ONE FLAT THING and A series of rounded rhetorical questions

"The main focus of Synchronous Objects is to develop a set of data visualization tools for capturing, analyzing and presenting the underlying choreographic structures and components of Forsythe's "One Flat Thing, reproduced" (OFTr), which premiered in 2003. These visualizations in the form of information graphics, 2D and 3D animations and visual dance scores will provide audiences, students and researchers with new approaches to thinking about and studying Forsythe's intricate, counter-point work."
Doug Fox - Great Dance



NOWHERE NEAR THE EDGES, SOMEWHAT REPEATED

A view of Synchronous Objects - One Flat Thing


On the basis what’s good for Albert should be good for us, it is instructive that the great Einstein died while still exploring and failing to ratify his unified field theory.
He had rather hoped that one day he would discover how to make the whole Universe comprehensible as more than the sum of its parts, rather than less.
This surely at a stretch, might be one of the key indicators of anything approaching coherent outcomes for the rather more mundane but nonetheless important artistic impulse.

I have to ask if Statistical analysis of spatial dynamics, or the investigation of how moving bodies can organise themselves - whether synchronously or within de-reified fields of order and organisation, or whether the chance arrangements of geometric patterns of moving human forms can help organise new ways of understanding the dynamic processes in design for the assembling of inanimate lumps of glass, steel and breeze-block architecture, can provide very much more than a very good pretext for countless imitative versions of the same thing somewhat repeated?

One of the problems with deconstructing the choreographic process, from a spatial, atomic, dynamic, visual or merely abstract aesthetic, is that the sum of parts will nevitably become less than the whole.

What is the philosphical, philological , spatial, contextual, emotional or semiotic motivator unique and central to the process?

In the breathless hype and total absence of informed critical appraisal of the S.O launch, this member of audience begins to wonder is whether there has any decision been taken as to exactly what this progenitor might be.

My feeling is that there is not one key motivator.

Thus what ensues is yet another monumental work of making and meaning in which there is no centre. What the gestaltists might call, lacking either a clear figure or a clear ground.

Is this yet another of those fantastically erudite exercises in the careful and mutually respectful allowing, of at least ten different sets of fingers to take hold of at best, different parts of, and at worst, the same part of the wings of a single butterfly and pulling sufficiently hard - to discover that the wings have come off?
All with the single and express purpose of examining, from at least ten different points of view, exactly how it, the butterfly, actually fails to continue to be able to fly.

If there is a value in pulling the wings off butterflies, at the very least a conclusion can be drawn, a carefully constructed set of reasons as to exactly why the dewinging of a butterfly should be taking place.
Perhaps even a a beautifully inscribed equation for all those involved in either the pulling or the observation of such.
One to be splashed upon lecture-room whiteboards the length and breadth of Academia:
Butterfly - Wings = General Lack of Flight - discuss

Further brilliant observations and outcomes following the exhaustive and minutely documented de-winging process, might be:

1 A certain amount of surprise and consternation that this butterfly is not looking as good as it did.

and

2 The entire exercise boiling down to not a great deal more than a final published series of findings with the general heading;
"How we, er, well…we um, probably killed a butterfly."

What is even more surprising is that despite ever more sophisticated and fantastical exercises in synchronous objectification of the atomic affects no-one seems to be questioning whether flying was something that the butterfly was ever intended to do.
In fact the only consequence of that kind of skewed and heretically unscientific thinking, is that it might lead to the entirely uncomfortable conclusion that flying and butterfly might even have a non-human imperative.
Worse even still, there may be a far more instructive and deductive poetry at work, which describes the whole of a butterfly in ways that do not even mention the bits that make it work.

And thus, with the noisy clattering of pot lids, launching of web-sites and general over-excited PR driven hype, we have Synchronous Objects.
Unquestioningly presented as a Major Creative Event, but which in fact resembles not much more than a large, multi-coloured, formless, disintegrated and more or less inert mass.
One, which may or may not have resembled something approximating a notion which might or might not, with all respect to the interdisciplinary sensibilities of the disparate and self-actualising interests of the various participatory groups, have been a thing which once accorded with the notion of butterflyness, or choreography, or creative endeavour.

Where I am confused about the "S.O." exercise and would greatly appreciate someone clarifying the why and the what for me, is in precisely what outcome might be measured as a result of the synchronous objectification of what to many is a dense and to most, an almost impenetrable piece of uniquely personal modern dance-making.

Secondarily, why there should be made such an uniquely uncritical din about its launch?

What I think Synchronous Objects would like to have been, when the notion started as that oh so riveting dinner party conversation all that time ago, is a series of possible outcomes which might or might not occur as a process of bringing together an interdisplinary team of variously post-hoc areas of research and design disciplines in the broadest sense.

One which has clearly been resourced to the eyeballs in order to exhaustively research the possiblity of Spatiality being a synchronous process involving the potential for the inconnectedness of things in general, which in certain contexts might or might not be recognised as something we might later refer to as: choreography-ness.

No chance that Synchronous Objects is an ok, if somewhat windy April Fool joke is there?


Here is Pacific NorthWest Ballet forcing "One Flat Thing" on their public for a second time.
Clearly attempting to brazen out the notion that alienating their audience, by feeding it the angst ridden internal monologues of this weeks Dance Genius, currently engaged in deep psychotherapeutic interventions, should be seen as essentially a positive step. I assume, on the basis that Stravinsky got away with it....
I wonder if anyone who suffers from the current chronic creative hubris so resplendent in its over-subsidised compounds, ever stops for long enough to wonder if any of this outcrop of "groundbreaking" avant-gardisms will really stand the test of time over the next five years, let alone the next 50 or even 100.

Perhaps we should pause to reflect that all of what has lasted was without exception deeply rooted in the notion that previous creative geniuses knew the rules REALLY well prior to finding themselves in a position whereby breaking some of them might be considered either advisable or relevant.
Now we seem to have constant examples of bathroom windows being thrown wide open accompanied by the often violent and always noisy jettisoning of baby, bathwater and seemingly, most of the plumbing equipment. All of this behaviour inevitably accompanied by the loud braying of self-congratulation and PR/media hype of white-noise intensity, including PNB's "LOOK, SEE!! We TOLD you, you were ALL too Phillistine to get it, so you are all to stay in after school and watch it again!"

Make of the piece below what you will, but listen especially carefully to the sofa-punditry which accompanies it. Notional value, positive attempt to explore the boundaries of modernism for its own sake - but "choreographic value"?, hmmm............



Mr Boal, you are one of the many brilliant, committed and passionate people all over the world, professionally involved in keeping the art of dancing on stage for the entertainment pleasure and occasional enlightenment of paying audiences. Your repertoire is brave, visionary and occasionally as in the case of One Flat Thing, wait for it....Post-Modern.

To continue in both breadth and depth, you have occasionally to be up to the task of becoming that thing you are likely most to despise - a critic. In the case of explaining repertoire choices, both erudite and profound, will you rise to the task or merely hide behind the fig-leaf of "if you don't get it, then you are clearly thick".

Glimpses - by Greta Schoenberg and Ben Estabrook

Motion Pictures SF is the San Francisco based Dancefilm initiative run by Greta Schoenberg.
Click on the title above to take you to the site

MARVIN

MARVIN- In memoriam

The Blog-shot is of the late lamented, Marvin The Marvel.
He opted to temporarily brighten this vale of tears as a cat.
A simply astounding little creature who immeasurably enriched every life in to which he stalked, head and tail held high, vocalising unrelentingly, whenever he was not snoozing on a radiator or purring louder than a road-drill.
He is much missed by all who had the pleasure of meeting him.

"All things considered, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." W.C. Fields

Jiri Kylian - Learning to love the choreographic designer.

There is a constant ongoing debate in dance and film circles, whether "classical" or "neo-classical" choreography lends itself to "dancefilm".

Certainly in the talking-shops there seems to be a tension between those who regard the world of recorded moving image divisible into specific areas of definable interest, and those who see dance and film as a series of inviting and fruitful grey areas of creative exploration and experimentation, ripe for collaboration between moving-image makers of all persuasions.

One of the more contentious issues is whether classical dance as a moving-image language, is only useful, assimilable or available as a plastic communicative vehicle in creatively limited and anachronistic forms?
A type which can be captured at best, as more or less well-crafted filmic records of stage or inherently "theatrical" performances.

From a limited point of view, the argument could be put forward, that formal neo-classical choreographic vocabulary and histrionic presentation, is in the nature of its embodied technical requirements, not suitable for informing on or sustaining interest in any relevant way on cinematographical moving-image.

In some senses classical dance vocabulary has not developed or matured into much more than what is essentially a 2 dimensional theatrical spectacle.
The body-forms described and the available skill-set on offer by classically trained bodies may not be best presented in any other form than viewed straight from the front in a live context.

In the grand operatic mimetic pantomime stories of old, and to their shame, some of those of the more recent offerings, remain essentially archaic, often staid, occasionally ludicrous and less acccessible to generations brought up on method rather than metaphor. Assigned as simple, spectacular, stupor-fodder for the overfed Christmas afternoon TV viewing slot.

In fact much of it anathema to those whom assume the capacity and inventive scope for close-up and occasionally discomforting views of the internal world of psychology and personal meaning as expressed through movement, is literally unlimited.

On the other hand, if one sets aside the message and preconceptions about what it may or may not contain, and concentrates on the medium, what we discover is human bodies. Machines of infinite possibility, great skill and potential invention, which when harnessed with sufficient finesse, delicacy and expertise, become capable of speaking the most subtle of emotive and semiotic languages.

At this level, the only limitations inherent in making the classical vernacular as meaningful as any other kineographic messaging "system", is the skill and sophistication of the cinematographic direction and the ability to rise above banality or gratuitous theatricality by the makers of movement. Most importantly for both to find common ground if indeed they are seperate entities.

In my experience as a choreographer for films, videos and stage, part of the "problem" is that choreographers have a highly developed and sophisticated skill-set and competencies which by definition engender the same levels of authorative 'control" as the directors who, if they are not one and the same person, are in nomine in charge. This mostly subliminal status issue, becomes all too often an inevitable human/ego-tussle between auteurs, in which the "director" has to be seen to "win".

One senses this often with the moving-image auteurs who are by training and background cinematographers rather than choreographers. Time and again I hear well-known moving image makers pontificate on and unconsciously downplay the role of choreography in dancefilm.
This is attributable more to an inherent and little sensed loss of control of their "project" than any genuine belief that a well founded choreographic design is irrelevant or useless to them.

This might account for the current predilection, some might say, aggressive promotion for "anti" or "post"-choreographic projects and random movement generation, favoured by many of the current crop of moving-image makers and their sources of support and authority.

Without a formal movement design and comprehensible language, moving image becomes what we too often see. A series of disjointed, visually maladroit moving violations on a flicker-screen. Fine, if that is exactly what the auteur intends, but taken at a stretch this can make for very long, dull viewing experiences.

One might posit that if highly stylised movement languages are a bar to entry, then we must also discount every choreographer with an original voice of every movement discipline. Bar anyone, then you bar them all.
Selection is merely personal prejudice dressed as fashion statement

What I think the three excerpts below more than amply demonstrate, is that in the hands of Jiri Kylian, a master of the modern neo-classical dance form, meaning, internal dialogue, metaphysics all can be made to work at any level from abstract and metaphorical right through to the achingly sensual and overtly realistic, if albeit highly-stylised movement language.

All elements of the choreographic design, undeniably complimented by an amplification through skillful, understated cinematic version and vision.

While still essentially filmed "performance", the material below, using the subtlest of camera work, reveals a world of seamless and expert synthesis between formal choreography and brilliantly simple and effective cinematography.
Creating for all practical purposes a new form which is neither merely filmed performance nor dance for the camera.

We are approaching an unique hybrid in and of itself, with much to give to choreographers who are wary of the camera, with their own important message to impart about the human condition, using the human form.

This "style" also opens a whole new world of possibilities in choreographic design, and has much to share with film makers who find "dance" intimidating, limiting or irrelevant to their sense of making meaning through movement.

DV8 - The poetry movement in camera

Excerpt 1 from:
The Cost of Living - Lloyd Newson - Commissioned by Channel 4 Television, UK



Excerpt 2 from:
The Cost of Living - Lloyd Newson - Commissioned by Channel 4 Television, UK

No Ranting today

“If you tell me, I will forget, if you show me I will remember, but if you let me
do it, I will learn.”

New Jeannette Ginslov films

JULIA's STORY by Jeannette Ginslov
JG wrote:"....Julia's Story: loss, sadness and nostalgia explored in dance video. emotions are amplified by Craig Armstrong's piano work".



Beautifully executed in so many ways. A simple, single-pointed narrative focus, delimited by a breadth of emotion amplified with carefully considered, understated and appropriate gesture.
Was struck by the capacity for communicative value in both the director's camera choices and Julia Mcghee's almost brutal emotional transparency. Not an easy performance to replicate, so nice to see the mise-en-scene choices were kept simple and minimal, so that performance and integrity did not fall inevitable victim to Hi-concept fiddling and over-"technicalising" the process.

SANCTUM 1 by Jeannette Ginslov

JG wrote:"...Sanctum I amplifies the kinaesthetic and emotional struggle of silenced yet complicit women bound by the cultural practice of FGM - female genital mutilation. It attempts to elicit empathetic responses from the viewer by revealing the power of the moving image as experiential and embodied."



Another fine example of less being more in dance-film/moving image.

Even without the overt-socio-gender-political statement and the human rights angle, Jeannette Ginslov has communicated with brevity and power an important, little discussed and even less understood subject.
Whether she actually sheds light on the female circumcision issue is moot. The piece is a little weighed down by overall and less specific notions of bondage and restrictive ambience. Without an accompanying credit-roll narrative the audience may not necessarily get the authors specifically articulated "point".
Too often film makers can make the assumption that the medium is resilient enough subliminally to carry an "embodied" message. Furthermore, that the "experience" of the intention is sufficient. This is rarely the case - indicative perhaps of why so many initially promising choreo-kino intentions go so swiftly awry in their final execution.

Perhaps we might have some thoughts posted from JG on where and how she might take either or both of the above short pieces further, were budget, time or resources no object.

It would be further enlightening to see additional postings from other points of view of both the pieces above.

BLINKX.COM - Dancefilm Videowall

Click on any of the screens to be taken to a new page where the video will play in its entirety. The random nature of where and how these films are archived, allows for a most enjoyable and occasionally enlightening magical mystery tour.
Play with it.

Many thanks to www.blinkx.com for their stupendous work in clairvoyant archive search technologies.

SOME RANDOM CRITICAL THOUGHTS ON RECENT DANCEFILMS

Choreography: Charles - Cre-Ange Danse Contemporaine



Clarity of intention, intensity, claustrophobia, a sense of expectancy and real choreographic breadth of movement are not easy elements to synthesize satisfactorily in a frame as tight as the film maker has chosen here.

Four well-thought through creative decisions, are the absence of any camera movement, the speed with which the action moves in and out of the viewfinder, the dancer's focus on the window about which we as viewers become persuaded to be increasingly interested and the quality of the backlight.

To make so few and such simple mise-en-scene resources so resonantly "about" something important, takes some skill and homework, which is abundantly evident in this piece.

A great choice of vista within a frame when the window finally opens and a soundtrack that adds to the sense of angst of our human moth, without being obtrusive makes this a very satisfying experience. Oh, and by the way, I think it is about dying - any other theories?

Windows sponsored by WD40


THE RAIN - CHOREO/DIRECTOR - PONTUS LIDBERG - SWEDEN - 28 MINS



Pontus Lidberg's beautiful, haunting feature length Dancefilm from Sweden.
Jury special mention at the Gothenburg Film Festival 2007. UK premiere - Dec 2nd, 2007, BEST FILM - The London International Dancefilm Festival, Riverside Studios, London.
ROSE D'OR NOMINEE 2008.
Lidberg is currently raising funds for his next piece, Labyrinth Within which promises to be even more powerful.

Contact him at his site if you can contribute.
http://www.lidberg.se/therain



TWINS BERNARD - by the "TWINS" BERNARD.



OK I have to admit a predilection for well-trained dancing and although not an absolutely essential element of "dancefilm" per-se, in circumstances such as this, an absence of really strong fine movement would have made this another exercise in cinematic futility.

As a personal choice of metaphor, I explored the notion that this piece is about personality fragmentation. Certainly if one was looking for a cinematic technique to personify this notion, the opening running manege in time -lapse and the lightning dissolve in the final shot were brilliant choices. Timing is always key, particularly in non-verbal art where you can't use linguistic smoke and mirrors to hide a weak idea.

We get displaced from one place to entirely another without the film maker changing either the protagonists in the frame, a time shift or change of location. Quite a feat. Great momentum in the tiny choreographic body-language shifts gives us a clear idea of exactly what their relationship is likely to be and the resulting choices in spacing between the two characters then delivers on an anticipated internal narrative. The developing of the nature of this relationship in which we are automatically interested and cleverly persuaded to stay with, is neatly complimented by subtle variations of repeat choreographic patterns. In this case a deliberate choice I think, rather than because the choreographic ideas have run out and there's time and space to fill which is what can happen all too often.

Sepia choice for the colour temperature and and the shape of the space all contribute layers of meaning, an appropriate dance space and unobtrusive environmental design. Nice work.


THE TOUR - VIDEODANCE 2004 - ATHENS COLLECTIVE



Wit, inventiveness, animation, pastiche, camera angles, and a clear narrative idea with finally, hurrah!, a beginning, middle and what passes for some kind of resolution in the end.

The environment in which the film was made has been intelligently and inventively plumbed for opportunities to add meaning, creative depth and amusement for the viewer.
Poor Theatre techniques, popular, accessible and well composed images and a facility for investing the everyday with a greater meaning in a quick and dirty way, thereby colaterally adding value to both, denotes both intellect and an interest in sources outside cliches.

MATS EK - SMOKE with NIKLAS EK & SYLVIE GUILLEM


I am still trying to come to terms with a narrative and choreographic thread which is so limpid, lyrical, languidly intense and yet spare of all vanity or body fetishism. All of which contribute, in association with one of Arvo Part's most minimal yet searing of compositions, to creating a fine example of where a distinctive cinematic vision, choreographic focus and appropriate musicality, come together in an uniquely satisfying synthesis.

Always intrigues me that as far as audiences go, there is a virtually unanimous vote of approval for dancefilm in which superb choreographic design and technical brilliance of execution feature heavily.

While audience approval is neither the alpha nor omega, it can offer instructive pointers as to how far the intention and the making of the vehicle for the message have effectively penetrated the sub-conscious