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San Francisco BayPress Release from San Francisco Performances
San Francisco Performances’ Dance/Screen:
Provocative, Powerful, Gorgeous—Innovative International Dance FilmsSan Francisco CA, April 12, 2004—San Francisco Performances’ Dance/Screen, a series of programs of dance on film and video, in association with San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum, presents a program of International Short Dance Films on Tuesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. in the Screening Room at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street in San Francisco. Curated by Charlotte Shoemaker, this is a varied program of recent provocative short dance films, a sampling of the richness of dance that is being created for and from the camera. Many of these films stretch the boundaries of what is dance, or how to tell a story with movement, camera work and editing.
The program will include the following videos.
! Suit of Light: the Essential Theoretical Principles of Classic Theatrical Dancing, from the UK, was directed by Margaret Williams and choreographed by William Trevitt. This stately film of bravura dancing, awash in light, is narrated by a text from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.
Stealth was directed by Julian Broad and Tareq Kubaisi from the UK. This whirling, speeding film romps with two men and two boys in camouflage, cavorting in the countryside.
Portrait, directed by Saara Cantell and choreographed by Paula Tuovinen from Finland, hurls us into the mayhem of a photo shoot for the family album which reveals more than the final portrait does.
Secondhand was directed and choreographed by Chris Ho from the UK. It is a precise pas de deux of hands and feet, tension and interaction.
Beyond Reach, directed by Teresa Griffiths and choreographed by Mayuri Boonham from the UK, shows an elegant East Indian goddess emerging from the Thames into the rush of London commuters.
You Are My Favorite Chair was directed by Robert Hardy and choreographed by John Rowley from the UK. In the midst of "Central European angst," a couple perform an eccentric, despairing and startling pas de deux of highly choreographed movement and images.
Circle Walk, directed by Priscilla S. Rasmussen from Denmark, is a picture poem created in the junction between movement, framing, editing and music. It is a looping lull of waiting and awakening movements among four women who swirl around in silent circles.
Black Spring, from France and the Ivory Coast, was directed by Benoît Dervaux and choreographed by Heddy Maalem. This powerful and moving film challenges Western notions of African bodies in movement. The dance is intercut with scenes of contemporary African life, heightening awareness of the social and political sensitivities inherent in modern African dance.
Tickets for this screening are $7 ($4 for San Francisco Performances subscribers and members of Yerba Buena Center and SFPALM). Tickets may be ordered by phone at (415) 398-6449, online at www.performances.org or at the Box Office at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at (415) 978 ARTS. Seating is limited.More than a hundred important debuts and premiere performances of classical music, dance and jazz in the course of its 24-year history have earned San Francisco Performances its place as the city's premier performing arts presenter. San Francisco Performances consistently presents the highest caliber of internationally acclaimed and emerging artists, building new audiences for the arts and enriching Bay Area communities through education activities and innovative artist-in-residence programs. Founded in 1979 by Ruth A. Felt, the organization has been honored nationally by government and professional organizations and non-profit funders for its leading role in presenting, programming and education. With a current annual budget of $3.3 million, the organization has grown from its first season of seven performances in 1980-81, to an annual season that in 2003-2004 presents 65 mainstage performances and over 150 education and community events. The organization is currently in the public phase of a $6 million Endowment Campaign, with over $3.5 million in gifts and pledges raised to date.
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Background photo © 1999 Michael W. Phelan
Michael
W. Phelan,