Dance Films Association’s 36th Annual Dance On Camera Festival January 2-19, 2008 10 Venues Reflections from the festival coordinator Latika Young With the addition of several exciting new venues and a line-up of 14 dynamic programs at the Walter Reade Theater, DFA’s 36th annual Dance on Camera Festival and Symposium is shaping up to be one of the most exhilarating yet. This year welcomes inaugural screenings at the New York State Theater and Collective: Unconscious in Manhattan, an homage to Loie Fuller at the Berkeley Carroll School and a film screening at Spoke the Hub, both in Brooklyn, and an expansion into the Bronx, with a screening of experimental shorts and live performance at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. The Dance on Camera Festival returns to the Donnell Media Center with a (free!) presentation tracing the history of 3-D technology offered by Gerald Marks, complete with 3-D glasses for each audience member! The Walter Bruno Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will host an invaluable (and free!) presentation by lawyer Peter Jaszi on ‘Fair Use’ as a tool for documentary filmmakers, with special guest directors, Annette Macdonald (JACK COLE: JAZZ) and David van Taylor (GOOD OLD CHARLES SCHULZ). With so many wonderful events it is difficult to choose only a few highlights, but here are a few of my personal favorites. Do not miss the New York premiere of WATER FLOWING TOGETHER at the New York State Theater on January 7 at 6:30 p.m. Director Gwendolen Cates has crafted a moving and intimate portrait of recently retired New York City Ballet principal dancer, Jack Soto. This lovely film will be perfectly complemented by the sumptuous space and lively discussion with Cates and Soto following the screening. Advanced tickets available at www.nycballet.com Humor is well represented this year and a number of delightful films will tickle your dancing funny bones. THE BENTFOOTES, by Todd Alcott and Kriota Wilberg, is a film that was just begging to be made. A ‘mockumentary’ in the vein of Christopher Guest, this film is a loving tribute to a fictitious family tree of dancers whose dancing history stretches back to the Revolution. The chronology of the Bentfootes family is traced through hilarious tongue-and-knee-and-elbow-in-cheek dancing parodies that are particularly delectable for anyone who has taught, or suffered through, “Dance History 101.” Another gem stands out for the magic it creates through the sheer simplicity of imaginative thinking. Produced by the Swiss Compagnie CoLateral, the short INEARTHIA shows an attempt to spin the earth and escape gravity. A simple camera trick, effective sound editing, and voila!–this viewer feels like the earth is indeed spinning on a different axis. Fans of street, hip hop and popular dance are being served this year. Three programs are devoted to urban dance in different forms and in varying regions. Thomas Guzman-Sanchez’ UNDERGROUND DANCE MASTERS is an amazing archival reference and chronology of the often less remembered West Coast influences on street dance. Marcy Garriott’s feature documentary, INSIDE THE CIRCLE, follows two gifted b-boys, Josh and Omar, and one ambitious promoter, Romeo, in Austin, Texas whose lives travel divergent paths, but find their own place in the battle. All three will join Garriott for a post-film discussion following the screening on January 6 at 3:30 p.m. Finally, on January 18 at 6:15 p.m, Armond White will give a presentation with video excerpts that looks at how musical dance choreographers have influenced the “era-defining” popular dance and movement from the likes Michael Jackson, Madonna and others. Of course we cannot have all work and no play. Be sure to join us for the Festival Awards Ceremony and Champagne Gala on January 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Alvin Ailey Studios. The celebration will honor Savion Glover, who has long graced film with his ebullient tapping presence as a Master of Timing. Austin McCormick, the recipient of the first Susan Braun Award for Young Choreographers, will perform with his Baroque/Modern Company XIV. The jury will announce the winner of this year’s festival award. Paul Jared Newman will play Renaissance Spanish music on the guitar with trumpet by Clay Jenkins who will in turn bring the party to a high pitch with a jazz ensemble. We hope it will be a perfect culmination for such a tremendously rich festival!     DFA in China: You Yuan Qian Li Lai Xiang Hui (Two Beings Destined to Meet) by Jia Wu One day in May 2007, I knocked on the door of #907 of 48 West 21st Street in New York City and a graceful lady opened it. I introduced myself: “My name is Jia Wu and I am from China. Recently I graduated from UCLA and have made a dance for the camera.” This meeting can be described by an old Chinese phrase: You Yuan Qian Li Lai Xiang Hui, or “two beings destined to meet each other, though separated by thousands of miles of distance.” Our relationship is based on a shared passion for Dance on Camera. My experience studying choreography in China and dance for the camera in the States, combined with my excitement for making and watching dance films, has fueled me with a mission. I feel I must introduce this art form to Chinese artists and audiences. After several edifying meetings with Deirdre, I began my work in a new role as the Artistic Director of DFA in China to develop a new generation of Chinese dance filmmakers. The first project was to contact Chinese universities and develop short and long range plans in order to spark a Dance on Camera movement in China. Of the 2,702 universities in mainland China, 200 art colleges offer dance and about 100 comprehensive universities have higher education programs in dance. Two art institutions, Beijing Dance Academy and Shanghai Normal University Dance Department, have offered an M.F.A in Dance since 1999 and the Central University for Nationalities Dance School and Beijing Normal University Dance Department of the College of Art and Communication added a Dance M.F.A. in 2003. The Education Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Zhou Ji, asserts that approximately 20 million students studied in universities in 2007–the highest number of any country in the world. Among those students, there are about 70 thousand dance majors. Television programming is a strong influence on daily Chinese social life. A survey conducted by the China Youth Daily and Sina.com asked 5,674 people how they utilize their spare time. 31.3 percent of the respondents said they often watch television, 53.9 percent said sometimes, and 14.8 percent said never. This demonstrates that about 39 million people are TV fans in China. The final competition of the reality/celebrity dance show “Dance Meeting” (a Chinese version of “Dancing with the Stars”) on Dec. 30, 2006, drew an audience of 22.4 million and earned a rating of 16, the highest bestowed rating since the Chinese New Year Festival. In 2007, Hunan TV began collaborating with Hong Kong TVB to produce a new dance reality program entitled “Dance Miracle.” Therefore, the Dance on Camera education program started four years ago in the Beijing Dance Academy is not called dance for the camera, dance film, nor video dance– it is called Dance TV, as inspired by MTV. I presented three workshops about Dance on Camera for the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA), Beijing Normal University (BNU) and Hunan Normal University (HNU) in September and October of 2007. In consultation with the Chair of the Dance TV Program at BDA, Deirdre and I collaborated to create a presentation that would meet the university’s needs. We prepared a chronology presenting excerpts of classical and award-winning dance films ranging from the early 1900s to today. Deirdre created a 30 and 60-minute video introduction to dance on camera, with short clips from such works as “The Cost of Living,” “Amelia,” “Rosas: Danst Rosas” and “Afternoon of Chimeras,” among others. Within the video, she raised diverse questions to inspire students to think about the key elements of Dance for the Camera. BDA, the only higher education dance conservatory in China, was established in 1952. It offers choreography (Chinese and modern dance), Chinese classical dance, folk and ethnic dance and 15 other departments and majors. BDA has a very special status in that it sets the standard of all dance syllabi and acts as the model and principle for dance education in all of China. The new Dance TV major was created under the department of Art Communication. The curriculum is challenging, requiring technical courses including choreography, performance, camera use, basic theory, practical projects and guest professors’ workshops. Last summer, professors Lisa Marie Naugle and John Crawford from the University of California, Irvine, presented three weeks of workshops at BDA. The students were moved by the dance video masterpieces. They smiled, though with tears in their eyes. I knew we made the right choices. After each excerpt in the video, Deirdre raised a key question to lead students to consider and appreciate these works. Before my presentation, I passed around several written questions, such as, “What are the different functions of Time and Space in dance on the stage and the screen? Please give me a definition of Dance on Camera. What are the strengths of Dance for the Camera? What is the relationship between Dance on Camera and Film?” I asked the students to write down their answers twice, both before and after my presentation. After my introduction and analysis of each shot and its editing, the students and I engaged in an active debate. The location for the second workshop was Beijing Normal University, the earliest established teacher-training university in China, founded in 1902. Currently, the university has departments and 12 institutions. One of them is the College of Art and Communication which encompasses the dance, film, fine arts, and design departments. Since 1993, the college has hosted the Beijing Student Film Festival in conjunction with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, China Film Weekly, China Beijing TV Station and the Beijing Student Federation. The 14th Festival ran from April 8 through 28 of 2007. Sixteen prizes were awarded and judged by 30 students from 29 universities and 11 professional film critics, producers and filmmakers. The selected works were made by professional filmmakers, but 73% of the jury are students –thus the name Student Film Festival. This special arrangement fosters a first-class festival that is relatively free of political influence, an anomaly compared to the other national film festivals of China. For this reason, stars, filmmakers and producers pay careful attention to this competition. Starting in 2003, the festival began branching out to other cities in China and there are now 160 sub-festivals simultaneously radiating from the center of Beijing. Around 20 million students nationwide vote for their favorite movies, thereby converting a provincial event into a national phenomenon. The most exciting addition was Dance TV as a new, informal competition category. Even though most of the submitted applications are from students at the Beijing Dance Academy and faculty from the Beijing Normal Universities, such a broad national festival network brought dramatically increased exposure of this art form to a larger Chinese audience. The more information I learned about this competition, the more I was moved by the creative passion, courage and sensitivity of these younger Chinese artists. Based on the strong background of the Film Department at BNU, dance faculties with their students experimented with making dances for the camera without any additional outside support. Without access to systematic education or professional advice, these filmmakers relied on their own talent and intuition and created some tremendously original works. Hunan Normal University (HNU) was the last university where I presented my workshop. Compared with BDA and BNU, this school represents the educational situation of provincial state universities in China. Founded in 1938, the university has 23 colleges, 3 teaching departments and 51 research institutions. The dance department is under the College of Music. In 2007, a new major, music theater, was approved by the Ministry of Education. HNU was the second university offering a music theater/dance major. Dance on Camera is totally new to the students here. The 200-seat media lecture classroom where I gave my presentation was completely full. The students in Hunan rarely see world-class performances since these are only offered in the metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Therefore, they were all the more appreciative of my presentation, which focused on the aesthetic approach, technical development, and historical and social context of dance for the camera. The lecture was designed to inspire them to think about the diverse creative possibilities available that incorporate dance and technology, since their entire education and training to this point had been geared for the stage. We discussed the differences in performance and choreography for the stage versus the screen, both from the perspective of the audience and the artist. Moved by the passion and zeal of these students for a relatively new art form, I made plans to collaborate in the future with these three universities. In Autumn of 2008, Canadian Director Daniel Conrad (AFTERNOON OF THE CHIMERAS) will work with me to teach in BDA for two months to create a dance film together in China. BDA will provide dancers and all technical support. We hope to continue this project, choosing one director from the DFA network to teach at BDA every year. I was also invited to present other long-term workshops in BNU and HNU next year. I believe that a single spark can start a prairie fire. My presentation may have been that first spark! Dancing in the Creative Streets of South Africa DFA is also expanding to South Africa. Beginning in January of 2008, a workshop led by South African/New Yorker photographer Nan Melville and Cape Town dancers Hannah Lowenthal and Mpho Masilela hopes to develop a new generation of dance filmmakers. This project brings together a South African community organization in Cape Town called Um(u)thi initiative, Creative Streets, and DFA to create a way of inspiring young people to express themselves and inspire each other, while developing still and moving images. Our goal is to encourage community bonding amongst the participants and to strengthen the sense of identity. The project will provide local youth with new, valuable and exciting tools and skills in dance and choreography (specifically for the camera) as well as basic skills in filming dance and movement. Nan Melville is known for her constant presence in such esteemed publications as The New York Times, as well as her video work. She worked with DFA’s Director Deirdre Towers on dance for the camera projects for the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive and their work for the Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem. Both Mpho Masilela and Hannah Loewenthal have backgrounds in dance and through Um(u)thi, are sharing their passion and skills on a community level. The Initiative primarily focuses on using the creative arts to bring differentiated communities together and uplift ‘previously disadvantaged neighborhoods. The workshops are targeted mainly at young South Africans who have the possibility of recreating and redefining a positive and healthier future for themselves and their communities. New Curriculum for Teaching Dance on Camera DFA’s educational offerings are also heating up on this side of the Atlantic. Susannah Newman has developed “Creating and Following the Action,” a perfect introduction for students of dance for the camera. Newman presented this curriculum in the Young Filmmakers Workshop on November 15 as part of the 2007 New Jersey State Film Festival at Cape May. The workshop attracted 52 young participants who were led through a series of exercises designed to “teach fundamental uses of camera, space, image and cast towards creating and following action.” What is so unique about this curriculum is its sources for this “action.” Instead of borrowing movement vocabulary from ballet or modern, it allows the students to draw from ninja sword fights, basketball, and hide-n-seek. These are sources that make thinking about and filming movement accessible and exciting for young people. This workshop teaches the students not just to film the ball dropping into the basket, but to “create an interesting, suspenseful action sequence that makes the viewer feel like a participant.” These movement sources make the workshop particularly attractive to boys who might normally think that filming “dance” is not for them. Students also learn to think and move like a dancer themselves, as they experiment with improvisational traveling with the camera through space, in solos, duets, and even quintets. They also develop their critical eye as the workshop culminates in a showing of each group’s best video take and a dialogue about the process and final results. And as young people often have short attention spans, the entire workshop clocks in at slightly less than four hours with a half hour lunch break. Even weeks after the workshop, the students are still talking about “following the action,” “directing audience attention,” and “asymmetry and unpredictability” and Newman has been asked to teach a sequel workshop next year. What a great way to inspire more young people to think about “lights, camera, ACTION!” New Chilean Dance for the Camera Web DANZA E INTERFACE CHILE (www.danzaeinterfacechile.com) is a new website that provides space for new formats of choreographic production. particularly interactive dance and dance using new media. This site is a space for artistic reflection and the diffusion of information about dance work in three interdisciplinary categories: videodance, dance and technology, and the relationship between dance and the public space. Although the site is intended primarily for the Hispanic world and to publicize and disseminate information about activities in Chile and Latin America, it also contains some content in English, including information about works that are being made on other continents, with the intention of bridging contact between audience, artists, programmers and researchers throughout the world. Another project realized during the past year in Chile is Videodanza de Chile (VDCH). Videodanzachile.blogspot.com is a network of independent artists who receive neither private nor state funding and who work in the format of videodance. The site’s purpose is to further the circulation and diffusion of videodance works in order to generate international relationships and exhibitions. The first project of VDCH is a compilation of Independent Chilean Videodance, “VD Made in Chile,” a diverse selection of videodance works by national artists. The compilation has been featured in various festivals in Latin America and Europe and will be shown in Santiago in January of 2008. Also this year, works were solicited for two exhibitions. The first, “New Perspectives On the Body in Movement: Videos by Emergent Latin American Artists,” was a continuation of a show held two years ago for lesser known Chilean artists. The programming was expanded this year in order to open a space for the distribution of experimental works by both Chilean and Latin American artists. This exhibition was presented in the Civic Center Barceloneta and in the LOOP Video Festival in June in Barcelona, Spain. There will be a second edition of this original exhibition in 2008. The second exhibition took place over three days in April, 2007 in the Library of Santiago. The show was called “Videodance in Iberoamerica” and contained a varied selection of works that together offered a broad view of videodance in Latin America. Works from Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Spain and Chile were included. The second edition of “Videodance in Iberoamerica” will take place during a festival in October, 2008. The festival will include additional works from the main dance film festivals in Iberoamerica and additional Chilean videodance films. Explore danzainterfacechile.com and videodanzachile.blogpsot.com New Baroque Dance Films by Latika Young A Baroque spirit seems to be in the air this year. Two recent films expand the offerings of Baroque dance for the screen, an educational-performative film entitled “The Art of Baroque Dance: Folies d’Espagne from Page to Stage,” directed by Natalie van Parys, and a new dance for the camera short, “Folies D’Espagne,” by Austin McCormick and Philip Buiser. “The Art of Baroque Dance: Folies d’Espagne from Page to Stage,” is a new French film (with version in both English and French) directed by Natalie van Parys, a longtime Baroque dancer, researcher and choreographer. The comprehensively researched material and beautifully performed dance demonstrations bring to life an era of dance that is oft-discussed but less easily imagined. Providing a sound explanation of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, the film then demonstrates its intricacies by exploring different versions of the popular baroque dance, Folies d’Espagne. The notation is drawn upon the ground as a dancer moves along beside it, bringing to mind the footprint cutouts for learning social dances of the 20th century. A magical moment occurred for me while watching, in which I was instantaneously able to imagine the two-dimensional notation in its three-dimensional form. The squiggles and lines of the notation suddenly took on a visceral life of their own, seeming to dance off the screen and transforming in my mind to animated appendages and rotating rib cages. This moment served to collapse the past four centuries allowing this viewer to experience baroque dance as something very much alive and present. This video will prove valuable as a teaching tool and scholarly resource. Special features allow the dance sequences, as performed by van Parys and Gilles Piorier and accompanied by Emmanuelle Guiges on viola de gamba, to be played singularly or in their entirety in a grand performance. In addition to notation, the video addresses uses of space, embellishments of the arms, the relationship between the movement and music, and the role of the dancer’s personal interpretation. PDF files of the Feuillet notation for four original dances can also be downloaded from the DVD. Austin McCormick, winner of DFA’s first Young Choreographers Initiative, has created his own filmic version of “Folies D’Espagne,” which will be shown at the Walter Reade Theatre on January 4 and 11 as part of Dance on Camera Festival 2008. Playing upon the original impulse in Baroque dance that allowed each dancer space for interpretation, McCormick’s “Folies” is an updated rendering that emphasizes the sensuality of Baroque dance, an element of the dance that might normally be lost on the modern viewer. Filmed by Philip Buiser with exquisite lighting and creatively minimal but elegant costumes, the film’s narrative shares the story of a young woman who is caught up in the frenetic whirlwind of a Baroque ballroom. Although the space provides her opportunities for flirtation and even seduction, the young woman is reminded that transgression still has its limits in the formal social world of the Baroque and the dancer ultimately finds herself scorned and alienated. “The Art of Baroque Dance: Folies d’Espagne from Page to Stage” is available from Dancetime! Publications at www.dancetimepublications.com/store/folies-d-Espagne.shtml This video is part of an ongoing effort to capture social dance through the centuries by Carol Teten whose series is consistently informative, beautifully costumed and performed, carried off with panache and love for the form. ESPN 2 kicks off with a dance choreographed by NYC dancer Kelly Peters Elizabeth Barry & Associates announced a new program for dancers this fall. It’s not playing at the Joyce, nor is it traveling to a city near you. Just in time for football season to occupy our Sunday afternoons, ESPN 2 offers enthusiasts true stories of touchdown dances and has chosen one of NYC’s rising star-choreographers as guest host on the show, “First Take.” Known as “The Master of Musicality,” Kelly Peters is a rising hip hop icon in the dance world. His new partnership with ESPN 2 invites Kelly to critique football players as they enter the end zone, to highlight past and present dances, and to teach the All-Stars new moves for their next end zone performance. “The stories told are incredibly intriguing.” According to Kelly Peters, Cincinatti Bengals star Chad Johnson collaborated with Go Daddy to perform the Go Daddy dance when he scored a touchdown and would subsequently donate $50,000 to a charity of his choice. “He didn’t score that evening, but he did make the charitable donation, thanks to Go Daddy and the ideology of their new dancing character.” Viewers can tune in to First Take which airs on ESPN 2 every Tuesday, twice between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. For more information on Kelly Peters, please visit www.KellyPetersDance.com.