Program 7: Focus on Culture
Dance on Camera Festival 2023
February 10 - 13, 2023
Searching for Tarab translates an Eastern musical concept into Western dance performance. Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film is a powerful and very relevant narration of the history of labor in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands told through tap dance, Mexican zapateado and son jarocho, Afro-Caribbean movement, and music. Rooms 居拘 uncovers the spaces, both physical and metaphorical, that Albert Tiong inhabited in the period of growth that brought him to Singapore as a young dancer in his 20s.
Searching for Tarab
North American Premiere
Sandra Gysi and Ahmed Abdel Mohsen, 2022, Switzerland/Egypt, 52m
Laurence Yadi and Nicolas Cantillon from the Geneva-based dance company 7273 go on a research trip to post-revolutionary Cairo to delve into the world of tarab, the Arabic word for the transformative ecstasy evoked by music. As they attempt to translate this Eastern musical concept into Western dance performance, we are given a fascinating glimpse into artmaking in a very different culture, set against a backdrop of tense political reality.
Preceded by
Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film
New York City Premiere
John Jota Leaños and Vanessa Sanchez, 2022, USA, 13m
Spanish with English subtitles
Ghostly Labor: A Dance Film is a powerful and very relevant narration of the history of labor in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands told through tap dance, Mexican zapateado and son jarocho, Afro-Caribbean movement, and music. This documentary dance film brings together polyrhythmic movement and an original score to reveal the ongoing systemic exploitation of invisible labor while highlighting the power and joy of collective work and resistance. Based on migrant farmworker oral histories, the film honors the land and the sacred hands, lives, and families who provide sustenance through hard work and unrecognized knowledge. The project was filmed on Avila Garcia Farms with support from Ayudando Latinos a Soñar (ALAS), a nonprofit advocacy organization for farmworkers in Half Moon Bay, California. A full-length dance theater production of Ghostly Labor will premiere in 2023.
Rooms 居拘
North American Premiere
Elysa Wendi and Liao Jiekai, 2021, Singapore, 17m
Mandarin with English subtitles
For two decades, Albert Tiong has been striving to be a dancer, choreographer, and educator in the field of contemporary dance in Singapore. The film uncovers the rooms, both physical and metaphorical, that Tiong inhabited in the period of growth that brought him to Singapore as a young dancer in his 20s. Through these rooms, and Tiong’s movements, the film creates a meditative portrait of his interior world.
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