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.
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.
It’s Move the Frame’s birthday! I can’t believe it’s been a year already. Looking back on my first post, I tackled the unanswerable question of what this genre/medium/interdisciplinary hybrid thing should be called, and 78 posts later, I’m still not sure. If anything I’ve gotten a little less sure, and am not using the term videodance as much. Screendance still sounds boring and dry to me, but I’ve got more respect for the inclusiveness of the term. I like the idea now of a multiplicity of terms, and saying: hey, we all have different interests in dance and media, just call it whatever you want.
To celebrate a year’s worth of late nights putting off much-needed sleep to pursue a very bizarre obsession about a very bizarre subject, here are few of my “Greatest Hits”, one for each month of this year.
Phillipine Prisoners Resurrect Busby Berkeley. This was my second post ever, and probably my best to date! I wish I could pull an article like this out everytime I sit down to write!
Papelbon Dance I’m actually a Yankee’s fan, but the fact that Jonathan Papelbon has increased dance appreciation around Red Sox Nation is blog-worthy in my book.
Godard and Waters do the Madison I wrote this for Ferdy On Films’ Dance Movie Blogathon. Later my investigation into these two directors’ use of dance showed up in my new videodance, Fünf ‘n’ Twist when I shot the prom scenes this summer.
The Making of Fünf ‘n’ Twist A new videodance I’m making about a teenage couple and their rite of passage at the Prom. Weird and wonderful! Check out the photos and clips.
That brings us pretty much to the present! I think I’ve matured and gotten a little more serious over the course of the year. Maybe I need to bring back some more Papelbon and Phillippine Prisoners. What do you think?
At the Screendance conference at ADF two weeks ago, I presented a paper that put forth an argument for the value of “artist-driven” curating in developing and galvanizing an art form. I wanted to propose a way of raising awareness about screendance among dance communities that would help dancers feel like they can enter this art form that is new to them with a set of useable skills and knowledge already in place. In forming a strategy, I drew upon Paulo Friere’s concept of praxis from his pivotal book on liberation education, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. For Freire, the way to raise consciousness among any group of people is by posing problems. This process of asking questions and raising problems, activates both students and teachers in a dialogue that brings about reflection and leads to future action. Freire calls this pattern of action-reflection-action praxis, and it is through praxis that people engage in cognitive discovery of their lives that is transformative and empowering. From third world peasants to American dance artists, this process enables people to transform their daily realities and create lives full of meaning.
In my Kinetic Cinema screening series I posed a question to my guest curators from the NYC dance community, “What films and videos have influenced and inspired your work in dance?” Each curator came up with a completely different way of answering that question, and the works they chose revealed their own unique thinking patterns and artistic processes. Some curators, such as Malinda Allen, chose to curate autobiographical evenings, chronicling their artistic development through pivotal works that have inspired them. Other curators, like Levi Gonzalez, chose to show work that was new to them, and investigate the commonalities and differences between screendance and dance performance. Still others such as Jonah Bokaer and Kriota Willberg, have studied the history of film and video art extensively, and for their programs they decided to delve into very specific areas of research such as feminist video art and the female body, or “bad dance” films.
Judson Dance Theater, photo Elaine Summers Kinetic Cinema is an example of what I have dubbed “artist-driven” curating, in which artists get together and share works that have meaning to them, often in informal intimate settings. The value of this type of curating is that it sparks artistic dialogue and exchange between the “makers” in a field, which can then lead to new art movements with distinct identities and progressive agendas. There have been numerous artist-driven curating collectives in the past that have had a huge impact upon the development of dance and film. A classic example of artist-driven curating is the Judson Dance Theater that formed in the early sixties as a collective of experimental dance artists interested in pushing the boundaries of post-modern dance. They were given the meeting room of the historical Judson Church to conduct their investigations and present public performances. The work that resulted from these programs went on to fuel the modern dance community for decades to come, with generations of dancers and choreographers spring-boarding off of the ideas and breakthroughs of the original collective.
François Truffaut
On the film side, Jean Luc Godard would never have developed his unique and influential style without his competitive and close relationship with fellow French New Wave director, François Truffaut. Although they were very different in many ways, their artistic visions were honed and shaped by the intense dialogue and exchange of ideas they had with each other over many years. The French New Wave was born out of the critical discourse started by writers and cinephiles in the film journal, Cahiers du Cinéma. These writers were seeking a new type of cinema that didn’t exist in France at the time, one that married their love of low-brow Hollywood genre flicks, with more experimental, intentional, and referential nuances found in high art, all brought together by their strong vision of the director as auteur. When these writers began acting upon their critiques, and creating work of their own, the French New Wave was born, and gave rise to a new era of filmmaking that completely changed the art form in much the same way the Judson Dance Theater group did for dance.
There have never been more ways for individuals to share and distribute their media content than there are today. With the rise of the internet, and the social media of Web 2.0, today’s artist-driven initiatives are less inhibited by distance or financial limitations. Some recent examples of artist-driven projects for screendance on the internet are the social network dance-tech.net founded by NY-based dance media artist, Marlon Barrios-Solano, blogs such as this one, and email lists such as the media-arts-and-dance listserv moderated by Simon Fildes. These online forums are bringing together an international community of dance filmmakers who can interact and share work and ideas with each other easily and instantaneously. The result will be a more unified and cosmopolitan screendance community, where new entrants can feel part of an existing movement.
New art movements and genres don’t get made overnight, but in the case of screendance, it is crucial to raise awareness and interest in the dance community. Through curating initiatives that pose questions and engage artists and audiences in dialogue, we can facilitate praxis. This process involves leading artists to examine, critique and analyze dance in media, and also to make work of their own, thereby transforming and shaping the genre and, by extension, the world. Artist-driven curating is one proven way to galvanize an arts community and further the identity of an art movement. These artist-driven initiatives, while often underground and informal, serve as springs that feed into larger institutions, such as dance film festivals, museums/galleries, performance venues, and universities. It is in these small, seemingly insignificant ways, that we can move screendance into cultural prominence, and make dance relevant in today’s mediatized world.
Two renown experimental filmmakers, Kenneth Anger and Amy Greenfield, are being featured at Anthology Film Archives in New York this weekend. The event, called “Cinema Dance Eros” will will be comprised of two programs of shorts that examine the erotic and sensual movement themes in both filmmakers’ work.
CLUB MIDNIGHT by Amy Greenfield Amy Greenfield is a pioneer of cinedance and videodance, and for the past decade has embarked on a series of shorts about exotic dancers and strippers that were recently compiled in collection called CLUB MIDNIGHT. In these sensual films, the female subjects are the embodiment of ancient female archetypes. Under Greenfield’s treatment, female strippers become goddesses reincarnate, who carry out rituals of mythological proportions. In DARK SEQUINS dancer Andrea Beaman becomes Salome, performing the dance of the seven veils for a single man in an empty theater. In WILD FIRE four women whirl like the elements, whipping up energy into a hot frenzy.
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome by Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger’s work is not usually associated with dance, but nevertheless, his wordless films are highly attenuated to movement. According to the curators of “Cinema Dance Eros”, Anger trained as a dancer in his youth, and one of his unfinished projects was a film of a Jean Cocteau ballet (Oh, if only we could see that!). The programs this weekend will feature some of his most famous works including FIREWORKS (which first garnered him attention from Jean Cocteau) and INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME.
These two programs are sure to fan the flames of any lover of mythology, magic, and eroticism! Don’t miss it!
Here are the details:
CINEMA DANCE EROS Featuring filmmakers Kenneth Anger & Amy Greenfield
32 SECOND AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10003 phone (212) 505-5181 fax
(212) 477-2714
PROGRAM 1: Amy Greenfield DANCING IN FRONT OF THE DARK
(1980/1992, 4 minutes, video) Amy Greenfield DIRT (1971, 3 minutes,
16mm) Amy Greenfield ELEMENT (1973, 11 minutes, 16mm) Kenneth Anger
FIREWORKS (1947, 15 minutes, 16mm) Kenneth Anger MY SURFING LUCIFER (2007,
4.5 minutes, video) Amy Greenfield TIDES (1982, 12 minutes, 16mm.
Photographed by Hilary Harris.) Kenneth Anger EAUX D’ARTIFICE (1953, 13
minutes, 16mm) Kenneth Anger RABBIT’S MOON (1950/1971, 16 minutes,
16mm) Kenneth Anger PUCE MOMENT (1949, 6 minutes, 16mm. With Yvonne
Marquis.) Amy Greenfield CLUB MIDNIGHT (2006, 8.5 minutes, 35mm. With Bonnie
Dunn & Andrea Beeman. Poetry by Charles Simic, spoken by Dennis
Hopper.) Total running time: ca. 100 minutes. -Friday and Saturday,
June 20 & 21 at 7:00.
PROGRAM 2: Kenneth Anger
PUCE MOMENT (1949, 6 minutes, 16mm. With Yvonne Marquis.) Amy Greenfield DARK
SEQUINS (2005, 13 minutes, 35mm. With Andrea Beeman.) Amy Greenfield LIGHT OF
THE BODY (2004, 11 minutes, 35mm/video. With Francine Breen. Music by Marilys
Ernst.) Amy Greenfield WILDFIRE (2003, 12 minutes, 35mm. With Andrea Beeman,
Francine Breen, Bonnie Dunn, Cynthia DeMoss. Music by Philip Glass.) Kenneth
Anger INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER (1969, 11 minutes, 16mm. With Kenneth
Anger. Music by Mick Jagger.) Kenneth Anger INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME
(1954, 38 minutes, 16mm. With Samson DeBreer, Cameron, Curtis Harrington, Anaïs
Nin, and Kenneth Anger.) Total running time: ca. 95 minutes. -Friday
and Saturday, June 20 & 21 at 9:30.
Kriota Willberg’s program, “The Worst of the Best” for Kinetic Cinema Monday night was extremely entertaining. She proved beyond a doubt that examining truly bad dance film is fun, inspiring, and highly effective at eliciting an emotional response from the crowd.
For all of you who thought about or responded to Kriota’s earlier online poll “What’s the Worse Dance Film Ever” you may be interested to see what made the cut in the end. Here is the list of the films she discussed Monday night and a short summary of why they were chosen:
The Mothering Heart (1913), Dir: DW Griffith Reason: MADE BAD AND STRANGE BY HISTORY
Spectre of the Rose (1946), Dir: Ben Hecht, Dancer: Ivan Kirov, Chor: Tamara Geva Reason: MADE WORSE BY THE BACKSTORY
Torch Song (1953), Dir: Charles Walters, Dancer: Joan Crawford and ensemble, Chor: Charles Walters Reason: OFFENSIVE = BAD (Cast was in black face in 1953!!)
Staying Alive (1983), Dir: Sylvester Stallone, Dancers: John Travolta, Finola Hughes, Cynthia Rhodes, Chors: Dennan and Sayhber Rawles Reason: DRAMA!!!!
Center Stage (2000), Dir: Nicholas Hytner, Dancers: Amanda Schull, Sascha Radetsky, Ethan Stiefel, and ensemble, Chor: Susan Strohman Reason: THE SAFE CHOICES AREN’T ALWAYS THE BEST CHOICES
Showgirls (1995), Dir: Paul Verhoeven, Dancers: Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon and ensemble, Chor: Marguerite Pomerhn-Derricks Reason: DRAMATIC! OFFENSIVE! MADE WORSE BY BACKSTORY!
Preceding the bad dance films, Kriota also discussed the difference between BAD and BORING and illustrated it with a montage of boring dance film and video clips she culled from the web (actually her poor assistant, Gretchen culled them from the web!). The interesting thing about the difference between bad and boring is that it often comes down to money. Apparently the “have nots” aren’t really capable of making truly bad art, only dull art. As Kriota explained, when a filmmaker has over a million dollars to make a dance movie, and it turns out to be boring, then we are outraged, “Is that all that you could do?” and that automatically bumps it into the bad category. Whereas when a low budget video of, say, a naked man flapping around on the floor in a puddle goes on and on, it’s just dull and we feel like we are wasting our time.
I’d never thought of this difference before, but in terms of my emotional response it’s true, I’m more outraged by a squandering of resources and opportunities than watching a boring video on YouTube. I guess jealousy has a big role to play in what makes something bad or just boring, which is also proof positive of the irrationality behind all demarcations of good and bad. Who can really judge these things beyond a reasonable doubt? No one, but at least Kriota has taken a stab at defining her standards for judgment, something all of us curators, presenters, and critics should do!
Amy Greenfield, a cine- and videodance pioneer, was also in attendance Monday night and had some interesting insights to share…
Don’t miss the last Kinetic Cinema before we break for the summer!
“Staying Alive” dir. Sylvester Stallone, “Showgirls”
dir. Paul Verhoeven
On Monday June 2nd, choreographer and dance
filmmaker Kriota Willberg will hostThe Worst
of the Best, a tour of inspiringly bad dance films from the early 1900’s to the
present. Truly awful dance is powerful art. We react strongly to it as an
audience, we relate our horrible experiences to our friends and warn them away
from it, we laugh, we seethe, we remember it far longer than
“good” dance, and possibly longer than “great” dance. Join us for
film and discussion as we chase that ethereal muse, Badness, through the work of generations of dance film artists.
Kinetic Cinema Monday June 2nd, 7:30pm $5 Admission (buy tix at the door)
Kinetic Cinema at Collective:Unconscious explores the intersection
of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. Each month curator Anna
Brady Nuse invites a special guest from the dance community to share the films
and videos that have inspired or moved them. These could be films that feature
dance, are kinetic-based, or have been influential on their work in some way.
The guest curators come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers,
critics, and filmmakers. In the fall upcoming guests will include Elizabeth
Zimmer (Oct 5th), Maya Ciarrocchi (Nov 3rd), and new films by
Anna Brady Nuse & friends (Dec 1st).
KRIOTA WILLBERG has danced and choreographed in Germany, Chicago,
and New York.
In addition to working with her company, Dura Mater, Willberg choreographs for
commercial, theatrical, and other dance productions. Dance choreography for
film includes The Bentfootes (dir. K. Willberg and Todd Alcott),
Grasshopper (dir. Todd Alcott), Dreamgirl (dir. Robbie Busch), and
On The Road With Judas (dir. JJ Lask). She has passed her basic proficiency
tests in Single Sword and Broadsword techniques from the Society of American
Fight Directors (SAFD) and occasionally includes fight choreography in her own
work and for others. Her article on dance and stage combat was published in the
SAFD magazine, The Fightmaster. Her ballerina tattoo was featured in Dance
Magazine.
At the next Kinetic Cinema on June 2nd, choreographer Kriota Willberg will be presenting a hilarious program of the worst dance films in history. To help her compile her list, she is seeking input from the community. Please comment here with your top picks of the worst dance films, and come out to Kinetic Cinema to see what makes the cut!
From Kriota:
1. WHAT, IN YOUR OPINION, IS THE WORST DANCE FILM OF ALL TIME, EVER? It can be a full film or just an excerpt, and any style or type of dance at all, but it has to be on film.
2. WHY?
Please submit your answers in the comments section below by Friday May 16th.
The
reason I’m asking is that I’m putting together an evening of “Bad”
dance film clips. As many of you know, I’ve been studying bad and
mediocre dance for a number of years. As I put the program together, I
am organizing examples of different categories of Bad (offensive,
inept, confusing, etc.) from the early 1900’s to the present. As an
acknowledgment to the highly personal perception of bad dance, I’d love
to get your input. Below is the description and particulars of the
night.
Thanks for your time!
Best,
Kriota Willberg
On June 2,
Kinetic Cinema will feature dance films selected by choreographer Kriota
Willberg. The theme of the evening is The Worst of the Best, a
tour of inspiringly bad dance films from the early 1900’s to the present. Truly
awful dance is powerful art. We react strongly to it as an audience, we
relate our horrible experiences to our friends and warn them away from it, we
laugh, we seethe, we remember it far longer than “good” dance, and
possibly longer than “great” dance. Join us for film and discussion
as we chase that ethereal muse, Badness, through the work of generations of
dance film artists.
KINETIC CINEMA Monday June
2, 7:30pm (and the first Monday of every month) $5 Admission
(buy tix at the door)
Kinetic
Cinema at Collective:Unconscious explores the intersection of dance and the
moving image both on screen and stage. Each month curator Anna Brady Nuse
invites a special guest from the dance community to share the films and videos
that have inspired or moved them. These could be films that feature dance, are
kinetic-based, or have been influential on their work in some way. The guest curators
come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers, critics, and
filmmakers.
There is something about the Madison, that grand-daddy of line dances, that has continually captured the cinematic fancy of great film directors. The most notable of these are Jean-Luc Godard who created a famous dance scene based on the Madison in his 1964 film Bande à Part, and John Waters who depicted the dance in a scene in the original 1988 Hairspray. For both directors this dance, with its post-modern use of repetition, accumulation, and cultural references, was a perfect vehicle to suspend the plotlines of their films and delve into the inner workings of their characters.
Dance scene from Bande à Part
In Bande à Part, the famous dance scene comes after the equally famous “minute of silence” scene in which two of the main characters, Arthur and Odile, decide to be silent in a café. After the silent spell is broken by Franz, Arthur and Odile decide to get up and dance (and are soon joined by Franz). In a way, this dance continues the pause begun earlier with the minute of silence. There has been a rent in action, the world is still not normal. People do not normally just get up and dance in cafes where no one else is dancing. Also, we don’t know if there is actually music playing in the room because it drops out occasionally when a narrator speaks, but we still hear the dancers’ foot shuffles and claps. Could they actually be dancing in silence? At the same time, the narrator’s voice brings in yet another level of reality as he tells us what each character is thinking about while they dance. This scene, while appearing to be so simple, is actually a very sophisticated example of how film can reveal many layers of reality at once. We see the “normal” world of the cafe around the characters, the familiar dance style of the The Madison being performed out of context, and then the shifting reality of the sound and narration telling us about things we can’t see. No wonder this scene has been so influential on numerous other movies, Hal Hartley’s dance scene in Simple Men being a prime example.
Dance scene from Simple Men
Unlike many other filmmakers that made dance scenes in the footsteps of Godard, Waters’ Madison scene in Hairspray was a completely different take. First of all, Waters is a connoisseur of ’60’s dances. In addition to bringing the Madison back to greatness, he also reacquainted us with “The Mashed Potato,” “The Fly,” and “The Bump.” It is clear however, that “The Madison” was one of his favorites, by virtue of the length of the scene and the many variations lovingly depicted.
Excerpt of the Madison scene in Hairspray
Like Godard’s scene in Bande à Part, this one takes a long and sultry pause in the action and we learn a little more about how the characters really feel. The heroine, Tracy Turnblad cuts in between Link Larson (her love interest) and the prissy Amber von Tussle (Link’s girlfriend). Link shows interest in Tracy, and Amber shoots her with disdain. All the while, the hypnotic rhythm and swing of the dance continues, turning the characters about and giving them actions which belie their feelings and motivations. I love the choreography of this Madison. It’s complex but supposed to look easy. The call of the DJ instructs the dancers about what to do next, and each repetition of the dance adds a new gesture. The names of the moves are really great too, including “T time”, “The Basketball (with Wilt Chamberlain)” and the “The Rifleman”.
According to Wikipedia and the Columbus Music History website, the Madison developed in Columbus, Ohio in 1957. It was popularized by Count Basie in 1959, and quickly spread as he toured across the US and Europe. Apparently Waters’ depiction of the dance is accurate, and Godard’s is not (although he never calls it the Madison in the film, that was just what the actors called it). Nevertheless, it is clear that this dance has a certain something that is especially well suited for the silver screen. Maybe it’s the mesmerizing repetition, or its ability to unify a motley cast of characters, or maybe it’s just ’cause it swings, but whatever the case the Madison has been a catalyst for new innovations in film, and has undoubtedly inspired many generations of filmmakers to use dance in novel and sophisticated ways.
Many thanks to Levi Gonzalez whose program at Kinetic Cinema on Monday night (5/5/08) inspired me to write about Godard’s dance scene in Bande à Part.
********************* Update 5/22/08: Bande à Part (Band of Outsiders) is playing at Film Forum in NYC this weekend – Thurs-Sat 5/22-5/24. Click here for ticket info.
Now that we’re over being thankful (in the States at least), and have shifted into consumer overdrive for Christma-channu-kwaan’stice, I thought I’d list some good gifts ideas for videodance fanatics (like me!). It’s hard to find gifts related to dance for the camera, so before you fruitlessly Google search, here’s a list to get you started:
First Run Features has taken the lead in producing high quality video compilations of recent dance for camera shorts. I loved Volume 1, and refer to it constantly. Some favorites from this collection are Pascal Magnin’s Contrecoup and Annick Vroom’s RIP. Vol. 2 looks promising too with Motion Control by the Brit team Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, and Mitchell Rose’s hilarious Case Studies from the Groat Center for Sleep Disorders.
Mystic Fire Videos puts out great collections of past dance film innovators. This is the place to brush up on your history. I recommend:
Maya Deren Experimental Films
The complete collection of all of Maya Deren’s shorts. A must-have for dance film aficiondos.
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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