Dance on Camera Ezine
January-February, 2008

Required Viewing: STEP UP 2 THE STREETS
by Kat Fitzgerald

Studio: Touchstone Pictures (Disney)
Director: Jon M. Chu
Choreographers: Jamal Sims. Hi-Hat, Dave Scott, Rhapsody James, Kejamel Howell, Troy Kirby, Kristi Crader

This sequel to the smash hit STEP UP released in August, 2006 marks the directorial debut for Jon M. Chu backed by much of the production team behind STEP UP, choreographer Jamal Sims, plus choreographers Hi-Hat and Dave Scott (STOMP THE YARD). Patrick Wachsberger & Erik Feig of Summit Entertainment produced the feature with Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot of Offspring Entertainment.

Letter to the Editor...

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but STEP UP 2 should be required viewing for anybody interested in the development of dance on film. It uses classic techniques, but also incorporates new ideas without the dance-sacrificing clumsiness that is usually involved in trying to cut the standard urban teen dance film for modern pacing.

I know exactly how ridiculous this sounds. But I'm completely serious. The storyline is totally forgettable, but the movie is packed with awesome dancing, shot with an amazing understanding of camera movement, beautifully lit, playful with things like frame rate without being too heavy handed with it, and cut in such a way that it is fast paced, but doesn't let you miss any of the important aspects of the dance.

For some reason, there was a weird cross section of people in the theater the afternoon I saw it, kids, nannys, girls my age, and then a few random older men by themselves. By the end of the film, everyone was cheering and clapping. Simple proof that nobody can resist a well done dance-off in the rain!!!

I did a little research into who shot and cut it. It's the cinematographer, Max Malkin's second or third film, but the editor, Andrew Marcus, has a lot of experience doing really creative stuff (HEDWIG, Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, and Ivory Merchant movies). The result is the combo of good camera instincts from somebody younger that understands the dancing better, and a really capable editor that has good pacing, but isn't completely ADD."

Comments? Please write Kat Fitzgerald,
editor/tango aficionada/host of Dance Film Lab

The dancing muse, Louise Brooks
by Deirdre Towers

Alain Robbe-Grillet died on Monday, February 18, age 85. A French author whose writing could resemble a cubist painting, Alain Robbe-Grillet wrote the screen play for the film classic directed by Alain Resnais LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD (1961). His writing could trigger a visit to a side of yourself you might not recognize in waking hours. He wrote as though he were trying to assemble a puzzle.

The Film Forum just showed a new 35mm print of LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD which sparked these reviews below

"a sustained mood, an empty allegory, a choreographed moment outside of time, and a shocking intimation of perfection."
J. Hoberman, The Village Voice.

"… Resnais gave us film as music -- formal, reiterative and forever abstract. Follow it as you would a string quartet, a ballet or a mysteriously animated painting that changes ever so slightly as you watch."
Tim Page, The Washington Post

In my meditative googling on Resnais and Marienbad, I came across an article I recommend called "Last Year at Marienbad: An Intertextual Meditation" by Thomas Beltzer. He points out that the script was inspired by a novella "The Invention of Morel," written in the 1940s by Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914 - 1999) "about a fugitive on a deserted island who wakes one day to discover that his island is filled with people who dance, stroll up and down, and swim in the pool, as if this were a summer resort like Los Teques or Marienbad. Morel's invention is a diabolical holographic recording device that captures all of the senses in three dimensions. It is diabolical because it destroys its subject in the recording process, rotting the skin and flesh off of its bones, thus gruesomely confirming the native fear of being photographed and also, perhaps, warning of the dangers of art holding up a mirror to nature."

Casares was in love with the silent screen era dancer and siren Louise Brooks at the time. Perhaps his plot grew from a jealous rage that the film industry was keeping him apart from Louise. One could at the least suggest that a dancer was the muse for the book that inspired LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD which has in turn made many a film artist ponder (however subliminally) abstract models to free narratives from their usual structure.

And now for yet another twist and recycling of cinematic history, consider the plot of this week's release of Michel Gondry's new film BE KIND REWIND. The official website states that "Jack Black stars as a New Jersey mechanic who accidentally demagnetizes every video in the rental store where his best friend works. Their solution is to remake every video themselves".

While Alain Resnais played on a fear at the time that people would become numb with boredom, Gondry plays on the fear that we may run out of entertainment, that our source of amusement might be destroyed, that we may become a culture with a history so vulnerable that it could vanish in the tweak of a magnetic eye.

Dance on Camera On Tour
2008 showings confirmed to date

Jan 22 ..........FilmFest Reloaded at Karl's Klipper, Staten Island, NY
Jan 25 ..........Dance Film Lab at Dance Theatre Workshop - works in progress
Jan 26 ..........Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA - lecture
Jan 31 ..........NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New York - lecture
Jan 31 ..........Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (TP)

"Our event at Emory was a success! The visual arts audience was especially
intrigued, many spoke about their delight and surprise at the entire dance for camera genre. Choreographers universally said 'we want more!!!'. The event acted as a positive audience development tool. Several comments were posted on local list-serv blogs praising the screening and creating buzz.I've received numerous emails from folks wanting to sponsor more showings in different venues around Atlanta. WOW!" Blake Beckham

Feb 4 ...........Kinetic Cinema, Collective:Unconscious, NYC Shorts curated by dancers Brian McCormick, Malinda Allen (3/3), Jonah Bokaer (4/7), Levi Gonzalez (5/5), Kriota Willberg (6/2)
Feb 29 ..........Spoke The Hub Brooklyn, NY - features - 2/29, 3/28, 4/25, 5/30
Feb 16-17 .....University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI (TP)
Feb 22-23 .....University of Rochester, Rochester, NY (TP)
March 17 .......University of Utah, Salt Lake City - ACDFA (TP)
April 1-19 .......Galerie Michel Journiac, Paris, France - (TP)
April 3-6 .........Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison (TP)
April 9 ............Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (TP)
April 17.......... Washington Center for the Arts, Olympia, WA (TP)

Visit dancefilms.org/Touringmain.html for links to specific program details

Artists Celebrating at Dance on Camera Festival

Winners of the Jury Prize for FLYING LESSON
Dancers Andrea Lerner and Rosanne Chamecki

(left to right) dancer Jock Soto, director Gwendolen Cates for WATER FLOWING TOGETHER, Winner of Jury Prize, Savion Glover (Master of Timing)

Bboys celebrating after INSIDE THE CIRCLE, nominated for the Jury Prize
at the Walter Reade Theatre

Photos by Sophie J. Shin

Brian McCormick guest curates Kinetic Cinema

Kinetic Cinema kicked off last month with a great program during the Dance On Camera Festival.On Monday February 4th at Collective:Unconscious in Tribeca, dance writer and educator, Brian McCormick was the guest curator of a program of that featured Elizabeth Streb and Mary Lucier's 1987 collaboration "In the blink of an eye, Amphibian Dreams...If I could fly I would fly" (click here to preview an excerpt), plus a live performance by Second Life Ballet, followed by a chat with artistic director Inarra Saarinen. Brian's program evolves from his interest in video art, including early performance-based video, choreographies that exploit film’s surrealistic potential.

Kinetic Cinema First Monday of every month,7:30pm $5
Collective:Unconscious, 279 Church Street (south of White Street) New York
Take the number 1 train to Franklin; or the A, C, E to Canal Street.
www.weird.org 212.254.5277

Kinetic Cinema 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 will come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers, critics, and filmmakers. Upcoming guests include Malinda Allen (March 3rd), Jonah Bokaer (April 7th), Levi Gonzalez (May 5th), and Kriota Willberg (June 2nd).

For more information, write Anna Brady Nuse; read her blog: movetheframe.com

Queens Council on the Arts presents DANCE DOC SLAM
Call for Submissions

On Thursday, March 6, Queens Council on the Arts (QCA)will present a Dance Doc Slam at Green Space Studio in Long Island City, New York from 7:00pm-9:30pm. This event will be an interactive peer-review workshop that provides choreographers and dancers the opportunity to present video documentation of their work for critique by experts including representatives from DanceNow/NYC and Dance Theater Workshop, a videographer, and a booking agent. The panel will lead a discussion on the best ways to document dance pieces on film for venues, festivals and funding applications based on five pre-selected video submissions.

Send all submissions can be sent on DVD to Chris Henderson, Queens Council on the Arts, One Forest Park at Oak Ridge, Woodhaven, NY 11421-1166. For more information email chenderson@queenscouncilarts.org or visit:
www.queenscouncilarts.org/html/artsservices-dancedoc.html

CALL FOR PAPERS
Theatre Library Association Annual Conference
Deadline: March 2, 2008
 
American Society for Theatre Research  
November 5-9, 2008 – Boston, Massachusetts
Unsettling Theatre:  migration, map, memory

MAPPING THE BODY:  METHODOLOGIES FOR RECONSTRUCTING LOST AND DISAPPEARING DANCE

America, founder of modern dance, is beginning to lose its senior generation of choreographers and practitioners.  While a number of leading companies have built impressive archives and now videotape performances in order to preserve them, dances are still passed along as they have been for thousands of years:  generation to generation, body to body, mouth to mouth.     

Labanotation was developed as a standardized system to “map” physical movements and the path of the body in space.  Videotape, a vulnerable format, has successfully captured dance performances for over three decades – in a two-dimensional medium.  Print documents are still critical:  reviews, photographs, choreographer's notes or oral histories.  Others insist that the most effective way is to have the original choreographer – or a trusted company member – set the dance on a new company.

Clearly, a successful reconstruction must be a composite of all these necessary elements.  Has the development of sophisticated digital technologies provided new procedures – and perhaps pitfalls – for the documentation of live motion?  How do research libraries and archives support this process – and how might they frustrate it?  We're interested in a fresh assessment of contemporary best practices and challenges facing this tenuous field of dance reconstruction.

Further, we welcome testimony of international efforts to document and preserve the movement heritage of vulnerable and vanishing cultures:  First Peoples, Cambodian traditional dance decimated by the Khmer Rouge, societies threatened by genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Please submit one-page proposal by March 2, 2008 to:
Susan Brady, Chair TLA Plenary Committee
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,Yale University
P.O. Box 208240, New Haven, Connecticut  06520-8240
203/432-9038; 203/432-9033 (FAX) susan.brady@yale.edu

Contact; Jill Lane, Chair, ASTR Program Committee

Screendance: State of the Art 2,
Curating the Practice/Curating as Practice.

The American Dance Festival, “one of the nation’s most important institutions,” (New York Times), collaborates with Douglas Rosenberg for Screendance: State of the Art 2, Curating the Practice/Curating as Practice. The conference is scheduled to take place July 10-13 on the campus of Duke University, and will overlap with the ADF’s 13th annual Dancing for the Camera: International Festival of Film and Video Dance and a shared performance as part of the ADF’s 75th Anniversary Season. Registration forms and submission details now available at www.americandancefestival.org.

The symposium invites screendance makers, scholars, programmers, and curators from across the globe to join in an international dialog on the issues of curating and criticality. Directed by video artist and dance filmmaker Douglas Rosenberg, the conference aims to facilitate an ongoing discussion about the shared concerns of dance and media, while striving to build, strengthen, and define the international screendance community. Participants will gain exposure to the field’s most cutting-edge theories, research, and observations through four days of panels, presentations, screenings, and demonstrations. As members of the ADF community attendees will have additional access to networking opportunities and the option of attending a world premiere as part of the ADF’s 75th anniversary performances.

Guidelines for Proposal Submissions
Screendance: State of the Art 2, Curating the Practice/Curating as Practice welcomes the submission of papers and presentations that critically address the issues of curating and its relationship to screendance. Submitted papers must include a 250 word abstract and authorial bio. The conference also welcomes proposals for curated programs to be presented for screening, discussion, and curatorial critique.

Deadline for proposals is Friday, April 11, 2008.

Register for Conference
To attend the four-day symposium and participate in the ADF’s 75th anniversary celebrations, applicants are encouraged to submit an early registration form and fee to the ADF by Monday, May 12, 2008. For more information on Screendance: State of the Art 2, Curating the Practice/Curating as Practice, please visit www.americandancefestival.org.

Questions should be directed to adf@americandancefestival.org or 919.684.6402.

DFA MEMBER NEWS:

ELLEN BAR: Henry Joost and Ellen appeared on Good Day New York on the Fox Network (Channel 5) on Friday, February 22nd to be interviewed by the anchors and show clips of the film. www.opusjazz.com

JAN BARTOSZEK: Received a grant of $15K for her first dance film, ACHE OF THE ARC to be created in 2009. Hedwig Dances and the Chicago Cultural Center are planning another Dance for the Camera event in October 2008.

ROBIN CANTRELL: Joined Battery Dance Company which leaves for a tour to the Middle East and then Asia where she will be joined by Mira Cook, her
partner in the DFA fiscal sponsored project *TRANS-CONTINENTAL DANCE COLLABORATIVE.

GWENDOLEN CATES: WATER FLOWING TOGETHER broadcasts the 60-minute version of her 77-minute film on Independent Lens on April 8th.

ALLA KOVGAN: The documentary that she has been working on for years, TRACES OF THE TRADE, was shown at Sundance this January.

NORTON OWEN: Jacobs Pillow will present the team behind the great film BLACK SPRING June 25-29. French filmmaker Benoit Dervaux, Compagnie Heddy Maalem hits the stage in the Ted Shawn Theater in The Berkshires, Massachusetts with Maalem's bold re-envisioning of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."

CYNTHIA PEPPER: Commissioned by Wachovia Bank to choreograph a tango that will be shown on 30 foot screens in Los Angeles.

TONIA SHIMIN: Her short "Of Time and the Spirit" was shown at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

EVANN SIEBENS: Gave birth to Nelson Redvers Doyle on January 3rd, 2008.

Savion Glover and the late Gregory Hines Photo by Nanette Melville

Action cinema of the 21st century: the Beauty of Violence
A conference in Burgos, Spain organized by dancer, writer Juan Bernardo Pineda
who did his thesis on this subject at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

The scenes of dance or combat have always been inserted like action into a movie musical. For this reason, the stories are constructed in such a way that the introduction of dance or struggle fragments justify themselves by adding a certain quality of framing and choreography. Usually in a movie musical, dance is seen in the middle of a love scene and in an action movie, in between the fights.Without a doubt, the influence of dance in action movies is particularly clear in the last half of the twentieth century, in the way that it embellishes the fights as particularly evident in MATRIX.

The program runs March 14- April 5 and includes:
THE MATRIX (released 1999 - simulating the year 2199), MATRIX RELOADED, MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, BLADE II, LA CASA DE LAS DAGAS VOLADORAS, KILL BILL 2, ONG - BAK

For more information, visit the website for the program.www.cabdeburgos.com

Study the choreography of Woo-ping Yuen and Dion Lam.

Notes on Production from Wikipedia
"THE MATRIX is known for developing and popularizing the use of a visual effect known as "bullet time", which allows the viewer to explore a moment progressing in slow-motion as the camera appears to orbit around the scene at normal speed.The method used was a technically expanded version of an old art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which a large number of cameras are placed around an object and fired nearly simultaneously. Each camera is a "still" camera, not a motion picture camera, and contributes one frame to the sequence. When the sequence of shots is viewed as a movie, the viewer sees what is in effect two-dimensional "slices" of a three-dimensional moment. "

DFA IS ITS MEMBERS!

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Organize a screening or set up a dance film lab in your area.
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Stay in touch. We continually update DFA's website with opportunities on the links page!

Photo: Omar as seen in Marcy Garriott's INSIDE THE CIRCLE,
nominated for Dance on Camera Festival 2008.