FILM+VIDEO SHOW & TELL: Dancing with Animals
CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) Presents two short films about dancing with animals: "The Equus Projects Documentary" created by JoAnna Mendl Shaw (Gabe Bienczycki, cinematography) and "Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins" by Chisa Hidaka and Dolphin Dance Project. Although their stages are different — field and sea — they share the ability to commune with the animals around them. Both artists will appear in person to show additional footage as well as preview their next projects. Following the screenings, we invite you to stay for a short, informal conversation with the artists.
FILM+VIDEO SHOW & TELL is a new film series that aims to promote local and independent filmmakers, to nurture the film-loving community, and to create a serious and satisfying forum for the sharing of films and ideas.
About "Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins"
“When you approach dolphins with dance, they recognize it as intelligence. Meeting a wild dolphin eye to eye, it’s hard not to want to be more like her — more wild and more a part of the natural world.”
The Dolphin Dance project brings together talented human dancers and wild dolphins to create collaborative, inter-species artistic expressions - underwater ‘dances’ and films that document them. Inspired by the potential for profound inter-species communication, using the techniques of improvisational dance in place of words, we approach the work as a true collaboration between equal minds. "Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins" won "Best Experimental Film" at its world premiere at the Big Apple Film Festival. The film depicts the tender relationship forged between a human and a wild Spinner Dolphin through the language of dance.
About The Equus Projects Documentary
The Equus Projects Documentary is a short, non-narrative piece featuring the work of The Equus Projects and JoAnna Mendl Shaw. The company expores the kinetic relationship of dancers and horses.
Shot and edited by Gabriel Bienczycki • www.zebravisual.com
Music by Jami Sieber • www.jamisieber.com
The Equus Projects partners professional dancers with horses and their riders to create site-specific performance works that merge the artistry of dance with the athletics of equestrianism. The company creates works for arts and equine venues that are virtuosic and diverse, and exchanges dance and equestrian pedagogy with members of each field, to establish an interdisciplinary performance language.
In 1997, choreographer JoAnna Mendl Shaw engineered a unique collaboration between the Mount Holyoke College Dance Department and Equestrian Program, which resulted in a trilogy of site-specific performance works for dancers and horses. During the three-month process of creating this body of work, Shaw became fascinated by the visceral connection that developed between the dancers and horses. Following completion of the Mount Holyoke project, Shaw initiated a series of research and performance projects to further explore the language of communication between human and equestrian collaborators.
The Equus Projects has transformed equestrian arenas into theatre spaces and produced four evening-length works for dancers and horses. The company has also created site-specific movement installations for hillside, lawns and gardens. Their repertory of smaller performance works have been performed at Equine Affaire, the Parelli Tour Stop, for dance festivals such as the NYC River to River Festival in downtown Manhattan, American College Dance Festival in New London, CT and The Bates Dance Festival. The Company has taught clinics for equestrians and workshops sharing their equine techniques with dancers. Their touring has taken them to arts and equestrian venues Washington, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.
http://www.dancingwithhorses.org
About
JoAnna Mendl Shaw
JoAnna Mendl Shaw is a choreographer and teacher whose work stretches the boundaries of traditional dance. The recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Choreographic Fellowships, Shaw has choreographed for dance companies throughout the States and Europe. Shaw is the Artistic Director of The Equus Projects, a company of professional dancers trained in natural horsemanship and committed to the investigation of the dynamic physical dialogue between horses and humans. The Equus Projects creates performance works for arts and equine venues throughout the country. Shaw currently teaches Composition on the faculty at The Juilliard School and teaches Improvisation, Composition and Choreography in the Ailey/Fordham BFA program.
Chisa Hidaka
Described by the NY Times as ‘dancing as if possessed,’ Chisa began her career in modern dance while attending Barnard College, where she received her BA in Dance in 1986. As a choreographer, Chisa has presented work in a number of NYC venues, most recently through the collective Metro Movement Project in collaboration with colleagues Mark Lamb, Deborah Gladstein, Sarah Pope and Marianne Giosa. Her work is largely improvisational, with organic structures serving to organize spontaneous choreography in performance. In her approach she is influenced by the work of teachers such as (the late) Cynthia Novack, Nina Martin and Nancy Stark Smith, amongst others in dance, as well as music/jazz teachers Kirk Nurock (an inter-species specialist) and Jay Clayton. She is active in the NYC contact improvisation community, regularly attending jams and other events. She recently joined the board of Earthdance, a retreat in Massachusetts dedicated to improvisation. As a performer, Chisa has appeared as a singer in the bands Stuck and Poetic LieSense, as well as in her own dance work and in the choreography of long-time friend and mentor Marta Renzi, Doug Elkins, Bill Young, Mark Dendy and others. Holding firm the belief that art can be an engine for social change, Chisa serves on the board of Artist as Citizen. With an MD from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Chisa has been on the research faculty of the Hospital for Special Surgery since 2001, working in the area of orthopaedics research. Bringing together her medical/science and dance training, Chisa conceived a course in experiential anatomy with dancer Mariah Maloney. For the past 4 years, she has taught the course at Barnard College and more recently, at Manhattanville College and the Feldenkrais Institute.
Through the Dolphin Dance project, Chisa also brings together her dance and science expertise. She will bring to bear her extensive training in improvised dance to interact with wild dolphins in a manner that is informed by aesthetic choices that are respectful of the dolphins as equal partners in the process. She will use her knowledge of jazz improvisation to work with composers who will score the dance film. She will use her scientific background to collaborate with dolphin scientists to investigate whether dance can be used as a model to study inter-species communication.