Coming directly to your computer, lap top, and mobile phone!
The UMOVE Online Videodance Festival will run for the entire month of October, 2009 right here on Move the Frame (movetheframe.com). During the festival anyone with an internet connection can view the official selection of videos and browse the complete catalogue of over 50 festival submissions.
Featuring a selection of movement-based videos made specifically for the web, the UMOVE program includes innovative animations, 60-second shorts, surprising perspectives on dance and technology,and low budget wonders made on a shoe string.
As the First Annual UMOVE Online Videodance Festival kicks off online, join us to celebrate the launch with a live screening and party in New York City. Come for the screening! Stay for fascinating multimedia performances and absorbing conversation.
UMOVE Launch Party and Movement Media Fundraiser!
2 Screenings of groundbreaking works by Video Artists merging Dance and Media.
DJ Ben Bartelle and VJ Danielle McKleinfeld, offering clean electronic sounds and digital imagery mixing.
The Launch party reception begins at 8:30pm (after 1st screening) and the party continues after the 2nd screening wraps up. Your donations support this exciting new screendance movement.
Can’t make it? Be there in spirit by giving a tax-deductible contributionto Movement Media. Every amount helps!
Festival co-organizers, Anna Brady Nuse, Marta Renzi, and Kriota Willberg have hand-picked a premium selection of international video artists for a program that will stimulate provoke and entertain. Come for the screening! Stay for facinating multimedia performances and absorbing conversation. Drinks (and popcorn) will follow!
Video artists featured in this screening and at UMOVE online: Susan Marshall, Foofwa d’Imobilitie’, Barbara Benas, Daniel Robinson, Ally Voye, Alan Sondheim, Sabine Klaus, Marisa C. Hayes, Natalya Nikolaeva, Sabrina Mergey, and Kyle Ruddick/Evestorm Productions.
More online activities with Movement Media:
View dance videos and learn about artists on our blog (MovetheFrame.com) which discusses many aspects of videodance and features our upcoming UMOVE Online Videodance Festivaland the latest winners from our videodance contests. Connect with Movement Media on Facebookand Twitterand support us in helping dancers to engage with media, reach new audiences, grow artistically, and stay relevant in today’s media-rich world.
Pina Bausch was one of those living legends. Her work has been seen by many. Her influence is felt throughout the dance world, and her memory will live in the history books, although she had already infiltrated them.
Her choreography reached a wider audience when snippets of Cafe Muller was shown in Pedro Almodovar’s film Talk to Her. Bausch’s work had a raw and timeless cloud around it. Her pieces were about “things,” not just one “something.” Metaphor was huge. The relationships between men and women always being dissected and presented to an audience that never knew what exactly they were going to see when she premiered a new work.
And the scale of the pieces were unthinkable. Snow falling on stage for a whole second half of a show. A mound of dirt blocking half of the stage. Flowers, chairs, walls, screams, sweat, tears, bruises. All real. Although the visuals were impressive, I do not believe they were ever used to impress upon. I feel that her work was honest and humble. It was ugly and beautiful. If one opened themselves up to the experience of the dancers, they would leave exhausted, but not abused. Bausch was true to her vision and dancers. The audience had to take the role of accepting that and to enjoy the ride, no matter how uncomfortable it might get. The pieces always ended beautifully.
Her pieces were made to be seen in grand, large theaters, but the attention that she asked for, and got, from the audience, was that of an intoxicating program on television.
Her work, I feel, was living cinematogrophy. There are many clips of her work around the Internet that can be found and enjoyed. But the greatest news is Bausch’s collaboration with famous film director, Wim Wellers Wenders. Before she passed, they announced plans to create and film a retrospective documentary on Bausch, and in 3-D. Wenders had cancelled the production after her death, but through public opinion and the amount of letters he received from lovers of Bausch’s work, he will be continuing on with the project.
A 3-D film on the life and work of Pina Bausch. This might be one of the best gifts that the dance world will receive. And in 3-D!! It might seem cheesy, but personally I have only had the privilege to see one Bausch piece live, and I am welcoming the opportunity to see another, in a way, Bausch original.
As mourning for dance GREATS have been felt deeply as of late, most recently with Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, Michael Jackson, and Frankie Manning, 2009 has balanced this sadness with jubilation and a renewed celebration for dancing. Please view our weekly blog postings that pay tribute to each of these dance legends.
One dance icon who impacted me greatly was Frankie Manning, who’s unflagging vitality throughout his life (and into his 90’s) for dancing and performing inspired me to and many others to learn the exciting dance style called the Savoy Style or Lindy Hop.
The Frankie Manning 95th Birthday Memorial in New York City commemorated the Lindy Hop legend, who sadly passed away peacefully on April 27th, just weeks shy of his actual birthday on May 26. Swing dancers around the globe celebrated his 95th in true fashion by dancing all day and night until the music stopped! (This is the philosophy of a Lindy Hopper, as you learn by viewing video footage of these dancers, young and old.)
Needless to say, Lindy Hoppers gave Frankie the swinging-est Memorial Festival ever! For a complete viewing of Frankie’s Birthday Memorial, go to Frankie95.com, which offers a complete DVD box set of the event.
Frankie Manning was one of the last great swing dancers from the Jazz Age of the 30s and 40s. As part of the Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, Frankie was a true innovator of the dance — creating the flashy moves and gravity-defying aerials (or air steps)that inspired a nation-wide movement of swing dancers.
He danced in several major motion-pictures, notably ”Hellzapoppin”. This footage showcases Swing Dance Jam Circles in Lindy Hop and Frankie’s amazing aerials that make the Jam Circle ‘pop’ with excitement!
Frankie performed for stage productions, won national dance championships, and wow’ed audiences around the world. Then, in 1984 Frankie became an “Ambassador of Lindy Hop” and spent 20 years inspiring a new generation of swing dancers around the world, from the United States to Singapore to Melbourne to Stockholm to Buenos Aires.
As a tribute to the swing dancing leader of lindy hop, over 2,000 people converged in New York City to celebrate the life and the dance of Frankie Manning. During Frankie’s funeral service at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, couples dances in the aisles of the church and continued their memorial procession and dance through Central Park.
Lindy hoppers showcased Frankie’s legendary aerial moves during the ‘Hellzapoppin Dance Competition’, and danced throughout the evening.
During this celebration and across the globe, dancers performed the ‘Shim Sham Shammy’ line dance that Frankie taught us. Enjoy this worldwide videodance tribute to the Shim Sham, made as a present by hundreds of swing dancers for Frankie for his 95th birthday.
Beyond the steps, Frankie Manning taught us how to be better people, not just better dancers. He taught us to respect our dance partners as leads and allow ourselves as women to be treated like queens–while spinning, hopping, rolling, and flying over each other at incredibly fast speeds. I loved learning his explosive aerials and playful moves during my training and performances in Lindy Hop. He taught us to dance with joy and with passion, bouncing to the syncopated rhythm that defines east coast swing.
Frankie danced wonderfully in his 90’s, and is the perfect role model for lifelong dancing. View the “Never Stop Swinging”online documentary done by PBS’s Channel Thirteen, which showcases Frankie’s dancing abilities throughout his lifetime, including scenes of Manning’s later birthday parties, where he danced with one woman for each year he’d been alive!
Frankie Manning has given the world so much, and he will be loved and cherished for generations to come.
The Lindy Hop continues to maintain a strong following, and classes, events and competitions can be found across the globe. For information on the NYC swing scene and national swing events, check out www.yehoodi.com.
Thank you to everyone who has submitted or nominated work for our contest thus far. If you haven’t participated yet, there are plenty more chances to submit your work or nominate the work of others. Below we have posted a list of the themes for the month of July. Next week’s theme is “Rehearsal or Performance.” All submissions are due by June 30th, and the contest winners will be announced on July 3rd. Please scroll to the bottom of this post for more information on how to submit.
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” 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
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.
It’s a really interesting article about Christian Comte, a French artist, who makes animations from still images. Recently he chose Vaslav Nijinsky, the much revered Ballet Russe dancer and choreographer, as his subject, and posted what appeared to be film fragments of the artist on YouTube that were never known to exist before. The appearance of the clips sparked a frenzy of excitement and debate among balletomanes and dance historians.
If you go to his YouTube page you can see all the videos he’s made and all the comments users have left. They have said everything from praise for Compte “finding” these videos, to appreciation of him using his talent to finally bring some idea of Nijinsky’s movements to life, as well as reprimands for him fooling them. He does insist that he is not trying to pass his films off as originals, but the confusion is understandable…sometimes.
Here are couple of Comte’s videos:
I think Comte is a fantastic artist. Although some people have felt disappointed or duped by his work, Comte’s animation techniques reveal a whole new avenue for movement, film, and photography. If people can let go of their hopes of seeing a legendary dancer come back to life, I think they will be able to appreciate Comte’s contribution to the film and dance world, as well as the web community. He has only added to our circle of art, and gotten us to think. Shouldn’t those two things be appreciated and asked for in art?
We’d love to hear your responses to this work and the debate surrounding it.
We are about to embark upon the fourth week of our Videodance Contest, and as always, we greatly appreciate all the creativity and effort given by the artists who have submitted so far. If you have yet to participate, we strongly encourage you to do so, or nominate the work of others for a chance to receive publicity and feedback among this burgeoning community. Scroll below for information on next week’s theme, “Summer or Winter.” Submissions are due by Tuesday June 23rd, and the contest winners will be announced here on June 26th.
Modern or Classical
This week’s theme was Modern or Classical as it applies to the styles of filming, choreography, and music. We discovered in viewing the submissions, that there were a great deal of gray areas in trying to categorize a piece under one specific style. If a piece was comprised of both choreography and music that was highly classical, but used a filming technique that was hi-tech or contemporary, which category did it fall into? What about if the dancing style was modern, but the piece was filmed using a strictly classical technique? We found that it was often tricky to determine which style predominantly overshadowed the other in each work. Out of this ambiguity one submission emerged that we felt represented both styles strongly and in equal measure.
Our winner for both categories this week is…
“Arabesque” by Peter William Holden
Arabesque
While the complicated technology used to create the kinetic sculpture in this video seems to categorize it as a modern work, other aspects of the film are highly classical. For starters, the piece is choreographed to the renowned Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss. Additionally, the kaleidoscopic choreography that Holden creates with the mechanical arms and legs, as well as the aerial camera view, are reminiscent of Busby Berkley’s classic films. Holden’s innovative dance video combines classical film and choreographic styles with modern elements such as the technology needed to operate and coordinate the sculpture. Therefore, this video is both highly modern and classical.
Refreshingly, this is the first video we’ve showcased that was made by an artist from a visual arts background. We love to see artists of all disciplines working with kinetic forms and media. Video artists, animators, installation artists, and film-makers of all kinds are encouraged and invited to submit their work!
About the artist:
Peter William Holden was born in a decaying post industrial town in Northern England in 1970, and from an early age became fascinated with moving imagery, transformation and technology.
The abstract pixels of the 1980’s home computer gave him a glimpse into the wonderful world of mathematics. Early Electro and Hip-Hop with its synthetic sound introduced him to the complex dance routines of break-dance and acquainted him with the beauty of choreographed movement. These and countless more experiences are incorporated in his installations in a collage of movement, light and sound.
His work has been exhibited at various international events Ars Electronica, Linz. Technologically Expanded Dance, Lisbon. Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana. e-Arts, Shanghai. boDig 08, Istanbul. Vooruit, Gent. Cinéma Le Miroir, Marseilles. More info: www.peter-william-holden.com
We would like to open up some questions to our audience regarding Classical versus Modern Styles.
Do you prefer Classical or Modern Styles?
Do you feel that you work in a particular style, or a combination of styles?
Do you think that videos of Classical styles or Modern styles work better for online viewing? For example, Classical dance styles often value symmetry and a balanced composition, and tend to be more story-based. On the other hand, Modern dance styles often showcase abstract themes, such as social and political views, and movement that is based in individual expression and having the artistic product relay that intellectual or emotional process.
Do you find more Classical style dance companies using technology to post their works online than Modern styles? Why might there be a difference?
We would love to hear your comments.
Next Week’s Categories for Movement Media’s Online Video Dance Contest
Theme Four: Summer or Winter
Submissions are due by June 23rd.
Winners will be announced on Move the Frame on June 26th.
We felt that in honor of the first day of summer, it would be fun to explore the theme Summer or Winter, and if you live in the Northeast U.S. it is actually feeling more wintery these days than summery…This is a theme that can be very literally interpreted, but at the same time presents the potential to inspire a vast array of site-specific works. We are looking for any interpretation that you may have of summer or winter. Does a film fall into the category of summer simply because it is filmed in a warm location? Can a sense of warmth between individuals evoke a feeling of summer? Does cold weather immediately classify a film as winter? Often a site specific piece can unintentionally be classified into one of these two themes. While we created this theme with the intention of focusing mostly on the location of each film and how it is incorporated into the piece or why it is chosen, we are open to any interpretation that you may offer us. Just make sure to tell us which category the work falls under 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 Movement Media’s Online Dance Film Festival in September 2009 (information and submission guidelines to be announced in late June).
As you know, Boris Willis was our curator for our last Kinetic Cinema of the season. The subject of his evening was dance vlogs: a video blog with dance. As an experienced dance vlogger, Boris has many insights into the process of creating videos, performing for the camera, editing, and using the web to share his work online. He has graciously offered some helpful information about making dance videos, and creating dance vlogs. Check out his inspirational work and helpful tips below.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We wanted to provide you with the program notes and videos that Boris Willis presented at Kinetic Cinema, on June 10th at Chez Buskwick. Since his program was about dance vlogging, all the videos he showed are available online, which we have provided the links to. Coincidentally, Willis organized his videos along the theme of amateur/professional, fitting perfectly with our first Weekly Videodance Contest.
Reality Dancevision: An Intimate Screen Capture of Dance Vloggers- Program Notes and Videos
Curator’s Note:
Boris Willis by Paul Emerson
The dance vlogger it seems, is a rare person to find. It is relatively easy to find dance bloggers, dance writers and dance photographers but finding professional dancers/choreographers who use the web as a primary source for showing a dance is more difficult. We see the powerful influence of the web with the disappearance of newspapers and the emergence of e-book readers such as the Kindle, the emergence of iTunes Music Store as the world’s largest seller of music, as well as the question of whether DVD’s will soon be outpaced by movie downloads. Even in this digital age, people love dance, as evidenced by video sharing sites that are replete with videos of the latest social dances and sophisticated dance videos made by amateurs.. I think that just as reality television can take you into the lives of ordinary people, online dance can take you into the lives of dance makers. We can get an intimate look at the person, not just the performer, through online video. I can’t predict that the web will provide a revolution in theatrical dance. However, I do sense a shift by some artists who feel as I do that one does not have to wait for their two nights in the theater to share their work. For this program, I will present several works by amateur and professional dancers that reveal the artist as both a performer and a person in a way that illuminates the purpose of dance in our lives as well as acknowledge the value of web as a venue.
Thank you to everyone who submitted or nominated work for the second week of our videodance contest. We enjoy getting a chance to see your own interpretations and explorations of this week’s theme.
If you didn’t get a chance to participate this week, fear not! This contest will be happening every week so there are plenty of chances to submit your work or nominate the work of others. Our next theme is Modern or Classical. All submissions are due by June 16th, and the contest winners will be announced on June 19th. Please scroll to the bottom of this post for more details on next week’s contest.
This week we explored the theme: Improvised or Choreographed. As we looked at the this week’s submissions and nominations, many questions came up for us about what makes a work primarily improvised or choreographed. Could a piece be considered improvised if the dancing was choreographed but the camera work was improvised? What if only one performer was choreographed while the rest are improvising? Does a planned and highly structured improvisation fit better in the category of choreographed? While there may be no definitive answers to these questions, the winning videos this week were chosen in part because they seemed to fit together as a contrasting pair, like two sides of the same coin. Both were shot in site-specific locations, and involve pedestrian spectators reacting to spontaneous performances by trained dancers. There is an element of surprise in each, but the level of control and pre-meditated planning seem to be vastly different.
Without further adieu, this week’s winners are….
“Contrust” an excerpt from Chapter 4, by Elad Weissman and Teddy Productions in Israel.
And
“Sound of Music | Central Station Antwerp (Belgium),” produced by Vtm in Belgium.
IMPROVISED
“Contrust” an excerpt from Chapter 4, by Elad Weissman and Teddy Productions
This video is an excerpt from Elad Weissman’s 2007 film about ten dancers dealing with love and fear in an ultra-urban world. (Fun fact: The dancers in this film are famous in Israel for being contestants in “Nolad Lirkod – Born to Dance” a reality tv show, similar to America’s “So You Think You Can Dance.”) While the dancer in this excerpt may have had some choreographic direction, for the most part his movements look improvised. Additionally, the camera work is reactive to his movements and has an unplanned, spontaneous feel. One gets the sense that this shoot was set up on the street with very little premeditated planning, except to capture a dark urban street environment within which to improvise. We get to see real spectators’ reactions, and their surprised faces tell us that this performance is strange and spontaneous. This excerpt is one of several chapters from Weissman’s 42 min film that are viewable on YouTube. Each are site specific, and consists of a dancer or dancers interpreting and embracing the mood that the music and location exert.
CHOREOGRAPHED
Sound of Music | Central Station Antwerp (Belgium)
This video documents a publicity stunt that was used to promote a Belgian television show looking for non-actors to audition for the “Sound of Music.” Like the famous “T-Mobile dance” that took place in a crowded London Train station, this piece simulates a flash mob convening to perform a choreographed routine to the Sound of Music. What makes these kinds of stunts so brilliant is that no one knows who is a real innocent bystander, and who is in on the act. Throughout the piece almost two hundred performers pop into the dance, all disguised as pedestrians from all walks of life. The element of surprise in this piece gives it an improvisational feel, however the coordination necessary to pull off such a massive stunt is only possible through meticulous choreography.
Now tell us what you think! We look forward to hearing your thoughts on what is “Improvised” and “Choreographed”.
NEXT WEEK’S CONTEST
Theme Three: Modern or Classical Submissions are due by Tuesday June 16th. Winners will be announced on Move the Frame on June 19th.
Modern and classical – what do these terms mean to you? For classical dance you may think of ballet or other traditional and highly refined styles such as Baratya Natyam and Kabuki Theatre. Modern dance may be anything that came after Isadora Duncan or, you may think only post-modern/post-Judson Church dance is truly modern now. Film also has modern and classical styles such as the Silent era and Hollywood classics versus the French New Wave and New American Cinema. For next week’s theme we want to examine both the styles and execution of dance as well as the filming techniques used. What is it that differentiates them? Submit or nominate a film for one of the categories and tell us 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 Movement Media’s Online Dance Film Festival in September 2009 (information and submission guidelines to be announced in late June).
First of all, we want to thank everyone who graciously submitted their work for the first week of our videodance contest. We appreciated getting to see the variety approaches you took to capturing dance and movement on screen.
If you missed out this time, don’t dismay! This contest is happening every week, and there are plenty of chances to submit your work, or nominate the work of others. Please scroll to the bottom of this post to read about next week’s contest.
Amateur or Professional?
The theme we chose to kick things off first with was “Amateur or Professional.” For most of us, these words are loaded with connotations, many negative. Most often they are used to pass judgment on one’s job, performance, attitude or work. On the other hand, concepts about these terms are changing rapidly in the age of Web 2.0, as open access to social media is ushering in the rise of amateurism (and the fall of many old media industries) in what some sociologists and trend-spotters are calling the “Pro/Am” revolution. For our purposes, we hoped this theme would provoke an interesting discussion in the dance/film community about what these terms mean, and what the merits are of both approaches.
After viewing this week’s video submissions, it became apparent that the distinctions between amateur and professional are blurry at best. A professional can create an amateur film by incorporating the lightheartedness and innocence that an amateur film often possesses. Conversely, a professional video may include simple everyday movements that are universally used by individuals as they conduct their daily routines.
Therefore, this week’s winners are… (drum roll please)
‘Snew’: Videodance representing the Amateur Category, Co-directed by Jody Oberfelder and David Lachman
AND
‘Drive’: Videodance representing the Professional Category, Choreographed and directed by Jane Osborne.
Snew
Although this video was made by professionals, it embraces the essence of amateurism, which is something made purely for the enjoyment of it rather than for professional advancement. The tone of the film is extremely playful as it explores the joys and nuances of life that the media overlooks. The film’s directors used Snew to delve into the connections that are made through language that is not yet tangible. Director Jody Oberfelder wrote that the film, “focuses on the life that happens in between bits of information in a media saturated world.”
Snew also gives an intimate and highly entertaining look into the creative process. Long before a work reaches the stage or screen, it is formed slowly and inconspicuously through long sessions of play, experimentation and [what looks like] pure silliness in the studio. Snew embraces this process, and that unselfconscious state where all the best stuff happens.
Drive
Jane Osborne’s ‘Drive’ takes us on an exploration of daily routine from both micro and macroscopic viewpoints, which illustrates the subconscious force that propels us through our days. It is clear that a lot of planning was involved in making this film, from shooting to editing, resulting in a high quality production. Elements of professionalism include the variety of locations used to shoot the film, sophisticated choreographed movements, multiple camera angles, and detailed choreography done with the camera. We found this videodance to be both creative and stylistic, and an excellent example of Professional work.
Not only is the work professional, it is also a commentary on professionalism itself. On the one hand, being a “professional” is a badge of honor in our society, and an expectation for being a good citizen. However as we see in ‘Drive’ the daily reality of being a professional can be dull and mind-numbing. The characters’ lack of purpose and self direction to make choices is characteristic of the stereotypical “wage slave” in which a person’s livelihood and identity is completely dependent upon earning wages. In his 1791 book On the Limits of State Action, the classical liberal thinker Wilhelm von Humboldt said, “whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness.” No one wants to admit they live in this place, however a majority of people persist in unfulfilling jobs, feeling powerless to leave a regular paycheck in pursuit of “frivolous” dreams.
The Artist’s Path
Fifty years ago in France, there were a few film buffs with desk jobs in a magazine who picked up 16mm cameras and shot personal films with tiny budgets, completely outside of the mainstream industry. These characteristics would make them fall in the hobbyist or amateur category in the eyes of many people. Yet, these filmmakers revolutionized the medium with the French New Wave and achieved the highest stature in movie history along with their more “professional” peers and idols. I wonder who could dare call Godard and Truffaut “amateurs”?
Cameras don’t make films; film-makers make films. Film-makers improve their abilities not by adding more equipment and personnel but by using what they have to their fullest capacity. The most important part of a film-maker’s equipment is oneself: one’s mobile body, one’s imaginative mind, and one’s freedom to use both.
We would love to hear your comments on the contest winner’s work.
Submit videos for next week’s videodance theme:
Theme Two: Improvised or Choreographed
Submissions due by Tuesday June 9th. Weekly Contest winners will be announced on Move the Frame June 12th.
Choreography vs. Improvisation, what is the main difference? When improvising, decisions are being made every split second, while during a choreographic process a choreographer may have days, weeks or months to work on a sequence of movements. For this week’s theme we are looking for any type of improvision or choreography, from the movement of the dancers to the camera work and editing. Perhaps the dance is choreographed and the camera movement was improvised, or the movement was improvised and the camera work and editing was highly choreographed. Any variation will do, but be sure to tell us which category the work falls under and why.
We look forward to your submissions.
Submission Requirements
* 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 Movement Media’s Online Dance Film Festival in September 2009 (information and submission guidelines to be announced in late June).
Move the Frame is the official blog of Pentacle's Movement Media, a project serving to help dance and media artists make dances for screen and use media to market their dance work more effectively. Move the Frame is a locus for dialogue about the form and a clearing-house of information about all things dance and media related.
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