Move The Frame

Move the Frame Has Moved!

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:49:53 -0500

Move the Frame has a new look and a new address! Please click here.

Action Needed to Save NY Arts Funding!

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:31:20 -0500

URGENT UPDATE

From the New York City Arts Coalition:

PROPOSED ADDITIONAL CUTS TO STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS

Governor Paterson will include a proposed $7.2 million cut to the State Council on the Arts in the list of possible cuts that he is announcing at his 11:30 press conference.

Governor Paterson is providing the proposed list to the State Legislature as it starts its special session November 18. That special session is to deal with the additional $1.5 billion deficit in the current fiscal year. The 6% cut ($2.6 million) from a few weeks ago was designed to deal with the earlier projected state deficit, which has now grown considerably.

NYSCA had on hand roughly $8 million in uncontracted funds after the 6% cut a few weeks ago. Obviously an additional $7 million cut leaves almost nothing for the applicants who had grants under consideration for the October and December Council meetings. (FYI, October Council meeting was postponed for those who might not be aware of it)

This is a list of possible cuts. The legislature can (1) do nothing and leave the problem to the Governor¹s hands, or (2) change the list by coming up with other cuts and taking some things off the list, or (3) pass the proposed list as presented.

If the legislature does nothing, it is usually within the power of a Governor to simply not spend money and thereby make the cuts happen.

My understanding is that the list from Governor Paterson contains some fairly severe cuts to social service programs, as well as other areas, such as education, that will make it very hard for the arts to make a case that NYSCA should not be cut. Bluntly put, we will not avoid some kind of cut, but this cut would pretty much out NYSCA Œs funds, which I am pretty sure is a more severe impact than on other agencies. The two cuts together also equal about 20% of NYSCA¹s entire appropriation for grants.

ACTION TO TAKE:

Everyone should do the following quickly:

(1) Contact the Governor¹s office and object to the size of the proposed cut, and pointing out that it pretty much eliminated the last half of the year¹s funding for applicants at NYSCA, and that NYSCA is now taking a 20% cut. (Faxed letters are best, but email is better than doing nothing. Phone calls are least effective, but if you can organize a lot of them and feel like doing it, go ahead. In short, protest politely, but firmly. (Phone:518-474-8390; Fax 518-474-1513. No direct email. Go to http://161.11.121.121/govemail where you can sign on to send an email.)

(2) Contact your State Assembly and State Senator and let them know how this impacts on you. Again, you should also point out the size of this potential cut and impact on the agency. Letters are best, but if you know the person or can talk directly to their Chief of Staff or budget person, a phone call is OK. Email is not a good idea. There will not be enough of it in most offices to make an impact. (And get your Board to do something, please.)

Ask the Assembly and Senate members to decrease the proposed cut significantly. Don¹t get dragged into a conversation about how much, if you can avoid it. There is no right number, so trying to come up with one is pointless. You might consider suggesting that waste in government be eliminated before they go after funds for organizations that squeeze every penny.

Lastly, if you got our survey a few days ago and have not filled it out, please fill it out by going to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=z3jKIwuaEGLctwvIleyY8w_3d_3d. I need the information about outside payments and current employment very badly.

This situation is just the beginning and we need that information to make a better case for ourselves.

Norma P. Munn

Chairperson

New York City Arts Coalition

19 W. 44 Street, Suite 1108

New York, NY 10036

P: 212-246-3788

F: 212-944-1631

Email: information@nycityartscoalition.org

********
Here are some more good sources of information on the cuts and action steps you can take:
DTW blog

WNYC discussion: Tightening the Belt

Call for Works Influenced by Busby Berkeley

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:35:38 -0500

If you have made a film or video that pays homage to Busby Berkeley, here's a unique opportunity to have your work screened at the Dance On Camera Festival:

Kriota Willberg, a choreographer, dance filmmaker, and former guest curator of Kinetic Cinema is seeking clips from film, video, or digital media directly influenced by the camera work, staging, or choreographic styles of Busby Berkeley. As a part of the Dance On Camera Festival, in the lobby of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, January 2009, Kriota Willberg is presenting a short program on the impact of Berkeley's penchant for crazy camera moves, sex, elaborate staging, geometry, and stream-of-consciousness editing style on the work of mainstream, independent, and fringe media. There is no budget, no stipend for the use of your media in this presentation (admission is free), but your clip will be credited to you, a part of the festival, and seen at Lincoln Center. Clips can feature dancing, fights, inanimate objects, animation, live action, stop motion, you name it. The more unusual, the better. Copyright for media should be held by you. I'd also welcome your contribution of found clips that are known to be in public domain. Please contact kriota@earthlink.net

Here's one of my favorite Berkeley homage pieces, the Chemical Brother's video "Let Forever Be" directed by Michel Gondry.

Kinetic Cinema Skips a Month, Other November Happenings

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:32:25 -0500

Unfortunately, due to difficulties finding space, there will be no Kinetic Cinema screening in November (normally it would be on the first Monday of the month). To make up for it, we will be back on the first of December with a fantastic double program with the sister dance/film duo Sasha and Kerrie Welsh and myself, featuring new works-in-progress, live dance, rare films, and more! Stay tuned for more up-dates.

Everyone's got the pre-election jitters, and while it may be hard to think about anything past November 4th, there are some other things to look forward to next month including the following dance film and media events.

First, it was hinted on Tendu.tv's blog (an excellent source of dance/media/tech information by the way), that Tendu.tv will launch its dance channel on Tidal TV potentially as early as next week, airing Battleworks' "Overture" performed at the Joyce. Other programs coming to the channel will be Jonah Bokaer's "The Invention of Minus One", performed at Abrons Arts Center last year, and Episode 1 of "Dance Tech" - a long form program based on the social network Dance-tech.net created by Marlon Barrios Solano. While the official launch date is not confirmed, I've already gone ahead and registered on Tidal TV's website, so I can be ready to stream Tendu.tv's channel as soon as it arrives.

With the recent technological breakthroughs in broadband video, the media playing field has been leveled somewhat, giving dance-makers opportunities to enter the mass broadcasting industry. I'm really excited to see what happens as Tendu.tv and other dance channels develop. Will they be able to cross over onto regular TV? Will the audience demand for dance programming grow? How will it impact attendance for live performance and live screenings? I'll be writing more about all these issues as events unfold!

Another screening event coming up in New York this month is a program of dance on camera presented by the Dance Films Association at the New Museum of Contemporary Art on November 7th at 7:30pm & November 8th at 3:00pm. The program will feature two silent dance films accompanied by live music, the first is SURFACE directed by Patrick Lovejoy (STOMP and Cirque de Soleil) with music by Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Jay Rodriguez (of Groove Collective fame), and Ben Dolphin's ARISING with music performed by his New Tribal Ensemble. Other films presented will be Pontus Lidberg's THE RAIN (Sweden), Klara Elenius' INSYN (Sweden), and Gabrielle Lamb's QUIZAS, QUIZAS, QUIZAS (Canada). New Museum of Contemporary Art is located at 235 Bowery Street (at Prince Street between Stanton and Rivington Streets, one and a half blocks south of Houston), New York City. For more info go to: http://www.newmuseum.org/

Appropriate for the coming winter, here's a trailer for Pontus Lidberg's THE RAIN:

Dispatches from EMPAC's Grand Opening Weekend

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:07:03 -0500

I've written quite a few posts on this blog about the United State's one and only major supporter of videodance, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY.

After two years of construction, on October 3rd EMPAC officially opened the doors of their new magnificent state-of-the-art media and performing arts center, and celebrated with two weekends of non-stop performances, screenings, installations and special events. I was lucky enough to be able spend the day on Saturday Oct 4th, seeing this amazing facility for myself. I traveled with a fellow dance filmmaker, Sabine Klaus (aka CreationEditor on dance-tech.net) who was visiting from Scotland. We took in the sights and Sabine recorded much of what she saw on video to create the 25 min vlog post below. Many thanks to Sabine for letting me share it with you here.

The building is a work of art in itself. Designed by the London-based architecture firm, Grimshaw, it is built into the side of a hill overlooking downtown Troy with views of Albany beyond. With its modern glass and steel exterior, and curvey wood interior it looks like both a starship landing dock, and a giant pickle barrel. It was a bit confusing to find one's way around the multitude of theaters, studios and galleries, but by the end of the day I'd gotten my bearings.

In 2007, with the support of a $1 million gift from the Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts, EMPAC launched the DANCE MOViES Commission which supports the creation of several new experimental dance films by artists from the Americas each year. The premiere screening of the first DANCE MOViES Commission films took place in the huge Concert Hall space on a gigantic screen. I don't know enough to speak about the great acoustical and technical attributes of this space, but it was awesome to see dance films blown up so big with so much visual and sonic impact!

I thought the pieces that showed off the capabilities of the building the best, however were the interactive installations. The Wooster group made a 360 degree video installation that was supposed to be about life in wartime, but it made a more powerful statement about control and editing, as one viewer in the space, sitting in the "chosen" chair, was able to direct the gaze of the group by swiveling around. Wherever this one person looked, that was the part of the video that was in focus and audible. The piece was masterfully designed to look slipshod and casual, but underneath it was very manipulative, making you feel both in and out of control over the action. I'd love to see more pieces like this, but besides major art museums and institutions like EMPAC, it would be hard to find a place with the technical capabilities to mount it. Another great installation was Billie Cowie's 3-D "In the Flesh" in which viewers don the red and blue glasses to watch a dancer lift herself off of a zebra print rug. Like a ghost being conjured at a séance, it felt creepy to see her delicate hand reaching up to me, almost touching, and then fading away.

All in all, EMPAC is an amazing place for experimental artists, but after visiting I had a few questions about what its real world impact will be. Here in New York City, spaces to make and show experimental dance and media are more scarce than ever. Perhaps Troy and Albany will become a new destination for artists seeking cheap and plentiful real estate with adequate cultural and community benefits to support them, but even in up-state New York, the great disparity between rich and poor is quite striking. EMPAC is really designed for world class artists who already have the capabilities, funding, and expertise to take advantage of the unsurpassed technological resources this facility can provide. This makes sense given their situation at one of the world's most prestigious technical/engineering institutions.

Even in the arts, it seems the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I would just like an empty room with lights and heat to rehearse in, and perhaps a new video camera that can record high quality footage. I'd like to be able to pay my dancers and crew adequate compensation for their time and talents, and I'd like to not have to work three jobs in order to practice my art. There is a big gulf between the gutter most of us live in and the glimmering edifice of EMPAC. We need to create a bridge to be able to reach these glorious technological dreamlands of the future. This means radically rethinking how we build support, create community, and raise the value of our work. EMPAC makes experimental art look valuable and appealing to the wider world, but its up to us artists to raise the quality of our work to match those expectations. This takes many carefully measured steps to cultivate donor networks, major funders, and presenters whose support will be necessary to reach that glittering gem on the top of the hill.

Upload...Download...Perform - score-sharing site for experimental performance

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:29:17 -0500

I just learned about this fantastic new wiki site, Upload...Download...Perform, that allows people "to share your scores, actions, rituals, choreographed movements, texts, instructions, suggestions, recipes, meditations, etc." Scores are instructions, either written, visual or oral, that delineate some sort of performance action. Many of the scores on this site are for musicians, but there are a few movement and video scores too.

My favorite score so far is Laundry Mat Music by the site's creator and maintainer, Adam Overton, that calls for a laundry mat, dryers, loose change, and any number of performers. At a designated moment, all the performers start up their dryers with one loose coin inside, and everyone sits quietly and listens to the music that ensues.

This site could also be a great resource for anyone suffering from creative blocks. When you're too tied up in mental knots to come up with your own ideas, just follow someone else's lead. No hurt egos if the work totally bombs either.

Check it out and add your movement/video/sound shenanigans to the pot!

Reminder - Elizabeth Zimmer at Kinetic Cinema Tonight!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:52:18 -0500

Tonight's Kinetic Cinema program, curated and hosted by dance critic Elizabeth Zimmer is not to be missed! She will be showing two rarely seen documentaries, including 1987's "The Way Things Go," showing a fascinating Rube Goldberg-like kinetic sculpture by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, and a 2007 documentary on six downtown dance artists moderated and interviewed by Zimmer.

The Way Things Go

Please note the new location below:

Pentacle Movement Media & Collective:Unconscious co-present:
Kinetic Cinema
Monday October 6th, 7:00pm (and the first Monday of every month)
$5 Admission (buy tix at the door)

IRT Theater
154 Christopher Street, Suite 3B (btw Washington & Greenwich Streets)
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212.206.6875
Trains: 1 to Christopher Street, PATH to Christopher Street
Admission: $5
Space is extremely limited, so get there early!

Cool Workshops, Events, Screenings and More This Week!

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:37:31 -0500

This is one of those weeks of when the amount of cool stuff going on in the NYC area has reached a critical mass. I feel compelled to share with you the several of particular interest to dance and media lovers:

Photo: Lisa French

DV8 Physical Theatre on Tour!
This company, under the direction of Lloyd Newson has brought us some of the greatest dance films ever made including THE COST OF LIVING, ENTER ACHILLES, DEAD DREAMS OF MONOCHROME MEN, and STRANGE FISH. Newson's working process is generally to create a stage show and then completely re-envision it for screen. You won't want to miss their latest live work "TO BE STRAIGHT WITH YOU", only playing at two more venues in the US! See info below:

2nd - 5th October .... Kasser Theater, tix
MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, USA

9th - 10th October .... Memorial Hall, UNC, tix
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA, USA

"Nora" by Alla Kovgan, David Hinton, Nora Chipaumire

EMPAC Grand Opening!
The Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY is an incredible facility with even more incredible art-making and programming happening inside of it. Come up to celebrate the opening of the new building and check out the first DANCE MOViES Commissions featuring Kino Eye by Joby Emmons and Elena Demyanenko; Nora by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, choreographed by Nora Chipaumire; Veterans by Victoria Marks and Margaret Williams; and PH Propriedad Horizontal created by David Fariás, Carla Schillagi and Maria Fernanda Vallejos.

DANCE MOViES Performance Dates/Times

Saturday, October 4, 3:30 PM | Concert Hall

Sunday, October 5, 3:00 PM | Concert Hall

Sunday, October 12, 5:00 PM | Concert Hall

Kinetic Cinema Screening with Elizabeth Zimmer!
Elizabeth Zimmer is a renown dance writer and critic as well as the editor of the seminal book on dance for the camera: "Envisioning Dance On Film and Video." You won't want to miss this Kinetic Cinema in which she shares some of her favorite movement-based videos and talks about her interest in dance for the camera.

Kinetic Cinema
Monday October 6th, 7:00pm (and the first Monday of every month)
$5 Admission (buy tix at the door)

IRT Theater
154 Christopher Street, Suite 3B (btw Washington & Greenwich Streets)
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212.206.6875
Trains: 1 to Christopher Street, PATH to Christopher Street
Admission: $5

Interactive dance/media workshop:
FREE WORKSHOP IN ACTIVE SPACE
Presented by MRX with UC Irvine

Saturday, October 18
10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Free Admission

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 W. 37th Street
(between 9th & 10th Avenues)
New York, NY 10018

Featuring Dance faculty from University of California, Irvine:

Jodi Gates - choreographer
Lisa Naugle - choreographer/improviser
John Crawford - interactive media artist
with guest artists
Patrick Corbin and CorbinDances

The Active Space is John Crawford's interactive media
environment that engages participants in a dialog of
mutual influence involving movement, visuals and sound. It supports body-centered performance practices integrated with software systems for motion tracking, live video processing, special effects and interactive music.

Work from a somatic, open-looped structure with Lisa Naugle and experience spatial-perceptual movement techniques for whole-body connectedness in the Active Space. This session will focus on developing choice-making, dynamic flow, and dance-technology interaction.

See new dance/media choreography by Jodie Gates, performed by Patrick Corbin and CorbinDances in the Active Space.

Participate in choreographic exploration based on William Forsythe's improvisational technologies combined with Jodie Gates's own choreographic and teaching methods.

SPACE IS LIMITED; REGISTER NOW:
Email info@movementresearch.org
OR
Call 212.598.0551, ext. 261

For More Information:http://dance.arts.uci.edu/nyc

Kinetic Cinema with Elizabeth Zimmer

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:14:31 -0500

Next Monday, Oct 6th you won't want to miss veteran dance critic Elizabeth Zimmer at Kinetic Cinema. As the editor of the seminal book "Envisioning Dance On Film and Video" (Routledge, 2002), Elizabeth Zimmer has researched and grappled with issues of mediatized dance extensively. For her Oct 6th program she will show two documentaries that offer very different approaches to movement for screen.

The evening will include "The Way Things Go", an award-winning film by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, that documents the chain-reactive performance of a 100 foot long kinetic sculpture made entirely of common household objects (click here for a teaser on YouTube). The second half of the program will feature two rarely-seen volumes of a documentary project Elizabeth Zimmer appeared in and assisted on entitled "Downtown Dance-New York 2007". The footage includes interviews with downtown dance favs Ivy Baldwin, Trajal Harrell, Keely Garfield, Larry Keigwin, RoseAnne Spradlin, and David Parker, shows samples of their work, and has brief introductions by Elizabeth.

Pentacle Movement Media & Collective:Unconscious co-present:
Kinetic Cinema
Monday October 6th, 7:00pm (and the first Monday of every month)
$5 Admission (buy tix at the door)

IRT Theater
154 Christopher Street, Suite 3B (btw Washington & Greenwich Streets)
New York, NY 10014
Phone: 212.206.6875
Trains: 1 to Christopher Street, PATH to Christopher Street
Admission: $5

Kinetic Cinema explores the intersection of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. Each month I invite 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. Next month on Nov 3rd, the collaborative duo, Kerrie Welsh & Sasha Welsh will show films and videos that have influenced their new multimedia performance "Trace Decay."

Kinetic Cinema is part of Movement Media, my new project at Pentacle that provides screenings, consulting services, and online interactive programs for dancers about dance and media. More information will be available soon online at pentacle.org.

Move the Frame Turns 1 year old!

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:15:38 -0500

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!

Viva la dance dance revolution! This was my wild idealist phase :)

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.

Project Bandaloop Straddles Different Definitions of Performance. I liked this strange merging of the commercial world with avant gard performance.

Introducing Kinetic Cinema (and reflecting on 2007) My screening series, Kinetic Cinema became a recurring topic of critique and reflection in 2008.

Second Life: A Puppet Play for the 21st Century. I'm still wrapping my brain around real-time performance in Second Life.

Thoughts on Curating: How to Bring About a Shift In Perception. This article was the genesis of my paper at the Screendance Conference at ADF this year.

Miss Behavior: Video Art and the Female Body at Kinetic Cinema. Thoughts after viewing very cool feminist video art presented by Jonah Bokaer at Kinetic Cinema.

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.

Bad Dance, Good Cinema, and Why It's All Better Than Boring Kriota Willberg's Kinetic Cinema program, The Worst of the Best was very stimulating!

Artist Driven Curating and How it Could Help Galvanize a Screendance Movement. Thoughts and ruminations provoked by my participation in the Screendance: State of the Art2 Conference at ADF 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.

"PRIME MOVER" Screening Raises Questions of Merit & Worth of Dance Films Reflections on the most recent Kinetic Cinema program, and the difference between visual arts-based dance media works vs. cinema-based dance media.

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?

Queens Council on the Arts Offers Online Marketing Workshop for Performing Artists

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:07:12 -0500

I'm continually impressed by the forward-thinking and progressive workshops being offered by the Queens Council on the Arts (QCA). Last year they had a "Dance Doc Slam" where dance artists could show their promotional/documentation videos and receive advice and critiques from a panel of presenters, funders, booking agents, and videographers. This was a really useful way of learning the perspectives of different key figures about what they look for in dance documentation videos and how our work can be conveyed more effectively on screen.

This week, on Sept. 25th, QCA is offering another great workshop for today's dance-maker:
STAGE PRESENCE ONLINE, a dynamic workshop for performing artists on how to best use the internet to capture and promote your work. Once again there will be a fabulous panel of esteemed experts including Jaki Levy of Misnomer Dance, Meghan Sprenger of Dance Theater Workshop and Tom Pearson and Zach Morris of Third Rail Projects. (Yours truly was invited, but I have my Media Sales class that night...) This is an opportunity to have your website reviewed by your peers and gain insight from professionals into the myriad options of developing a presence on the web.

Here are the details:
STAGE PRESENCE ONLINE
Thursday, September 25, 2008, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Topaz Arts, 55-03 39th Ave., Woodside, topazarts.org

Admission is free. Registration is required. Space is limited.

To register, please email your name, address, telephone number, and artistic discipline to mblouin@queenscouncilarts.org A select number of performer's websites will be reviewed and evaluated at this workshop. To have your website reviewed include a url in your registration.

Also, be sure to check out the other workshops QCA is offering this fall, including a presentation by Dance Theater Workshop on Tuesday Sept 23rd at the Chocolate Factory, and one that sounds great to me: "schmooze or loose" learn how to work a room, get new contacts and maintain professional relationships on Tues. Oct. 16th!

"PRIME MOVER" Screening Raises Questions of Merit & Worth of Dance Films

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:24:23 -0500

On Monday night, Kinetic Cinema kicked off it's fall season with a program of films at Chez Bushwick called "Prime Mover: Dance on Camera From Chez Bushwick." The program was originally curated for the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow last May, and was shown in a slightly shortened form for us here. The selections were incredibly varied, from 3-D animation studies to installation art to dance for the camera to performance documentation, and the overarching premise was that it was all movement-based media created by artists associated with Chez Bushwick.

After the screening, a lively discussion ensued among the audience about what we had just seen. Because the program was so varied in its scope and content, the discussion immediately headed into, what is dance film, and can all of these works fit under this one heading? It's a discussion that comes up at every screendance/dance film event I go to, and like all the others, this one also headed into the dangerous area of what is "good" and "bad" dance film. Rather than slipping down this slope, I hoped to lead the debate more into the direction of "mapping" the genre, as Claudia Kappenberg describes in her paper Does Screendance Need to Look Like Dance? presented at Screendance:State of the Art2 at the American Dance Festival last July. In this way we could get a sense of where individual works are located in the intersection of media arts and dance, rather than make subjective value statements.

The work that spurred the most controversy was a video of a performance by choreographer Ann Liv Young called "Snow White Paris." The video was basically a straight ahead documentation of the live performance, with one camera set up at the back of the theater in a fixed wide shot the entire time. The curator for CCA-Glasgow made edits and pulled out 10 minutes of excerpts from the full performance. The reason why the work was chosen for this program was that Ms. Young - who rejects the title of video artist for herself - makes DVDs of almost every performance she does and sells them at the hefty price tag of $55 a pop. In this sense she seems to have adopted an art world business model in which she documents her performance art and then uses the documentation to create value and revenue for the work. Still, despite this unique relationship Ms. Young has to media, many of the audience members at the screening objected to the inclusion of "Snow White Paris" in this program. To some, it had no value because it said nothing about the cinematic potential of dance on camera, and one audience member felt like performance videos sully the reputation of screendance and turn people off to the genre.

In Kappenberg's paper she proposes a map for screendance based on the Laban Effort Graphic that distinguishes between works that are oriented towards the visual arts and those that are oriented towards cinema. While it seems like a small thing, this distinction has surprisingly important ramifications on audience members' expectations when watching screendance. The audience on Monday was primarily made up of dancers and dance filmmakers whose expectations were to see works that displayed cinematic values, ie. a distinct camera viewpoint, a narrative arc, and sophisticated editing. If "Snow White Paris" or some of the installation-based videos had been shown in an art museum as they were in Glasgow, the audience response would have been very different. In the visual arts a work's value tends to be based on overall visual composition, documentation (of time-based works) without camera manipulation, and an open point-of-view that leaves more space for the viewer to make decisions and create their own interpretations of the work.

If anything, Monday's screening emphasized for me the importance of curators to help audiences understand where the screendance works they are showing are located on the greater map. Context is everything. We have to assume that audiences will come with expectations and pre-conceived notions about what they will see. It is the curator's job to make sure that their own expectations are made extremely clear, otherwise audiences will not know how to interpret the material presented, and subjective value judgments will continue to fly. I don't believe performance videos like Ann Liv Young's should be excluded from screendance programming, but I do believe that they need to be shown in the right setting and with the right contextual information surrounding them. I'm glad this piece was included in the Chez Bushwick program, and for the discussion and illumination it provided us. Many thanks to the great audience members on Monday, and to Jonah Bokaer, founding director of Chez Bushwick, for bringing us such a provocative and stimulating program!

Let me know what you think! Have you been frustrated by works you've seen at dance film screenings and festivals? Would your feelings about these works have been different in a different setting, ie a gallery or art museum, or installation?

Kinetic Cinema is Back! Monday Sept 8th

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:52:48 -0500

I'm very pleased to announce the start of a new season of Kinetic Cinema, with the first screening happening at 8pm on Monday Sept 8th at Chez Bushwick. As you might of heard, our original presenting partner, Collective:Unconscious unexpected lost their space in Tribeca this July when their basement was flooded and they were forced out by their landlord. It is a sad and all too familiar story of endangered affordable art spaces in Manhattan. Luckily Chez Bushwick has stepped in and saved the day for this program, and their director, Jonah Bokaer has curated a fabulous selection of films drawing from Chez Bushwick's constituency of dancers and choreographers.

"Momentum" by Samuel Topiary

"PRIME MOVER: Dance on Camera From Chez Bushwick" is a program of works created to represent the diversity of artists working in movement-based media. Filmmakers and choreographers featured on the program will be Charles Atlas, DD Dorvillier, Jillian Peña, Dean Moss, Samuael Topiary, and Ann Liv Young.

Pentacle Movement Media presents:
Kinetic Cinema
in collaboration with Chez Bushwick
Monday September 8th, 8:00pm (and the first Monday of every month)
$5 Admission (buy tix at the door)

Chez Bushwick
304 Boerum St., Buzzer #11
Brooklyn, NY 11206.
Phone: 718.418.4405
URL: http://chezbushwick.net/
Trains: L to Morgan Ave
Admission: $5

In addition, we also wish to recognize and support Jillian Peña, a choreographer and filmmaker on this program who was hit by a car three weeks ago and sustained very serious injuries and hospitalization. The driver was unlicensed, and Jillian, like many artists in our community does not have health insurance. Her dear friend and colleague, Miguel Gutierrez has set up a paypal account to receive financial donations to alleviate the financial hardship that Jillian and her family are experiencing at this time. In addition, there will be opportunities to make donations for her at the screening. Please consider making a donation on her behalf. ANY amount, any number of times that you can give it, will be invaluable for her and for her family.

To donate online, go to paypal.com and sign up for an account (takes literally about 2-3 minutes) and then go to the "Send Money" tab and make the donation to:
donations4jillian@gmail.com

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 come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers, critics, and filmmakers. Past programs have included fresh new shorts from the Dance On Camera Festival, a survey of the history of mediatized movement curated by Brian McCormick, dance films from the popular to the avant-garde curated by Malinda Allen, feminist video art curated by Jonah Bokaer, explorations in experimentalism with Levi Gonzalez, and a tour of inspiringly bad dance films curated by Kriota Willberg. Next month on October 6th, dance writer and critic Elizabeth Zimmer will curate.

This screening of Kinetic Cinema also marks the first event of Movement Media, a new project I am directing at Pentacle that provides screenings, consulting services, and online interactive programs for dancers about dance and media. More information will be available soon online at pentacle.org. In addition to producing Kinetic Cinema, Movement Media will soon become the home of Move the Frame. Stay tuned for more announcements!

Choreographer and Video Artist Jillian Peña Needs Our Help!

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:39:10 -0500

Jillian Peña

Please see this heart-felt email from Miguel Gutierrez about dancer/choreographer/video and performance artist Jillian Peña who sustained critical injuries after being hit by a car two weeks ago. The driver was unlicensed, and Jillian, like many of us in the dance community, does not have health insurance. She needs all of our support right now. Please consider giving a donation. Details below.

Hello

I hope this email finds you well.

I am writing you to ask you for your support for my dear friend Jillian Peña.

You may or may not know that Jillian, who is a dancer, choreographer and video artist, was hit by a car in New York 2 1/2 weeks ago in Brooklyn, NY. This article in the Post has some of the basic information about it: http://www.nypost.com/seven/08122008/news/regionalnews/promising_dancer_hit_by_auto_124057.htm

Since then she has been at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. She was admitted with two hematomas in her head, underwent multiple surgeries, and is now progressively waking up from a coma.

Despite the gravity of the accident and the anxiety of the past few weeks, I believe that Jillian is definitely on the road to recovery. I have been inspired and heartened by the amount of improvement in her condition in just the past 3 days. Yesterday she was transferred from the Intensive Care Unit to the Rehabilitation floor of the hospital, which, in and of itself is cause for celebration.

For updates and info on her situation, you can go to friendsofjillian.blogspot.com

Unfortunately, as with so many artists and working people in this country, Jillian doesn't have health insurance. The medical costs will be staggering. In addition, her parents have re-located here indefinitely from their home in New Mexico, and it will be a huge expense for them as well to stay in NY during Jillian's rehabilitation.

A paypal account has been set up to receive financial donations to alleviate the financial hardship that Jillian and her family are experiencing at this time. Please consider making a donation on her behalf. ANY amount, any number of times that you can give it, will be invaluable for her and for her family. I know this is hardly a time when people have extra cash, but please know that this donation will provide immediate and much needed assistance. No donation is too small or too large.

To donate, go to paypal.com and sign up for an account (takes literally about 2-3 minutes) and then go to the "Send Money" tab and make the donation to:
donations4jillian@gmail.com

Again, please consider making a donation on behalf of Jillian and her family today. With help from as many people as possible, we can keep the focus on Jillian's recovery.

And of course, feel free to pass this email on to as many people as you like.

Thank you
Miguel

www.miguelgutierrez.org

See Footage From My New Videodance, "Fünf 'n' Twist" at the September Dance Film Lab

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:00:46 -0500

Next Tuesday (Sept 2nd) I'll be showing brand new footage from my latest videodance project, Fünf 'n' Twist. Two weeks ago I shot the prom scenes for this surreal Busby Berkeley-esque, satire that oozes with kitschy Americana, German expressionism, and Jungian symbology. Come see what a raw videodance looks like before it gets cooked!

Details:

The Dance Film Lab is moderated and organized by Zach Morris (Third Rail Projects), produced and run with the assistance of Kathleen Green, and in cooperation with the Dance Films Association. Hosted by Dance Theater Workshop, this salon brings dance filmmakers together to present raw footage, drafts, works-in-progress and newly finished films to their peers for constructive feedback, to share information, and address technical, practical and artistic challenges. The lab is free and open to the public, though reservations are necessary.

For our upcoming September 2nd Dance Film Lab, where we'll be screening the work of Leah Kelley Xylona and Anna Brady Nuse.

Dance Film Lab, Tuesday, September 2, 2008 8-10pm
at Dance Theater Workshop (DTW)
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)
Phone: (212) 691-6500 Click Here for DTW's website.
Please contact Zach Morris to RSVP.

(please note: Zach will out of town August 24th to the morning of September 2nd. During this time he will not be responding to emails, so if you email him, simply consider your RSVP confirmed).

Photo credit: Production still from the set of Fünf 'n' Twist, directed by Anna Brady Nuse (Tika pictured as the Matron). photo by Susanna Christians.