Disabled Arts on Camera, Part 1: Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson

Film short Revel in Your Body, directed by Katherine Helen Fisher,
features a duet by disabled artists Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson.
It received its NYC premiere this month at Dance on Camera.

Revel in Your Body

(USA, 2018; 5:18)

directed by Katherine Helen Fisher

Top and bottom, left to right: Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson
Center: Laurel Lawson
(photos: Jared Serfozo)

Here's a taste of the audio description (click) of dance and film artist Katherine Helen Fisher's exhilarating short featuring two dance superstars, Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson of the disabled arts troupe Kinetic Light.

Sheppard and Lawson's collaborative work have always represented, for me, innovation, expansiveness and possibility, powerful expressions of sensuality and joy. In just a little over five minutes, this film captures all of that and in abundance.

The music of composer Missy Mazzoli, deliciously vocalized in the film by Grammy-winning ensemble Roomful of Teeth, welcomes you, the observer, to a percolating and buoyant space. Shimmy Boyle's heady, slow-motion cinematography offers time to appreciate the spatial relationship of body to body, to enjoy the creamy flow of movement of two bodies in wheelchairs. It enters the hidden depths of time and works its way into your system, too.

From Fisher's Director's Statement:

REVEL IN YOUR BODY originated as a creative concept when the dancers shared online a slow-motion iPhone video of them jumping on a trampoline while strapped into their wheelchairs. This was AFTER being told by a well-known editorial photographer that the trampoline frequently used for other dancer photoshoots was off limits to them. This 'no' led these dancers to get their own damn trampoline and find another collaborator… me.

See, it's that #GetOurOwnDamnTrampoline spirit that gets me every single time!

For further information on Revel in Your Body, including future screenings, click here.

******

DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

******

Subscribe in a reader

46th Dance on Camera Festival, July 20-24, Lincoln Center

Between Yourself and Me--a documentary on the innovative immersive theater works of Third Rail Projects--will screen at the 46th Dance on Camera Festival this month at The Walter Reade Theater.

*******************************************************

For most of its 80 minutes, Lucinda Childs, Great Fugue by Beethoven (France, 2017) stays confined within the studio bubble, offering outsiders a dry, if rare, insider's view of the making of a contemporary ballet by one of the queens of New York postmodern dance. French filmmaker Marie-Hélène Rebois captures the choreographer at work with Lyon Opera Ballet to master the challenging surprises of a Beethoven piece. Dancers' sleek bodies skim across a tall, wide expanse of window panes in cool, fluid, friction-less partnering (which, with just a touch of daring, easily could have been rendered same-sex and gender-nonconforming). Happily, the final twenty-or-so minutes give us a handsome finished work--intricate for all its quiet lack of fuss; airy and shot through with light. World premiere Monday, July 23 (6pm) at the 46th Dance on Camera Festival, co-presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association.

Also, check out the festival's world premiere of Between Yourself and Me (USA, 2017; 28m), co-produced with Dance Films Association, a look at acclaimed immersive theater troupe Third Rail Projects (Then She Fell) and Gravity Hero (USA, 2018, 70m), Trey McIntyre's reflection on his decision to shut down his successful, ten-year-old Boise, Idaho dance troupe.

Dance on Camera runs from Friday, July 20 through Tuesday, July 24 with all films screening at The Walter Reade Theater. For schedule information and tickets, click here.

The Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue), Manhattan

Subscribe in a reader

Film honors modern dancer Michio Ito

Review of Michio Ito: Pioneering Dancer-Choreographer
by Timothy Cowart, The DFA Blog, January 23, 2013

Interview with director Bonnie Oda Homsey
by Timothy Cowart, The DFA Blog, January 23, 2013

Farihah Zaman launches blog on Dance on Camera films

The Bangladesh-born film writer and documentary director Farihah Zaman contributes writing on the 2013 Dance on Camera Festival in a new blog you can find here.

"Dance Legacies" on film

from Sand directed by Cari Ann Shim Sham
(USA, 2010; 10 min)

The hour-long Dance Legacies program, a lesser-known gem of this year's Dance on Camera Festival, will present a spectrum of short-film topics--from Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's re-staging of her 1988 work, Shelter, in the wake of New Orleans' Katrina crisis to a look at the vaudeville tradition of sand dancing with father-and-son tappers Darrow Igus and Kenji Igus. The directors of all five films will be on hand to introduce their work.

Dance Legacies screenings are scheduled for January 30 and January 31 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. For more information on this program, click here. To purchase tickets, click your selected date under "Showtimes" (left-hand column).

Dance on Camera is a presentation of Dance Films Association and co-sponsored by The Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Dance on Camera
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street (between Amsterdam and Broadway), Manhattan
(map/directions)

TenduTV offers new ways to savor dance

Live dance is a powerful force, but when you're away from the theater, fantastic dance and its talented creators can also be as close as your fingertips. Visit TenduTV, the new source for high-quality dance media featuring concert performances, documentaries and interviews available for streaming or download. Watch the best in dance on your tv, tablet or mobile device--anywhere that you are. Get started with TenduTV.

Coming up at The Joyce Theater: 

MacArthur Award winner Martha Clarke and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry present Angel Reapers, November 29-December 11. Lust among the the 18th Century Shakers! 

See this now, from TenduTV:  Martha Clarke: Light and Dark (60 min.)

Directed by Joyce Chopra, Light and Dark follows dancer/choreographer Martha Clarke’s creative process for a year, as she finds her own voice as a choreographer following her departure from Pilobolus. Winner of the 1980 Dance on Camera Festival.

TenduTV on Facebook
Follow @tendutv on Twitter

Filmmaker Saura's vision: "Flamenco, Flamenco"

Film review: Flamenco, Flamenco (Spain, 2010) by Carlos Saura

by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Dance Films Association Journal, February 25, 2011

DFA's Big Screen Project

Dance Films Association welcomes you to The Big Screen Project, a new venue for video, film, live and interactive content, "a real space where people, media and culture connect." And it's free!

The Big Screen Project is a 30 x 16.5 ft. HD Format LED screen on a wall in a 10,000 sq. ft. public plaza adjacent to a new 54-story multi-use building on Sixth Avenue between 29th and 30th Street in Manhattan. BSP is viewable from 29th and 30th streets (close to 6th Avenue), the atrium behind The Eventi, FoodParc, and Bar Basque, a striking restaurant designed by BLADE RUNNER’s Syd Mead. Headsets are available upon request.

For complete programming and schedule details, click here.

For information on DFA's 39th Annual Dance on Camera Festival (January 3-February 1 at the Walter Reade Theater, the Baryshnikov Arts Center and other venues), click here.

Hulu dancing...on camera

TenduTV announces the launch of the digital Dance on Camera Festival on Hulu, at www.hulu.com/network/tendutv--an extension of the Dance Films Association's Dance on Camera Festival (DOCF), which it has produced annually for the last 38 years, the last 14 of which have been co-presented with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. 

TenduTV will be adding new films on a regular basis, providing viewers with a diverse range of dance on screen. While the initial films primarily represent contemporary works from prior editions of the festival, the Dance Films Association and TenduTV will also curate focused collections of dance films. Planned themes include "Past Masters," "Africa" and "Animation." 

Currently available films

Arcus, a jury prize nominee, DOCF 2004

directed by Alla Kovgan and Jeff Silva

Arising, from DOCF 2009

directed and choreographed by Ben Dolphin

Folies D'Espagne, a jury prize nominee, DOCF 2008

directed by Philip Busier

choreographed by Austin McCormick

Madrugada, from DOCF 2005

directed by William Morrison

choreographed by Deborah Greenfield

Vanishing Point, DOCF 2009

directed by Patrick Lovejoy

Wiped, Jury Winner, DOCF 2002

directed and choreographed by Hans Beenhakker 

About TenduTV

Founded in 2008, TenduTV seeks to deliver dance to audiences through the highest quality digital distribution network available to the art form today. Through TenduTV's platform partners, dance artists and organizations will be able to transport their vision beyond the physical theater and engage audiences through computers and 200 million digital devices including internet-enabled televisions, portable video players and mobile devices. By empowering artists to connect with audiences on a global scale, TenduTV believes that the dance field can be as strong financially as it is creatively.

About Dance Films Association, Inc.

Dance Films Association, Inc. (DFA) is dedicated to furthering the art of dance film. 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. DFA was founded by Susan Braun in 1956, and included Ted Shawn, the founder of Jacob's Pillow, as its charter member, as well as modern dance pioneer Jose Limon and ballerina Alicia Markova as members of its first Board of Directors. A tireless advocate, Ms. Braun devoted her life to finding, showcasing, preserving dance films and videos until her death in 1995. Today, DFA seeks to carry on her spirit of creativity and collaboration in a time of extraordinary transformation. 

For more information, visit Dance Films Association and TenduTV.

PBS to broadcast award-winning "Water Flowing Together"

Did you miss Dance on Camera's screenings of Water Flowing Together, first-time filmmaker Gwendolen Cates's new documentary about the life, career and retirement of New York City Ballet's Jock Soto? This film is a feast. Cates goes for a collision of images that simply pop from the screen, and she incorporates a multitude of thoughtful and heartful perspectives from Soto and the people who love him and have worked beside him. You'll have another chance to see Water Flowing Together when PBS broadcasts the 60-minute version of this 77-minute film on Independent Lens on April 8. Check your local listings for the specific time.

For other InfiniteBody posts on Water Flowing Together, click here and here.

Winners of the 2008 Jury Prize at Dance Film Associations' 36th annual Dance on Camera Festival:

FLYING LESSON
Phil Harder, Rosanne Chamecki, Andrea Lerner, USA, 2007; 4:37 minutes
http://www.chameckilerner.org

WATER FLOWING TOGETHER
Gwendolen Cates, USA, 2007; 77 minutes
See trailer

Tobias reviews Cates film on Jock Soto

Jock Soto: Sightings
by Tobi Tobias, VoiceofDance.com

The Turning World (9)/Dance on Camera

"I think it's important to know the world you're living in and that not everything is wonderful. That is very important to me."

--Pina Bausch in Pina Bausch, a 44-minute documentary by German filmmaker Anne Linsel (2006), part of the 2008 Dance on Camera festival, which runs through January 19 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center

The Linsel film is a rich opportunity to watch quicksilver intelligence dancing across Bausch's face as she talks about her experiences and her creative process. Only her declaration of innocence--that she never intended that her work would provoke people--seems dishonest. Her works and her dancers' extraordinary performances speak for themselves, and there are tantalizing bits and pieces shown. One more thing: for this fairly recent visitor to Venice, the Venetian settings for the dancers' German-language interviews proved entirely too distracting from the English subtitles!

In Horizon of Exile (2007, UK), filmmaker/choreographer Isabel Rocamora sets two dissociated women alone amid the golden expanse of the Chilean desert. These dancers supposedly express the experiences--of longing for the homeland, of searching for one's true self--of four Iraqi women exiles interviewed by Rocamora. Often hypnotic in pacing, the 22-minute film devolves into tediousness and, in the passage where the women gasp and thrust, an unfortunate silliness. Overall, the movement ideas look obvious. A woman stands, her black burqa buffeted by wind and sand; later, she slowly rolls in the sand. Bodies crinkled up like burnt wood. After the screening, one of the dancers told the audience that the Iraqi interviewees were very moved by the film and saw their reality in it. Whether this film can reach beyond this--and beyond its stark visual seductiveness--to connect with an audience in a meaningful way remains open to question.

For more information on program schedules, click here. For ticketing, click here.

A documentary on NYCB's Jock Soto

Water Flowing Together, a portrait of ballet dancer Jock Soto by producer-director Gwendolen Cates, is sure to be one of the brightest jewels in the upcoming Dance on Camera Festival (January 2-6, 11, 18, 19), co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Dance Films Association. Speaking at a festival preview for educators from the New York City public school system last evening, Cates presented a trailer for her film, which explores Soto's illustrious 24-year career with the New York City Ballet, his Navajo-Puerto Rican family background and his open identity as a gay man. The 77-minute documentary--which bears the name of Soto's Navajo clan--is Cates's debut as a filmmaker and it promises to be a graceful entrance.

Along with DFA's artistic director Deirdre Towers, Cates announced screenings of Water Flowing Together at the New York State Theater (January 7) and the Walter Reade Theater (January 11 and 18). It will also be shown, in a shorter version, on PBS in April 2008. For further information about the Dance on Camera screenings and complete details about the festival--which includes everything from Russian ballet and Pina Bausch to hip hop and pop video, click here.

Read more about Gwendolen Cates here and about Soto and the film here.

36th Annual Dance on Camera Festival announced

The Dance Films Association announces its 36th annual Dance on Camera Festival, co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. From January 2nd through 19th, the festival will screen fourteen programs at the Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln Center. Tickets sales begin December 16. For complete schedule and ticketing information, including member discounts, visit DFA’s site.

On Wednesday, December 12, attend a free festival preview at the offices of United Federation of Teachers/NYC, 52 Broadway, 6th Floor Conference Room, 5:30-7:30pm. RSVP to info@dancefilms.org.