BALLERINA
Bertrand Normand, 2007, France; 77m

Russian ballerinas have always been a source of pride to their country and a revelation to
Western audiences, from Pavlova to Makarova.  Normand, a Frenchman, explores his
muse, the St. Petersburg ballerina, through interview and performance footage of Alina
Somova, Svetlana Zakharova, Diana Vishneva, Ulyana Lopatkina and Evgenia Obraztsova. Each ballerina reveals her personal hopes and dreams, as well as the misfortunes that can
interrupt a brilliant career. Lopatkina is seen returning to dancing after serious foot
surgery and time off for motherhood. An intimate look at six of the Kirov’s rising
stars and superstars.

ON THE BEACH WITH THE BALLETS RUSSES
Gillian Lacey, England, 2008; 23m

Even dedicated dancers need time off for play. This film is comprised of informal archival footage of the Ballets Russes frolicking on the beach in Sidney, Australia during
their 1936-1940 tours. No point shoes on the sand but some lively cartwheels, leaps and ballet poses in the edited fragments. We spotted the likes of Serge Lifar, Riabouchinska and raven-haired Tamara Toumanova.

KINO EYE
Joby Emmons, USA, 2008; 8m
(Nominated for the Jury Prize)

Choreographed by Elena Demyanenko, Kino-Eye shadows a dancer through contemporary Moscow. Immersed in an aesthetic of video surveillance, the dancer shifts in and out of glitches and static as video playback manipulates her image.

VETERANS
Victoria Marks & Margaret Williams, USA/UK, 2008; 18m

These two artists who, collaborated previously on the dance videos OUTSIDE IN, MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS, and MEN, put their focus on five young veterans attempting to make peace with their military service. Performed and co-created by vets from the West Los Angeles VA combat rehab/ PTSD clinic.

PROPIEDAD HORIZONTAL
David Fari, Carla Schillagi and Maria Fernanda Vallejos, Argentina, 2008, 10m
(Nominated for Jury  Prize)

Dancers in a narrow passageway to create an elegant,  abstract, and lively piece of pure movement and form.

NORA
Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, 2008, USA/UK; 35m

Choreographed by Nora Chipaumire, and produced by Joan Frosch NORA is a dense and swiftly moving poem of  sound and image, alternately tragic and comic. A fiercely embattled African girl experiences the joys and disappointments of love, and struggles against intimidation and violence to gain her independence. Shot entirely on location in Southern Africa, NORA includes a multitude of local performers and dancers of all ages, from schoolchildren to grandmothers, with rousing music by Zimbabwean legend Thomas Mapfumo.

WINGS OF WAX
Hans Hulscher, Netherlands, 1997; 19m

Opening with a a bare tree, hanging crown downwards with its roots in the air, the
dancers emerge out of the black background, only to be absorbed back into it again in Jiri Kylian’s take on the man who flew too near the sun.

PETIT MORT
Hans Hulscher, Netherlands, 1996; 18m

Set to the slow tempos of two of Mozart’s most beautiful and popular piano
concertos, choreographer Jiri Kylian writes: “I am living and working in a world where nothing is sacred, and where brutality and arbitrariness are commonplaces. This work should convey the idea of two ancient torsos, their heads and limbs cut off - however unable to destroy their beauty, thus reflecting the spiritual power of their creator.”

SLEEPLESS
Hans Hulscher, Netherlands, 2004, 26m

In this work for six dancers, Dutch choreographer Jiri Kylian uses Mozart’s adagio and rondo KV 617 in C major to make a pun on ‘moving, and being moved. He believes that “the nature of moving is such that, if you move towards something, you automatically move away from something else.”

ANTONIO GADES: THE ETHICS OF DANCING
Juan Cano Arecha, 2007, Spain; 56m

Dancer, choreographer, Communist, lover, Antonio Gades (1936-2004) brought an intense, seductive glamour to flamenco’s powerful vocabulary. One of the finest flamenco performers of the 20th Century, he was a master of spare gestures and potent stillness. This new documentary reveals previously unseen images of the dancer’s work, including his choreography for Ad Libitum, danced with Alicia Alonso and an excerpt from Giselle; in which he performed the role of Hilarion, among other surprises. Christina Hoyos, his partner in the Gades/Saura film collaborations of Blood Wedding and El Amor Brujo, is just one of the interviewees.

OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR
David Fernandez, USA, 2007; 19m

Set to Kronos Quartet’s REQUIEM FOR ADAM, OBJECTS, was filmed in Ailey Citigroup Theater with a talented group of dancers from American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet, among them Misty Copeland, Luciana Paris, Ana Sophia Scheller, and NYCB principal Daniel Ulbricht. Choreographer Fernandez was inspired by the sculptures of Giacometti and the work of Maurice Bejart to make this piece on the theme of memory, exploring one man’s journey through his past, as figures and events appear to him in fitful spurts and swiftly disappear.

ICARUS (APR)
David Fernandez, USA, 2008; 10m

A solo based on a modern interpretation of the Icarus legend, set to the music of Pink Floyd’s Money. Icarus’s wings are made of credit cards and his flight toward the sun and his come-uppance have a particular resonance in today’s troubled economy. Performed by Ask La Cour and Frank Dellapolla.

MAGNETIC CINEMA
Pierre Coulibeuf, 2008, France; 33m

Inspired by Canadian choreographer Benoit Lachambre’s Lugares Comunes, this film was shot in Brittany, France near Brest and touches on the sphere of the supernatural. Pierre Coulibeuf is a filmmaker fascinated by the idea of presenting images in motion in relation to external realities.  As in his previous works, Pavillon Noir and Lost Paradise,  he introduces his “characters” into a world of natural elements – air, water, plant and mineral – leading to a strange, antagonistic kinship and body movements that often imitate nature’s dark forces. Communication is non-verbal except for those disturbing android doubles that operate by magnetic signals and speak and move robotically. Whose universe is this?

MATCHBOX
Daniel Belton, 2008, New Zealand; 25m

An evocative partnership game, played out on a jazzy dance floor with dazzling physicality. Eight dancers pitch themselves at each other in a romantic roller coaster ride to love. Dancers sort each other out in witty, competitive ways.

SENS I
Julien Condemine, France, 2008; 33m

Belgian choreographer Pedro Pauwels, with the collaboration of the Compagnie des Indes, creates a choreographic space and invites the audience to engage in the physicality and mystery of the performance. Two dancers – Francesca Bonato and Magalie Bouze– joined like Siamese twins by their left feet, move around a crackling bubble-wrap carpet that resembles a dimly lit boxing ring. This dance is on the frontier of the impossible meeting the triumphant. A brief photo essay brings a sense of relief after the intensity of the hypnotic experience.

THE DANCE OF THE ENCHANTRESS
Adoor Gopalakrishnan & Brigitte Chataignier, 2007, France; 70m

The beauty of the dance form of Mohiniyattam (mohini means enchantress and attam translates as graceful movements) is explored by this veteran filmmaker. Born in the southern region of Kerala, both devotional and sensuous in nature, Mohinitattam lays emphasis on romance, the shades, colors and moods of love. Rich in folk flavor, this dance of the enchantress uses mudras - hand gestures – along with music and body movement, to narrate stories related to the Lord Vishnu, often disguised as an enchantress.  Gopalakrishnan picks out the richness of each color from the white and gold of the pleated saris to intense hues made even stronger by perfect lighting.

AFTER DURER
Daniel Belton, 2007, New Zealand; 7.5m

A choreographed probe into the heart of Durer’s engraving Melencolia I spiced by Jac Grenfell’s depiction of the Geometric Body at the center of the engraving.

VEITING NORBA
Didzis Eglitis, Latvia, 2007; 3m

An accidental encounter on a sidewalk spins a group waiting for the garbage collector into a chain reaction likely to provoke a smile.

DANCE LIKE YOUR OLD MAN
Gideon Obarzanek & Edwina Throsby, 2007, Australia; 10m

Six women imitate their dads dancing. Winner of Cinedans 2008.
See Youtube clip.

DAY OFF
Karn Junkinsmith, USA, 2007; 8m

Taking a day off from the convent, six novices dancing through the suburban streets of North Seattle in this charming black and white short.

OF THE HEART
Douglas Rosenberg/Allan Kaeja, USA, 2008; 6m
(Nominated for Jury Prize)

A dance camera trio set in a windblown field with heartfelt performances by David Dorfman and Lisa Race.

LIBERAMAE
Marie-Christine Letourneux, 2008, Canada; 21m

Elia, a timid and introverted man, accompanies his mother to a private event where a choreographed performance is taking place. When the dancer appears, Elias discovers that, as if in a nightmare, he is the one who is on stage. Under the harsh stage lights, his doppelganger’s movements express everything he is most ashamed of: his fear of not being perfect, his isolation and his self-centeredness. Elia rushes from the room in search of an explanation. What if the escape to his nightmare lies in the tortured gestures of the dancer?

MANUELLE LABOR
Marie Losier, 2007 16mm, USA: 10m

Made in collaboration with Canadian director Guy Maddin, this film involves two sisters, five brothers, a doctor and two nurses and the miraculous birth of a pair of hands..but whose hands?

KAROHANO
Jeannette Ginslov, South Africa, 2008; 8’55m

Three young men dancing on the streets of downtown Johannesburg reveal aspects of African male identity, through subtle shades of physical satire.

BARDO
Richard Move, 2007, USA; 4.52
(Nominated for Jury Prize)

Choreographed by Richard Move, commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company and performed by Katherine Crockett.

MYSTERIES OF NATURE
Dahci Ma, 2008, South Korea; 10m
(Winner of the Jury Prize)

Torn into bits and gone with the wind.

GENTLE SHIFT
Patrick Lovejoy, USA, 2008; 4.5m

An elegant choreography of the cinema space created by sliding framed images of
the body in time with a jazz score.

VSPRS SHOW AND TELL
Sophie Fiennes, 2006, Belgium; 72m

Trailblazing Belgian choreographer Alain Platel and innovative filmmaker Sophie Fiennes (A Pervert’s Guide to Cinema) teamed up for this hybrid marvel – part performance, part documentary – in which dance, drama and music fuse to mesmerizing effect. Platel and his Les Ballets C de la B have often courted controversy and this piece is a contemporary interpretation of Monteverdi’s Maria Vespers, one of the most significant works of European religious music. Fienne brilliantly captures the bizarre performance of VSPRS, set at the foot of a glacier, with virtuoso soloists and ensembles exploring the behavior of those whose psyches and bodies have experienced both trauma and ecstasy. The result was described by one critic as ”the weirdest, most shocking and provocative performance you will ever see.”  See Fiennes on VSPRS.

HISTORIA
Karsten Liske, 2007, Germany; 2007; 45m

A young woman’s short life is visualized in the dramatic interplay of choreographic and abstract images. In the silence of mourning, among family and friends following a funeral procession through various parts of a Portuguese city, a compelling narrative emerges about the interval between life and death. Awarded the price for best film work at NapoliDanza Festival 2008.

ISHANOU (THE CHOSEN ONE)
Aribam Syam Sharma, India, 1991; 91m

One of the hits of the 1990 Cannes Festival, the film was based on a story by Manipuri writer MK Binodini Devi, THE CHOSEN is a rich melodrama that contrasts ordinary domestic life with the strange rituals of the Meitei matriarchal cult. Beautiful and spirited, Tampha is happily married to Dhanbir and lives with him and their little daughter Bembem under the protective care of her market woman mother. All is bliss until Tampha is unaccountably seized by divine possession and experiences violent fits of vision and trance. In search of her Maibi guru, she abandons her family and embarks on a transcendental journey. Myth, magic and ritual and a riveting final sequence of shamanic dance (the shamans portray themselves) are the elements that make ISHANOU an unforgettable viewing experience.

AMERICAN MASTERS JEROME ROBBINS: SOMETHING TO DANCE ABOUT
Judy Kinberg, 2008, USA; 112m

How does one describe a genius like Jerome Robbins – the choreographer/director who transformed the Broadway musical and left anindelible mark on the world of classical ballet? Here is an extraordinary documentary that explores this complex figure in all his contradictory colors. Directed and produced by six-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Judy Kinberg and written by best-selling Robbins biographer Amanda Vaill, it examines with candor and humor, his creative process, his perfectionism, and the controversies that plagued his life. Kinberg uncovers never-before-seen rehearsal footage and interviews many of his esteemed colleagues, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell, Jacques d’Amboise, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents.

THE BLUE BIRD
Maurice Tourneur, 1918 film, US; 81m

Based on the play of the same title by Nobel Prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck, this silent film fantasy with allegoric overtones cries out to be a full-length ballet. Combining lavish sets, ingenious camera effects and disarmingly naturalistic performances, it evokes the whimsy of Melies and looks ahead to the expressionism of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.  Two children – a girl and a boy named Mytyl and Tytyl (Tula Belle and Robin Macdougall) – are joined by the fairy Berylune (Lillian Cook) in their quest through magical realms for the elusive Blue Bird of Happiness. Reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, this Blue Bird has its own distinct old-world charm. Preserved with its original color tints, the print has undergone some decomposition but is still breathtakingly lovely to behold. Accompanied by live piano music by Ben Model.

DAMES
Ray Enright with Busby Berkeley, USA, 1934; 90

Busby Berkeley was a genius of excess. At his best, particularly in his classic black and white films, he created some of the most awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping production numbers in Hollywood musical history. On the 50th anniversary of DAMES, Dance on Camera celebrates Berkeley, his signature kaleidoscopic style, his cinematic flair and endless ingenuity. This backstage putting-on-show musical is enlivened by the bright comic turns of some great character actors, among them ZaSu Pitts, Guy Kibbee, and the inimitable Joan Blondell (catch her as the laundress in The Girl at the Ironing Board number!). For romance, there’s Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, of course, but for eye candy there’s I Only Have Eyes for You,  and the title number with chorus girls, bathtubs, alarm clocks, you name them!

GANG’S ALL HERE
Busby Berkeley, USA, 1943; 103m

Berkeley’s first color film is an unparalleled over-the-top extravaganza featuring Carmen Miranda as the Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat, accompanied by chorus girls with life-size bananas. Ignore the ridiculous plot but enjoy the tuneful tunes of Harry Warren, the dizzy humor of Charlotte Greenwood, and the nice renditions by Alice Faye looking “swell”, in living color. Eugene Pallette and Edward Everett Horton add silliness and cheer. According to film historian Martin Rubin in his book Showstoppers: Busby Berkeley and the Tradition of Spectacle: “GANG’S ALL HERE contains more energy and imagination than all of Berkeley’s work for MGM put together.”