EMPAC Announces Recipients of the DANCE MOViES Commission 2010-2011

EMPAC DANCE MOViES COMMISSION 2010-2011

In these new works, a silent clown figure performs in a retro 16mm film world; the ground is prepped for spring in the stutter-style of stop motion animation; sensual, complex layers of imagery evoke Heaven, Earth and Hell; and a boisterous punk marching band interrupts daily life in the streets of Chicago.

With the widest definition yet of what dance on screen can be, EMPAC announces the 4 recipients of this year’s EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission. Chosen out of 71 proposals by a panel of artists, curators and producers, the projects range widely in format, style and intent: from a contemplative video installation, to massively processed images shot in a complex set, to riotous urban intervention.

The newly commissioned projects will be created over the course of one year by the four collaborative teams who are based in the U.S. and Chile, and will premiere in the fall of 2011 at EMPAC.

The DANCE MOViES Commission is a program launched by EMPAC to support the creation of new works in which dance meets the technologies of the moving image. Since 2008, seventeen new works have been commissioned, many winning awards and touring extensively. The five projects currently in post-production will premiere during Filament, a festival of new work across genres at EMPAC, October 1-3, 2010.

EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission 2010-2011 Recipients
(in alphabetical order of titles)

A Circus of One - U.S., 15 minute looping video installation
Director/Visual Artist/Performer: Alison Crocetta
Music/Sound: Jason Treuting

A video installation by a visual artist who uses the 16mm camera as a
witness to performative actions while referencing the history of cinema. She constructs an evocative habitat for the solo character of a clown, successfully crossing the disciplines of sculpture, performance, and film.

Fauna - Chile, 20 minutes
Director/Visual Artist: Paulo Fernández
Choreographer/Dancer: Rodrigo Chaverini
Visual Artist: Antonio Becerro
Music/Sound: Tomas González

The relationship between artifice and nature becomes the central focus for a video by an artist team from Chile. Using an elaborate layering of design, costume, movement, environment, and set, they create a fantastical world that provokes a sense of anxiety and fascination.

Marching Banned - U.S., 10 minutes
Director: Danièle Wilmouth
Choreographer: Asimina Chremos
Sound Designer/Band Leader: Mark Messing
Band: Mucca Pazza

A film following the mayhem created by a 30-member punk marching band as it navigates through the quotidian happenings in the city of Chicago. The collaborators subvert the forms of the traditional marching band, designing intricate choreography for the camera and people, maintaining the spontaneity of “actions for joy.”

Spring Cleaning - U.S., 10 minutes
Director/Visual Artist/Performer: Pooh Kaye
Music/Sound: John Kilgore

A spirited animation from the pioneer of stop motion in dance film, “aged but still agile"; a solo celebrating the explosion of spring in the countryside.

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The Commission is supported by EMPAC’s Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts. It is open to artists based in North and South America who are making video, film and installation work.

For the full press release and information on past recipients of the DANCE MOViES Commission, please visit the EMPAC website.

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The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutue
http://www.empac.rpi.edu/