University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Dance and Video Departments

9th Annual UM Dance on Camera Festival

February 20-21, 2010

Program curated by Peter Sparling

ENTANGLEMENT THEORY
Richard James Allen, Karen Pearlman and Gary Hayes, Australia, 2009: 10M
A busy dancing man takes a nap in two realities. His live self dreams and his avatar self dreams. Neither reality is quite so simple when they wake.

SHE
Kathy Rose, USA, 2009; 4M
An insectoid fantasy adapted from a live performance into a mesmerizing short using puppetry, collage, and dance.

TRASH DANCE Oliver Fergusson-Taylor, 2008, UK, 1M
Hip hop deconstruction of trash heap.

BEGUINE - Nominated for Jury Prize for Best Short
Douwe Dijkstra, Netherlands, 2009, 4:44
One man's response to losing his lover, a surreal short based on a poem by Giza Ritschl.

THE LAST MARTINI - Nominated for Jury Prize for Best Short
Vickie Mendoza, USA, 2009; 6:16'
Inspired by the noir films of the 1940s and 1950s and the posters that publicized them, "The Last Martini" plays out the rain-soaked reverie of a man whose psyche becomes tangled in a broken dance of passion and heartbreak.

DANSE MACABRE
Pedro Pires, Canada, 2009; 9M
The director, who worked with Robert Lepage on this stunning short writes, "For a period of time, while we believe it to be perfectly still, lifeless flesh responds, stirs and contorts in a final macabre ballet. Are these spasms merely erratic motions or do they echo the chaotic twists and turns of a past life?" Winner of Toronto Film Festival 2009 Shorts Category.

JACKIE & JUDY
Phil Harder, USA, 2009; 4M
An ode to Canadian animator, Norman McLaren's PAS DE DEUX, the New York based choreographers Rosanne Chamecki and Andrea Lerner choreographed, and performed their silhouettes which become multiplied by their momentum

Little Ease [outside the box] - Nominated for Jury Prize for Best Short
ami ipapo and matt tarr, USA, 2008, 6:53M
A new take on a classic piece of choreography conceived in 1985 by extreme action pioneer Elizabeth Streb. Through the use of the camera, we remove obstacles to the conversation between performer, environment and witness, taking this inspiring and athletic movement out of its typical context.

SUNSCREEN SERENADE – Nominated for Jury Prize for Best Short
Kriota Willberg, USA, 2009, 5:30
This innovative homage to Busby Berkeley celebrates the merits of skin protection. An EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission 2008, supported by The Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts – Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA”.

CINÉTICA - Jury Prize for Best Short
Ana Cembrero Coca, Spain, 2008; 25M
In this emotional journey, this film shows through the body the ambiguity of a real and imaginary world where a woman searches, dances, fights or plays, without separating what is lived and what is dreamed.

CHAMAME
Silvina Szperling, Argentina, 2008; 9M
A delirious, chameleon woman gets carried away by the Paraná River stream. She becomes one with the plants or the fish; is at times a heroin and at times a victim, until she is rescued by a fisherman.

RAPTURE
Noemie Lafrance, USA, 2008; 6M
Celebrating the opening of Frank Gehry’s Fisher Center at Bard College in 2008, dancers defy gravity and scale, rush up and down the hills of a metallic desert against the empty sky.

CHLOES
Lea Fulton and Greg King, USA, 2009; 5M
Two women negotiate the confines of a sleek, modern bus stop shelter on a gritty urban street at night.

THREE'S A CROWD
Andy Wood, UK, 2007; 4:48M
Shot in one continuous take, the rough and ready hand-held camera improvises within the dance, an active participant in a carefree duet.

Feb 21, 8:30pm
NEW YORK DANCE:
States of Performance - World Premiere
Michael Blackwood, USA, 2009, 97M
NEW YORK DANCE: States of Performance is the latest in Michael Blackwood's trilogy on the state of contemporary dance. His first exploration was in 1980, MAKING DANCES, curated by dance scholar Marcia B. Siegel, focused on the first generation of postmodernists--Douglas Dunn, Lucinda Childs, Meredeith Monk, David Gordon and Sara Rudner, documenting their work and ideas. The second film, made in 1988, featured Stephen Petronio, Molissa Fenley, Bill T. Jones (with Arnie Zane), and Wendy Perron, among the first generation of postmodern choreographers, and was curated by dance writer Sally Banes. In 2010, Blackwood explores new currents for the new decade with NEW YORK DANCE, curated by dance critic Gia Kourlas. The film features Christopher Wheeldon, Jennifer Monson, Sara Michelson, John Jasperse, Ralph Lemon, Beth Gill and Ann Liv Young, who express their ideas and dance aesthetic in rehearsal and performance.

For more information on this program, contact Peter Sparling

This program was made possible with the support of the DFA and its Touring program made possible in part with the support of The National Endowment for the Arts, Music Library of the University of Michigan, the members of DFA, and the Susan Braun Trust.

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