CONNECTING AND RENEWING Since expanding its Board of Directors in 2009 and hiring a new Executive Director in 2010, and naming Deirdre Towers as Dance on Camera Director, Dance Films Association has been undergoing a process of renewal. Part of that process has included renewing the language of its mission: “Connecting artists and organizations, fostering new works for new audiences, and sharing essential resources, DFA seeks to be a catalyst for innovation in and preservation of dance on camera.” As the oldest dance/film organization in the world, DFA is honored to act as a hub for the dance film community. With this issue we highlight the activities of some of the leaders in our field, and look forward to sharing member’s voices and projects in the following issue. Connecting….renewing…connecting. Consciousness as a Kind of Dance A Conversation Between William Forsythe and Alva Noe NYPL Live, October 2009 posted on dance-tech.net by Marlon Barrios Solano http://www.dance-tech.net/video/william-forsythe-alva-noelive Noe: Let’s think of consciousness as something we do, or enact, or per- form – and we do so in the world. Not that experience is like dance, but that experience is dance. How do I study experience? Well, if experience is a dance, then a choreographer is in the business of making experience, of giving us opportunities to catch ourselves in the act of experiencing. I see Bill’s work, or the work of art in general, as a kind of philosophic research practice. Forsythe: A large part of artistic practice is saying: “Hmm, maybe if this was placed next to that, something new would emerge, a new question would emerge.” We have to constantly question what we receive. There are a lot of expectations in my field about how we deal with tradition – those received notions of making. I am constantly having to question the function of givens. And I don’t know whether my questions are valid, or have been asked already. So I need a sounding board. Noe: You just described what philosophy is. It’s the search for questions against the background of what you think you already know. Forsythe: Let’s question the idea of novelty. Is there some demand, some imperative for novelty? When did novelty enter the cultural dialogue? When did novelty enter our society as something as valued as truth or beauty? Is it an imperative? Must one be novel in order to achieve com- munication at some level? Noe: I don’t quite mean originality. I mean something more like actually being able to see what there is without preconceptions. It’s not there and then you make it there. And maybe that’s why what you do is so moving. What you’re essentially saying to the audience is: change yourself, get new skills so you can see what I’m showing you. Philosophy is about acquiring new forms of access to the world through conversation. Forsythe: I guess that’s what art is too. Noe: That’s why you’re a philosopher and I’m a dancer. Alva Noe is a Member of the Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, tand the author of the book ACTION IN PERCEPTION. He is also Philosopher in Residence in William Forsythe’s company. William Forsythe’s work has redefined classical ballet, transforming it into a dynamic, 21st century form of artistic expression. From performance and visual arts to architecture and multi-media projects, Forsythe’s choreographic thinking has both contributed and continuously respond- ed to contemporary innovation on an international scale Dance-tech.net is a social networking website connecting people concerned about the techne, or the craft, of dance in our contemporary world, its embedded condition in technological design and mediated environments and, of course, its trainings, its stories and histories. Using the most advanced social software platforms, and internet-rich multi-media appplications, dance-tech.net provides movement and new-media artists, theorists, thinkers and technologists the possibility of sharing work, ideas and research, generating opportunities for interdisciplinary and collaborative projects. Marlon Barrios Solano, creator and producer of dance-tech.net, and DFA’s Online Strategy Advisor, is based in New York and Dresden.   Virtual Dance: Another Frontier by Kathryn Luckstone the millions of anonymous contributors to websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia and MySpace. These websites were once devel- oped with the simplest communicative intentions and now they hold the roots to major marketing, advertising and entertainment content. No one could predict how far the internet would change the interface of our economy, and though still in its infancy, the internet has already assumed an invaluable position in our personal and professional lives. Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts is forging its own voice through the web using Fora.TV as the vessel to bring dance and dance education to the masses. The project, appropriately entitled Virtual Pillow, began with a Leading for the Future grant. LFF is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), Leading for the Future is an experimental pilot initiative designed to enable a group of artistically outstanding organizations to strengthen their business in a shifting environ- ment. Virtual Pillow developed out of the necessity to create a web presence by Jacob’s Pillow for dance as a branch of their Audience Engagement Program. The team at Jacob’s Pillow have been steadily building the free video content on Fora.TV from current events that have been documented this season. Videos include a discussion with dance filmmakers Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer of Mouvement Perpétuel on 3D filmmaking. As with any outreach or marketing programing there is a significant amount of strategy required. The position of Jacob’s Pillow is no different. How does any web developer comfortably place their analyzed and edited video next to a homemade Trip to Mini-Mart Part One video and expect to directly reach their target audience? Fora.TV, developed in 2005 on the heels of the popular TED Talks and conferences describe their site as, “the leading online destination for intelligent video programs on the people, issues, and ideas changing the world. We offer both free and fee-based video viewing of live events, lectures, and debates to a smart, deeply- engaged audience: you!”. Thus far, the popular Pillow Talk series during the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival are the only videos available on the site. However, the project is in its inaugural year and will undoubtedly contribute to quality, dance-related materials on web. Websites such as DanceMedia and TenduTV are contenders in the field as well and continuously evolve their offerings. For dance filmmakers the web divides those who feel the web degrades their artistic efforts and those who deem it a wonderful tool and outlet for their work to be seen. True, the daunting abyss of the internet can be overwhelming for artists who must be their own Director of Marketing, Public Relations, Development and Communications. However, as per the wonderful strides demonstrated by the team at Jacob’s Pillow, there is clearly an appropriate destination for every video that you yourself have the power to navigate. http://fora.tv/2010/07/03/3D_Dance_Filmmaking_with_Mouvement_Perptuel Kathryn Luckstone was DFA Festival Coordinator in 2010. This summer she was a video documentation intern at Jacob’s Pillow. Pentacle’s MOVEMENT MEDIA presents UMOVE The first Annual UMOVE Online Videodance Festival ran from Oct. 1-31, 2009 on the web, and in the US and around the world in 2010. Curated by Anna Brady Nuse, Marta Renzi and Kriota Willberg. This essay first appeared in the festival’s brochure.       If video is the medium of right now, dance on screen is the art form poised to flourish in this new age. While newspapers and record companies – the media industries of the last century – crumble at the feet of Google and social networks, dance is experiencing a renaissance on screen. Who can ignore the popularity of competition shows like “So You Think You Can Dance?” And Judson Laipply’s “Evolution of Dance” is the longest-running and most-watched online video ever. While YouTube still doesn’t have a category for dance videos, dance is becoming more and more ubiquitous on our screens and is massively popular. What does the trend mean to the serious dance aficionado? The answer is far for clear, partly because there are few web sites or hosting platforms that aggregate and catalog online dance for the camera. It is even more rare to find intelligent reviews or critical writing about artists working in this medium. Hoping to reveal how artists are using these new online and mobile media, UMOVE put out a call for submissions to media makers of all kinds. We received submissions from both experienced filmmakers and novices, animators working in Second Life, and video artists working with webcams. As a result, we feel that our first festival, while small in size, reflects a broader range of work than is normally seen in the off-line dance film festival circuit. For our touring screening program we selected twelve videos that are shining examples of what we consider to be the unique qualities of online and mobile videos. They’re short, cheap, shareable, high in concept and low in production value. As audiences shift to online and mobile devices, artists will need to reach them there. As we study and understand what works artistically in these realms, we can better appreciate what’s unique to them. With our first annual UMOVE Festival, we are eager to expose the current trends in online videodance works that are unique, creative and completely at home in the 20th century. MovetheFrame: http://pentacleblogs.org/movetheframe/ Anna Brady Nuse was the Festival Coordinator for DFA’s Dance on Camera Festival 2007 and is now director of Pentacle’s Movement Media Project and editor of Move the Frame blog. Marta Renzi is a choreographer, dance filmmaker, and the President of DFA’s Board of Directors. Filmmaker/educator Kriota Willberg’s SUNSCREEN SERENADE (an EMPAC DanceMovies commission), was a DOCF 2010 nominated short. Her feature, THE BENTFOOTES, won 2nd place in Narrative Feature at the Landlocked Film Festival in 2008. EMPAC’s LIVE.MEDIA+PERFORMANCE.LAB EMPAC’s first summer lab for interactive media in performance was held from August 16-22, and directed by independent choreographer and media artist Johannes Birringer, and composer/media artist Mark Coniglio, a pioneer in the integration of dance and media. The week of intensive training had the 15 participants investigating the possibilities of mixed reality and real time architectures, programmable environments, interactive design and the integration of time-based media into live performance and installation. The participants were emerging and professional art practitioners, researchers, engineers and students from different backgrounds in performance and new media, committed to sharing their interest in developing a deeper understanding of composing work focused on real time, interactive or time-based experiences and multidisciplinary collaborative processes (video, sound processing, projection design, lighting, choreography and directing). Below are a few excerpts from the workshop blog. Images and video from the workshop were also posted: http://empaclivemediaperformancelab.blogspot.com/ Saturday, August 21 In Wendy’s dotted lanscape, the grid becomes mass of starry nightscape swirling about like swarms of stars. Here the action is enacted by a dancer (James) and a musician (Julia) who move in this starry landcsape and respond to its character. When the environment was performed, we could not always see the human actors as the space is rather dark, only one side light offering a corridor of light, and the most astonishing moment happened when James, at one instant, suddenly appears (his face) in the bright beam of light. (posted by Johannes Birringer) Thursday, August 19 Is not the televisual experience entirely different from the communal ethos of theatre? Have social networks and the internet replaced the participatory communal ethos of the theatre, and what new “communities” of interest have arisen, supported by network connectivity and interactivity? The latter, as a larger cultural frame, involves of course the emergent practices of social networks and multiplatform networked creativities, a subject we briefly addressed on Day 4 during the conceptual discussions. Suzon in fact raised the question, in response to my mention of the teleplateaux (a collaborative project initiated byTMA Hellerau), and wondered whether “platform” is a more suitable spatio-conceptual term for multiple diffusion and dissemination possibilities for live media art work in the 21st century. (posted by Johannes Birringer)