Artists Reach Out: Charly Wenzel

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Charly Wenzel

Charly Wenzel
(photo courtesy of the artist)

Charly Wenzel is an award-winning choreographer whose work has been presented in her native Germany, as well as at Dixon Place, Judson Church, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), The Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater, Steps on Broadway, The Secret Theater, Connecticut College and many other venues in and around New York. She worked as the choreographer for several recording artists for their live performances and music videos and she choreographed for a number of dance films.

Charly won several awards for her dance films--Global Tides, Licht and Schein--which have been shown at film festivals worldwide.

Charly was a dancer of the Bavarian State Opera Ballet in Germany and performed with Naganuma Dance, Keila Cordova Dances, Regina Nejman & Company, Earl Mosley/Diversity of Dance, Bodystories, LolaLola Dance Theater, Morningside Opera, DexDance, Hydroflo Movement Company, Soul Movement and other companies in and around New York City. She is currently a company member of Third Rail Projects, performing in their Bessie award winning production Then She Fell.

Charly was the Rehearsal Director and Associate Artistic Director of Naganuma Dance and she worked as the Rehearsal Director for Bodystories:Teresa Fellion Dance. www.charlywenzel.com

Charly Wenzel
(photos: above, Linda Brieda;
below, Emily Nussbaum)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

I had mentally and physically prepared for a very busy few months. Apart from continuing to perform six shows a week in Third Rail Project’s Then She Fell, I was about to learn a new role in the show, which I was supposed to premiere in April. I also had one first rehearsal with TRP for a new show that was supposed to take place in Miami in May and in June. In addition, I was about to start rehearsals to set a piece on Bodystories:Teresa Fellion Dance. (It was going to be a mix of film, immersive theater, as well as an onstage element.) I was also in rehearsal for another immersive dance theater production directed by Caitlin Dutton-Reaver, which was going to open at Wildrence in NYC in April. Finally I was about to start a Performance Project with HB Studio, which we are currently trying to adjust to an online platform.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

I started practicing classical ballet at the age of six. To this day, I remember the thrill of my first performances on that “big” stage and the loose pages that were my diary at the time, which all read “I can’t wait for my next Ballet class!!!”

I began studying with an RAD certified Ballet teacher around the age of twelve and completed a three-year dance program at the Iwanson School of Contemporary Dance in Germany, before moving to New York City to study at The Ailey School. I started choreographing in high school for our talent shows and I presented my work at a few small venues in Munich. I had a project-based dance company in NYC, and we presented at every dance festival and choreographers showcase I could get my hands on. In the last few years, I have transitioned to dance filmmaking, and I enjoy further exploring this medium.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

As a human, I practice gratitude every single day. I practice self-care and I create the necessary space for myself to stay balanced. I don’t believe in being busy for the sake of being busy, and I recognize the importance of stillness.

As a dancer and performer, my practice comes in the form of my nightly preparation before a show. I give myself at least one hour on my mat before putting on my make-up etc. I always look forward to this grounding, centering, but ultimately energizing practice, which allows me to focus on one of the most essential parts of my instrument, which is my breath.

I envision transformation within myself, but ultimately to hopefully facilitate transformation in our audiences, as well. When I say “transformation," I’m thinking about a journey back “home” to what truly resonates within ourselves and about unveiling the essence of our human nature that connects us all. There are too many distractions in this world and it’s easy to forget about what really matters.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

I care about bringing people together and for them to realize that we are all the same, especially in this very divisive climate we are living in. I’m often missing a fundamental sense of humanity, especially when it comes to how this country is run.

This realization has to come from within and there is no better medium to help people reflect, question and make compassionate choices than the arts. If I can find a way to simultaneously ground and open up myself through my practice, and if I therefore succeed in reaching our audiences at a personal and deep level, I think the work we do can truly make this world a better place.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

It’s been important to me to find a balance between acknowledging the difficulty of this situation and to be mindful of the many people, who are affected by this situation in a horrible way, while also maintaining a positive outlook and using this time to continue my practice.

These extraordinary times have allowed me to connect to so many wonderful artists, and I’m currently editing a film that is a reflection of how we all feel during this time. The film is a collage of contributions of forty artists from ten countries in the form of dance, poetry, photography, paintings and music. What better time to connect, create and inspire than now?!

Briefly share one self-care tip that has special meaning to you now.

Every single day, give yourself the gift of ten minutes to lie down on the floor, close your eyes, maybe put on your favorite song and just be still. You have the time.

******

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

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

Choreographer Hansen critiques misogyny in "Mr. Gaga" film

Anneke Hansen
(photo: Baille Younkman)

Yesterday, I received a letter dance artist Anneke Hansen sent to film producer Barak Heymann about Tomer Heymann's documentary, Mr. Gaga. After seeing the film, which deals with the life and work of acclaimed Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, Hansen spoke with the producer to voice her concerns as outlined here.

*****

Dear Mr. Heymann,

I am writing, as promised, to reiterate my dismay at the misogynistic filmmaking displayed in Mr. Gaga.

As I mentioned, I was appalled by the section of the film that covers Ohad Naharin's early years in NYC. The film shows archival footage of the women whose bodies helped realize and establish his aesthetic. It uses the voices of these women. For several minutes they occupy the screen without ever being credited by name. In contrast, a male dancer, Daniel Tishman, I believe, is identified by a caption. This is a great and offensive mistake.

The disrespect is deepened by the fact that, at the same point in the film, Mari Kajiwara is introduced as "the most beautiful woman" Ohad has ever seen. We watch Ms. Kajiwara dance for many minutes, learning of her unique artistry, her acclaimed work with Alvin Ailey, and - rather smugly - of Ohad's conquest, without ever learning her name. Again, this is shameful. It is only after several minutes that Ms. Kajiwara's first name is introduced, leaving the audience to wonder, for quite some time, what her full name might be.

This treatment of Ms. Kajiwara, and other women who danced with Mr. Naharin, is shameful. Your film treats them as lesser beings, as objects for Ohad Naharin's male brilliance, rather than the great artists who allow for the work's existence. The misogyny of your filmmaking accidentally highlights an old and ugly tradition in the field by replication: women have often been the clay from which men mold their names.

As a choreographer, I'm usually grateful to see a film about dance - especially when it receives some critical acclaim and support. In this case, however, I was left with a foul taste in my mouth.

I sincerely hope you will re-edit the film to name these women and give them respectful recognition for their work and contributions to Mr. Naharin's success. I intend to share this letter with the NYC dance press and community. I look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Anneke Hansen 

*****

Anneke Hansen is a choreographer, performer, and teacher based in new york city who primarily presents dance works through her company, Anneke Hansen Dance. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence college, her work has been presented in NYC by the Chocolate Factory Theater and as part of the La Mama moves! Festival, Draftworks at Danspace Project, Movement Research at Judson Church, Dance Conversations @ The Flea, and at University Settlement. Hansen has been international guest artist-in-residence at Dance House in Dublin, Ireland, Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico, and her company has enjoyed creative residencies at Rockbridge Arts Exchange in Virginia, and Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, VT. The company's work has been featured at the Big Range Dance Festival in Houston, TX, among other venues, and her site-specific work has been performed in NYC parks and abroad in Washington D.C. and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her most recent project, a collaboration with Lori Yuill, was selected as Best of Fringe at the Houston Fringe Festival, 2016. Anneke Hansen Dance has received funding from LMCC’s Manhattan Community Arts Fund, NYFA’s BUILD grant, and the Puffin Foundation. As a performer, Hansen has had the pleasure of dancing for New York choreographers Sara Rudner and Susan Rethorst, and for Australian choreographer Russell Dumas, among others. A student of anatomy, she served as assistant to master anatomist and neuromuscular educator Irene Dowd. In addition to teaching dance in both the US and abroad, Hansen maintains a practice as a private movement instructor in NYC, specializing in rehabilitative movement and performance training, and has taught anatomy at several area colleges. www.annekehansendance.com

Free email subscription

to InfiniteBody

Click here!

Film review: Dean Hargrove's "Tap World"

New York-born tap star Jason Samuels Smith (left)
 and the late Kathak guru Pandit Chitresh Das forged an unexpected and electrifying
cross-cultural partnership, as noted in Dean Hargrove's new feature film, Tap World.
(photo courtesy of tapworldfilm.com)

Tap World's run at New York's Village East Cinema has been extended through next Thursday, July 23. Hooray, and let's talk about the important thing that this award-winning documentary from Tap Heat's Dean Hargrove does absolutely right.

No, Tap World does not offer an intellectual primer on tap history or tap technique or how hard tap dancers train, as the New York Times critic appears to have needed. It does allude to tap's origins in the African-Irish encounter in colonial America. And the mad skills necessary for its proper execution should be crystal clear to everybody--just try it--as should the discipline and loving dedication.

So if Hargrove's 72 minutes--largely derived from footage submitted by dancers from many nations--focus on how much joy, and soul healing, these dancers get from this art and how much joy they give, what of it?

Tap World does what the rest of U.S. dance could and should do. It shows why dance matters to this society and to our world. It reaches past the official arbiters of what's important about dance and instantly, solidly connects with the public. It moves people. Just like the best tap does.

"Rhythm is the language of life, the international language," says acclaimed dancer/actor Ted Louis Levy, one of numerous tap artists and teachers sharing thoughts and personal narratives here. "The simple things--rhythm and love--transcend difference," says Chloé Arnold, the dynamic performer and dancemaker who, along with sister Maud Arnold, is one of the film's producers. That philosophy informs the entire film. We're treated to a virtual world tour watching how this once uniquely American art form has enchanted and fulfilled dancers of one country after another--from France to Taiwan, from Brazil to India. Dancers the world 'round use tap to expand and express themselves.

Yet, as Kathak soloist Rachna Nivas lucidly explained in last evening's post-screening Q&A, tap remains itself, never blending in a "fusion" with other cultural forms. Hargrove includes a tantalizing sample of one such intercultural moment, an excerpt from a shared performance by two greats in their respective fields--Jason Samuels Smith and Nivas's teacher, Kathak guru Pandit Chitresh Das, who died this past January. When these two live wires connect, the energy will rock you right out of your seat.

See Tap World in New York City--now through July 23--
at Village East Cinema (directions).
Click here for times and tickets.

Now playing

at select theaters nationwide

Click here for scheduled screenings,
live performances and Q&As.

Watch for the DVD release this November.

Tap. Coming to a world near you.

Opening July 10 

at select theaters nationwide.

Attend a Tap World screening and artists talk

Tuesday, July 14 at 7:25pm

Village East Cinema (directions)

Click here 

for information and tickets.

Three questions for Monstah Black

Monstah Black in the dance film, Cotton
(photo by Charles Meacham)

November 6-9, choreographer, musician and club hero Monstah Black brings to JACK the first installment of his dance film Cotton, featuring original songs and choreography, and filmed over nine months in various locations between New York City and Virginia. The 45-minute presentation features Black performing the soundtrack live (which the artist describes as "a meeting of Erykah Badu and Björk with Prince and Grace Jones, in the living room of Parliament Funkadelic"). In the film, Black employs images from slavery and the plantation as a point of departure, modifying the images into positive iconography meant to inspire, empower and rejuvenate those that have suffered its ugly legacy.

Monstah Black
(photo by Charles Meachem)

Three questions for Monstah Black

EYA: When you think back to your childhood, can you point to any strong influence on the artist you are today?

MB: As a child I was heavily influenced by television, my family and the sounds coming out of the stereo. I grew up surrounded by an eclectic mix of music which included soul, folk, rock, funk, the sounds of Catholic church and Southern Baptist church. The most memorable moments, of course, were people saying "Show us how you do that dance." It began as soon as I could hold my balance on two feet. There is also my mom's sense of style/fashion influence and her love for making clothes. Until 6th grade, she made a lot of what I wore. My dad was also great with his hands, particularly food but also enjoyed building projects. So the two of them are very evident in my work.

Those are the more positive moments. I do believe that being bullied is what turned me into Monstah Black. My desire to flip the negative into something empowering is what lead me to reach deeper in an unapologetic way with my expression in movement, music and style. Recognizing at an early age that words like punk, sissy and faggot could work to my benefit if I thought of them as words of endearment. As I grew older my belief in this grew stronger.

EYA: What challenges you most as an artist? And how do you engage with that challenge?

MB: My biggest challenge as an artist is the budget not matching the elaborate visions I have in my head. I've built a career on shaping my dreams by turning mundane objects into something opposite from what it is "suppose to be" used for and applying it to my project. The joke, back in the day, is that I was able to perform at the drop of a hat, and all I needed was dental floss and safety pins to make an elaborate costume. Every project that I do is a step toward aligning the budget with my dreams rather than the other way around. When that alignment happens? Stay tuned.

EYA: How do ideas arrive for you? And what do you first do with them when they do?

MB: I'm a dreamer. In grade school, it was seen as a downfall, a slow downfall. Parent-Teacher meetings occurred to discuss my daydreaming in class, and I still enjoy a good nap where I can drift off into never never land.

These are the places where my projects are revealed to me. I write them down or I record them. Sometimes they come in the form of a bass line, a melody, a sensation, a quality of movement or a look. Usually the sound and look are put into place first. When those two things inspire me as a whole, I close me eyes to feel how they should move, or I investigate my reflection.

There are also those moments when my movement is out of my control, the alignment of the rhythms, bass lines and melodies are harmoniously working together and film/video saves the day, to help me re-visit that place for stage.

I'm proud of being a daydreamer and I'm also proud of slowing things down, taking my time. I think it keeps you looking and feeling young. Besides, it's not as expensive as Botox or plastic surgery.

Virginia native Reginald Ellis Crump, aka Monstah Black, has been creating and presenting work in New York from since 1999 as a performance artist, dancer, choreographer, musician and composer. Known for his cultural grab-bag approach, he enjoys mixing influences and allusions from many sources and traditions. In choreography, he infuses modern dance with shades of disco and funk and the comic, hyper-performative and sometimes confrontational style of address of burlesque, adding a dash of various martial arts and the expressive slow-motion acrobatics of Japanese Butoh. He has choreographed for nightclubs, art galleries, black box theaters, and warehouses throughout Washington D.C., New York City, and Europe. His work has been seen and heard at The National Theater, New York Live Arts, Dance New Amsterdam, Dixon Place, Movement Research, and many other venues. Monstah is also the front man for his band The Sonic Leroy as well as vocalist for the electro pop duo The Blakz. He performs frequently as a guest vocalist for the electro dance band Girls Like Bass.

See Monstah Black's dance film, Cotton, Thursday-Saturday, November 6-8 at 8pm or Sunday, November 9 at 3pm. Get more information and tickets here.

JACK
505 1/2 Waverly Ave (between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue), Brooklyn
(map/directions)

Juel D. Lane's dance on camera series launches September 8

How to Kill A Ghost, 

a two-part dance film series by Juel D. Lane, 

premieres on Monday, September 8 at 9pm on YouTube.

Subscribe to Lane's YouTube Channel here.

Heidi Latsky in new Montclair State U. dance film project

Choreographer Named to Montclair State Project
by Adam W. Kepler, The New York Times, April 13, 2014

Tap--and a dancer's quest--explored in "Tap or Die"

"Tap is always 'coming back.' When's it going to get here?"
--Derick K. Grant

"There are a lot of our critics who would like to keep it on the corner. 
They'd like to keep it as folk art."
--Brenda Bufalino

"We've had too many people who we consider heroes die broke."

--Derick K. Grant

On Friday, January 31, meet filmmaker Jackie Paré at the 2014 Dance on Camera festival screening of Tap or Die, an hour-long documentary inspired by Boston-born tap artist Derick K. Grant and his still-unfulfilled mission to bring his celebrated 2006 show, Imagine Tap!, to Broadway.

Warm, vivacious and chock-full of interviews with numerous dance artists and experts, as well as vintage and contemporary performance footage, Tap or Die addresses both the undeniable triumphs and ongoing controversies within the tap dance field. It also makes a lot of fundamental insider stuff accessible and appealing to a broad audience--for instance, how the various parts of tap shoes are used to vary sound and how math is an essential part of the tap equation.

For more information on this screening and the full schedule for the Dance on Camera festival (January 31-February 4), click here.

Tap or Die 

(2013; 62 minutes)

Presented by 

Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association

Friday, January 31 (3:30pm)

Walter Reade Theater
Lincoln Center

165 West 65th Street (near Broadway), Manhattan

(map/directions)

Dance on Camera tickets go on sale:

December 10: Pre-sale for DFA and FSLC Members
December 17: General Public
Purchase tickets on FilmLinc.com

Dancing in "The Rain"

Coming soon to iTunes from TenduTV

A series of tableaux of everyday settings with people in various stages of their lives. Relations form and finish, memories of meetings mingle with the yearning for meetings that have not happened yet. The dance slowly takes over, forming a pattern that none of the characters can see - they are all connected. The rain affects them all.

For more essential dance films, subscribe to TenduTV on YouTube.

You're essential to Essential Dance Film [call for submissions]

Essential Dance Film - Spring/Summer 2013

The art of capturing dance on film is as old as the art of film itself - the first dance films were created by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895. Essential Dance Film is proud to showcase the state of dance film today by presenting a curated election of features and shorts from around the world. The Essential Dance Film collection includes works by festival winners, Hollywood veterans and emerging filmmakers.    

Submissions for Essential Dance Film - Spring/Summer 2013 will be considered on an ongoing basis until January 15, 2013.

TenduTV (tendu.tv) is now accepting submissions for Essential Dance Film, a curated selection of features and shorts by choreographers and filmmakers from around the world. Building upon the original Essential Dance Film collection, a series of 9 dance shorts released by TenduTV in 2010, the expanded and newly-rebranded channel now releases new films each week via TenduTV’s digital platform partners. Essential Dance Film is available on the popular US platform, Hulu, and is mirrored on a branded YouTube show page that is available to audiences worldwide.

Essential Dance Film is on YouTube at www.youtube.com/show/essentialdancefilm and on Hulu at www.hulu.com/essential-dance-film

If you would like your film to be considered for Essential Dance Film, email content@tendu.tv with the following information:

• Title of film

• Year and place of premiere

• Screening history

• Type of source video (eg. Beta, Digibeta, Apple Pro Res)

• Link to a clip (if available)

• Confirmation of music rights   

Catch the livestream of our workshop on dance film, writing: Today at 5pm

Writing on Dance:Film
A WRITE OPEN workshop

Wednesday, December 12 (5-6:30pm)

Open to NYU Tisch Dance students only
Department of Dance, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
(Cherylyn Lavagnino, Chair)

co-presented by Dance Films Association and Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

In this informal workshop, we will explore and write about excerpts from two exciting filmed versions of DV8 Physical Theatre's Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Rosas danst Rosas.  Screenings will be presented by Brighid Greene (Communications Associate, Dance Films Association).  Writing exercises will be facilitated by dance writer Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

To catch the livestream of Writing on Dance:Film -- 5pm to 6:30pm today -- click here. Download student handout here.

Watch this: There is a Place

From Essential Dance Film by TenduTv

Winner of the 2011 San Francisco Dance Film Festival, There is a Place combines the exquisite movement of renowned Tibetan dancer-choreographer, Sang Jijia, with the stunning landscapes of the Scottish highlands.

Jeu d' Esprit...indeed!

I need a little break...and so do you!

So, I'm posting a link to a lovely dance film, Jeu d' Esprit, by Amelia Golden, shot live at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

soloist James A. Pierce III
choreography by Mitzi Adams of the Adams Company Dance

Click here.

Dance is essential. So is dance film.

Be sure to visit Essential Dance Film every Tuesday for the weekly release of new creative short features and documentaries from around the world, such as director Kate Duhamel's Kaleidoscope, coming soon.

Kaleidoscope features tap-dancer Jason Samuels Smith dancing to Paolo Nutini’s “New Shoes.” The dance film displays tap at its coolest, pairing the highly stylized and physical dance form with the suavity of Smith’s dancing.

Up now: Jody Oberfelder's popular Come Sit Stay

Essential Dance Film is available at Hulu and TenduTV’s YouTube channel.

Joffrey Ballet documentary comes to Cinema Village

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance

  New York Theatrical Premiere

  Cinema Village

  Friday, April 27

Top: Robert Joffrey, circa 1980s
Bottom: The Joffrey Ballet
 (Photos: Herbert Migdoll)

  

Hybrid Cinema presents the New York theatrical premiere of Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance on Friday, April 27 at New York’s Cinema Village. The 90-minute documentary--directed by Bob Hercules (Bill T. Jones: A Good Man) and narrated by Mandy Patinkin--traces how Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino reimagined and redefined ballet for new audiences and engaged contemporary dance choreographers such as Twyla Tharp and Laura Dean.

Gary Chryst in makeup for Parade
(Photo: James Howell)

The one-week engagement will include several Q&As with the filmmakers and other guests immediately following weekend screenings. VOD/DVD/digital release is scheduled for June, 2012 through New Video.

For a schedule of screenings and ticketing information, click here or call Cinema Village at 212-924-3363.

Cinema Village

22 East 12th Street (University Place and 5th Avenue) Manhattan

(map/directions)

This luminous dance film won a 1984 Oscar!

Click to watch now: Flamenco at 5:15 (1983; 29 min.)

short documentary film directed by Cynthia Scott

Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, 1984

featuring dancer Susana Robledo, composer Antonio Robledo, and students of the Canada's National Ballet School

BAC FLicks screens Lidberg's "Labyrinth Within"

Trailer for Pontus Lidberg's Labyrinth Within (2010, Sweden, 28.5 min.)

Jury Prize for Best Picture, Dance on Camera Festival 2012, New York

Labyrinth Within--screened this week at Baryshnikov Arts Center--opens with a horizontally compressed view of a dizzying swirl of bare torsos belonging, provocatively, to the film's male performers. They are director/choreographer Pontus Lidberg, a remarkably lithe dancer, and the brooding Giovanni Bucchieri, who also played a similarly sensual role in Lidberg's award-winning film, The Rain (2006).

After your half-hour with Labyrinth Within, you might walk away uncertain of what you just saw. (Who's who? What's what? What's with that mask you see for a split second?) But asking this film to deliver straight answers is like asking a dream to get out of bed and make you bacon and eggs. That's not its job. Lidberg's project, co-written with dramaturg Niklas Holmgren, deals with mystery--change itself--as a permanent reality.

Labyrinth Within's layers slip through your awareness through multiple pathways--dramatic lighting and suspenseful camerawork; Bucchieri's brooding melancholy; rapturous, expressionistic duets between Lidberg and his female muse, the versatile NYCB principal Wendy Whelan, and the tension-building power of David Lang's original and arranged music. Place matters, too. The work--developed in residencies at BAC and Joyce SoHo but mostly filmed within the muted, under-furnished interior of a Stockholm apartment--turns upon evocative architectural as well as psychological space. In the discussion that followed BAC's screening, Lidberg, quite rightly, volunteered few revelations about his beautiful film but did dangle this tidbit: "I had a very eccentric father and grew up in an apartment with things like secret doors."

Upcoming at BAC Flicks: Carmen & Geoffrey (2005), a documentary on the lives and careers of Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder by filmmakers Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob. The screening will be followed by a discussion with de Lavallade. Tuesday, April 24, 7pm. For further information and ticketing, click here.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Manhattan
(map and directions)

A.O. Scott reviews Wenders' "Pina"

‘Pina,’ a Documentary by Wim Wenders
by A. O. Scott, The New York Times, December 22, 2011

Jacob's Pillow...and you...on the move

Do you KNOW DANCE?

Jacob's Pillow wants you to share what you know!

In connection with the new documentary film Never Stand Still, directed by Ron Honsa, the KNOW DANCE project asks, "What do YOU want people to know about dance?"

Answer this question by typing a comment or recording a video response.

Make sure to include:

1. Name, where you live.
2. Connection to dance (fan, teacher, dancer, choreographer, etc.).
3. Respond to "What do you want people to know about dance?"
4. Email your video link to knowdanceproject@gmail.com

You don't have to be a dancer to participate--we encourage anyone who has an interest in or passion for dance to answer this question and join the conversation.

Visit the Know Dance video playlist (here) to see responses from around the world.

Thank you!
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

For Never Stand Still screening dates (including NYC premiere in Jan 2012) and to sign up for DVD purchase visit the film's Web site here.