VCU Dance highlights Dance on Camera festival

By Malorie Burkett and Katrina Clemans

The Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Dance and Choreography will host a film screening on Sept. 16 at 6 p.m. at the Grace Street Theater, 934 W. Grace St.

The screening will feature films from the 2002 and 2003 Dance on Camera Festival in New York City, as well as a showing of “Deconstructed Dialogues,” a work produced by Martha Curtis, chair of VCU’s Department of Dance and Choreography.

“The Dance on Camera Festival of New York is one of the nation’s two major screening venues for the hybrid art form of Screen Dance,” said Curtis. “It is a rare opportunity for the Richmond audience and our students to be able to view these innovative works. Our goal is to present an evening of dance for the camera on an annual basis.”

This year’s screening includes

• “Line Dance,” (UK), 2003, choreographed and directed by Alex Reuben. This performance combines computer game technology using 24 cameras. Inspired by Jackson Pollock, Reuben set out to translate his experience into a dance film.
• “Arcus,” (USA), 2002, choreographer Nicola Hawkins and directors Jeff Silva and Alla Kovgann create a black and white abstract collage and fugue for multiple frames and dancers.
• “Umbilical Severance,” (USA), choreographed and directed by VCU Dance alumnus Jason Akira Somma. This short film also stars Somma and explores the challenge of severing the umbilical connection. 
• “Burst”, choreographed by Katrin Hall and directed by Reynir Lyngdal is a short film in which a couple fights in their bedroom over a water pipe that comes to the rescue with its timely explosion.
  
• “Portrait,” (Norway), choreographed by Paula Tuovinen and directed by Saara Cantell, shows how, after 30 years of marriage, there's still room for new portraits in the family album.
  
• “Black Spring,” (France), choreographed by Heddy Maalen, directed by Benoit Dervaux and performed by dancers from Compagnie Ivoire, challenges Western notions of African bodies in movement. The dance is interspersed with scenes of contemporary life in Africa that serve to heighten awareness of the social and political sensitivities inherent in modern African dance.

In addition to the Dance on Camera Festival offerings, VCU Dance will present “Deconstructed Dialogues,” a two-person video dance drama exploring the borders between fantasy and reality that challenge the Alzheimer’s patient and caregiver. It tells a multi-dimensional story that examines the metaphors that emerge from the deconstruction of language. Choreographed and performed by Martha Curtis and Robbie Kinter of VCU, the film was directed for the screen by Curtis and Bruce Berryhill in cooperation with WCVE Richmond, a PBS affiliate. In January, the work was broadcast by PBS stations in Richmond and Charlottesville, Va.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and others in Texas, Arkansas, Montana and Pennsylvania.

The Dance Films Association has presented Dance on Camera in New York since 1971, and promotes dance films and video, and public awareness of the medium through festivals, screenings, publications, grants and workshops. The festival's screening in Richmond is sponsored VCU’s Department of Dance and Choreography, For more information contact Katrina Clemans at (804) 828-1711.