I have been following online the events and co at EMPAC and hopefully will make it there myself soon in person. I can only agree on that dance film screenings should happen more often. Speaking from my own work and feedback I receive from friends, family and critics is that in public screenings the same piece of work is often well received and understood while most video dances lose their fascination online (think youtube). The problem is not only the lower quality that reduces the effects of sound and speed of movements but also the moment of 'live' performance in front of an audience is taken away from the work. The unique specialty of video dance is that it is closely related to live dance and thus its presentation in which it needs the space, the sound echoing of walls and an audience sharing the experience of movements, camerawork and edit. Personally, I am very audience-focused, some of you might know my work that aims on creating all-senses-incorporating interaction with the viewer through live performance and/or video installations in controlled spaces that enhance the experience and interaction. To return to the initial starting point of this discussion: yes, I hope more video dance events will happen, hopefully more dance places, cinemas and co venues will promote and open their spaces to show this genre of film. Currently, the Edinburgh Festival is happening which offers opportunities for video dance presentations for example. My aim is to increase the possibilities of showing dance work. Together with curator Alexandra Ross, I set up the traveling exhibition The State of Play that mixes live performance, audience involvement and interactive video dance projection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHmrSe5ZpBw more info about this can be found on my website www.creationeditor.co.uk I am also involved with the events of Iam-Digital that fuses live performance, video dance and live music. I just put together a 2min docu of the last event in May'08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKT5IMSfoiA more on www.iam-digital.com My latest video dance TRENCH was cut for the big screen were it works really well while it really loses it online http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PciUp7-Gsuo I would appreciate your feedback Ironically all is on youtube ;-) Best wishes and keep up the good work Sabine Klaus info@creationeditor.co.uk www.creationeditor.co.uk

For those that aren't aware of this list you can subscribe at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/MEDIA-ARTS-AND-DANCE there are around 200 people on this list internationally including artists, academics, students, curators and festival directors.

In August I am shooting a new videodance entitled Fünf 'n' Twist, an abstract narrative short about a teenage couple at the prom. The prom scenes will be shot Thursday Aug 14th and Friday Aug 15th all day from approximately 8am-6pm in Washington Heights. Currently I am looking for male dancers as well as several crew positions both paid and non-paid.

About Fünf 'n' Twist: Using dance, ritualized movement, evocative sounds and imagery, the classically American rite of passage of the prom will be depicted as a metaphor for the adolescence of the country itself as it lurches clumsily towards a cultural adulthood. Last spring I shot the final scenes of the film, and you can see a rough cut study of the ending here on vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/1134237.

Below are descriptions of the positions I'm looking for.

Talent:
3-6 male dancers for prom scene. Must be able to dance (or be comfortable moving), and could pass for a prom-goer. Having your own tux is a plus, but not required. You must be available between 9am-5pm on Aug 14th and 15th. Pay will be $75/day. Please send a current headshot/photo to anuse@speakeasy.net.

Crew positions:
Production Manager: Responsible for assisting the director/producer with pre-production planning and managing all the logistics of the production. Will coordinate cast and crew, and stay on top of the budget and time schedule during the production. Must be available 8am-8pm Aug 13th-15th as well as for some preliminary planning work leading up to these days. Fee commensurate with experience. Please send resume to anuse@speakeasy.net.

Production Designer/Art Director: For a '60's era prom scene in a short experimental dance video. Must be resourceful, and able to make magic with a small budget! Must be available 8am-6pm Aug 13th-15th and for planning meetings with the director & DP leading up to these days. Fee commensurate with experience. Please send resume and portfolio/reel to Anna Brady Nuse: anuse@speakeasy.net

Lighting Designer/Grip: Shot-specific lighting for a '60's era prom scene. Must be flexible and able to make magic with a small budget. Must be available 8am-6pm Aug 13th-15th and for planning meetings with the director & DP leading up to these days. Fee commensurate with experience. Please send resume and portfolio/reel to Anna Brady Nuse: anuse@speakeasy.net

Production Assistants: Flexible, strong, energetic, and eager to learn about the makings of a videodance! Must be available on Aug 14th & 15th 8am-6pm. Also need prep help all day Aug 13th. No pay, but a great way to gain experience and skills. You will be given credit on the film and fed!

For more info, please contact me at anuse@speakeasy.net, and if you know of others who would be good for these positions please forward this link to them! 

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.

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.

Screening Announcement from Michael Bodel:
a program of new innovation and talent in choreography for the camera


Saturday July 26th at 8 pm

at the NEW
Galapagos Art Space

16 main st
dumbo, brooklyn

$10 at the door

For more information visit
www.frameworksdance.org

featuring films by:
Greg Catellier and Jeff Curtis
Mira Peck
Janice Lancaster and Adam Larsen
Sergio Cruz
Elena Demyanenko and Joby Emons















stills: (top) "ever ever ever" by Janice Lancaster and Adam Larsen
(bottom) film still by Sergio Cruz

Bright and early Saturday morning staffers from Dance Theater Workshop and PS 122 gathered at Heckscher Ballfield in Central Park to battle it out in a kickball tournament. PS 122 supposedly scored 13 points to our 2, but our runs can be clearly accounted for in the video below… PS do you have any proof? And [...]

This Saturday, come out and watch as the staff from Dance Theater Workshop, PS 122, and Danspace battle it out to see which is the greatest kickball team of them all (or of the 3 teams, at least). While I can’t say we’ll follow many of the actual regulations set forth by the World Adult [...]

Masochistically marrying New York (By McCann, Ruth)

The Life magazine lensman finds a new context at Silverstein (By R.C. Baker)

DAVID HALLBERGAmerican Ballet TheatreNew York, NY USABIO | POSTS I am making my debut in Etudes tomorrow in Orange County, as the turning boy. Here are some shots I took of the company in the wings in Korea in the same ballet.

CANDICE THOMPSONAd Hoc BalletBrooklyn, NY USABIO | POSTS Finding this image yesterday was an “aha!” moment for me. Often patterns can be really dangerous, especially when put on a leotard. But here is an example of how to do it right. Thanks Pucci! You can expect to see the influence of this [...]

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