Kicks and Flicks
The entries in this year’s
Dance on Camera Festival include fascinating documentaries about seminal choreographers—Pina
Bausch, Doris Humphrey—as well as pieces that focus on intriguing, little-known
forms such as Armenian tightrope dancing and Bodala, a Swiss rhythm tradition.
They range from four minutes to over two hours, and as usual represent an intriguing
array of countries. There are glimpses into the rarefied corridors of the Paris
Opera Ballet School, a documentary following a Belgian contemporary company as
it travels to perform in Kinshasa, and a spirited showcase for female hip-hop
dancers. Carlos Saura’s Flamenco,
Flamenco, featuring highly theatrical stage performances by leading
musicians and dancers, will receive its U.S. premiere.
In addition to the
feature-length documentaries, there are intriguing shorts on such subjects as
the selection of a carnival queen in Bahia and a Tibetan modern-dance
choreographer. Also on tap are several of those unpredictable, imaginative
flights of fancy that can often be found among the festival’s shorts, such as a
celebration of the Hula Hoop in which the viewer’s
perspective of the childhood toy shifts when the floor is pulled away.
The rich tradition of the
Paris Opera Ballet, and its present-day dancers at work, was the focus of
Frederick Wiseman’s recent exemplary film La
Danse. Two festival offerings provide further insight into that fascinating
company, which sadly hasn’t performed here in many years. Fabrice Herrault, a
New York-based French dancer-turned-teacher, assembled a loving tribute to
Claude Bessy, the former POB ballerina who directed its school with great
distinction from 1972 to 2004. In just under an hour, Claude
Bessy: lignes d’une vie includes archival footage of her
performing career, which began in her teens just as World War II ended, and
extended into the 1970s. Interwoven with the dancing is a 2003 interview; Bessy
speaks with insight and eloquence about such figures as Gene Kelly (with whom
she worked on several occasions), Maurice Bejart and Serge Lifar. We experience
the range of POB repertories through the decades, both through the dance
footage and her memories and anecdotes. The film is paired with a 33-minute
excerpt from Les Reflets de la Danse,
a 1980 film presenting Bessy’s students of that era in rigidly staged technique
presentations. From the 10-year-olds on up to the most advanced
near-professionals, one or two from each class get the chance to voice their
hopes and dreams. Most did not achieve the glorious career of which they speak
so hopefully, but among them is a very young Sylvie Guillem, and several others
who did go on to rise through the company’s ranks.
Saura’s Flamenco, Flamenco is a glossy showcase
for some leading exponents of the form, giving equal weight to music and dance.
But with its heavy-handed décor (painted backdrops of tempestuous skies,
frequent use of mirrors) and emphasis on excessive emoting, the film rarely
gets in touch with the primal, earthy spontaneity one experiences when great
flamenco artists ignite. Most of the women wear slinky dresses and the camera
loves to dwell on exposed skin. The film has a glitzy, touristy feel—it’s sleek
and glamorous, but rarely reveals the form’s soulful truths or harsher
essences.
Dancing Dreams, which follows two of Pina Bausch’s former company members as they
teach her 1978 Kontakthof to
Wuppertal high-school students, is a moving, fascinating film by Anne Linsel
and Rainer Hoffmann. It’s made all the more poignant by scenes of Bausch kindly
yet firmly coaching the students, since it was filmed a year before she died.
Looking less severe than usual, she gets involved in the students’ process and
clearly takes pleasure in watching them explore and grow as they comes to terms
with her challenging material, which ventures into tenderness, aggression and
sensuality. “You’re best when you’re yourself, with all the qualities and
subtleties you have got,” she tells them after watching a run-through midway
through the process. The kids—none of them dancers before this—open up about
their fears and hesitations, but all remain fully committed to the project.
It’s amazing that they were willing to have cameras there to add to the
tensions and exposure of the project, but the film is the richer for their
having agreed.
More straightforward and
very worthwhile is A New Dance for
America, Ina Hahn’s thorough presentation of the life and work of Doris
Humphrey. Always a bit in the shadow of her contemporary Martha Graham,
Humphrey was very much an innovator and pioneering figure in her own right. The
film covers her early Illinois years, her start with Denishawn, and her
cultivation of her own choreographic voice that played such an important part
in establishing American modern dance. Footage of her dances included here
reminds us that her influence continues to be reflected; more than once, one
can notice a connection between Paul Taylor’s work and hers.
An off-site (and free)
Dance on Camera event is the Billy Cowie Retrospective at the Baryshnikov Arts
Center (Jan. 25–Feb. 1), bringing the Scottish artist’s 3-D video installations
to New York for the first time.
Jan. 28-Feb. 1, Walter
Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St. (betw. Amsterdam Ave. & B’way), filmlinc.com;
$12 per screening.