Again I have looked at more dance videos suggested to me and have also read about critical thinking so that I am able to analyse and deconstruct elements of these videos. By practicing this I will be able to understand elements of the dance video more thoroughly and therefore be able to formulate my own dance video more effectively:
Hilary Harris - 'Nine Variations on a Dance Theme' (1966)
This is a dance video which I find has a very interesting use of camera movement in it and the technique by which the camera does move makes the slow paced dance much more exciting to watch. Firstly the way the camera begins by circling the dancers pulsing in and out towards her makes you feel like you are being swept into the movement of the dance with her. This is only enhanced by the way the camera also tracks along the extensions of her body movement letting us explore these movements with her. I also found that the camera work her abstracted her body through the use of extreme close ups through out. These close ups on different features of her body almost let you forget that it was a whole body dancing and instead just pulls you in to look at the shapes and patterns that each of these body parts make in their own right. This is a very strong piece of work visually especially for the time it was made because it has taken a simplistic slow dance and through the camera work transformed it into much more that that creating an poetic language with her body.
Merce Cunningham - 'Points in Space' (1986)
This dance video again intrigues me because of the camera movement. I feel the movement here is slower than Hilary Harris's film yet it still adds excitement to the dance. The camera moves round this space in a very deliberate way again exploring many different angles and spaces which you might not see usually. If you were just watching this piece of dance from a front on angle it would seem very strange and unorganised but the fact that we get to move with the camera in and amongst the carefully choreographed bodies lets us really explore and see a lot more exciting viewpoints. I feel the bodies are used as tools here to create interesting shapes for the camera to move amongst and they become inanimate at times when they pause in certain positions but this adds to the piece because suddenly they begin to move again. I found this piece a lot slower but still very visually pleasing to watch with a lot of fun experimental camera techniques and also a very inspiring 360 degree use of space which has really got me thinking into how I could use this technique.
Wendy Houston & David Hinton - 'Touched' (1994)
This Dance Video is a much more narrative approach with takes techniques of pedestrian and gestural dance and uses them to enhance and help tell a surreal story. I really like this approach as it has a story you can follow but also uses some really interesting close ups to show how the smallest of actions can be interpreted into a dance to carry this story on. I feel like the editing here was done in a very stylised way to have it all very quick cut within the bar to make the excitement rise but also the way the cuts flowed seamlessly one into the other following certain people and parts of their body. Reputation plays a large part in helping to shows people personality through the actions and dances they are repeating and this is a very interesting element to focus on within dance as reputation gives over more meaning. The repetition highlights the important actions for us. I am inspired by this film to keep in mind the narrative possibilities that we have for this dance video project too.
Jonathan Burrows & Adam Roberts - 'Hands' (1995)
This dance video takes a very different approach to the ones I have analysed previously. Instead of using full bodied movement and dance it takes away any complicated elements and witless it down to the most simplistic style. There is only one camera moving at the beginning as we pan across onto this persons lap where for the rest of the duration the camera stays as we watch their hands dance. This camera angle is particularly effective as it looks down on the hands but not as if they are our own which makes us observe them without attachment. We are forced to become fixated on the hands as they move because there are no cut aways and nothing else happening with in the shot. As we observe these hands they become less of a practical function of the body and more of a beautiful shapely object completely mesmerising to us. I like the way it is very simplistic actions which slowly get built up and down into more of a sequence and then less so. It makes us think about how this moments must have some kind of meaning to the owner of these hands and therefore lets us in our mind try and work out who they are while we watch their beautiful shapely hands dance for us. I like how simplistic but creative approaches can make something so visually captivating as this.
Lloyd Newson & Clara Van Gool - 'Enter Achilles' (1996)
I was really draw to this piece when I was suggested to watch it because it was described as Physical Theatre and I wanted to see in what sense it was dance and in what sense it was physical theatre. Shortly after beginning to watch it I realised it was a narrative film but used elements of dance with in the story to add interest to it rather than just acting out all the action. For example my favourite use dance with in this was during the bar fight scenes when instead of fighting they were actually all dancing together. The way it had been choreographed made us aware that it was still meant to be a fight however using dance made other issues come into my mind such as sexuality within men and male aggression. I felt like the dance showed moments of not only anger towards one another but also love in they way they worked together to lift one another etc. I feel like the cameras moments were kept further back compared to other dance pieces I had watched but this meant it wasn't interfering with the story and therefore keeping it apparent that this was a constructed piece of cinema. However the use of different levels and angles was very interesting as this helped add power or take power away from certain characters therefore defining their status in the story but also there involvement in the dance. I just liked how different this piece was compared to all the other quiet serious pieces I had looked at and it inspired me simply because I felt like it was something different that I hadn't seen before.
These videos have all been starting points for me to begin to realise what inspires me in terms of dance video and where I should move onto with my research to begin formulating a better understanding of Dance and how to make my own Video from it.
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