| Have You Started
Dancing Yet?
2004/12'
director, editing: Becky Edmunds. music:
dance company n/a.
additional music: Scott Smith.
performers: Liz Aggiss, Kirsty Alexander, Gill Clarke,
Lisa Nelson, Steve Paxton, Scott Smith, Fin Walker, Fiona Wright. production:
South East Dance National Dance Agency. UK
The film starts with Steve Paxton still, declaring he's dancing. But
then, what is dance?
A man sits still and declares that he his dancing. Another performs
a duet on a stage, but he may not be dancing - he may just be dragging
himself through the formalities. A woman walks on a beach. She says
she is definitely dancing, and so is the dog.
What is dancing and how do you know when you've started? Documentary
maker Becky Edmunds asks eight leading British and American post modern
dance makers to discuss, and attempt to demonstrate, the moment when
dancing begins.
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Choreography/choreomania 5: microchoreography
2004/2'
director, photography, editing
- production: allsopp & weir. UK
Two bodies connected by electricity and nerves.
Allsopp & Weir are Paul Allsopp and Andy Weir. Their work is
concerned with movement, its restriction, and body/video interfacing.
[ top ]
Blurred
Focus
2004/ 2'
director, editing, music:
Rachael Doble. choreographer, performer: Liat Ben Shoshan. production:
Liat Ben Shoshan. UK
Blurred focus. Fast, then slow. Chaotic then calm. Using colour
and movement to suggest a sense of the pressures of today's society.
We never take the time to be still. We are consumed by stress and
chaos
and never allow ourselves to be reflective and tranquil. Sometimes
we have a moment of stillness - and it is just that, a moment;
the
beat of a butterfly's wing. Before one has the opportunity to embrace
peace, we are to be saturated in chaos once again. A continual
cycle, which is repetitive and endless.
Liat and Rachael put this piece together in 2 days, before that
they didn't even know one another. This is their first piece of
video
work.
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Tense
2004/ 3'
director, choreographer, photography,
editing: Jennifer Rouse. music: Nine Inch Nails. performers: Casey
Rathunde, Lorin Hansen. USA
Are you tense? Tension may be part of life, but it can get out
of control. What makes you tense? How does stress affect your
relationships to
those you are close to? This short brings these questions to
the screen.
Jennifer Rouse is a graduate student of Modern Dance at the University
of Utah in Salt Lake City. This is her first dance film project
and she hopes to incorporate this process into her thesis.
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Olive
Stone
String
2003/6'
director: Billy Cowie. Liz Aggiss. choreographer:
Liz Aggiss, Billy Cowie. music: Billy Cowie. photography: Jeff
Baynes. editing - production: Joseph Murray. performers: Nusura
Mai-Ngarm, Liz Aggiss, George Chakravarthi. UK
The film is based on and illustrates
the
following poem
by Billy Cowie:
Imagine if you will
That an olive stone
As it travels through time
Is like a string weaving its way
Through the world
Imagine if you can
That when you eat this stone
The string passes through
You as if
Your body were a bead
Imagine if you may
The grape seed strings
The wheat grain strings
The indigestible gristle strings
The small button (which you swallowed as child) strings
All passing through you
It's a wonder with all those strings
Going through
That you can move at all.
The poem is sung in Italian during the film.
Aggiss and Cowie have been collaboration for over twenty years
in both live dance theatre performances and screen based work.
Their
film awards
include two BBC Dance for Camera Awards. [ top ]
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