own Hitchcocks, Brandos and Lucas’s. Things are muddy now, but out of this apparent chaos will come form and shape, a process that Murphy, Pearlman and others are working hard to bring about.

VESTED by Kristi Faulkner

U.S. Women's Soccer

At our last Kinetic Cinema screening on April 8th, guest curator Lisa Niedermeyer presented dance films to be seen through the lens of professional sports. She featured the work of dance film makers: Charles Dennis, Alan McIntyre Smith, Lemeh42, Miriam King, Kristi Faulkner and Sylvain White.

Alongside special guest, sports videographer Ray Wenzel, Jr., six films from the above mentioned film makers were showcased to illustrate sports elements, including speed, effort, kinetic response, spectacle, competition, and endurance.

There are many shared elements between Dance and Sports.  This screening offered several suggestions of utilizing professional sports as a lens to help see heighten aspects of dance in film.

Illusion for Movements by Lemeh42

There are a number of ways to draw in the viewer to elicit a response to movement on screen. Lisa, speaking from a performer, videographer and editor’s standpoint, felt most drawn to the aspect of kinetic response for both dance and sports on film.  For her, it is important to connect with what the performer is experiencing internally to understand the story of the film maker and she illustrated her point with the film Illusion of Movements by the Italian duo, Lemeh42. In this film a woman is filmed in extreme close-up (hands, feet, chest) while she is having [what looks like] an epileptic seizure. Through the fragmented views of the woman’s convulsing body, the viewer gets a taste of what it must feel like to suddenly loose all muscular control.

Stomp the Yard

I feel that the internal experience of the performer is important, but when I think of professional sports, I find myself drawn more to the “atmosphere” or dramatic flair of an event.  I respond to the important actions during certain moments of a sporting event, and I think of capturing speed, danger and the emotions of the spectators.  Spectacle was one of the Points of View presented in the evening, and it was illustrated by an excerpt from Sylvain White’s Stomp the Yard in which two step crews battle it out on the dance floor in front of throngs of hyped up fans. For me, of all the works shown, this piece came the closest to evoking the feelings I get when watching sports. I felt connected to the situation of the competition, to groups of performers and spectators, and to the intensity of the moment.

Ray, speaking from the point of view of a sports videographer, shared his preference for capturing images to enhance the storyline of whatever sport event he’s shooting.  With each film presented, he pointed out specific details of the film making that gave life to the stories.

DUST by Anthony Atanasio and Miriam King

One of the most compelling narratives of the evening was Miriam King and Anthony Atanasio’s DUST, commissioned by South East Dance in the UK. Here a woman in a bathing suit and googles slowly breast strokes her way through a desert landscape, battling heat, dust, and time to reach water. The film captured one of the hardest things to show on screen, the inner game that goes on inside every performer and athlete, but which lies at the heart of every great story.

Ray shared a story about a niche form of car racing called endurance racing, which he shoots every year. In endurance racing, the team that travels the greatest distance around the track in 24 hours wins. He talked about a race in Florida last year where the top two teams were only 10 seconds apart from each other after 12 hrs and only a few minutes apart at the very end. This is like crossing the country in 24 hrs, leaving from New York and ending up neck and neck at the finish line at the Pacific Ocean. For Ray, the drama lies in how well the teams work together and their ability to endure and battle fatigue to be the fastest, most efficient racers over a long period of time. This is not easy to capture on film, however it is his task as a camera-man to tell a captivating story for the viewers. He also shared ways he works to capture “behind the scenes footage” of games and races, such as the choreographed and skillful moves of a race crew changing a tire and refueling a car in 15 seconds flat, or how hockey players maneuver around the player with the puck to set up the perfect pass. All of these details are hidden gems of information that help to bring a sporting competition (or a dance) to life on screen.

Regardless of the preferences one may have for viewing sports or dance films, there are many interesting areas of overlap between the two. This screening offered insights into a few of these areas of intersection. A companion program to this screening would be to look at sports on screen from the point of view of dance. For instance the balletic leap of the wide receiver making a catch in the end zone and replayed in slow motion. Elements of grace certainly seem to come up in sports footage all the time. I’m sure there are many more lenses to find! Anyone have suggestions for the sequel: P.O.V. Dance? List them here, or relay your own experiences seeing a dance on film that evoked a response normally associated with sports viewing…

(“Maybe we all dream to be………?” by T.A.G.San Francisco, shown at the March 25th Artist Salon with Jaki Levy)

At the last Artist Salon on March 25th at Chez Bushwick, Jaki Levy, a media artist and new media consultant, discussed dance work created specifically for the web. The question of the evening was: Why should artists make dance films specifically for the web? In short, making dance videos for the web is convenient, inexpensive, and relatively easy to do.  For dance works in progress, posting videos on the web allows artists to conduct “audience test screenings”  and get feedback.  Web videos also offer artists the ability to communicate and mix media in different ways.

Jaki Levy compiled a few videos that gave us a peek into the present + future of dance, art, and technology on the web.  Some of the work was completely choreographed, others were more improvisational.  Jaki shared how videos are created for different purposes, and gave examples of what a digital performance world looks like, including live web casts, web series, and site specific performances.

For example, Tendu.TV is looking for a mass market for dance by offering high quality broadband content of dance concerts and dance for camera works. Jaki showed an example of a show produced for Tendu.TV by Marlon Barrios-Solano entitled “Dance-tech Ep. 1“. In this episode Marlon interviewed various international choreographers talking about their work and intercut the footage with excerpts from their New York performance seasons.

Troika Ranch was exploring a process of editing for their up-coming multi-media show, “Loop Diver”and shared it with their MySpace friends.  This process is called “Algorithmic editing” and it assaults the senses. In this experiment (a collaboration between Troika Ranch and Street Pictures), a simple phrase of movement is fractured into thousands of shots in various locations all over Brooklyn, New York.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3rd Rail Projects & Julie Fotheringham both used web video  to share their site specific performances with wider audiences. 3rd Rail Projects fully integrated  web activities into their recent month long performance series at the World Financial Center by posting videos online and writing about each day’s performance on their blog. In this way, the work had both an online life and a physical life that co-existed and supported each other.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Julia Fotheringham makes guerilla-style dances that interrupt normal routines and cause people to stop and observe. The video is both a document and a voyeuristic view of the performer’s journey through the city.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“A Facet of the Real” explored how performance in “first” life and Second Life can intersect, creating a trippy situation in which a live performance is viewed in real time by online avatars in a virtual venue.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some artists make web videos for artistic purposes, others for marketing purposes, and some have both in mind.  The intention of web videos can be to develop audiences by hooking viewers online and enticing them to come to live shows or screenings, or to simply to post a personal video diary from the studio. The web space allows for both anonymous and public modalities and is as broad and rich as the physical world. What is exciting is how dance artists are starting to embrace the web for all its potential. It feels increasingly apparent that we are all media-makers now.

To see all the clips from the screening and read more commentary go to Jaki’s blog post at: http://www.arrowrootmedia.com

by Dawn Paap and Anna Brady Nuse