Shorts Program II: Experimental

These kinetic short films focus on the movement and amazement of the human body, using the cinematic form to highlight the human form.

A Body in the East Village
Eiko Otake, USA, 2016, 20m
Eiko Otake’s solo project “A Body in Places” was the focus of Danspace Project’s tenth Platform, a month-long curated program during which she gave performances in the East Village. This piece is part of that series. Shot in various locations, it is a collaboration on film between Eiko and cinematographer Alexis Moh. To watch this electrifying performer as she moves around the neighborhood engaging with her audience is to experience a ritual like no other.

crowd SEEN
Peter Kyle, USA, 2015 4m
North American Premiere
Choreographer-director Peter Kyle and composer James Bigbee Garver have collaborated since 2006. This Escher-like film poem uses the roving camera-eye as another body in space, navigating a tiered urban environment where little seems fixed and where humans and the environment are in constant conversation. 

Gravitation: Variation in Time and Space
Andrei Severny, Russia, 2015, 14m
A synergy of dance and cinema shot entirely in slow motion and featuring Diana Vishneva, principal dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre.  The film is the story of creation, inner struggle, and transformation.

Intangible Body
Emelie Mahdavian, USA, 2016, 3m
The director explores the censorship of Iranian women’s dance performance while raising questions as to what constitutes a woman’s body in the digital age.

The Shadow Drone Project
Charles Linehan, Karolis Janulis, UK, 2016, 12m
North American Premiere
This film, a collaboration between choreographer Linehan (UK) and Lithuanian photographer Karolis Janulis, was shot from an unmanned aerial vehicle with stunning results. Juxtaposing prescribed choreography and random events, the film offers a unique perspective in which shadows of people and objects often seem to be more present than their physical beings.

The Indexical Dance-a-Thon!
Evann Siebens, Canada, 2016, 4m
Siebens finds a personal direction on “how to shoot” dance using film, collage, text, and projection.  Shot at Ballett Frankfurt and the Western Front in Canada, the film mixes professionals and amateurs whose use of simple improvisation gestures adds another layer of interest.

The Unpainted Woman
Kathy Rose, USA, 2016, 4m
Part Fantastic Voyage, part celebration of the artist’s younger self, Kathy Rose’s film is a series of jewel-like images. “Reality is both harsh and wondrous. I am trying to circumvent it all,” says this ever-inventive filmmaker of her process.