This year, the Alabama Dance Festival included a workshop on Dance and Video Technology led by Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer. I have to be honest and say I actually had never heard of Bridgman-Packer… They were apparently here a few years ago, but I was so wrapped up into Architectural Mapping at the time that I entirely missed the opportunity to discover them.My loss.
As soon as I started watching their videos, I knew they were Masters at the game I was just starting to play with Mary, and resolved to "pick their brains" as much as I could. Not, mind you, to try and imitate what they do better than anybody, but to figure out our own way of using the new technologies at hand.
The workshop has been a wonderful experience, even though I didn't get exactly what I was looking for technically. It was a workshop for dancers and choreographers, with support from the Nerds. Well, the Half Nerds with an Artistic bend… Myrna kept reminding us that technology was there ONLY in a supporting role, to help express feelings and ideas, and tell a story. I have no problem with that.
First, Art and Myrna are absolutely amazing: charming, gracious, friendly, unassuming, energetic, stimulating, inspiring, and extremely generous with both their time and knowledge.
The workshop was very stimulating and inspiring for me, and I am quite sure every other participant felt the same,
I met several very creative and original young dancers and choreographers, whom I am hoping to work with in the future, both on "Light Dreams 2014", and on our own "scAena lumInaria" still very loose Dance and Projection Project.
We set up and practiced various live video techniques, black and green screen, both vertical and on the floor, with multiple video feed. And we got to try our own ideas. I was rather surprised by how much they are able to squeeze out of very basic often outdated video equipment, and liked that very much. Years ago as a photographer, I always felt I could get better pictures out of an Instamatic than a lot of people did out of fancy expensive cameras with big fat prime glass. And to this day, I have never owned "professional" equipment. I would love to have fancy glass, but it's just too expensive, and I have done fine without it.
The performance at the Museum of Art of their latest and most elaborate piece "Voyeur" was absolutely spell binding and awe inspiring. Saying it is intense and dazzling is a huge understatement. The grace of the movements, the interaction, the beauty and mystery of the set, the choice of images, the emotional and visual complexity and variety, the originality of the gestural vocabulary,the controlled eroticism, the rich colors, the sophistication, the attention to the smallest detail are all admirable and extremely stimulating.
They bring the still stylized visual world of Edward Hopper to life through light, but re invent it in a complex additive fragmented way. They constantly deconstruct and reconstruct the set, which becomes almost cubist at times.
They are EVERYWHERE,large and small, live and canned, real and virtual in sometimes almost indistinguishable ways. The bodies merge into the projected images and vice versa. Thanks to carefully controlled live cameras, the spectator is made privy to their "private sexual life" in an almost uncomfortable way, and can eavesdrop on what is happening behind the zigzag wall of the set, now and then catching a glimpse of a body part through a window.
As an aging Artist myself, I cannot help but notice and admire how fit, beautiful and sexy these "aging dancers" are, with no trace of make up or artifice.
As Myrna said in the Q&A after the show, she has been dancing since she was seven, but is still hungry and thirsty for more, and it looks like that thirst is still very far from being quenched. I think we are going to see these guys create and invent and break new ground for a long time. As far as I am concerned, they have singlehandedly redefined modern dance, and raised the bar of creativity to new levels. Hell, they have come up with an entirely new bar!
As soon as I started watching their videos, I knew they were Masters at the game I was just starting to play with Mary, and resolved to "pick their brains" as much as I could. Not, mind you, to try and imitate what they do better than anybody, but to figure out our own way of using the new technologies at hand.
The workshop has been a wonderful experience, even though I didn't get exactly what I was looking for technically. It was a workshop for dancers and choreographers, with support from the Nerds. Well, the Half Nerds with an Artistic bend… Myrna kept reminding us that technology was there ONLY in a supporting role, to help express feelings and ideas, and tell a story. I have no problem with that.
First, Art and Myrna are absolutely amazing: charming, gracious, friendly, unassuming, energetic, stimulating, inspiring, and extremely generous with both their time and knowledge.
The workshop was very stimulating and inspiring for me, and I am quite sure every other participant felt the same,
I met several very creative and original young dancers and choreographers, whom I am hoping to work with in the future, both on "Light Dreams 2014", and on our own "scAena lumInaria" still very loose Dance and Projection Project.
We set up and practiced various live video techniques, black and green screen, both vertical and on the floor, with multiple video feed. And we got to try our own ideas. I was rather surprised by how much they are able to squeeze out of very basic often outdated video equipment, and liked that very much. Years ago as a photographer, I always felt I could get better pictures out of an Instamatic than a lot of people did out of fancy expensive cameras with big fat prime glass. And to this day, I have never owned "professional" equipment. I would love to have fancy glass, but it's just too expensive, and I have done fine without it.
They bring the still stylized visual world of Edward Hopper to life through light, but re invent it in a complex additive fragmented way. They constantly deconstruct and reconstruct the set, which becomes almost cubist at times.
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