Videodance

Videodance is the contemporary term for the genre of dance made for the camera. In videodance, movement is the primary expressive element in the work rather than dialogue (as in conventional narrative movies) or music (as in music videos). Other names for this form are screendance, dance film, cinedance, and dance for camera.

Defining characteristics

Because movement is a basic element in all time-based visual media forms, videodance is distinguished from other film genres by its emphasis on the craft and composition of movement in the work. Often this movement is recognizable as dance in which people are moving in stylized ways, however in some experimental and animated videodances the movement can be pedestrian and unstylized, or even the motion of animals and inanimate objects.

A related genre that is often confused with videodance is the dance documentary film. This is the documentation of dance as it is practiced in real life such as a live performance (i.e. "Dance in America: 'Swan Lake' by American Ballet Theatre" on Great Performances) or a journalistic profile of a dance company, figure, or community (i.e. DanceMaker about Paul Taylor). Videodance is not a documentation of a dance that could be done in real time in a live setting. It exists only as a fictional or fictionalized dance for screen.

There are a number of different sub-categories and genres of videodance including experimental, narrative, commercial, video games, web dances, and multi-channel installations. Videodance can be seen on almost any media platform from iPods to feature films, commercials and television programs. Currently there are over 150 dance film festivals world wide that feature videodance work.

History

For every time-based visual media platform there are examples work in which dance and movement are used as the primary expressive tool. For instance in the early days of film before sound, movement was the main vehicle for communication, perfected by the great physical comedians of the day such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Later experimental filmmakers such as Maya Deren innovated camera and editing techniques to manipulate and redefine our concepts of movement for film. With the rise of video as a conventional medium, videodance was born. Early innovators in this new medium included Merce Cunningham, Nam June Paik, and Alwin Nikolais. Today in the digital age with the rise of affordable digital video equipment, there are a number of notable dance film makers, choreographers and directors working in this medium including British choreographer/director Lloyd Newson of DV8 Physical Theatre, Australian directors/choreographers Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman of The Physical TV Company, American director Mitchell Rose, American filmmaker Charles Atlas (Media Dance) Belgian director Thierry de Mey, and New Zealand director/choreographer Shona McCoullagh.

Early film 1900-1930

1. Edison

2. Melies

3. Silent Films

Musicals 1930-1950

Busby Berkeley, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly

Experimentalists 1940-60

1. Maya Deren 2. Hilary Harris 3. Yvonne Rainer

Video 1960-90

1. Nikolais/Ed Emshwiller

2. Merce Cunningham/Nam June Paik Pts in Space

3. Alive from Off Center

4. MTV

Digital Age 1990-2007

Internet art

Amateur videographers

Videogames - DDR, Second Life

Motion Capture Animation

See also

• Dance film
• Dance in film - Films that contain dance sequences but which are not dance works per se
• Musical film
• 20th century concert dance
• List of dance style categories

Notes

References

Article: "A Dance of Definitions" by Karen Pearlman

External links

• Dance Films Association's Dance on Camera Festival on Hulu
• DV8 Physical Theatre
• Interface International Encounter INTERFACE Chile
• Dance Films Association
• Dance, Voldo, Dance'
• IMZ dance screen
• Media & Dance Network
• The Physical TV Company
• Videodance.org.uk
• Videodance at Mediateca Media Art Space
• "Videodance", a 1975 article in Dancescope magazine by Jeff Bush and Peter Z Grossman
• ARC Videodance
• International Videodance Festival of Chile, FIVC
• DANCELEN(D)S Cinema