Boris Willis Moves: June 2009

The dance vlogger it seems, is a rare person to find. It is relatively easy to find dance bloggers, dance writers and dance photographers but finding professional dancers/choreographers who use the web as a primary source for showing a dance is more difficult. We see the powerful influence of the web with the disappearance of news papers and the emergence of e-book readers such as the Kindle that allow for downloads of books and newspapers, the emergence of iTunes Music Store as the largest seller of music as well as the question of whether Blue-Ray DVD’s will soon be outpaced by movie downloads. People love dance as evidenced by video sharing sites that are replete with videos of the latest social dances and sophisticated dance videos made by amateurs. The professional dance artist seems to hold up the theater as the ideal destination for presenting their work. I think that just as reality television can take you into the lives of ordinary people, online dance can take you into the lives of dance makers. We can get an intimate look at the person, not just the performer, through online video. The modern dance movement was based on rebellion. Isadora Duncan searched for “natural” movement that did have the constrains of ballet, Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey rejected Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn to find “American” movement ideas and Anna Halprin searched for the “real” in her work which spawned the postmodern movement. Who dares to rebel against postmodernism? I can’t predict that the web will provide a revolution in theatrical dance. However, I do sense a shift by some artists who feel as I do that one does not have to wait for their two nights in the theater to share their work. For this program, I will present several works by amateur and professional dancers that reveal the artist as both a performer and a person in a way that illuminates the purpose of dance in our lives as well as acknowledge the value of web as a venue.

http://pentacle.org/movement_media_screenings.asp

Matt Harding

Inspirational dance done by an amateur dancer who has a corporate sponsor.

Where the hell is matt/ 3:42/2006/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4

Soulja BoyTell’em

Example of social dancing on the web and an example of how dances get passed down from person to person. Soulja Boy also had a hit dance and song that was replicated on the web by many.

Do Da Stanky Leg/ 1:53/2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro0DCOxxG18&feature=related

Leili

Belly dancing- Raks Al Baladi an example of social dance on the web.

Iranian Girl/2:53/2009 http://vimeo.com/3391786

Conor Clarke

Conor and Matt get inspired and dance for fans of their sketch comedy show. Amateur performance made entertaining through the use of editing.

Dance/:52/2009 http://vimeo.com/2529997

Dance2/2:18/2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPuh3Th-MmQ

Emma Noel

A response dance that shows the power of editing as well as show the differences in movement styles.

http://vimeo.com/76701

Mike Long

Mike did a year long dance video project posting a video everyday for a year and dance in various locations mostly around where he lived in Hamilton, Canada. Mike is a DJ and humorist with a large youtube following.

Picture on the Wall/2:32/2009/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMJAtQ-hrIo&feature=channel_page

Nick “Fresh” Puzo

NickFreshAlive is a friend of Mike Long who was inspired by him to make a video series of his own. This was a dance he did on a dare to dance in a crowed bar in front of people.

Shake Shake Shake Shake/2:43/2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kYkKqpKaFs&feature=channel_page

Melanie- Dance everywhere

Melanie creates video dances around the San Francisco area.

Tune G at Southside Park/1:29/2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti793fHZ-bM&feature=channel_page

Lee Atwell

Lee creates a dance video everyday inspired by butoh. She owns a yoga studio in Seattle.

Garden Shack/1:59/2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjzcd8i6SRM&feature=channel_page

Liz Roncka

Liz makes a new dance video daily.

56/ 10:00/2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VflNTlX-Q4g&feature=channel_page

Gesel Mason

Gesel has started to experiment with creating work specifically for video.