Screen dance

MA thesis from No-MA-ds, Nordic Masterdegree in Dancestudies, NTNU, Trondheim, 2007

In this thesis I ask whether and if so then how, it is possible to speak of a communication between bodies in video dance works and the bodies of audiences as well as between the body of the video dance work and audiences. Drawing on concepts from the Cinema books of Gilles Deleuze as well as other philosophical concepts of Deleuze and Felix Guattari I present outlines of chosen concepts that I find relevant to examine my questions. My choices are inspired by film theoreticians Laura U. Marks and Barbara Kennedy.
I then through ”open” readings/analyzis of six video dance works created in Europe and Canada within the last twelve years, propose ways of conceptualizing and describing the works, using the aforementioned concepts. Keyword in approaching the works is sensation, an attempt to in a Deleuzian sense to register the vibrations in the works rather than to interpret and evaluate the works. I also attempt to sense the works through the notion of a pre-personal state, beyond psychically created subjects. This is an impossibility, a paradoxical situation, I however point to findings of elements in the works that I argue relate to the theoretical concepts and I propose a new concept of my own creation, the concept of any-sounds-whatever. My readings/analyzis suggests that the decontextualizing and deconstruction of the body in video dance seems to have the potential to vibrate in audiences thus creating sensations and becomings, lines of flight. This is enhanced by the presence of other defined elements. It is therefore appropriate to talk of a communication between the bodies of video dance works and the bodies of audiences as well as between video dance as a body and audiences.
Relations between video dance and contemporary dance are discussed as is video dance in larger contexts including production and financial conditions. A description of the workings of video dance as a Deleuzian machine implying micro- as well as macropolitical implications is proposed. Conclusions also draw on self-reflexive inquiry of texts of my own lived experience as well as articulations of my personal history within dance, video dance and the arts as such. A method of combining methodologies is thus executed.
The finding of the presence of several Deleuzian concepts in the works, constitutes a proposed list of elements that might possibly add to an attempt to define video dance as a genre. Thus the work of this thesis is a contribution to ongoing debates within video dance circuits where a search to create a theoretical framework for screendance is taking place. Actual descriptions of findings I propose can be usefull in academic as well as in practice-based research and be utilized in connection to the articulation of programme- and catalogue texts etc.

The concept of working in a multidisciplinary form across media and processes has become more prevalent in modern day culture. The acceptance of integration has become widespread and as a result a more informed and evolved
society has elapsed. Screen Dance adapts this idea to the strategic collaboration of many art forms that can include fine art practices, music compositions, film and dance. With evolution of the filmic process, users of this dynamic medium
have been able to create a new language to communicate their narratives or in
the case of many fine art film pieces, the otherwise absence of narrative. As a result of this new filmic process filmmakers can express their ideas with boundless possibilities. Deirdre Tower, member of the Dance Films Association, New York, spoke about Screen Dance at the 2011 Dance-tech conference
defining it as:

The structure for a dance for the camera, otherwise known as a cine dance or screen dance, may be driven by a kinetic or visual design
concept, poetry or narrative, imagery from reality or dreams, traditional or idiosyncratic musical forms. The intention may be to produce what cannot be conceived in a live performance or to stretch and condense a multi-media form.

This essay discusses the choreographic ethos that integrates technology and dance as an evolving mode of storytelling in South Indian (Tamil-Kollywood) movies by tracing the work of director Shankar Shanmugam. Through analyses of song-dance sequences, I identify three key principles for using screendance techniques, and reflect on how these innovations contribute to cultivating and shaping the audience imagination. The audience is challenged to further engage at multiple levels and grapple with the relationships between human and more than human worlds. In the Kollywood scene, there is a constant quest for new techniques that can embrace inner realities.

This paper discusses a few films in which images of water, dance, and movement play a key role and generate transformative views. It explores and reflects on poetic depictions of water that heralded a transformation in art and consciousness, and screen-based images and technology which can induce empathy to water creatures and sensitivity towards the ways water is being perceived, treated, and shared. The exploration builds on Maya Deren’s seminal theory of the ritualistic form in film, and the relevance of ritual in media activism online as theorized by Gene Youngblood. It is also supported by research of kinesthetic empathy, with special reference to empathy stimulated through watching dance in films and movement choreographed for the screen. On this basis, I identify a common aesthetic trend that underlines depictions of extinction through water from Hiroshima to Fukushima. I analyze the formal style and demonstrate the crucial role of recent visuals and approaches undertaken by artists, scientists, and activists jointly involved in transforming and equalizing humanity’s relationship with water and the environment, e.g., The Dolphin Dance Project. Further account is provided on the interrelations of film, ritual, activism, and global interactivity online based on my creative experiments entitled Water e-Motion.