July 23, 2008

Artist-driven Curating and How it Could Help Galvanize a Screendance Movement

At the Screendance conference at ADF two weeks ago, I presented a paper that put forth an argument for the value of "artist-driven" curating in developing and galvanizing an art form.  I wanted to propose a way of raising awareness about screendance among dance communities that would help dancers feel like they can enter this art form that is new to them with a set of useable skills and knowledge already in place. In forming a strategy, I drew upon Paulo Friere's concept of praxis from his pivotal book on liberation education, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. For Freire, the way to raise consciousness among any group of people is by posing problems. This process of asking questions and raising problems, activates both students and teachers in a dialogue that brings about reflection and leads to future action.  Freire calls this pattern of action-reflection-action praxis, and it is through praxis that people engage in cognitive discovery of their lives that is transformative and empowering. From third world peasants to American dance artists, this process enables people to transform their daily realities and create lives full of meaning.

In my Kinetic Cinema screening series I posed a question to my guest curators from the  NYC dance community, "What films and videos have influenced and inspired your work in dance?" Each curator came up with a completely different way of answering that question, and the works they chose revealed their own unique thinking patterns and artistic processes. Some curators, such as Malinda Allen, chose to curate autobiographical evenings, chronicling their artistic development through pivotal works that have inspired them. Other curators, like Levi Gonzalez, chose to show work that was new to them, and investigate the commonalities and differences between screendance and dance performance. Still others such as Jonah Bokaer and Kriota Willberg, have studied the history of film and video art extensively, and for their programs they decided to delve into very specific areas of research such as feminist video art and the female body, or "bad dance" films.

Judson Dance Theater, photo Elaine Summers
Kinetic Cinema is an example of what I have dubbed "artist-driven" curating, in which artists get together and share works that have meaning to them, often in informal intimate settings. The value of this type of curating is that it sparks artistic dialogue and exchange between the "makers" in a field, which can then lead to new art movements with distinct identities and progressive agendas. There have been numerous artist-driven curating collectives in the past that have had a huge impact upon the development of dance and film. A classic example of artist-driven curating is the Judson Dance Theater that formed in the early sixties as a collective of experimental dance artists interested in pushing the boundaries of post-modern dance. They were given the meeting room of the historical Judson Church to conduct their investigations and present public performances. The work that resulted from these programs went on to fuel the modern dance community for decades to come, with generations of dancers and choreographers spring-boarding off of the ideas and breakthroughs of the original collective.

On the film side, Jean Luc Godard would never have developed his unique and influential style without his competitive and close relationship with fellow French New Wave director, François Truffaut. Although they were very different in many ways, their artistic visions were honed and shaped by the intense dialogue and exchange of ideas they had with each other over many years. The French New Wave was born out of the critical discourse started by writers and cinephiles in the film journal, Cahiers du Cinéma. These writers were seeking a new type of cinema that didn't exist in France at the time, one that married their love of low-brow Hollywood genre flicks, with more experimental, intentional, and referential nuances found in high art, all brought together by their strong vision of the director as auteur. When these writers began acting upon their critiques, and creating work of their own, the French New Wave was born, and gave rise to a new era of filmmaking that completely changed the art form in much the same way the Judson Dance Theater group did for dance.

There have never been more ways for individuals to share and distribute their media content than there are today. With the rise of the internet, and the social media of Web 2.0, today's artist-driven initiatives are less inhibited by distance or financial limitations. Some recent examples of artist-driven projects for screendance on the internet are the social network dance-tech.net founded by NY-based dance media artist, Marlon Barrios-Solano, blogs such as this one, and email lists such as the media-arts-and-dance listserv moderated by Simon Fildes. These online forums are bringing together an international community of dance filmmakers who can interact and share work and ideas with each other easily and instantaneously. The result will be a more unified and cosmopolitan screendance community, where new entrants can feel part of an existing movement.

New art movements and genres don't get made overnight, but in the case of screendance, it is crucial to raise awareness and interest in the dance community. Through curating initiatives that pose questions and engage artists and audiences in dialogue, we can facilitate praxis. This process involves leading artists to examine, critique and analyze dance in media, and also to make work of their own, thereby transforming and shaping the genre and, by extension, the world. Artist-driven curating is one proven way to galvanize an arts community and further the identity of an art movement. These artist-driven initiatives, while often underground and informal, serve as springs that feed into larger institutions, such as dance film festivals, museums/galleries, performance venues, and universities. It is in these small, seemingly insignificant ways, that we can move screendance into cultural prominence, and make dance relevant in today's mediatized world.

Addendum:
I should clarify a few assumptions and opinions I have about dance and "screendance" which came up in discussion after my presentation at the Screendance conference. First, I am coming from a dance background, and ultimately, I want my work in screendance to have a positive effect on the art form of dance in general. I learned while at the conference that this isn't a common position among everyone in the screendance field. Karen Pearlman, a dance filmmaker and co-artistic director of PhysicalTV helped us all tremendously by making a Venn diagram to illustrate the hybridity of screendance at the last Screendance conference in 2006. (see below)


What I learned at the conference is that practitioners of screendance can come from one of three different art areas: dance, film, or visual arts. Everyone's location on the diagram is different and can move around, sometimes overlapping more with dance and visual arts, other times more with film, etc etc...

I shade towards the dance circle, and am biased about wanting screendance to do something for dance in general. Not that it should always serve to directly promote live performance, but rather that I think a vibrant screendance movement can have beneficial impact on live dance performance as well.  I also feel that dance as an art form has suffered and is suffering from a lack of resources and cultural capital (meaning attention and value from the culture at large). I believe that one reason for this poverty of cultural capital for dance is due to the art form's lack of visibility in media (meaning mass reproduced and distributed moving images). After the birth of film in the late 19th century, cultural capital has shifted away from the live performing arts and towards mediated arts, such as film, television, and now broadband video. Unlike music and drama, dance has not developed a recorded media industry around it, and this has left dance artists (for better or for worse) with very few opportunities to reach a mass audience, have an competitive economic engine, or come out from behind the banners of other genres such as music videos, movie musicals, or even commercials.

I'm not interested in being part of a huge dance media industry, however I do see some benefits that other art forms have gained as a result of spawning commercial media juggernauts. Take music for instance. Over the course of 50 years of pop hits and mega record sales in the "Rock & Roll" (and then just "Rock") music genres, there was a huge influx of kids learning to play guitar, forming garage bands, and talking about music. Today, even with the music industry floundering in the digital file-sharing age, the indie music scene is flourishing better than ever with 35 million users on MySpace (many of them musicians or music lovers), magazines, books, radio shows, tv channels, films, documentaries, and blogs that feed a vibrant discussion that most Americans can engage in. Imagine if dance had this kind of relevancy to peoples' lives...Maybe there wouldn't be so many dance critics being laid off, maybe more people would be interested in the difference between modern and post-modern contemporary dance, or maybe dance classes would be as popular as sports in public schools. Being a choreographer would be as cool as being a rock star.... Actually, this is already starting to happen with popular dance competition shows like "So You Think You Can Dance"... But I digress...

So, now you know my agenda, but I'm never going to be a media mogul. I will leave it to other shrewd bean counters to figure out how to squeeze out the dollars and cents from an art form ripe for the picking.  I'm an artist who sees limitless artistic potential for dance in screen-based mediums. Alongside the commercialization of dance screen, I want to see a vibrant exploration by dancers in the dance/film/visual art hybridity called screendance. This is where artist-driven curating comes in. I believe screendance can empower dancers who decide to enter into it. The movement for screendance has been slow to happen in the dance community, and dancers in the United States at least, have not seen media as a tool for artistic empowerment and growth. Despite the rise of dance film festivals around the world, I haven't seen a comparable rise in awareness and understanding about screendance in my own dance community here in New York. The Dance On Camera Festival happens in January when the APAP conference is consuming the attention of most dancers. Even dancers who do get exposed to screendance, and then decide they want to try making a video or film of their own, usually hit a wall when they realize the massiveness of such a task. It's an incredibly steep learning curve to jump from stage to screen, requiring a completely new set of skills and collaborators who understand dance, and there is little support or resources out there for dancers who want to make this leap. What is lacking is funding for production and creative development, distributors, classes, mentorship, critical writing, and even a central repository of knowledge or easily accessible catalogue of films to look at.

Things are definitely improving however, and as I listed above, there are numerous new artist-driven initiatives that are springing up on web-based media platforms. I hope that local movements also continue to grow and multiply. I would love to see artist-driven curating collectives spring up in other cities around the US and the world. It doesn't take much to do, you just need a space, a projector and some friends to get started. Pick a question and try to answer it visually. Share what inspires you and talk about why. Have a dinner party and cater the films. In whatever fashion, we all have the ability to participate in the discussion, and help shape this unique art form of screendance into a vibrant cultural phenomenon.

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 12:12 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 24, 2008

A Review of the 'Worse of the Best' at Kinetic Cinema

Latika Young of the Dance Films Association wrote a great article about Kriota Willberg's last program for Kinetic Cinema in DFA's member ezine:

The Worst of the Best:
Kinetic Cinema Gets Down

by Latika Young

Before taking a hiatus for the summer, Kinetic Cinema, the dance films screening series curated by Anna Brady Nuse, went out with a bang! "The Worst of the Best," a night of "bad" dance film, as selected by guest curator Kriota Willberg, featured an array of clips and excerpts that had the audience at Tribeca's Collective:Unconscious in stitches. With everything from undulating nude males to jete-ing serial killers to an over-the-top 80s spandex extravaganza, there was something in the selection to please even the most well-versed bad dance connoisseur.

The night began with a little live dance, as Nuse exploded onto the stage in a frenetic version of the classic dance from "Flashdance" complete with gold metallic hot pants and matching shoes. A perfect entrance, it warmed up the audience's belly laughing muscles and set the tone for an evening of the dance cliché as encapsulated on film.

Willberg, co-director of THE BENTFOOTES, which premiered at Dance on Camera Festival 2008, has been interested in bad dance for some time. She used to host bad dance film screening parties at her apartment for fellow dancer and choreographer friends (what better way to build a supportive dance community--we may be struggling in our own careers, but at least we are not making dance like that!).

Willberg developed somewhat tricky criteria that determined her selections for this "tour of surprisingly bad dance films from the early 1900s to the present." As she explains, there is a difference between "bad" dance and just "boring" dance. Bad dance necessarily "provokes a strong emotional reaction" in the audience, and, as Willberg points out, these are more often than not the dances people end up discussing fervently with friends. Boring dance, on the other hand, "is just dull" and is easily forgotten. Where it gets tricky is with the question of production values. For Willberg, even boring dance, with a big enough budget, becomes bad dance by virtue of the unrealized potential of its grandiosity. Any otherwise boring dance film with a large enough budget enrages Willberg to the point that it has elicited a strong emotional response and thus qualifies as a truly bad dance.

The screening began with a video montage of clips culled from the internet of dances intended to demonstrate "boring." All low production value, the clips may have come from YouTube or artists' personal websites, but they certainly were not from Hollywood blockbusters. The original videos likely go on for what must feel like many very long minutes, but edited down into a quickly paced montage, they were not really that boring after all. Instead, the curatorial process of cramming them side by side and positing them into humorously crafted sub-categories, such as "Women and Their Hands," "Semi-Clad Undulating Duets," and my personal favorite, "Nude Men Kinetically Recumbent," highlighted their humor rather than their boredom. Fortunately, though, the audience was saved from having to watch any of the clips in their entirety. Anyone who has sat on a dance film festival pre-screening committee can undoubtedly understand.

The bulk of the offerings, however, were clips from films released on the big screen and each example was selected to provide a more nuanced understanding of Willberg's definition of bad. The gem of the night, glittering in decadent ridiculousness, was Ben Hecht's 1946 film SPECTRE OF THE ROSE. Choreographed by Tamara Geva, Balanchine's first wife, the two dance scenes presented were performed by Ivan Kirov. An attempt to combine a murder mystery with classical ballet, the result, at least to modern eyes, comes across more as camp than refinement. In the first scene, the male ballet superstar (Kirov) has been confined to bed for two years after killing his first wife. Suddenly feeling better, he is inspired to dance, performing ebullient feats of jete and pirouette that are made that much more incredible (and farcical) considering his extended period of inactivity (perhaps, instead, we should feel relieved he did not join the ranks of the "kinetically recumbent nude male" as we witnessed earlier). The second scene has our star re-entering a state of insanity and struggling with his desires to kill his second wife. Fortunately, derangement does not deter our protagonist from his dancing tour de force and, with knife in hand, he catapults about the room, balletically crashing into walls, before leaping with pointed feet through a glass window, to his certain death below. This is a bad dance film made so by both its delicious anachronistic ballet moves (likely quite magnificent for the time but which seem highly dated to the modern viewer) and its equally ridiculous backstory.

Other choices from the evening included THE MOTHERING HEART, the 1913 D.W. Griffith film that features background dancers, undoubtedly quite common on the vaudeville stage of the time, who appear as gallivanting Isadora-nymphettes and a leopard skin toga-ed couple who awkwardly perform Lindy aerial moves, STAYING ALIVE, the sequel to SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, as directed by Sylvester Stallone (and, yes, Travolta does wear a very Rambo-eque headband), and scenes from the film everyone loves to hate, Paul Verhoeven's 1995 SHOWGIRLS, which is just bad in so many divine ways.

Willberg wants to know, "What is the worst dance film ever?" To share your favorites, or most hated, e-mail her at info@duramater.org and be sure to tell her why. After a summer break, Kinetic Cinema returns in October. E-mail Anna Brady Nuse at mtf@straighttothehelicopter.com to get on the mailing list.

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 7:04 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 17, 2008

Move the Frame Wordle

I just made a word image of my about page for Move the Frame on Wordle. Check it out and make your own!

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 8:15 PM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

June 5, 2008

Bad Dance, Good Cinema, and Why It's All Better Than Boring

Kriota Willberg's program, "The Worst of the Best" for Kinetic Cinema Monday night was extremely entertaining. She proved beyond a doubt that examining truly bad dance film is fun, inspiring, and highly effective at eliciting an emotional response from the crowd.

For all of you who thought about or responded to Kriota's earlier online poll "What's the Worse Dance Film Ever" you may be interested to see what made the cut in the end. Here is the list of the films she discussed Monday night and a short summary of why they were chosen:

The Mothering Heart (1913), Dir: DW Griffith
Reason: MADE BAD AND STRANGE BY HISTORY

Spectre of the Rose (1946), Dir: Ben Hecht, Dancer: Ivan Kirov, Chor: Tamara Geva
Reason: MADE WORSE BY THE BACKSTORY
 
Torch Song (1953), Dir: Charles Walters, Dancer: Joan Crawford and ensemble, Chor: Charles Walters
Reason: OFFENSIVE = BAD (Cast was in black face in 1953!!)

Staying Alive (1983), Dir: Sylvester Stallone, Dancers: John Travolta, Finola Hughes, Cynthia Rhodes, Chors:  Dennan and Sayhber Rawles
Reason: DRAMA!!!!

Center Stage (2000), Dir: Nicholas Hytner, Dancers: Amanda Schull, Sascha Radetsky, Ethan Stiefel, and ensemble, Chor: Susan Strohman
Reason: THE SAFE CHOICES AREN'T ALWAYS THE BEST CHOICES

Showgirls (1995), Dir: Paul Verhoeven, Dancers: Elizabeth Berkley, Gina Gershon and ensemble, Chor: Marguerite Pomerhn-Derricks
Reason: DRAMATIC! OFFENSIVE!  MADE WORSE BY BACKSTORY!

Preceding the bad dance films, Kriota also discussed the difference between BAD and BORING and illustrated it with a montage of boring dance film and video clips she culled from the web (actually her poor assistant, Gretchen culled them from the web!). The interesting thing about the difference between bad and boring is that it often comes down to money. Apparently the "have nots" aren't really capable of making truly bad art, only dull art. As Kriota explained, when a filmmaker has over a million dollars to make a dance movie, and it turns out to be boring, then we are outraged, "Is that all that you could do?" and that automatically bumps it into the bad category. Whereas when a low budget video of, say, a naked man flapping around on the floor in a puddle goes on and on, it's just dull and we feel like we are wasting our time.

I'd never thought of this difference before, but in terms of my emotional response it's true, I'm more outraged by a squandering of resources and opportunities than watching a boring video on YouTube. I guess jealousy has a big role to play in what makes something bad or just boring, which is also proof positive of the irrationality behind all demarcations of good and bad. Who can really judge these things beyond a reasonable doubt? No one, but at least Kriota has taken a stab at defining her standards for judgment, something all of us curators, presenters, and critics should do!

Amy Greenfield, a cine- and videodance pioneer, was also in attendance Monday night and had some interesting insights to share...

"Thoughts on Monday. Great premise btw  - most thought-provoking program so far. That's GREAT.  BAD ISN'T BORING!

It was also so enjoyable because except for the boring tapes, cinematically this "bad" filmdance was the best cinema of the season - Hollywood films! I love the contradiction and feel it needs to be recognized. Also realized Monday that "dance people" and "laypeople" looking at them will have very different reactions cause most people look at the film as film first, and in context with the rest of the film as they were features. Yeats asked 'How do you tell the dancer from the dance?' Monday night's delightful, insightful show made me ask 'How do you tell the cinema from the dance?'

Some of my own thoughts on Monday PM: 
I've seen The Mothering Heart and it's an important silent film by the great film pioneer, DW Griffith. I love the film and never noticed the dance moment screened. The actress in the foreground is Lilian Gish, one of the great silent film actresses. Notice her restraint vs the dance. Lilian and her sister Dorothy were sent by Griffith to study dance at Denishawn. The ACTING in these films was good filmdance. (What's good filmdance and whats good dance put on film is there a difference?) Griffith used Denishawn dancers including Martha Graham in his masterpiece, Intolerance.

Ben Hecht who made Specter of the Rose was one of the great Hollywood screenwriters who obviously didn't know anything about dance. The dance in Spectre massacred influences from Deren's Study In Choreography For Camera and more especially Cocteau's Blood Of The Poet. The two 'good film good dance' moments had to do with real action, and the film actor's dictum - don't act, re-act: when the dancer lays down the knife at the sleeping woman's neck, and when he lept out the window, shattering the glass and going into non-existence as Nijinsky did on stage. That last moment was GREAT and worth all the previous BAD dancing.

Staying Alive was REALLY good cinema and I didn't think it was bad dance either though I just couldn't separate the film from the dance until the unfortunately stupid climax which went over the top - and tellingly, was the only part not shot close-up, fast cuts, and wasn't such excellent cinema.

The Stroman [Center Stage] was bad dance and bad cinema. Interesting how bad cinema can ruin good dance by Amanda Schull."

Amy

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 10:55 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

May 29, 2008

Worst of the Best at Kinetic Cinema June 2nd

Don't miss the last Kinetic Cinema before we break for the summer!

"Staying Alive" dir. Sylvester Stallone, "Showgirls" dir. Paul Verhoeven

On Monday June 2nd, choreographer and dance filmmaker Kriota Willberg will host The Worst of the Best, a tour of inspiringly bad dance films from the early 1900's to the present. Truly awful dance is powerful art.  We react strongly to it as an audience, we relate our horrible experiences to our friends and warn them away from it, we laugh, we seethe, we remember it far longer than "good" dance, and possibly longer than "great" dance.   Join us for film and discussion as we chase that ethereal muse, Badness, through the work of generations of dance film artists.

Kinetic Cinema
Monday June 2nd, 7:30pm
$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
http://weird.org/films.htm
212.254.5277
MORE INFO: www.movetheframe.com
 

Kinetic Cinema at Collective:Unconscious 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. In the fall upcoming guests will include Elizabeth Zimmer (Oct 5th),  Maya Ciarrocchi (Nov 3rd), and new films by Anna Brady Nuse & friends (Dec 1st).

KRIOTA WILLBERG has danced and choreographed in Germany, Chicago, and New York. In addition to working with her company, Dura Mater, Willberg choreographs for commercial, theatrical, and other dance productions. Dance choreography for film includes The Bentfootes  (dir. K. Willberg and Todd Alcott), Grasshopper  (dir. Todd Alcott), Dreamgirl (dir. Robbie Busch), and On The Road With Judas (dir. JJ Lask). She has passed her basic proficiency tests in Single Sword and Broadsword techniques from the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and occasionally includes fight choreography in her own work and for others. Her article on dance and stage combat was published in the SAFD magazine, The Fightmaster. Her ballerina tattoo was featured in Dance Magazine.

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 1:58 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 7, 2008

Godard and Waters do the Madison

There is something about the Madison, that grand-daddy of line dances, that has continually captured the cinematic fancy of great film directors. The most notable of these are Jean-Luc Godard who created a famous dance scene based on the Madison in his 1964 film Bande à Part, and John Waters who depicted the dance in a scene in the original 1988 Hairspray. For both directors this dance, with its post-modern use of repetition, accumulation, and cultural references, was a perfect vehicle to suspend the plotlines of their films and delve into the inner workings of their characters.


Dance scene from Bande à Part


In Bande à Part, the famous dance scene comes after the equally famous "minute of silence" scene in which two of the main characters, Arthur and Odile, decide to be silent in a café. After the silent spell is broken by Franz, Arthur and Odile decide to get up and dance (and are soon joined by Franz). In a way, this dance continues the pause begun earlier with the minute of silence. There has been a rent in action, the world is still not normal. People do not normally just get up and dance in cafes where no one else is dancing. Also, we don't know if there is actually music playing in the room because it drops out occasionally when a narrator speaks, but we still hear the dancers' foot shuffles and claps. Could they actually be dancing in silence? At the same time, the narrator's voice brings in yet another level of reality as he tells us what each character is thinking about while they dance. This scene, while appearing to be so simple, is actually a very sophisticated example of how film can reveal many layers of reality at once. We see the "normal" world of the cafe around the characters, the familiar dance style of the The Madison being performed out of context, and then the shifting reality of the sound and narration telling us about things we can't see. No wonder this scene has been so influential on numerous other movies, Hal Hartley's dance scene in Simple Men being a prime example.


Dance scene from Simple Men


Unlike many other filmmakers that made dance scenes in the footsteps of Godard, Waters' Madison scene in Hairspray was a completely different take. First of all, Waters is a connoisseur of '60's dances. In addition to bringing the Madison back to greatness, he also reacquainted us with "The Mashed Potato," "The Fly," and "The Bump." It is clear however, that "The Madison" was one of his favorites, by virtue of the length of the scene and the many variations lovingly depicted.


Excerpt of the Madison scene in Hairspray

Like Godard's scene in Bande à Part, this one takes a long and sultry pause in the action and we learn a little more about how the characters really feel. The heroine, Tracy Turnblad cuts in between Link Larson (her love interest) and the prissy Amber von Tussle (Link's girlfriend). Link shows interest in Tracy, and Amber shoots her with disdain. All the while, the hypnotic rhythm and swing of the dance continues, turning the characters about and giving them actions which belie their feelings and motivations. I love the choreography of this Madison. It's complex but supposed to look easy. The call of the DJ instructs the dancers about what to do next, and each repetition of the dance adds a new gesture. The names of the moves are really great too, including "T time", "The Basketball (with Wilt Chamberlain)" and the "The Rifleman".

According to Wikipedia and the Columbus Music History website, the Madison developed in Columbus, Ohio in 1957. It was popularized by Count Basie in 1959, and quickly spread as he toured across the US and Europe. Apparently Waters' depiction of the dance is accurate, and Godard's is not (although he never calls it the Madison in the film, that was just what the actors called it). Nevertheless, it is clear that this dance has a certain something that is especially well suited for the silver screen. Maybe it's the mesmerizing repetition, or its ability to unify a motley cast of characters, or maybe it's just 'cause it swings, but whatever the case the Madison has been a catalyst for new innovations in film, and has undoubtedly inspired many generations of filmmakers to use dance in novel and sophisticated ways.



This article is part of Ferdy On Films' Invitation to the Dance Movie Blogathon happening May 4-10, 2008 all over the blogosphere...

Many thanks to Levi Gonzalez whose program at Kinetic Cinema on Monday night (5/5/08) inspired me to write about Godard's dance scene in Bande à Part.

*********************
Update 5/22/08:
Bande à Part (Band of Outsiders) is playing at Film Forum in NYC this weekend - Thurs-Sat 5/22-5/24. Click here for ticket info.

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 11:29 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

March 18, 2008

Invitation to the Dance Movie Blogathon May 4-10

Dance bloggers and dance film lovers everywhere, mark your calendars now for the first ever Dance Movie Blogathon happening May 4-10, 2008!

I can't claim credit for this great idea, that honor goes to Marilyn Ferdinand who publishes the Ferdy on Films, etc. blog. She is organizing this fabulous event to bring awareness to the important contributions dance has made to cinema since its beginnings from Edison's Serpentine Dance to the latest Hollywood dance hits like Step Up 2: The Streets.

In her announcement post Ferdy writes:

Ferdy on Films, etc. is proud to host the Invitation to the Dance Movie Blogathon, May 4 through May 10. The last day of the blogathon just happens to be the birthday of one of the greatest dancers ever to grace the silver screen--Fred Astaire. Contributions on that date that discuss Astaire are particularly welcome. Please RSVP to ferdyonfilms@comcaust.net. Link to this page before the event and to Ferdy on Films, etc. during the week of the blogathon.

I will be churning out posts about my favorite dance on screen moments, and you should too! Spread the word and the link to the Ferdy on Films, etc. blog.

Here's a little clip of Fred from Puttin' on the Ritz to get you ready.

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 3:26 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 22, 2008

One of the best studio-produced dance films in recent history

A review of Step Up 2: The Streets by my friend Kat Green, a filmmaker whose opinion I trust.



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 11, 2008

Experimental Artists are Still Misunderstood, Despite Nod on YouTube

Yesterday 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, 2008

Second Life Spoof Proves My Puppetry Theory

Here'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)

January 24, 2008

Something for the mid-winter blues

I'm tired. It's the end of January and everything seems too much right now. After three weeks of the Dance On Camera Festival, Kinetic Cinema, APAP, grant deadlines looming, school starting, work going overtime, relentless presidential campaigns, and a never-ending war I'm just tired...

So, here is something that gave me a lift at 10:42pm on a Thursday night. Time to get up out of your chair, push it aside, and give in to an inscrutably optimistic force of nature...


Dancing 4 fun + fitness with Paul Eugene

Alright, now that you're warmed up, here is the final scene of one of my favorite dance movies of all time "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." (Warning: Age-specific content. People in their late twenties or early thirties may be the only ones to appreciate this.) This one goes out to my girl Nadine, who has been devoted to Sarah Jessica Parker since day one...



Ahhh, the smile is coming back to my face. Life isn't sooo bad...

One more to send me off to bed. From my favorite master of cinematic fantasy, Busby Berkeley, here are three incredible clips from his 1934 classic, "Dames". (For dance film geeks out there, see also Michel Gondry's music video of the Chemical Brothers "Let Forever Be", he obviously studied this film closely!)



I feel better now, I hope you do too :)

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 10:48 PM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

December 4, 2007

Dance Film Lab next week! (and other happenings)

Hi All.

I apologize for the sparse postings the past couple of weeks. I've been slammed with school work at the end of the semester (I'm studying Media Management at the New School). I'll share some of the wealth of my newly acquired knowledge soon, but in the meantime, here are some dance film/video events coming up this month.

Next Tuesday, December 11th
Dance Film Lab
@ South 4th Bar in Williamsburg
90 South 4th Street @ Berry
Subways: L at Bedford, J,M,Z at Marcy Ave.
Phone: 718.218.7478
8pm, free

The bi-monthly Dance Film Lab is a friendly gathering of folks interested in dance for the camera. People share their works (in any stage of progress) and get constructive feedback from the group. We all get to share who we are, what we're doing, and what we need (which often gets miraculously granted!). And our gracious moderator Zach Morris (of Third Rail Projects blog) always makes everyone feel very warm and welcome. So come out, but shoot an email Zach first just so he knows you're coming.

Last night I attended the DANCE MOViES Commission workshop run by my friend Hélène Lesterlin, dance curator at EMPAC (Experimental Media Performing Arts Center) in Troy, NY. It was a very inspiring presentation about the commission and the possibilities for creative experimentation in dance and media at EMPAC. The ratio of commission awards to applicants is very low, however I think it is still well worth applying to, for the process alone, and also to show the funding community that there are a lot of American artists out there that want to make dance for screen. Eventually other funders will sign on and join EMPAC's efforts to support this fantastic genre. So Viva EMPAC and DANCE MOViES!

There is a wonderful festival in the Netherlands this month that I wish I could attend, called Dancing on the Edge: Confronting Dance from the Middle East. It's a dance festival with a dance film component curated by Cinedans. The dance films are all from the Middle East, or made by artists from there, and tackle many topics from "West Bank Story" - a remake of the famous musical with competing Falafel stands and a taboo Israeli Palestinian love affair - to  "Horizon of Exile" a breath-taking installation about two Iraqi women torn between their country and their need to escape. Incidentally "Horizon of Exile" will be shown this January in New York during the Dance On Camera Festival. I can't wait to see it!

So if you are in the Netherlands or thereabouts I highly recommend you check this festival out.

Dancing on the Edge
Confronting Dance from the Middle East
Amsterdam: 12-16 december
Rotterdam: 13-18 december
Groningen: 11-12 & 18-19 december

And to leave you with some moving images to muse over, my friend Hope Hall, a filmmaker, and occasional dance filmmaker, hipped me to this blog, La Blogotheque, where she shot one of their videos in the TakeAway Series. Essentially they shoot a band performing in some non-traditional space all in one take, and then post the take on their blog. Seems like a great idea for a videodance series too.

This is one of those TakeAways, and while it's really a music video, it does have some adorable dancing, and it'll make you want to move. So take it away!

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 12:56 AM - Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

November 2, 2007

Chair Dances for the Video Age

If any of you have studied dance at an institution of higher learning than you will be very familiar with the most popular dance composition assignment ever: the chair dance. Even if you never went to school for dance, I am pretty sure you have seen a chair dance at some student concert you were dragged to. The most common type you will see is the angsty chair dance. Usually performed by a soloist, in this particularly virulent strain the dancer pours every fiber of her being into communing with the source of her greatest pain and sorrow, the empty chair. I have made and endured watching many a chair dance in my day, and it got to the point where if I saw another one, I thought I might possibly slit my throat.


However, now I'm all grown up and I don't get to spend gazillions of dollars to dance six hours a day and come up with angsty dance compositions with furniture. Instead I find myself dancing less and interacting with chairs more and more. I've got my office job where I deal with numbers and spreadsheets and many other things of importance that I never studied in school. Then I come home to sit at my computer and surf youtube, edit videodances and post to my blog. It got me kind of longing for some chair dancing...
So today for all those poor dancers trapped in cubicles, I present some excellent chair dances. I encourage you to try these at home or at work, but be sure to check your workers' comp policy first.

Chair dance # 1 comes from Lando, a Youtube vlogger who made a New Year's resolution to make a dance video a day. Her motto: Dance Your Ass Off. I guess this quickly devolved to making a videodance whenever she felt like it, but she's still made 74 so far, which is pretty impressive. (For a superstar in the daily dance video world check out Boris Willis and his "Dance-a-day" blog.) I was impressed with her cinematic approach to her videodances. Often she plays with the edges of the frame and the videos' colorings to make them look old, retro or distorted. In this one she also makes good use of off-screen/on-screen space and the curtain back-drop, which has a different effect for camera than stage.


Day 2 of Dance 365 - How to Ridin Dirty Office Chair dance by Lando


Chair dance #2 could be a spin-off of the Hipster Olympics. Brooklyn filmmaker Jill Beale makes a case for the under-represented sport of Chairing, which seems quite similar to the experimental modern dance scene in New York. Perhaps our two groups should join forces and take the world by storm, or at least wheel our way off the L line.


chairing by Jill Beale


Chair dance #3 follows the chairing phenomenon but takes it one step further to become Office Chair Skating. Instead of endurance and speed, it's about artistry and grace. You're allowed to have off-screen helpers push you in to avoid showing any clumsy foot scoots, and having smooth floor surfaces are essential.


Office Chair Skating by Rhett and Link


Chair dance #4 is a futuristic fantasy where a flying carpet is replaced by a flying arm chair soaring to the timeless anthem of Aha's "Take On Me". The guy who made this cast his dad in the lead role. As a moonlighting chair dancer, he's really great. No embedding allowed on this one, so you'll have to click the link.

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 12:44 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

October 26, 2007

Papelbon Dance

Sometimes dance and athletics combine into a beautiful synergy. In case you haven't tuned into the baseball post-season, a new dance sensation is sweeping the land in the form of Red Sox closing pitcher Jonathan Papelbon.



I love the announcers' comments on his dancing: "[look at the] use of his hands." Imagine if Americans could converse at length about dance moves as much as they can talk about sports plays on talk radio...

Here's a news spot about how the fans have caught on.



And finally, a hard-hitting investigative reporter tracks down a local dance teacher and gets the expert's analysis of Papelbon's dance lineage. (Warning, lack of tripod and microphone makes this a bit hard to watch or listen too, but such are the conditions of fast-breaking dance news.)

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 12:00 AM - Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

October 19, 2007

Madonna Shows Us a New Move

I've always loved Madonna, maybe because I intuitively knew she was more of a dancer than a musician, or maybe because her music is made to dance to. In any event, the recent news of her move to leave her record label and sign a lucrative deal with the concert promoter Live Nation, struck me as a something that we dancers should perhaps take note of.


The music industry has officially come full circle with recordings. Before recording technology existed the music business was completely based on live shows and sheet music. Recordings changed all of this as major record labels grew to control the field and artists toured mostly to promote and sell their records, not the other way around. Now in the age of digital downloads, the exchange of recorded music has become ubiquitous and uncontrollable to the point where recordings are literally worth nothing. As Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch theorized "unless governments are willing to take drastic measures to protect the industry (such as a mandatory music tax), economic theory will win out and the price of music will fall towards zero." He goes on to say that this is opening up a lot of new lucrative revenue streams for music including sales of live music tours, limited edition physical recordings (box sets and the like), and merchandise. Now we are in the midst of a huge sea change in which music recordings have no intrinsic value besides being a great promotional tool for live acts. Madonna's move to bank on her kick-ass touring show with Live Nation over a tenuous record deal with Warner Brothers is the latest proof of this trend. (And this at the age of 49! Dancers in particular can't help but respect this woman.) So how does this relate to videodance and dance? Well there has never been a gigantic recorded dance industry, so we won't feel the pains of a huge paradigm shift of power and revenue like our musician friends. However, that doesn't mean we can't learn from them and get a running start on the new wave of the digital future. Booking dance would not be so difficult if the public had a concept about all the great dance companies out there. How can you give them a taste of who you are? By making a fabulous video of your work and getting it on everyone's computer screen, ipod, cell phone, and tv. Videodance can be a powerful promotional tool for touring dance companies, and if you give it away for free, and market it right, live dance could see a major resurgence like the music industry is experiencing today.

Already some of the biggest viral video hits on Youtube have been dance videos. The Anaheim Ballet video in particular came out of nowhere and instantly put this small local ballet company on the global map. There have been many blog posts about their breakout Youtube hit, but what I didn't know is that this was just one part of a brilliant web marketing strategy AB has been growing through a weekly video/audio podcast, a myspace page, and a youtube channel. Between 2005 and 2006 their private contribution revenue quadrupled, and their overall revenue rose 26% [Guidestar.org]. Their regular podcasts didn't even begin until the end of 2006, so I wouldn't be surprised to see their revenue make an even larger leap in 2007. A remote ballet outpost has hit upon a winning strategy that every dance company should be observing.



From the Material Girl herself, there is no denying that our day in the sun may be dawning. Do you want to be like the record labels or the artists? It's time to give away the media and raise the value of the live experience for all.
 
Get into the groove!

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 9:00 AM - Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

October 5, 2007

Viva la dance dance revolution!

Just when I start to get a little complacent and narrow-minded in my concept of "dance" something comes along to blow open my field of vision again. Recently this blast came from a very unexpected place. It is a video game and it's a mania that has been sweeping the globe. It's the innocuous Japanese video dance light game: Dance Dance Revolution.

OK, I have to confess, I have never played this game, nor have I ever seen anyone play this game live. I've never had any interest in video games, probably because as a kid, like many other dancers I know, I had no eye/hand coordination. Plus I've never liked sitting and staring at a screen for hours at a time. However my life has been devoted to dance and based on the belief that dance can change the world, and despite all my preconceived biases, I have to accept that the dance revolution I've been wishing for all these years, may in fact have come in the form of an arcade video game.

This was not an easy revelation for me to accept. Not when I've spent 26 years of my life, uncountable hours, buckets of sweat and tears, dozens of lost toenails, and thousands of dollars to live in a garret as a starving artist (ok I'm exaggerating a bit). So I had to put this phenomenon to the dance revolution test: 1. Is it interesting to watch? 2. Does it encourage people to move and get in touch with their bodies? 3. Does it bring people together and allow them to express themselves? 4. Is it artful?

Thanks to the ingenuity and competitive drive of the human spirit...Dance Dance Revolution passed my test. Here's why.

1. Is it interesting to watch?

Normally I hate watching other people play video games. It seems like the most boring competitive activity in the world to watch (even worse than golf). But, DDR is different. It involves the player's whole body and requires split second reactions. I searched for videos of it on Youtube, and remarkably I found all the ones I watched interesting and engaging. You could see the individual players unique styles come out, and their virtuosity (almost to the point of freakishness) was apparent.

2. Does it encourage people to move and get in touch with their bodies?

I was impressed by the range of people I saw playing this game on Youtube. From 3 year olds to old men, fat & skinny, two legged and one legged, everyone is playing it. I read two articles about how West Virginia and California public schools have made DDR part of their physical education curriculums, and there is also some evidence that it is helping fight childhood obesity. As far as video games go, this one definitely comes the closest to engaging someone in a full-bodied way. It seems to draw the potatoes out of their couches and hooks people on dancing, which is very revolutionary indeed.



3. Does it bring people together and allow them to express themselves?

Huge communities of fans have formed around this game. It started in Japan and has mushroomed all over the world since. Some popular websites are DDR Freaks out of the SF Bay area and Aaron in Japan. There are currently two major styles of DDR: Freestyle and Technical which represent the two extremes of play. Just like common divisions in the dance world between improv and technical dance, classical and contemporary, there are the same demarcations in this form. Here are a couple good examples of the two.



4. Is it artful?

This question is pretty subjective, but given the range of approaches and interesting uses of the game, I would say yes it is. There is something John Cage and Merce Cunningham-ish about this set-up. The game creates chance-based dances and the electronic directions act like a real basic version the choreographic software "life forms". I love how it creates this superstructure that the individual players can work within and embellish however they choose. Also it is clearly difficult to master and requires practice, concentration, and skill. I bet anyone who is good at DDR could pick up the fancy footwork of dance forms like samba, flamenco, Irish step-dancing, or tap pretty easily. And frankly, seeing a skilled DDR player is beautiful to watch. So yes, my vote is that it is artful. Human beings can make just about anything artful.


So have I gone off the deep end? Have any dancers out there played DDR? What do you think?

Frankly I think I should stick to my old-fashioned self-generated dance moves, but nevertheless Viva La DD Revolution!

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 12:21 AM - Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)

September 28, 2007

Philippine Prisoners Resurrect Busby Berkeley

As a videodance artist, I have to comment on the viral video sensation of the Philippine Prison dances that have rocked Youtube as of late. These massive stagings, in which up to 1600 prisoners dance to pop hits in perfect unison, are as awesome and powerful as they are campy and scary. Byron Garcia, a security consultant for the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre started the dance fitness program as a way to improve inmates' behaviour and increase their participation in exercises. However the inspiration to start filming the routines came when Mr. Garcia saw prisoners exercising in the prison courtyard and noticed patterns and waves in their movement which piqued his inner Busby Berkeley. The result was a string of videos and a gigantic Youtube hit with "Thriller" performed by 1500 prisoners and featuring inmates Crisanto Nierre as "Michael Jackson," and Wenjiel Resane as his "girlfriend". "Thriller" has been viewed over 6 million times now on Youtube. The popularity of the videos have become a huge source of pride for the inmates, and now the CPDRC is becoming a veritable production house of grand spectacle dance films, the likes of which haven't been seen since the heyday of American movie musicals in the 30's and 40's.

"Thriller" (original upload)

While one side of me is thrilled about this phenomenon of using dance as a therapeutic, community-building, grand-spectacle-making means, at the same time there is something so creepy about watching hundreds of incarcerated men in orange uniforms dancing in formation. It immediately evoked images for me of concentration camps, Maoist rallies, and Nazi propaganda films. It seems to be the embodiment of Fritz Lang's industrial age nightmare in "Metropolis" in which the masses of humanity are reduced to nothing but machine like drones toiling underground in obscurity.

"Metropolis" - Molochmaschine (Moloch machine)

Still, upon further reflection I realized that my reactions were very much mired in a Western Anglo-American value system where individuality is prized above all else. In many parts of the world, including Southeast Asia, collective dance, music and ritual is a powerful, sacred thing. I had the privilege of studying Balinese Monkey Chant (kecak) at CalArts with the master dancer/musician I Nyoman Wenten. Performing in this incredibly complex group ritual was one of the most amazing artistic experiences of my life. To lose one's sense of self even for a few minutes and to become just one cell in a greater organism is an awesome state of being which the Western world has become very afraid of. We've seen it lead to unfathomable destruction with two World Wars and countless hate crimes. However, we've forgotten that there is equal evidence of collective ritual being used to transcend despair and destitution and to heal and empower whole communities of people.

Kecak scene from "Baraka"

Ultimately I applaud the dance videos of the CPDRC inmates. Not only is the act of dancing having a powerful effect on these people's lives, but their ability to share their work with the entire world through video transforms what they are doing into an act of artistic expression. They may be caged within four prison walls, but collectively they have reached farther and made deeper connections with the outside world than most of us "free" individuals ever could.

Now I'll leave you with a little dream from the greatest collective choreographer of them all...

"Spin a Little Web of Dreams" (Busby Berkeley)

Posted by Anna Brady Nuse at 8:00 AM - Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)