Dance Film Forum

This week the ReelDance Film Festival has been playing at the Perth Institute of Contempory Arts.   At the same time local Dance Company STRUT invited choreographer and Dance Filmmaker Tracie Mitchell to host a workshop with local choreographers, dancers and fimmakers.   Mitchell is renowned for her work  exploring dance on film with her company TWIRLING SHIELAS.

Yesterday the teams discussed their experiences of the weeklong workshop and showed some of their work in progress at a forum.   It was a pleasure to be invited to this forum and hear about the creative journey that each of the teams had been on.   Some of the work presented was incredibly creative and quite visually stunning - explorations of movement and imagery.

Most filmmakers I would imagine are quite oblivious to this quite specific form of filmmaking.   While those studying at Edith Cowan university, which also houses the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, are given opportunites to explore this are, the majoirty of upa dn coming filmmakers would be oblivious to it.

Dance Film is not just a process of documenting a performance on film or the arty equivilent of the Hollywood song and dance number.    There are quite specific categories of filmmaking in this cross arts genre.   'Dance for Camera' is a performance designed to be performed in front of a camera rather than a lie audience.    While Dance Films feature choreography and movement that is only achieveable through the use of the filmmaking technology,  movement that is backwards, sped up or slowed down - movement that it would be impossible for a dancer to create on their own.

Yesterday as each of the teams discussed their experience of the week there were great comments about how challenging it is to work in two converging art forms.   Some of the choregoraphers noted that the editing process is frustrating - and they were surprised because as a mental process is it is very similar to the act of choregraphing.    When you choreograph you are editing selecting some movement, discarding others, choosing an order - but in a dance film you then have to repeat this process again in the film editing phase, almost like a second guessing of a dancer's natural process.

Another great discussion was about how the language and cultures of dancers and filmmakers is so different.   Dancer spend lots of time exploring, experimenting and trying out multiple options, while filmmakers have often been trained to be much more decisive, focussed on locking things down and making decisions.  

One participant noted that it is natural for dancers to repeat a movement over and over again, returning to similar phrases and combinations.   Film hoever is much more linear based, and repeating something once - never mind many times is an odd feeling for a filmmaker.

Overall one of the biggest challenges for combining these two established art forms is the development of a shared language, while dancers speak of workshops, rehersals and performance, Filmmakers speak of pre-production, filming, postr production, exhibition and distribution.  

Dance Film should be of great interest to filmmakers, spending some time away for narative based drama could be a great learning process for many filmmakers - working in an art form that has no dialogue, no voice just abstract movement to communicate with is both challenging and confronting.   With 'Don't tell me - show me' being the mantra of many screen tutors, embracing a 'show only' art form could be an effective way to break newer filmmaker through one of films more challenging learning barriers.

The challenge for Dance Film is that is needs to be funded to a similar level as other forms of filmmaking, and you can't help but wonder how receptive film funding bodies would be to this kinds of work.   It was highlighted that embracing some of the real cutting edge technologies available to filmmakers would also push this art form forward, yet without access to the latest equipment and sufficient money it will be continually difficult for dance film to impress those in the film world.

Following the forum I'm certiainly interewsted in seeing more work in this area, although I do have a proclaimed bias - I was a dancer long before entering the world of filmmaking. 

Image: Tristan Brand, Published under a Creative Commons licence