Screendance

During most of the 20th century, the cost of film cameras, processing, and editing equipment made the non-commercial use of filmmaking somewhat of a rarity. However, because of the advent of high quality and low-cost digital video technology in the last 10-15 years, artists of all skill and economic levels have begun to innovate with the moving image, and an exciting new era of filmmaking is emerging. Screendance, or cine dance (emerging terms for a dance designed for the camera), changes the viewers traditional experience of dance. With live performance, the space and the performers are experienced in their totality. With dance "captured", film brings the viewer closer, then farther away, and back again at will, selecting what level of detail and intimacy the viewer experiences the performers. The most notable aspect that changes with dance for the camera is the ability to control, manipulate, preserve, and distill time. The camera can move a performer outdoors and back inside again, into yesterday’s memories and back to today—all in seconds. Both the choreographer and the filmmaker use music, image, color, light, dialogue, ambient sound, and editing. However, it is in how time interacts with these elements, their juxtapositions, that something can be communicated which cannot be expressed any other way. In contrast to a documentary archival record of a stage work, both film/video and dance are integral to the work. The process of creating a dance for the camera is the process of conceiving something that cannot be captured or experienced by a live performance. Embarking on my first dance for the camera with filmmaker and collaborator John Koch, I discovered that I was overwhelmed by all the potential that the lens could offer and needed to develop a completely new set of skills. Even though John and I worked together on a previous piece for live performance and video in collaboration with the Ballet of the Dolls, I hadn’t specifically developed a dance for the camera. John, at the time, was the owner of the now defunct indie video store, Cinema Revolution, and in the middle of presenting a "dance for the camera" event for what is now called the Dance Film Project. It was a convenient catalyst to experiment in a different medium. John and I took a good amount of time to learn about each other’s disciplines in order to conceptualize the work, throne/thrown. Our vision required several different locations, and as low as the budget could be, we acquired a “guerilla” style (sans insurance), scouting locations for days, then planning a strategy of how we could get the shot we needed. I wasn’t too surprised to discover that a camera pointing at any building brings up all sorts of issues illegality and trying to dance on the edge of that building even more. I also discovered that, until fairly recently, dancing on the streets of Minneapolis was actually illegal. The learning curve was steep. I spent just as much time reviewing what was captured as I did performing in front of the camera as a soloist. The camera demanded to be choreographed just as much as the movement on the screen. One video shot would communicate something completely different than another shot. John and I spent much time in the editing room, with the selected music, sorting out what juxtaposition of images and movements expressed our intention with the work. Since then, the Dance Film Project, now directed by myself and presented by the newly non-profit Cinema Revolution Society, has become an annual "dance for the camera" festival that encourages experimentation and cross discipline dialogue attracting a variety of emerging and established Minnesota-based artists. In its 2008 inaugural year, 7 films were submitted; in 2009, that number jumped to twenty-two. The festival aims to be an outlet for movement artists and filmmakers to experiment with dance specifically for the camera. If you can't wait for the next Dance Film Project Festival, know that screendance is an exciting emerging art form that is growing internationally at a rapid pace and is often spearheaded by artist-driven, curated events. In the Twin Cities, director of Catalyst Dances, Emily Johnson, with partner and musician/filmmaker JG Everest, sometimes produce, Capture! at the Bryant Lake Bowl. And Olive Bieringa, co-director of The Body Cartography Project, periodically produces screenings in addition to offering workshops.