Fall 2007
For my project in the spring, I would like to make a video translation of a dance I am currently choreographing. Since the process is just beginning, I cannot speak definitively about my ideas yet, but I can describe the general direction.
The piece is a solo for a senior in the dance department and will be performed at the Black Dance Alliance concert in May. Our intent is to embody aspects of the African Diaspora through music and movement as they relate to life in 21st century America. I am planning to either involve musicians in the performance or compose a soundtrack for the piece, but my inspiration for movement and rhythmic qualities and loose context is "Afro Blue" by Mongo Santamaria
. For lyrics, here is a version by Dianne Reeves.
For the video, I will either work with the same score or create one based on the live performance. Because I can use a video translation to take the dance off the stage, I am considering a theme of contrasts. One characteristic of African art is the combination of seemingly disparate elements, as in the rhythms and patterns of textiles. One possibility is to shoot the dance in locations like the Church's Chicken on Broad St. We are incorporating Cuban folk dance
into the piece and I also see movement representing the Orisha goddess Oshun at a place like Alum Creek or Elegua movement danced through a crosswalk downtown at rush hour. I am also looking forward to adding close-ups (one will be of bread crumbs, which she drops on the stage as she crosses it) and shots of the dancer doing things other than the dance or shots without the dancer even in them. It will also be possible to allow the dance - tap and body percussion - to accompany more dancing that can be added to the video version.
Although I think the live piece will be longer, I would like to limit myself to four minutes of video so this will be an exercise in both expanding space and condensing time.
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Spring 2008
The video translation described above is evolving alongside the creation of a live solo performance piece. In terms of choreography, I have drawn movement vocabulary from West African dance traditions and American tap dance, weaving one into another in a constant process of construction and deconstruction. Those movement elements will remain in the video, but I am using the different medium to explore different ways of transitioning from one style to another.
The theme of contrasts has remained prevalent throughout the choreographing and shooting processes. Most dominant is focused determination and control juxtaposed with resiliency and spontaneity. This is reflected not only in the movement of the dancer, but also the movement of the camera and the shooting and editing styles.
In addition, scenes occurring in natural settings - dirt, grass, trees, etc. will be combined with footage of industry and commercialism, most significantly settings that suggest travel.
Finally, I am using this video project to explore "the time quality of a woman" as conveyed by Maya Deren:
"What I do in my films... I think they are the films of a woman and... their characteristic time quality is the time quality of a woman. I think that the strength of men is their great sense if immediacy. They are a Now creature and a woman has strength to wait because she’s had to wait. She has to wait nine months for the concept of a child. Time is built into her body in the sense of becomingness... Her whole life from her very beginning is built into her the sense of becoming. Now in any time form, this is a very important sense. I think that my films, putting as much stress as they do upon the constant metamorphosis – one image is always becoming another – that is, it is what is happening that is important in my films, not what is at any moment. This is a woman’s time sense and I think it happens more in my films than in almost anyone else’s."
Just as the dance is a journey, and about a journey home, so is the video and my goal is to convey this constant metamorphosis and progression through its design.
Download Part One
Download Part Two
