whirling

甲之藥,乙之毒 :)
兩各迥異的事情在融和之初,總會有許多衝撞
或許也不該期待 新生之物 一定有甲或以的影子
能夠保留精神 就很不錯了


Dance Views by Clarinda Mac Low.

02/16/00 Updated 8:40 p.m.


video/dance/videodancevideo

Recently, here in New York City, there was a Dance on Camera festival that explored the many different relationships between the moving image and the moving body. My reporter on the scene, Maya Ciarrocci, came back with several interesting conjectures on the nature of the connection between video and dance. In workshops and discussions, there was a continuing interest in defining a new genre, let's call it "videodance" (one of the actual suggested names) -- a genre which is currently without name or category.

This new form is not film, nor is it documentation--within its parameters lies work that fuses the two mediums rather than separating them, creating a new hybrid. It is a place where an incredibly supple and accessible visual medium (video) meets and transforms an ancient practice of manipulating the human body moving (dance), and vice versa. In videodance, the visual texture of the video medium is as important as a faithful representation of an image of the moving body, and live dance transforms the electronic medium into an on-stage partner. To name just a few possibilities.

One interesting feature of this form is its often collaborative nature, and the blurred boundaries between the disciplines. In my experience, choreographers readily become videographers and, while the reverse is more rare, videographers often become very involved in creating the rhythm and structure of the dance elements in a given piece. The hands-on nature of video, and its constant mutability, lend it to the protean forms of dance-making in a way that other visual mediums cannot.

Video dance is still in the "I-know-what-it-is-but-I don't-know-how-to-say-it" stage, and hardly recognized as a form. In conversation with Maya, Doug Rosenberg, an explorer in this undefined new field who conducted a workshop on the intersection between video and dance as part of the Dance on Camera proceedings, remarked that no one will define the new category for us. Artists who practice this particular concoction of elements must innovate and organize themselves.

In the spirit of this, I would like to invite comment and discussion on this topic. Click "here" to connect to dance talk, the Danceonline bulletin boards (select Open Forum), and leave your commentary there. Also, if you know others who might have something to say, pass our address on. I'll keep tabs on the discussion, and share a compilation of the results next month.