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I haven’t seen a space for discussing dance yet on here! Post your fave dance vids! No snobbery or genre-specificity, all movement is welcome!

(secretly I’m also trying to do more choreography and am mining for inspiration haha)

Ubuweb (an amazing resource in its own right) has some great “avant-garde” recordings/dance for camera works.

My entry points were Pina Bausch

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker

Yvonne Rainer

and later William Forsythe

and Yohad Naharin (founder of Gaga)

I’m also really into the work of Ralph Lemon

and recently, thanks to the Barbican, super into Michael Clark

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My partner and I went to see the Pina Bausch troupe twice in Japan (once when she was still here, another just after she had passed) and it blew us away both times, kind of indescribable. We have the Wim Wenders bluray too. I did just have a quick look for YT vids, but couldn’t find any to do it justice. Here’s the Wenders trailer:

Pina (2011) - Trailer - YouTube

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Super jealous. I’m a little embarrassed I haven’t seen the whole thing, but Chantal Akerman made a doc on Pina Bausch in 1983. The bits I’ve seen are incredible.

A few years ago, I read a feature on Storyboard P in Wire and went down a YT rabbit-hole for a week. Incredible stuff:

https://youtu.be/rKZOd3IAIPk

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Awesome thread. I posted this recently in the what are you listening to thread but may be more approprate here. Recent work from Ligia Lewis. Really nicely filmed. Sound design and music by Slauson Malone (Standing on the Corner).

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nice thread : )
i come from a family of dancers and now my main job is scoring for dance/stage. despite those facts, i don’t think i’m very knowledgable of dance, haha!

i was introduced to the work of trisha brown just last year, and it find it so pure and beautiful. it’s extremely precise in its details and so skilfully performed, yet it feels so light. really lifts my spirit watching her move. here’s a favourite:

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Reviving this little thread… I enjoy collaborating with visual artists and have done projects with my s/o who is a painter and book artist, as well as collaborating with a video artist on a short term installation.

But I have always wanted to collaborate with choreographers/dancers, and am not sure where to start. I have attended quite a few performances as a spectator but it’s never been clear to me how the sound and visual aspects come together. I only know about the way that Cage/Cunningham worked, each developing things independently, then bringing their pieces together the night of the performance. (Is this the norm or are they outliers in that regard?)

I am wondering if someone can point me to some reading material discussing the interaction between dance and sound. Also anybody’s experiences in working with dancers would be valuable. What should I be considering when going to meet with possible collaborators? I’m just not sure what to expect (while also understanding that no two people develop work in the same way).

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Great thread! I come to it from a slightly different angle. For some time now I have been looking at the idea of a system that would allow the dancer to “play” an instrument based on his/her movements. I think this idea was inspired by watching this:

But in my head the way of controlling the sound should be seamless with the natural motion of the dancer, without the need for an interface that can bee seen in the video above. I have been experimenting with Laban Movement Analysis and I feel like using Effort Factors for sound control might be a way to go. I have been also working with Kinect and Computer Vision. It seem that I need to put this all together and find a dancer that would be interested in collaboration :smiley:

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If y’all approach some students in a local modern dance program you’ll have no trouble finding enthusiastic collaborators. Dancers need music.

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I’d be happy to chat with you sometime. I have a lot of experience in this world. My wife is a wonderful choreographer and even before we met I worked with a bunch of choreographers and dance companies. There are many universal and also very specific practices to consider. But as someone said, best idea is to just jump in. Reach out to local schools, dance companies and independent dancers and choreographers. You’ll learn a lot!

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I’ll chime in to say that when I first started working with dancers, I thought they would want to dance to music I’d already recorded. But I’ve had the best/most rewarding experiences when the process is more deeply collaborative, especially when the choreographer has some movement or artistic direction that informs my compositional process. It can be a bit frustrating to balance the power dynamic but I usually end up making something I wouldn’t have otherwise, and it expands my sense of what I am able/want to do. I’ve worked (briefly) with a couple choreographers who wanted me to do whatever they want, and not really have any artistic input myself, and it doesn’t work well for me.
I don’t remember where but I’ve written a bit on the compositional process for dance, if I can’t find the writing I’ll share a bit here. In any case I recommend going to some dance shows at a local uni or finding a contemporary company and going to a show; if you like what they do find them afterward and give them something with info on how to hear your music. If you do that with enough people, someone will probably reach out to get together and try some things.

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One of the most fulfilling musical periods of my life was improvising music for a contact improv dance troupe. Such an in the moment collaboration between sound, movement, and time. I see echoes of that in @tehn and @instantjuggler ’s collaborations.

The same group tried more choreographed/composed pieces as well, but we just never found the same joy with that as we did when improvising. Probably says as much about us as people as anything else.

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Have you heard about Théoriz ?
It’s a french studio/lab working on the control of sound, video and light by tracking the position and movements of one or several persons (amongst other endeavours).

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Thank you all for your comments and insights!

@soysos Thank you for making yourself available. I will be reaching out in the near future…

@wheelersounds I would be interested in reading whatever you have time to share here, no pressure. Thanks for sharing your insights, I would imagine that it is difficult to tow the line between creative freedom while also respecting the other person’s direction. I hear you though, I would ideally want it to be a collaboration as opposed to me being a breathing music box.

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Started going dancing again after a long, long while. I moved, and there is a lot of techno action around here, versus my previous life place. Gosh I didn’t realize this has been missing from my life.

Clubs open midnight tho, so it’s a struggle but I only ever regret when I didn’t go.

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British neosoul group Jungle has been commissioning these interesting one-shot steadycam videos of meticulously choreographed dances, my favorite is probably “Candle Flame,” released a few months back, and choreographed by Shay Latukolan:

Will West is always a joy to watch (well, so are all the dancers, really), I particularly love how the staging doesn’t assume a fixed audience position and breaks the fourth wall, and the eclectic nods to Fosse and popping and who knows what else is fun :slight_smile:

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I dated a guy who knew about contemporary dance and he took me to see Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker at BAM, doing stuff set to Steve Reich including the first piece in this video. Absolutely incredible and mind-expanding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvle-e4BJfk

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I love dancing. Shout-out to the folks doing full cardio in front of the DJ booth, folks who arrive only at 4, as well the forty-fifty year olds with a perfect shuffle. Techno forever :hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer: