February 26, 2008Malinda Allen Goes Off the Wall at Kinetic Cinema March 3rdOn Monday March 3rd, don't miss the next kick-ass Kinetic Cinema! Sharing the work of her favorite choreographers and filmmakers, guest curator Malinda Allen hosts a night filled with ideas for the aspiring dance filmmaker. Her evening will include stories and behind-the-scenes info about film and video projects from the popular to the avant-garde and underground. Local artists on the program include Jonah Bokaer (who will be curating KC on April 7th) and Akim the Funk Buddha, as well as a screening of Malinda's own experimental short, "Other Games."  Kinetic CinemaMonday March 3rd, 7:30pm (and the first Monday of every month) $5 Admission (buy tix at the door) @ Collective:Unconscious 279 Church Street (just south of White Street) New York, NY 10013 Trains: 1 to Franklin; A, C, E to Canal www.weird.org 212.254.5277 Still: Malinda Allen "Other Games" Kinetic Cinema explores the intersection of dance and the moving image both on screen and stage. Each month curator Anna Brady Nuse invites a special guest from the dance community to share the films and videos that have inspired or moved them. These could be films that feature dance, are kinetic-based, or have been influential on their work in some way. The guest curators come from a range of backgrounds as performers, choreographers, critics, and filmmakers. Upcoming guests include Malinda Allen (March 3rd), Jonah Bokaer (April 7th), Levi Gonzalez (May 5th), and Kriota Willberg (June 2nd). Malinda Allen creates works of body-based theater with collaborators including HBO Def Jam artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, and poet/violinist Alicia Jo Rabins from the punk rock Klezmer band, Golem. She's been presented at Dance Theater Workshop's Fresh Track Series, Moving Men and Chez Bushwick at Dixon Place, the East Village HOWL Festival at PS 122, and the Movement Research at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, among others. Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 1:35 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) February 22, 2008One of the best studio-produced dance films in recent historyA review of Step Up 2: The Streets by my friend Kat Green, a filmmaker whose opinion I trust.  Still: copyright Touchstone Pictures 2008 Step Up 2: The Streets - One of the best studio-produced dance films in recent history by Kat Green February 19, 2008 I know. I know exactly how ridiculous this sounds. But I'm completely serious. The storyline is totally forgettable, but the movie is packed with awesome dancing, shot with an amazing understanding of camera movement, beautifully lit, playful with things like frame rate without being too heavy handed with it, and cut in such a way that it is fast paced, but doesn't let you miss any of the important aspects of the dance. For some reason, there was a weird cross section of people in the theater this afternoon, kids, nannys, girls my age, and then a few random older men by themselves. By the end of the film, everyone was cheering and clapping. Simple proof that nobody can resist a well done dance-off in the rain!!! I did a little research into who shot and cut it. It's the cinematographer, Max Malkin's second or third film, but the editor, Andrew Marcus, has a lot of experience doing really creative stuff (Hedwig, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and weirdly, a bunch of Ivory Merchant movies). Anyways, my guess is that the result is the combo of good camera instincts from somebody younger that understands the dancing better, and a really capable editor that has good pacing, but isn't completely ADD. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Step Up 2 should be required viewing for anybody interested in the development of dance on film. It uses classic techniques, but also incorporates new ideas without the dance-sacrificing clumsiness that is usually involved in trying to cut the standard urban teen dance film for modern pacing. Click here to see clips from the movie on the New York Times' website. Here's the trailer of Step Up 2: The Streets Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 2:05 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) February 20, 2008Opportunities to screen your dance films & videosIn case you haven't noticed, there is a page called Dance Film Submission Deadlines (under the Background section of this blog) that I've been up-dating regularly with new opportunities for dance filmmakers. Right now there's lots of great stuff coming up to submit your work to. See the list below, and check this page regularly for new events. FEBRUARY 2008 CALL FOR WORKS O dança em foco -International Video & Dance Festival is receiving applications for its International Videodance Screenings. The 2008 edition will take place in September in Rio de Janeiro followed by other cities, with free public showings. The applications will only be accepted thought the site www.dancaemfoco.com.brIf interested please send dance documentaries and videodance works by 29 February 2008 to the following address: dança em foco - Festival Internacional
de Vídeo & Dança CALL FOR ARTISTS The 3rd International Vdance festival at the Cinemateque Tel Aviv (Cinematek), Israel SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 29, 2008
DANCEDOC SLAM
SUBMISSION PROCESS
Independence
Arts Builds Community Submissions For more information email chenderson@queenscouncilarts.org or visit: http://www.queenscouncilarts.org/html/artsservices-dancedoc.html
MARCH 2008 EMPAC DANCE MOVIES COMMSSION 2008: OPEN CALL FOR PROPOSALS CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS The American Dance Festival calls
for innovators to step forward with submissions for the 13th annual
Dancing for the Camera: International Festival of Film and Video Dance.
Showcasing the best of fusions between cinematographic skill and
choreographic vision, Dancing for the Camera has screened to
international audiences more than 250 dance films by filmmakers from
over 20 countries. Directed by dance filmmaker and curator, Douglas
Rosenberg, the 2008 festival will take place July 11-13, in conjunction
with the ADF's 75th Anniversary. CALL FOR ENTRIES
APRIL 2008 Entry Call 2008
EDIT2008 Gabor Pinter ON-GOING (No deadlines) I am glad to invite you to show your videos in the channel WEBTV.sepiensa, an internet channel dedicated exclusively to video-art, performance documantation, etc. WEBTV.sepiensa has the support of Sepiensa.net [debate.art.society]. Curatoria Forense and Fondo Nacional Audiovisual (Chile) If you are interested in participate, you can send the video(s) to jorge@numcero.cl through YOUSENDIT (http://www.yousendit.com/) if the file has less than 100 MB or by postal mail (DVD or CD) to: Jorge Sepúlveda T. Casilla de Correo 68, Sucursal 12 Capital Buenos Aires, Argentina technical requirements: - file in AVI format (compress as RAR or ZIP) - at least 640 x 480 pixels - 10 minutes max. each video - information of each video (title, author, date) By sending your video, WEBTV.sepiensa is authorized to use it for public exhibition on internet and activities related to the promotion of WEBTV.sepiensa. Best regards, Jorge Sepulveda T. (alias lulo) Curador Independiente www.curatoriaforense.net Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 10:33 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) February 11, 2008Experimental Artists are Still Misunderstood, Despite Nod on YouTubeYesterday a friend of mine forwarded me an email that said "CALL TO ARMS, of the utmost importance!" in the subject line. The urgent message was that a video of Karlheinz Stockhausen's infamous "Helicopter String Quartet" had been chosen as a feature for YouTube's homepage (in the online video world, this is like hitting the viral jackpot) but, due to the far out and wacky nature of this piece, the video was getting tons of derogatory comments and awful reviews from users. The email I received was a call to all supporters of the avant gard to get on YouTube and counteract the blasphemy taking place. Well, I had to laugh, and hopefully Stockhausen (RIP) was chuckling too from his heavily sound-proofed corner of heaven. Finally the experimental art world got their wish come true. One of their own had been discovered and was being seen by the ignorant masses. As was prophesized, once the people saw this great light they would renounce pop culture and take up the cross of experimentalism. Never would they be placated and amused by fluffy cheap entertainment again. Britney would have to go on unemployment and spend the rest of her days in a trailer park, Justin Timberlake would need to wait tables for the new glittering literati... I'm sorry to report this folks, but the light of true art did not convert the masses. Once again, they attacked our art with hateful ignorance, vile words, and blatant indifference. Here are a few comments made only hours ago by the barbarians: "They are serious with this? This Is not a joke or a parody or something like that? It would be funny as a parody of pretentious 'artistes' with their condescending noses so far in the air they have to look out for low flying helicopters! HA! ROFLCOPTER!!" - flyinDPOD "This is the most retarded thing i've ever seen. There is no artistic value or point to what they are doing. Its just morons in a helicopter playing music to get the recognition of being 'different, unique, artistic' when in reality all they are doing is being retards. The music sounds like a camel taking a huge shit, but for all you yuppies out there who love this because of how 'original' it is, be my guest on buy their CD. lmao, enjoy not having 20$ anymore" - j0n0666 "If this is artistic then I might as well start drawing helicopters with my shit. Then I could make the same exact argument that claims this is artistic." - locopaparone My question is: How could experimentalists ever have supposed this or any work would be received differently? I'm calling for a moratorium on the whining that great experimental artists are not being appreciated enough by the mainstream. The only ways experimentalists have ever achieved world-wide fame and worship are either when the world finally catches up to them long after they're dead (ie. Van Gogh) or when a big pop act like the Beatles gets sooo popular, they can do whatever they want and people will still buy their records. That's it, period. Otherwise, I don't care if you are Stockhausen or Merce Cunningham, you are not going to suddenly become a megastar on the home page of YouTube. That's like expecting the world to start spinning in the other direction, or Dubya to come up with a good idea. That said, I do have a few problems with YouTube and the way their website is set up. First of all, it's nice they put a piece of experimental performance on their home page, but how about first making search categories for all the arts: visual arts, dance, theatre, etc. Right now the only art forms that have separate categories on YouTube are Music and Film/Animation. Great for those people, but what about the rest of us? Hello, "The Evolution of Dance" was the biggest YouTube hit ever! One way YouTube could help their users and promote a greater range of content is by suggesting videos that were highly rated by other people like a particular user. This is something that Netflix does, and I've found some great films through this system. Basically Netflix stores my ratings on DVD's I've watched and matches me with a group of other users who liked the same films I did. Then when enough other users in my group like a movie, they will suggest it to me. I think this would be a very handy tool for YouTuber's trying to navigate the morass of videos and find the gems they want to see. With Google as a parent company, I don't think this should be a difficult search function to set up on YouTube! Also, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to YouTube's editorial picks. A little more thought towards education and responsibility to their users could go a long way when they choose features. For instance, if they had put other experimental art pieces next to Stockhausen's video, they would have had some context, and perhaps viewers who check the homepage wouldn't have felt like they were being conned into eating this weird art spinach. I understand that the editors have to guard themselves from all sorts of tricks and manipulations people use to get their video featured, but still, a little thought and guidance could make YouTube a site that doesn't just change the way media is distributed, but also how it is interpreted and digested by the world. This is something I think we all would appreciate. Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 9:08 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0) February 8, 2008Second Life Spoof Proves My Puppetry TheoryHere's a hilarious video of real people impersonating the way avatars move in Second Life. If I didn't know they were mimicking Second Life, I would think they were acting like demented puppets or 80's Atari characters. (See my previous post: Second Life: A Puppet Play for the 21st Century) Thanks to Malinda and Doug for sharing this with me. Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 12:08 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) February 6, 2008Second Life: a Puppet Play for the 21st Century The Nut by Second Life Ballet Monday night I got my first taste of Second Life in Brian McCormick's Kinetic Cinema program at Collective:Unconscious. Second Life is a 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using voice and text chat. At the end of the evening Brian showed a real-time performance of "The Nut" by the Second Life Ballet done especially for the KC audience. I must admit, I came in to the evening with a lot of preconceptions about how I was going to interpret the SL performance. I had seen a couple clips of Second Life performances on Youtube, and I checked out Doug Fox's blog postings on SL Ballet, so I had some idea of what it was about. As a dancer and filmmaker, it seemed like dance in Second life was still light years behind the fluidity and grace of "first life" dance whether on screen or stage. I also felt dubious about people who devote so much time and energy sitting at a computer living a virtual life, when the real thing seems like more than enough to deal with! However, upon witnessing SL Ballet's performance in real time, I was surprised and struck with admiration for what they were doing with their medium. The software for the program is definitely still a bit primitive. The movement was jerky with lots of dropped frames, and the music would sometimes skip or drop out, making it seem like the whole thing could fall apart at any moment. But this awkwardness actually made the piece very endearing and exciting to watch. In many ways it was basically a 21st Century puppet show. The strings were invisible but the presence of the real hands operating the dancers were palpable. The dancers moved like marionettes, sometimes flying across the stage or hovering for long moments in the air beating their legs in interminable changements. Like puppetry, the virtual bodies became substitutes for the real, and strange flights of fancy became totally believable and acceptable. After the performance we had a chat with Inarra Saarinen, the artistic director and all the cast and crew of SL Ballet. We learned about the weeks of preparation it takes to create a ballet in Second life from programming the animation to practicing the moves with each other in real time. The cast members live all over the world, from Tokyo to Italy to Minnesota, and each member must commit to a regular rehearsal schedule of 4-6 hours per week. It became clear to me why ballet is a good choice of dance for Second Life. Inarra, as the choreographer, must program all the movements to be executed by key strokes. Ballet, with its codified technique, provides a set vocabulary of moves that she can create and store, in order to combine into different choreographies. Inarra said that over time she has accumulated over 300 animations for use in her dances. I'd be curious to learn how copyright and intellectual property works in Second Life. If someone else choreographs a dance using her animation for a passé or jeté, would they need to pay her? Maybe the exchange would be in Linden dollars (the SL currency that actually can translate into real money)! Here's a clip of SL Ballet's "Olmannen" an original work in three acts. I'm still a bit freaked out by the social complexities of Second Life. It's the unseen person behind the avatar that kind of gives me the willies (no ballet pun intended!). Still, I'm very interested to see how dance will evolve in this medium. Brian mentioned the possibility of creating virtual theatres where people can go to see performances they missed in First Life. I was picturing a virtual Dance Theater Workshop with 3D avatars of Miguel Gutierrez and Juliette Mapp doing their thing on a make believe stage. I don't think this could ever take the place of real performance, it's just too different a medium, but there is certainly some potential. Like puppetry or cartoons, you could recreate historical events with a satirical or comedic effect. You could also bring historical figures together for fantastical meetings: what if Nijinksy could dance with Baryshnikov? or Isadora Duncan with Trisha Brown? Crazy fun could ensue. In fact, Brian pointed me to some clips by net artists Eva and Franco Mattes (aka http://0100101110101101.org/) that are reenactments in Second Life of famous performance art pieces. They call them Synthetic Performances, and they performed a couple of them for live audiences at Performa 07 (a performance art festival) here in New York this past fall. Here is a link to a clip in which people in a gallery have to pass through two naked people on either side of a doorway. I'd be curious to hear from others who have been using this medium or have seen dance in Second Life. How do you feel about it? What kinds of artistic possibilities do you see in it? Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 11:29 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1) February 4, 2008Super Kinetic Monday - Tonight!What comes between Superbowl Sunday and Super Tuesday? Super Kinetic Cinema Monday! Photo by Aaron Henderson / STREB 2003 tour "Kitty Hawk"  Come check out a fabulous program of cutting edge movement-based films and videos, curated by Brian McCormick. From a 1987 collaboration between Elizabeth Streb and Mary Lucier to the latest online virtual spectacles of Second Life Ballet, you will be blown away!KINETIC CINEMA Tonight! Monday Feb 4th @ 7:30pm $5 Admission (buy tickets at the door) at: Collective:Unconscious 279 Church Street (just south of White Street) New York, NY 10013 Trains: 1 to Franklin; A, C, E to Canal info: www.weird.org 212.254.5277 Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 12:23 AM - Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) |
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