Dance Screen 2005 Brighton
A delegates diary.
Wednesday 15th June
Delegate Registration we get our badges
Wednesday night at the Grand Central pub, 'Bob Lockyers reception'. New and old faces arrive , time to catch up. A sort of therapy for the unloved video dance makers of the world. We huddle together in our own wretchedness sure of the rightness of our lonely path.
Avoided the late night adventure in to Brighton its early days yet.
Thursday 16th June early morning headed off to the video tech to watch some films. I'm one of the first in it looks like, I skim the catalogue and realise I have seen a lot of them already, after all its been 2 years since the last dance screen in Monaco. I choose 'speed ramp' choreographed by Lea Anderson. I wish I hadn't. It's possibly the wors
t thing I've seen in 10 years of exposure to this genre. Running and running and running, underpasses corridors feet and legs and feet and legs and jump.Where's the dance? Any one who has watched London jump or a decent skate movie knows how gut wrenchingly dreary this work is. *
I steel myself and pull out 'text field' The third DVD I try works and despite its promise I'm left wishing it had been longer and more developed, I liked the sound. **
Slightly warmed I go for GinaCzarnecki 's new film 'Nascent' It appears as a rippling sensual abstraction of a dance with lots of computer effects like trails and multilayering but its visually rich and beautiful like a moving painting. The hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I'm completely blown away by it. *****
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I return the film slowly my brain still buzzing with it. I go for Fisticuffs a choroegraphed bar room fight by Miranda Pennel I love the opening and the repetition and the sound works well with it. Especially the bell for last orders Later I drift thinking the joke wears thin and I lose it abit with t
he line dancing because I hate line dancing so I end the film thinking its not as good as I first thought. As Liz Aggis says ' In every dance film there is a shorter dance film screaming to get out' ***
Well I'd heard so much about it and I'd missed the broadcast and I thought its going to win something so I thought The Cost of Living. Lloyd Newson's rework for TV. After 20 minutes trying to work out whether the telly would switch to 16:9 (it didn't) as the library only has anamorphic cxopies of the film on VHS. I tried to clear my head and not be disturbed by the car wheels being egg shaped. The film opens and immediately I know Im in for a cliche ridden tale. Mouthy Scotsman! seaside music, is this laziness or post modern artfulness? The film looks the business. Well shot, nicely produced, excellently edited. I get 3/4 the way through and realise i don't care about any of the characters and only just stop myself from hitting the FF button. What an odd length for a film. was it meant to be an hour? It could have been cut to a half hour and you wouldn't have noticed. There's a beautiful duet in the middle in a dance studioand a great set piece with the group on a lawn. Style and dark humour abound but ultimately can't save it for me. I wish I cared. ***
The delgates coffee bar. What no food!? What we have to be quiet when screenings and discussions are on because its in the same room!!? What there's no internet access anywhere in this place! no wireless hotspots?! bad, bad and bad..... someboidy messed up here.... this is a major international festival here, what happened to being good hosts and providing a welcoming warm space to hangout in for debate, chat ,discussion, making friends, forging deals, checking your flights home? I know there were many others who thought this as well.
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