The body simultaneously exists in and of space. The rhythm of the breath marking incriments from birth to death. Through the filmic process, real time and space are altered. Rhythm and form created by figure and environment in flux: the three-dimensional world a site for exploration in body, space and time. Through the filmic process, these elements are perceived and further re-constructed. From the original impulse to move, until the first edited image appears on the retina, whether partcipant or receiver, a common entity is engaged – the body.
When viewing dance in the theatre, audience perspective permits sight of the entire body moving in real time. Through the camera the environment is mobilized, the body subject to framing, movement recorded in frames per second. Space, body and time are subject to change through the interplay between dancer(s) and camera person(s). The resulting footage is the realization of a relationship in movement between dancer(s) and camera person(s). How to then process and re-construct this relationship is a matter of editing. In general I found the protagonist/antagonist relationship between camera and dancer a major factor for consideration when shaping the emotional content of the work. Whilst shooting/performing this dynamic was, to an extent, instinctual - supported by scores. In the edit suite however, the composition of the footage in relation to dynamics became much more cerebral. I decided to think of the footage as a palate from which to consciously construct meaning. I felt using improvised movement as a starting point for both camera person and dancer allowed me to tap into an essence influenced by the personalities and style of performer(s) and the chosen space.
By developing the themes ignited by chance moments for screen I have, in more ways than one, flattened them. By allowing a momentary occurrence to become repeatable, a representation of response to a certain time and place, all elements of improvisation and what it is to improvise have been removed. The perceivable instantaneous reaction to stimulus, so enjoyable to see in live performance, the necessity to constantly open perception in order to solve compositional problems on the spot has been sacrificed in pursuit of a different form of expression through video. 'Man's primitive need to have the last word in the argument with death by means of a form that endures' (Bazin, 1945). I was drawn to film dance to greedily preserve a momentary art form, I wanted to share my joy of movement with others, moulding it into a commodifiable visual representation of space, body and time in flux. However, the more I research and make work, the more I realise it is not my interest to capture and embalm the dancing figure but rather engage in the qualititive aspects of film to create an audial/visual experience with the moving body as the mode of expression. An experience unhampered by notions of narrative, symbolism or concept but existing as rhythm, composition, colour and form, connecting with the viewer through the senses. To approach dance film from one side, without knowledge of the other medium, is to stilt the potential for the qualities of the other to engage and express more deeply the concept of the work. Work which engages the viewer in an audio/visual experience through equally employing the qualities of mediums that support a shared intention. To return to Paxton's earlier quote, 'space becomes spherical, time is the present, mass is a changeable orientation to gravity,'I propose the opposite is true for the screen: space becomes two dimensional, time is maleable, and gravity has no bearing on mass as it is now representational. By acknowledging these differences, I endeavour to create work that plays insightfully in the gap between mediums, weaving them together through a shared language of body, space and time.
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