Category: Kinetic Cinema

SHE POEMS: A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION WITH AÏDA COLMENERO DÏAZ

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PENTACLE’S KINETIC CINEMA PRESENTS A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION WITH AÏDA COLMENERO DÏAZ
Dir. Aïda Colmenero Dïaz, 2014
Spain, 90 min.

THURSDAY, MARCH 12 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Guest Artist and world citizen, Aïda Colmenero Dïaz will show an evening of videodance poems made in collaboration with dancers and choreographers from Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania.

SHE POEMS is a project created by Aïda to pay TRIBUTE TO AFRICAN WOMEN through poems written in Spanish.

They are “video poems” played by African women artists, They are audiovisual works of contemporary dance inspired by poems written in Spanish language.

SHE POEMS speak about IDENTITY of African women and it is a defense of the human rights of women.

The goal is to place African women in the role of CREATOR, these women will live a process of empowerment and they will be an example for their community,

SHE POEMS want to give a positive image of Africa, profiling strong African women.

SHE POEMS aims to build a Women -Poetry -Dance- African MAP.

Aïda Colmenero Dïaz started her career in Cristina Rota Drama School, after she received her title in Contemporary Dance in the Real Conservatorio Profesional of Dance “Mariemma” of Madrid. She has created a multidisciplinary approach using different body and dance techniques: Contemporary, theater, Yoga, Taichi, Capoeira, Classical dance, technique “Río Abierto”, Butoh, etc…

The only Spanish artist to obtain the diploma in Acogny technique by Germaine Acogny, at the École des Sables, Senegal, Aïda is co-directing LANLA a project to expand Acogny technique at an international level. In collaboration with Ecole Des Sables they have created THE MARCH, The First Open international Dance workshop around Germaine Acogny Technique, in Senegal. Aïda also created the CYCLE OF MODERN AFRICAN DANCE in Madrid.

Aïda has been based between Africa and Spain since 2009. She has developed her educational project “Africa Danza Training Program” in Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Cape Verde Islands, Tanzania, Guinea Conakry, Madagascar, Gabon; for dancers, actors, circus people, children and women in special situations. Her choreographic work in Africa includes: “Café Toubab” with Alioune Diagne (2009), presented in the Festival Mundial des Arts Négres; and “Fudu” with Papa Sangoné Vièira (2012).

Aïda is touring with KM.O Project “Preludio” created by the Spanish choreographer Paloma Sánchez, co produced by La Nívola and Yakart, in collaboration with Espacio en Blanco of Madrid. She was invited to participate as a specialist lecturer in the map of contemporary dance in Africa in II Encuentro Coreográfico África-España, organized by Casa África and Mercats de les Flors, Barcelona 2011. She was invited as a choreographer by Arigato International to the Forth Forum Global Network of Religions for Children, Dar es Salaam 2012. She was invited as special guest in “Día da criança africana” organized by the United Nations in Praia 2010.

Aïda has been awarded twice by the Ministry of Culture of Spain and AECID (Agencia Española de Cooperación y Desarrollo)

This presentation is supported and produced by: Spanish Embassy in Abuja, Casa África, Goethe-Institut Senegal, Cultura Dakar, Spanish Embassy in Dakar, Spanish Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Acción Cultural Española, SUNU Street, Maison Aïssa Dione, Hotel Sokhamon, MUDA África, Nafasi Art Space, Asociación Yakart.

More info at www.aidacolmenerodiaz.com

ABOUT KINETIC CINEMA

Kinetic Cinema, is a regular screening series produced by Pentacle in conjunction with Spectacle Theater and curated by invited guest artists who create evenings of films and videos that have been influential to their own work as artists. When artists are asked to reflect upon how the use of movement in film and media arts has influenced their own art, a plethora of new ideas, material, and avenues of exploration emerge. From cutting edge motion capture animation to Michael Jackson music videos, from Gene Kelly musicals to Kenneth Anger films, Kinetic Cinema is dedicated to the recognition and appreciation for “moving” pictures. We have presented these evenings at Collective: Unconscious, Chez Bushwick, IRT, Launchpad, Green Space, Uniondocs, CRS, 3rd Ward, Fort Useless and The Tank in New York City, as well as at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

For more info on the current Kinetic Cinema season please visit Pentacle’s website.

KINETIC CINEMA is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

KINETIC CINEMA PRESENTS A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION WITH MIMI GARRARD

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Dir. Mimi Garrard
USA, 90 min.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11 – 7:30 PM

Guest Artist, Mimi Garrard will show works in video from 1964 to 2014 spanning her prolific career as a dancer with the legendary Alwin Nikolais, as a choreographer, and later as a video artist. The program features the work of Mimi Garrard, Alwin Nikolais, James Seawright, and Bela Tarr. It includes work created outdoors and in the studio, in color and black and white, from pure movement to theater.

Mimi Garrard studied and danced with Alwin Nikolais and his colleagues at the Henry Street Playhouse. He produced her concerts from 1964 to 1971. In the early 1970’s she began touring under the National Endowment Touring Program, performing in colleges and universities throughout the United States as well as in South America. Her last concert for the stage was in 2001 at the Kitchen. September 11, 2001 she saw the twin towers fall from 155 Wooster Street where she was living at the time. This was a catalyst for change and she decided to create dance for video.

In 2002, she began to produce half-hour programs for Manhattan Neighborhood Network which gave the incentive to work consistently. She has created 148 programs to date. Her video work is also shown in festivals worldwide, and is in museums and galleries. In the Spring of this coming year she is looking forward to a new adventure showing her collaborative work with James Seawright on the dome of the planetarium in Jackson, Mississippi in a biennial program honoring Eudora Welty. She received a life-time achievement award from the Institute of Arts and Letters in Mississippi.

ABOUT KINETIC CINEMA

Kinetic Cinema is a regular screening series produced by Pentacle in conjunction with Spectacle and curated by invited guest artists who create evenings of films and videos that have been influential to their own work as artists. When artists are asked to reflect upon how the use of movement in film and media arts has influenced their own art, a plethora of new ideas, material, and avenues of exploration emerge. From cutting edge motion capture animation to Michael Jackson music videos, from Gene Kelly musicals to Kenneth Anger films, Kinetic Cinema is dedicated to the recognition and appreciation for “moving” pictures. We have presented these evenings at Collective: Unconscious, Chez Bushwick, IRT, Launchpad, Green Space, Uniondocs, CRS, 3rd Ward, Fort Useless and The Tank in New York City, as well as at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

For more info on the current Kinetic Cinema season please visit Pentacle’s website.

Kinetic Cinema is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

KINETIC CINEMA: DOLPHIN DANCE PROJECT

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KINETIC CINEMA: DOLPHIN DANCE PROJECT
Chisa Hidaka & Benjamin Harley, Various years
USA, ca. 90 min.

ONE NIGHT ONLY!
THURSDAY, APRIL 10 – 7:30 PM

On April 10, Chisa Hidaka and Benjamin Harley will present a night of films from the Dolphin Dance Project and the works of art that inspired the project. The Dolphin Dance Project is a series of underwater dance films created by the collaboration of human dancers with Atlantic spotted dolphins. Ben and Chisa’s influences range from contact improvisation to underwater base jumping films, all of which will be shown at the screening. www.dolphin-dance.org

BIOS:
Inquiry and discovery are the themes that tie together the varied experiences of Chisa Hidaka, MD, Founder and Director of Dolphin Dance Project. Chisa has a 20+ year history in the NYC downtown dance scene and also has experience as a dance educator and musculoskeletal research scientist. Through the Dolphin Dance project, Chisa also brings together her dance and science expertise. She brings to bear her extensive training in improvised dance to interact with wild dolphins through aesthetic choices that are respectful of the dolphins participation as equal partners in the creative process.

Benjamin Harley (producer, co-founder) studied anthropology, philosophy, and theatre at Yale University. After a global career in business development and strategy consulting for the telecommunications and media industries, he settled in New York City and fell in love with dance. Practicing contact improvisation for the last 10 years, he met Dr. Hidaka, and their conversations about her far-reaching insight into the potential for connecting with dolphins through dance inspired him to join her in establishing the Dolphin Dance Project.

ABOUT KINETIC CINEMA
Kinetic Cinema, is a regular screening series of Pentacle’s Movement Media curated by invited guest artists who create evenings of films and videos that have been influential to their own work as artists. When artists are asked to reflect upon how the use of movement in film and media arts has influenced their own art, a plethora of new ideas, material, and avenues of exploration emerge. From cutting edge motion capture animation to Michael Jackson music videos, from Gene Kelly musicals to Kenneth Anger films, Kinetic Cinema is dedicated to the recognition and appreciation for “moving” pictures. We have presented these evenings at Collective: Unconscious, Chez Bushwick, IRT, Launchpad, Green Space, Uniondocs, CRS, 3rd Ward, Fort Useless and The Tank in New York City, as well as at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

For more info on the current Kinetic Cinema season please visit our website and our blog, movetheframe.com.

ABOUT PENTACLE’S MOVEMENT MEDIA
Pentacle’s Movement Media provides services, strategies, and opportunities for dance artists to make dance works for screen and use media to promote and enhance their artistic pursuits. The core activities of Movement Media are screenings, consulting services, workshops, and interactive media publications (blogs, social networking, online videos, etc). These services address a growing need for dance artists to engage with Media, particularly online and on new media platforms, in order to reach audiences, grow artistically, and stay relevant in today’s media-rich world.

Funding Credits
Pentacle’s Movement Media programming is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

KINETIC CINEMA is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

KINETIC CINEMA: A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION WITH NEL SHELBY

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NELSHELBY_BANNER2 KINETIC CINEMA: A SCREENING AND DISCUSSION WITH NEL SHELBY
Dir. Nel Shelby, Various years
USA, ca. 90 min.

ONE NIGHT ONLY!
THURSDAY, MARCH 13 – 8:00 PM

Pentacle is pleased to invite Nel Shelby, an extraordinarily talented dance videographer, to present an evening of films and videos that have inspired her illustrious career in dance and video.

Nel writes: “When I double-majored in dance and broadcast video, I had no idea where it would lead. Now, when I sit in a dark theater watching dance, trying to type as many notes as possible into my iPhone, I pinch myself and wonder if there’s any place I’d rather be. (The answer is NO!) Whenever I walk into a theater, it feels like home. Whether it’s midtown Manhattan, Vail, Colorado, or Becket, Massachusetts, each and every day I am inspired by the work that I do. More than anything, I want artists to have beautiful video to showcase their work so they can book more performances and keep sharing what they do best.”

Nel Shelby, Founder and Principal of Nel Shelby Productions, is deeply dedicated to the preservation and promotion of dance through documentation of live performances, fully edited marketing reels, live-stream capture, and documentaries and films that encapsulate the essence of nonprofit organizations.

Her New York City-based video production company has grown to encompass a diverse list of dance clients including American Ballet Theater II, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Gallim Dance, Gotham Arts, Kate Weare and Company, Keigwin + Company, Monica Bill Barnes Company, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Wendy Whelan and many more. She has filmed performances at venues throughout the greater New York area including The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, St. Mark’s Church and Judson Church, to name a few.

For the past eight years, Nel has served as Festival Videographer for the internationally celebrated Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in the Berkshires. Each season at the Pillow, Nel’s responsibilities include documenting aspects of festival culture in addition to its 20 mainstage dance performances, filming and overseeing documentation of more than 100 free performances and events, managing two dance videography interns and an apprentice, and educating students about the technical and philosophical aspects of filming dance.

She now also serves as Resident Videographer at the Vail International Dance Festival where she spent her first summer creating five short dance documentary films about the festival in addition to documenting its events and performances. Her longer-form, half-hour documentary on Vail’s festival, THE ALTITUDE OF DANCE, debuted on Rocky Mountain PBS in May 2013.

This year, she is creating four short films for Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature. In 2012, she collaborated with Adam Barruch Dance to create a short film titled FOLIE A DEUX, which was selected and screened at the Dance on Camera Festival in New York City. Nel’s videos for the New Jersey Hall of Fame were shown to an audience of 2000 people, and she is currently editing a dance documentary featuring Nejla Y. Yatkin that she filmed for three-and-a-half weeks in Central America in 2010. Nel has a long personal history with movement – she has a B.A. in dance and is a certified Pilates instructor. She continues to train with world-renowned Master Teachers Romana Krysnowska and Sari Pace, original students of Joseph Pilates. In addition to her dance degree, Nel holds a B.S. in broadcast video. She often collaborates with her wonderful husband, dance photographer Christopher Duggan on creative projects with dancers in New York City and beyond. They live with their beautiful daughter Gracie in Manhattan.

Kinetic Cinema, is a regular screening series of Pentacle’s Movement Media curated by invited guest artists who create evenings of films and videos that have been influential to their own work as artists. When artists are asked to reflect upon how the use of movement in film and media arts has influenced their own art, a plethora of new ideas, material, and avenues of exploration emerge. From cutting edge motion capture animation to Michael Jackson music videos, from Gene Kelly musicals to Kenneth Anger films, Kinetic Cinema is dedicated to the recognition and appreciation for “moving” pictures. We have presented these evenings at Collective: Unconscious, Chez Bushwick, IRT, Launchpad, Green Space, Uniondocs, CRS, 3rd Useless and The Tank in New York City, as well as at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

For more info on the current Kinetic Cinema season please visit our website and our blog, movetheframe.com.

About Pentacle’s Movement Media

Pentacle’s Movement Media provides services, strategies, and opportunities for dance artists to make dance works for screen and use media to promote and enhance their artistic pursuits. The core activities of Movement Media are screenings, consulting services, workshops, and interactive media publications (blogs, social networking, online videos, etc). These services address a growing need for dance artists to engage with Media, particularly online and on new media platforms, in order to reach audiences, grow artistically, and stay relevant in today’s media-rich world.

Pentacle’s Movement Media programming is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. KINETIC CINEMA is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The 2014 season of Kinetic Cinema is made possible through the contributions of generous individuals like you.

KINETIC CINEMA: STORY, POEM, METAPHOR: THE DANCE FILMS OF GABRIELLE LANSNER

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Kinetic Cinema

STORY, POEM, METAPHOR: THE DANCE FILMS OF GABRIELLE LANSNER
Dir. Gabrielle Lansner
USA, ca. 90 minutes

THURSDAY, MAY 8 – 7:30 PM
Gabrielle Lansner in attendance!

Choreographer and filmmaker Gabrielle Lansner will screen her emotionally charged and story driven dance films. Coming from a dance/theater background, Gabrielle will discuss her creative process and the challenges she encountered in developing works for the camera that live somewhere between story, poem and metaphor. She will screen, DAD, wishing…, and THE STRONGER which have toured to Festivals in the U.S. and internationally, excerpts of early projects that served as drafts for completed films, and SET BREAKS, from 1980.

Gabrielle Lansner is a critically acclaimed choreographer, award winning filmmaker and artistic director of gabrielle lansner & company. Since 1997, she has been exploring the intersection of dance, film and theater. Her innovative dance/theater works have been presented at The Duke on 42nd Street, HERE, River to River Festival, The Peter Jay Sharpe Theater, among others. Most recently Gabrielle has been exploring the medium of film as another form of artistic expression. Her three short films have screened and received awards both in the U.S. and Internationally.

ABOUT KINETIC CINEMA

Kinetic Cinema is a regular screening series of Pentacle’s Movement Media curated by invited guest artists who create evenings of films and videos that have been influential to their own work as artists. When artists are asked to reflect upon how the use of movement in film and media arts has influenced their own art, a plethora of new ideas, material, and avenues of exploration emerge. From cutting edge motion capture animation to Michael Jackson music videos, from Gene Kelly musicals to Kenneth Anger films, Kinetic Cinema is dedicated to the recognition and appreciation for “moving” pictures. We have presented these evenings at Collective:Unconscious, Chez Bushwick, IRT, Launchpad, Green Space, Uniondocs, CRS, 3rd Ward, Fort Useless and The Tank in New York City, as well as at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

For more info on the current Kinetic Cinema season please visit our website and our blog, movetheframe.com.

KINETIC CINEMA is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Pentacle’s Movement Media programming is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

KINETIC CINEMA: PRESSUR.ES

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Kinetic Cinema: PRESSUR.ES

PRESSUR.ES
Dir. Derrick Belcham
USA, 90 min.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9 – 8:00pm

On January 9th, Derrick Belcham will present a night of excerpts from PRESSUR.ES, a 10 film dance series exploring the interaction of choreography, score and the edit and also select music videos. The night features music by Sarah Neufeld (Arcade Fire), Skye Skjelset (Fleet Foxes), Casey Dienel (White Hinterland), Marissa Nadler and Diane Cluck and choreography by Emery LeCrone, Miguel Gutierrez, Melanie Maar, Mariel Lugosch-Ecker, Lily Ockwell and Emily Terndrup.

Derrick Belcham is a Canadian filmmaker based out of Brooklyn, NY whose internationally-recognized work in vérité music documentary has lead him to work with such artists as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Thurston Moore and Wilco. He has created works in concert with MoMA PS1, MoCA, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Museum Of American Art, Musee D’Art Contemporain, Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Contemporary Arts Centre of Cincinnati. His work has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Vogue, Pitchfork, MTV, NPR and Rolling Stone.

KINETIC CINEMA: SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST

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KINETIC CINEMA: SOMETHING GAINED, SOMETHING LOST
Dir: David Fishel
Approx. 90 min. USA.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19TH – 8PM
ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE!
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

With the cinema industry currently in a state of turmoil over funding and over-dependence on CGI, there exists a strong desire to reject modern expectations and to reach toward methodologies of the past. In his program for Kinetic Cinema cinema, filmmaker David Fishel questions current expectations in cinema technology, and whether we are making an unfair trade off in our quest for ever more pristine HD clarity:

“I am routinely asking myself: How does one make work that remains contemporary and embraces the tools of tomorrow without forgetting the techniques and wisdom of the past? Likewise, in a present when access to high-end gear is more common place, is the spectacle of beauty lost? Can one be heard amongst the cacophony of content?”

David Fishel is a NYC based filmmaker/ video-artist who dabbles as an absurdist poet, animated storyteller, experimental sound artist, and obnoxious performance artist. Mr. Fishel is a graduate of University of Iowa where he focused his studies in Cinema and Comparative Literature and Intermedia / Performance Art. Fishel has worked and collaborated with Hans Breder, Phil Niblock, Thinkdance, Luke Murphy, Jason Batemen, John Kolvenbach, and The Hatch-Billops Collection.

KINETIC CINEMA: ELEANOR ANTIN’S BALLERINA FILMS

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THE BALLERINA AND THE BUM and THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL BALLET
Dir. Eleanor Antin, 1974/1975
USA, 80 minutes total
English

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 – 8:00 PM

Eleanor Antin – performance artist, photographer, and filmmaker – often creates an alternate persona in her video work, and in The Ballerina and the Bum and The Little Match Girl Ballet, she recreates herself as a professional ballerina from the middle of nowhere, desperate to make it in the big city. In the first film, Antin’s ballerina plans to walk across the country in order to make it as a dancer in the Big City; she meets the titular bum, and dreams of success. In the thematic sequel The Little Match Girl Ballet, that dancer has finally made it! She describes her path to glory to a silent audience, and acts out a ballet to Stravinsky, playing all the parts. In these two films, Antin discusses ideas of identity, fame, and representation, all while tying it back to dance.