10 Dance and Movement Animations

Movement Media is delighted to have Doug Fox as a guest blogger for this week’s posting.  Back in February 2009, Doug presented several movement-based animations as a guest curator for Movement Media’s Kinetic Cinema program.   Click here to read our blog posting featuring Doug’s Animation program at the screening.

Doug Fox’s Picks for Dance and Movement Animations

One of the captivating elements of dance and animation is the diverse range of forms it can take. Among the animation techniques that can be employed to represent the body in motion, whether in a more concrete or abstract manner, include:

• 2D
• 3D
• Stop motion
• Live-action and animation hybrids
• Real-time animated graphics using motion tracking
• Visualization overlays
• Special effects
• ASCII-based animations
• Digital puppetry
• Cut-out animation
• Motion-capture based
• 2D/3D lasers
• Rotoscoped
• Virtual worlds
• Pre-cinema era animations

For Doug’s round-up of some of his favorite dance and movement animations he made selections of each of these different types of animations.  A few videos chosen by Doug couldn’t be embedded onto our blog for your viewing convenience, but we encourage you to take a minute to check out these great videos, to learn about the many types of dance and movement-based animated videos artists are creating. Enjoy!

Rotoscoped Tango dance scene from “Waking Life”:

Gabrielle Lamb’s “Quizas” mixes 2D animation and live-action footage:

“En Tus Brazos” is a narrative-based 3D animation about a tragic accident that besets a famous Argentinean Tango dancer:

Also enjoy an ASCII-based animation “TextField” by Chirstinn Whyte and Jake Messenger:

http://www.jakemessenger.plus.com/textfield-h264.mov

The Converse music video “My Drive-Thru” is based on the cut-out animation technique:

Oren Lavie’s “Her Morning Elegance” is a stop-motion music video compiled from thousands of photographs:

The “Prodigy Warrior’s Dance” combines stop-motion animation and puppetry:

The Recoil Performance Group’s “Body Navigation” uses motion tracking and projectors to general real-time, interactive graphics in a performance environment:

“Trash Dance” features 3D animation and motion capture:

Lastly, Doug offers us “Anima Istanbul”, which re-creates the feeling of the pre-cinema era zoetrope effect:

http://motionographer.com/theater/if-2009-zoetrope/

Movement Media appreciates Doug sharing some of his favorite animated videodances with our readers.  As you can see, artists are making some extraordinary animations, and there will certainly be more exciting works in the future, as more artists are combine animation with dance and movement.

Doug Fox is the founder of Great Dance, one of the first dance blogs. His blog and speaking programs have primarily addressed how dance-makers can embrace the Internet and digital tools to enhance their marketing and promotional efforts. He is an active member of the dance community and serves on the Dance/NYC Advisory Board.

Doug began to study and research all forms of animation, especially as they relate to dance and movement. This research led to the creation of his dance animation educational program, which he was delighted to introduce at Movement Media’s Kinetic Cinema. Doug is continuing to expand this screening program and workshop and it will be shown on August 16th at the Hong Kong Science Museum presented by the City Contemporary Dance Company.

Doug can be reached at doug@greatdance.com and through his Great Dance website: http://greatdance.com. You can also follow his Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/dougfox.

Dance Tributes Around the World for the Dance Legend, Michael Jackson

by Dawn Paap

The world is responding to dance more than ever, as individuals from across the globe share their love of dance publicly and through video arts.

We are finding more and more people documenting their celebrations of dance icons through dance and video, and their dances continue to resonate with Internet viewers looking to connect artistically, locally, and universally to create MORE dance.

This new social movement through dance is liberating and profound.  World records are being broken as more and more people come together to dance for a common goal–the celebration of dance.  The growing numbers speak volumes, and as we continue to learn from dance, we will continue to grow to our full potential as artists and communities.  At the end of this posting you can learn how to get involved in this new social movement and dance phenomenon and help Thrill The World by dancing with the WORLD to Michael Jackson!

Dance legends have impacted me greatly, as I see them teaching us how to connect with ourselves, others, and the world.   This week we pay tribute to Michael Jackson who continues to affect the world as seen through the arts.  Dancers and media artists have been making documented tributes to his legacy.

Michael Jackson-the King of Pop

Michael Jackson is remembered fondly for his impact on dance.  Out of the hundreds of videodances recently created to celebrate the beloved Michael Jackson, these are some of my favorites.

As a dancer, this next videodance speaks to Michael Jackson, the man who made me want to dance freestyle and hip hop every day.

Video artists have also done their part to pay tribute to Michael, as seen in this adorable video to the song ”Don’t stop til you get enough“…

Michael Jackson dance tributes continue to hit the street, as seen in this videodance tribute to Beat It done in Stockholm.

In addition to these popular songs and dance moves, there are continuous dance tributes to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  Never before has there been more ZOMBIE walks and events, as demonstrated by the zombie networking website http://www.ThrillTheWorld.com.  ‘Thrill The World’ has organized 72 dance tribute events, breaking a world record last year with 4,179 dancers participating from 10 different nations.  They are hoping to reach their goal of 270,00 people to dance to Thriller in 2009 and pay tribute to Jackson’s life and dance. Thrill 2009 looks to be a big year for zombies doing the crawl of the dead!

This videodance tribute from 2008 showcases the individuals who came  together as dancing zombies to celebrate Michael Jackson’s influence on the world.

Anyone can learn the dance moves to Thriller, and participate in Thrill The World 2009.  There are various videos available online, such as this one.

In addition to thousands of people who are learning dance moves from online video, more and more people are learning Michael Jackson’s dance moves in dance studios around the world.  Leaders in the Hip Hop genre are doing their part to perform and teach Michael Jackson’s moves to current and future generations of dancers.  The following videodance tribute features Hip Hop Masters Lil’ Mama, Taeko, Feng, and The Beat Freaks.

The King of Pop was one inspirational gentleman, and will be remembered on a global scale…as evidenced by the videodances shared in this posting and the hundreds available on the Internet.  I look forward to continued celebrations of Michael Jackson through dance…so whenever you can, by yourself, with a partner, or with a group–get out there and dance!

Tune in next week for more posts in tribute to Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham.

Movement Media Videodance Contest Winners: Pop Dance Phenomenon!

By Mollie Shapiro

Thank you to everyone who nominated a video for this week’s “Pop Dance Phenomenon” theme! We really enjoyed getting a chance to see your favorite viral videos!! This was the last week we were accepting submissions and nominations for our Videodance Contest. Next week will be guest curated by Doug Fox of Greatdance.com, who will be presenting wonderful dance animation videos.

If you didn’t get a chance to participate in the contest, don’t fret. We have a brand new opportunity for you! Movement Media is excited to introduce UMove, our First Annual Online Videodance Festival!! UMove will feature short dance and movement-based videos that were made specifically for the web and other new media formats. For more information about the festival and for submission details, please click here.

POP DANCE PHENOMENONS

As technological advancements continue to infiltrate our society, YouTube has emerged as the new hit-maker of today. This platform has led to the discovery of countless videos that would never have been shown on TV, and given them the chance to spread swiftly through virtual word of mouth. Although there are many videos that have gone viral on YouTube, the six that we have selected are each strong representations of one of three categories; “The Earlies,” “Global Phenomenons,” or “Sponsors/Marketing.”

The videos representing “The Earlies” are:

“Here It Goes Again” by Ok Go

and ”Evolution of Dance” by Judson Laipply

“Here it Goes Again”

The American band Ok Go struck gold when their quirky music video choreographed on treadmills was released. This video, which debuted on YouTube on July 31^st, 2006, was one of the earliest viral YouTube videos to mesmerized audiences across the world. As of 2009, it is still one of the most iconic videos of all time with over 46 million views.

“Evolution of Dance”

Judson Laipply’s “Evolution of Dance” was first put on YouTube in 2006 and became an overnight internet sensation reaching over 123 million viewers. One of the first comedy performances ever to go viral, the video features Laipply performing popular dance moves from the 1950s all the way to the present. Even now, it remains the single most watched video in the history of the web.

Our “Global Phenomenon” videos are:

“Filipino Prisoners doing Thriller”

and ”Korean Madness”

“Filipino Prisoners doing Thriller”

Featuring over 1500 inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Phillipines performing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video, this video became a surprise smash hit on YouTube. Conceived by Byron F. Garcia as an enjoyable exercise regimen for the prisoners, it has now been viewed over 30 million times throughout the globe and given the prisoners a great source of pride, proving the immense effect that YouTube has had on people and cultures worldwide. Here is a link to an earlier blog post written by Anna Brady Nuse comparing the Filipino Prison dances with Busby Berkeley and the Balinese Kecak.

“Korean Madness”

This hilarious video, which has now become a global phenomenon, was actually taken from a Korean TV show. It features two young girls singing karaoke, and from the looks of it, they are truly enjoying themselves!

Our final category this week is “Sponsors/Marketing” and our winning videos in this category are

“Where the hell is Matt” by Matt Harding

and The “T-Mobile Dance”

“Where the Hell is Matt?”

This video, which features a guy named Matt Harding performing a ridiculous and amusing dance at various locations around the world, began as a joke between friends. Over time, these videos of unexpected bursts of dance by a goofy man in exotic locations sparked a media frenzy that ultimately led to a sponsorship by Stride gum company. Stride has sponsored Matt’s last two excursions simply because they were amused by his ideas, however by associating themselves with a fun-loving guy who is a YouTube sensation, they have craftily created a more progressive brand image.

“T-Mobile Dance”

This video, which documents a brilliant publicity stunt used to promote T-Mobile, was filmed in a crowded London train station in the middle of the day. This seemingly spontaneous yet choreographically synchronized dance was a viral hit, and since then many other brands have posed similar media marketing stunts, such as the Belgian TV company’s “Sound of Music” in Central Station in Antwerp, which was our “Choreographed” videodance contest winner on June 12th.

For further intellectual discussion about these videos or any of our previous themes, please click here: Movement Media’s Weekly Online Video Dance Contest

As always, we appreciate your comments and feedback about the contest winners! We’ll be back in September. In the meantime, please submit your videos to our new UMove Videodance Festival, taking place Oct 1-31, 2009 on the web and at live screenings around the world! Deadline AUG 15Th.

Nijinsky Dances on Film….sort of

by Nicholas James Bruder

If you haven’t read it yet, check out Joan Acocella’s article, “The Faun,” in this week’s New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/06/29/090629ta_talk_acocella

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.

Dance Films Seen Through the Lens of Pro Sports at Kinetic Cinema

Just in time for the new baseball season, at the next Kinetic Cinema on April 8th choreographer, performer and videographer, Lisa Niedermeyer will present an evening of screen dance through the lens of professional sports. Alongside special guest, sports videographer Ray Wenzel Jr., Niedermeyer will present and discuss dance films that feature heightened Speed, Kinetic Response, Spectacle, Competition and Endurance. Featuring the work of dance film-makers: Charles Dennis, Alan McIntyre Smith, Lemeh42, Miriam King, Kristi Faulkner and Sylvain White.

Coming up next at Kinetic Cinema:

P.O.V: PRO SPORTS

Curated by Lisa Niedermeyer

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 7:00pm

Tickets: $10 (purchase at the door)

Chez Bushwick

304 Boerum St., Buzzer #11

Brooklyn, NY 11206

718.418.4405  

Directions

Google Map

*A co-presentation of Chez Bushwick and Pentacle’s Movement Media

Kinetic Cinema that Kicks Ass! Follow up to Marya Wethers’ “Bad Ass Babes” Program

At our last Kinetic Cinema screening on March 11th, guest curator Marya Wethers showed at a different side of the screendance spectrum than our usual experimental fare: Hollywood action films that feature powerful female leads kicking butt.

T-X from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

The evening was arranged by character, with Marya giving background exposition about each woman and illustrating her points with key scenes from films. The characters featured in the program reflected Marya’s personal favorites, and weren’t meant to encompass the entire range and history of female characters in action films. Rather it was a personal tour of the ladies that have inspired Marya the most, and she made us all feel like we were sitting in her living room sifting through the best bits of her DVD collection.

Some of my favorites from the evening were:

Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) from The Matrix series.

Pure elegance punctuated with vulnerability. In the opening scene from The Matrix, Trinity seduces you with a slow motion leap, before giving you a sharp crack in the nose.

Trinity's Kick

Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) from Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

The Bungee Ballet scene combines high adventure with silk pajamas. Gotta love Lara’s McGyver-like ingenuity, using her remote car starter to blind the enemies with a garage full of headlights while making a getaway on her motorcycle.

Lara's bungee ballet workout gets interrupted.

T-X (Kristanna Loken) from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

She’s an advanced cybernetic organism from the future and she kicks Arnold’s ass!

The Angels (Drew Barrymore as Dylan Sanders, Cameron Diaz as Natalie Cook, and Lucy Liu as Alex Munday) from Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

These ladies take teamwork to a new level. When the lights go out they tap morse code on each other’s palms to communicate. They’re also not afraid to take a punch. You see them get seriously messed up, but no mind, they just spit out the blood, pull out the glass, and keep on kicking ass!

The Angels

Richert Schnorr’s Pop/Rock/Porn/Dance Video blog!

I just want to take a moment to crush on Richert Schnorr’s amazing dance videos that look so damn good on his video blog, REGULARMOTION. Take a look and you’ll see what I’m saying.

He just posted an online version of his fabulous videodance series “GRAPHIC.GLORY” that is also for sale as a DVD (Track 2 is shown above). He mentioned that his concept is to make great albums, like pop music albums but with dance. The result is so sexy, fun, and tasty you just can’t get enough. Rock on Richert! We love you!!!

Next at Kinetic Cinema: Marýa Wethers Gives a Guide to “Bad Ass Babes” from the Movies

For all the ladies…

Charlie's Angels

“Bad Ass Babes: A Guide to Women Kicking Butt in the Movies”

Curated by Marýa Wethers
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
7:00pm
Tickets: $10 (purchase at the door)

Chez Bushwick

304 Boerum St., Buzzer #11

Brooklyn, NY 11206

718.418.4405

Directions:

•L TRAIN to Morgan Avenue

•Exit the BACK of the train

•Turn LEFT outside the station

•Turn LEFT onto Boerum Street

(Chez Bushwick is roughly 80 steps from the station)

Google Map

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For the past 12 years, Marýa Wethers, has been a major contributor to the experimental dance community in NYC as a performer, administrator, and currently as the Associate Producer at Dance Theater Workshop. What you may not know is that she is also a huge action movie fan. At Kinetic Cinema on Wed March 11th, Marýa will share clips of selected scenes from some of her favorite Hollywood action movies with a female lead or a strong female character. The clips will follow themes such as hand-to-hand combat, weapons, and car chases. These scenes go beyond silly cat fights and show some bad ass women kicking some serious butt. Wowser!

Come on out and show off your own bad ass selves. Dress up as your favorite action heroine and we’ll post pictures of the best-dressed babes here on our blog.

Follow-up to Doug Fox’s Animation Program

I’ve been jonesing to write a reflective post on this blog for the past two months. Seems like it’s been all action action action ever since the New Year turned! So let the rest of my to-do list be damned, and here we go…

Illuminated by Kevin Abbott

Last week we had a great Kinetic Cinema program at Chez Bushwick. Doug Fox (blogger and founder of Great Dance and a budding animator himself) went above and beyond the curatorial call of duty to give us a real feast for the eyes with his survey of eighteen (yes 18!) dance and movement-based animations. Some how they all fit into a program that ran just over an hour long, and even more remarkable was the feeling that none of the selections dragged on too long. In fact, when Doug announced that he had one more piece in his cache, and asked us if we’d like to see it, the overwhelming response from the audience was yes! Like candy, we still wanted more, even though we were already stuffed.

Artist-driven Curating and How it Could Help Galvanize a Screendance Movement

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.