Screendance: The Practice in Print

The International Journal of Screendance, 2018

I t is with great pleasure that we introduce this first edition of The International Journal of Screendance, and share some thoughts about its intentions and parameters. The journal is a new, peer-reviewed publication; the first-ever scholarly journal dedicated to the growing area of the inter-disciplinary practice of screendance. It is an initiative undertaken by an international group of practitioners, researchers, and activists engaged with screendance, who wish to establish a forum for debate for all those interested in the intersection of dance and the moving image. The International Journal of Screendance is hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the Parallel Press imprint and will be available in both digital (online) and printed form. The editorial board is formed from members of the International Screendance Network, based at the University of Brighton and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, as well as scholars and artists from related fields of inquiry. Intended as an open international platform, and seeking input and participation from the larger global community, the journal seeks to foster not only a multi-cultural but also a multilingual discourse. To this aim, guest-editors from other cultural regions and adjacent fields of practice and inquiry will be invited to curate future editions of the journal. The journal will engage in rigorous critique grounded in both pre-existing and yet to be articulated methodologies from the fields of dance, performance, visual art, cinema, and media arts, drawing on their practices, technologies, theories, and philosophies, to develop and expand the scholarly debates around the practice of screendance. It will include original scholarship and historically pertinent, yet hard to find writings, as well as specially commissioned articles. Each issue will be edited around a particular set of questions that discuss and reframe current topics in the field of screendance, as a means of promoting and enriching critical dialogue. For the purposes of the journal, we have chosen to use the term screendance to broadly describe a field, while noting that there are no hard and fast criteria for a definition of screendance. Over the history of this art form, there have been a number of terms used to describe the work, often limited to an indication of materiality (e.g. Video-dance, Cinedance or Dance film). The term we have chosen articulates a common denominator between all of the above. Through this journal, we aim to reframe screendance as a form of research that examines the interrelationships of composition, choreographic language, and meanings of body, movement, space, and time; this is done in the context of contemporary cultural debates about artistic agency, practice as theory, and interdisciplinarity. Since the advent of optical media and the moving image, choreographic sensibilities, bodies in motion, and 'dance' have featured prominently within the frame. From Muybridge's motion studies to Eisenstein's groundbreaking cinematic language, via the Letters Ave Screendance Although motion-picture dance is a thriving and exciting art form, it does not garner the respect it deserves. The reasons for this are primarily institutional. It is not seen on a regular basis, but only typically in one-off festivals and single-artist shows; it has not yet had its great critical voice; and, connected to that, it has not had a platform-a periodical or a publication-upon which such a critical voice could emerge. The arrival of The International Journal of Screendance is a valuable first step in remedying these shortcomings. It will provide a regular outlet for critical discussion of the historical and contemporary works of motion-picture dance. From that discussion, critical perspectives and critical voices will arise and mature. As the discourse surrounding motion-picture dance becomes increasingly sophisticated, an informed audience will grow and the demand for venues, perhaps online, where motion-picture dance can be viewed on a regular basis will expand. And with more eyes focused upon it, motion-picture dance will begin to gain the attention and respect that it justly deserves. Thus, it is my pleasure to welcome this first issue of The International Journal of Screendance which promises to inaugurate the next stage in the development of motionpicture dance.

The International Journal of Screendance, 2014

There was a time when screendance implied a dancing body. The “dance” may have taken the shape of formal vocabulary or a looser interpretation of movement as dance, but common to either approach would have been the sight of humans in motion. Certain recent screendance films, however, such as David Hinton’s <em>Birds</em> (2000), Becky Edmunds’s <em>This Place </em>(2008), and Constantini Georgescu’s <em>Spin </em>(2009) are void of human presence. Yet whilst screendance making revels in the freedom of reconceptualization and reinvention, questions arise with regard to the experience of viewing, namely: what is the “dance” in screendance now that the human body has left center stage, and do audiences have the requisite concepts to identify and appreciate works that have outgrown traditional models? This paper investigates just what is required of viewers’ perceptions that might allow them access to sc...

The International Journal of Screendance, 2017

The International Journal of Screendance, 2021

Život umjetnosti, 2020

The paper is a case study of Jasmina Cibic's film The Pavilion (2015) in relation to the theory of screendance. The first part of the paper discusses the definitions of the term screendance by various researchers, and its position to related terms choreocinema, cine-dance, dance cinema, dance for the camera, dance on screen, dancefilm, and video dance. The second part of the paper is a close analysis of the film, synchronously focused on three key aspects: the choreography of the five female performers, the cinematic techniques, and the narration. The third part of the paper examines the role of the dancer Josephine Baker, to whom the film makes a reference. The paper concludes that the central choreography in the film is not that of the five female performers, but actually of the model of the pavilion which they animate. The choreography of the architectural model and the spatial reference to the body of Josephine Baker are as important semantic layers of the film as the choreography of the five performers. KEYWORDS screendance, dancefilm, choreography, Jasmina Cibic, architecture, space in screendance Original link to the paper: https://www.ipu.hr/content/zivot-umjetnosti/ZU_106-2020_036-051_Jankov.pdf Link to the journal issue: https://zivotumjetnosti.ipu.hr/106-2020/?fbclid=IwAR1OYKvh4CSNqSrt1pP6jWc09DFRyfLQeAsZTLHyQpYfiJr8eV1rBZYfQps

The International Journal of Screendance

Review Essays of: Rosenberg, Douglas. Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image. Oxford University Press. The 2006 "Screendance, State of the Art" conference convened by Douglas Rosenberg engaged in a robust discussion of names and sub-genres of screendance, which produced "a diagram of 3 overlapping disciplines: dance, cinema, and visual art. Unlike the typical result of these models, it was determined that the ‘ideal’ screendance production was not necessarily a mix of all 3. Rather, each approach and each overlap provided a way of comprehending a given work." (Pearlman, A Dance of Definitions, 2006) Rosenberg, who is a professor of art and who is trained in performance art and video art, champions this polyvocality in the consideration of screen¬dance, but also seems, at some turns, to curtail it. His particular voice in the mix is one that speaks from the perspective of visual art discourses. He brings a visual art theory perspective to the tasks of: distinguishing between "media as a method for archiving and … a site for art making" and locates screendance "within the larger frame of the visual arts" (Rosenberg, p13). Rosenberg claims to seek a hybrid theory arising from all three forms (cinema, dance and visual art). However, such claims are overwhelmed in 'Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image' by Rosenberg’s focus on visual art as the frame through which he will theorize the work. Given that frame, there are many aspects of Rosenberg’s argument in 'Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image' to which one can simply say "yes," others to which it seems important to declare "no." Ultimately, though, it is possible to affirm and endorse the underlying project of the book: to "initiate a theory that defines screendance, to open screendance up to further theorization" (Rosenberg, p13), and at the same time to note some of the key areas requiring this further theoretical exploration so that the understanding of screendance by academics, curators, practitioners, and audiences can develop the connoisseurship that Rosenberg champions.

The concept of working in a multidisciplinary form across media and processes has become more prevalent in modern day culture. The acceptance of integration has become widespread and as a result a more informed and evolved society has elapsed. Screen Dance adapts this idea to the strategic collaboration of many art forms that can include fine art practices, music compositions, film and dance. With evolution of the filmic process, users of this dynamic medium have been able to create a new language to communicate their narratives or in the case of many fine art film pieces, the otherwise absence of narrative. As a result of this new filmic process filmmakers can express their ideas with boundless possibilities. Deirdre Tower, member of the Dance Films Association, New York, spoke about Screen Dance at the 2011 Dance-tech conference defining it as: The structure for a dance for the camera, otherwise known as a cine dance or screen dance, may be driven by a kinetic or visual design concept, poetry or narrative, imagery from reality or dreams, traditional or idiosyncratic musical forms. The intention may be to produce what cannot be conceived in a live performance or to stretch and condense a multi-media form.

2016

Dance and film are two distinct mediums of expression. Movement drives both of these art forms and is the commonality that serves as the thread that connects them. These mediums serve as modes of discovery, thinking, and representation. Time and space are shared components between dance and film. Over the past century, there have been many different relationships on and off the stage between the two and as a result of this, new genres like screendance, dance for film, and multimedia performance have emerged. Live dance performance has been strengthened by the possibilities and uses of multimedia elements in real time. After creating the MFA Thesis Concert C’est la Vie | Exquisite Corpse that correlates with this dissertation, I was left yearning for more knowledge of the medium and discipline of film. Film expanded the possibilities of time, space, and movement for the choreographic process and the live dance performance. Therefore, I argue that by having a deeper understanding of f...