Friday, November 28, 2008

The Dance Film Project - Press Release

Cinema Revolution Presents
"The Dance Film Project"
at Intermedia Arts
December 12 and 13, 2008

Cinema Revolution presents
DANCE FILM PROJECT
an evening of choreography for the camera

FEATURING NEW SHORT FILMS BY
• Mad King Thomas and Katinka Galanos
• Vanessa Voskuil and John Koch
• Justin Jones and Kevin Obsatz
• Mandy Herrick and Dustin Nelson
• Katie Richey and Garrett Tiedemann
• Erica Pinigis
• Megan Mayer and Kevin Obsatz

FILMS INCLUDE PERFORMANCES BY
• Laurie Van Wieren
• Sally Rousse of James Sewell Ballet
• Anna Marie Shogren
• Charles Campbell of Skewed Visions
• Kristin Van Loon of Hijack
• Elliot Durko-Lynch
...among others.

AND also live performances by choreographer April Sellers and musical group To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie.

Friday and Saturday, December 12 and 13, 7 PM

Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612-871-4444
http://www.intermediaarts.org
For map and directions click here

Tickets: $8 - $12 sliding scale (available at the door) General Admission
Show a Cinema Revolution store receipt at the door and get $2 off ticket price.
Dance Films Descriptions:

“Reverb” by director Katie Richey and filmmaker Garrett Tiedemann. Four women search the echoes of space and time. While compelled forward through programmed behaviors and a maintenance of group dynamics an underlying curiosity keeps them tracing peripheries of unknown origin.

“4-Frame Dance Project” by choreographer Justin Jones and filmmaker Kevin Obsatz. Obsatz runs four digital cameras simultaneously, each facing in toward the center of a square to capture a single choreography and displayed on the screen simultaneously in a four-square layout. The dance relates to the placement of the cameras, resulting in disorienting and surprising effects produced by this particular method of capturing and displaying choreography. The technique is repeated by 8 different dancers each giving their unique take on the perspective. Featuring performances by Justin Jones, Anna Shogren, Laurie Van Wieren, Mad King Thomas (Theresa Madaus, Tara King, Monica Thomas), Charles Campbell, Kristin Van Loon, Elliott Durko-Lynch and Megan Mayer.

“Coarse Confluence” by choreographer Megan Mayer and filmmaker Kevin Obsatz. Megan Mayer, a dance artist/choreographer and photographer based in Minneapolis, is the solo performer in this site-based dance film, which is the result of an interest in the intersection between movement and film. Megan performs in an array of natural landscapes, her dance interacting with and reflecting upon her surroundings.

“throne/thrown” conceptualized by choreographer/director Vanessa Voskuil and filmmaker John Koch. Taking its impetus from WB Yeat's poem "The Second Coming," “throne/thrown” explores the search for the position in one's life by which to conduct one's authority over it. Directed and conceived by Vanessa Voskuil (2006 Sage Award for Outstanding Design) and John Koch (Cinema Revolution store owner and filmmaker), “throne/thrown” strives to create a frenetic, visually compelling, and cinematically moving experience.

“Alongside Sympathetic Neurons” by choreographer Mandy Herrick and filmmaker Dustin Nelson. Herrick and Nelson explore site-based dance, investigating particular locations and how they can be perceived differently through changing the typical movement, behavior, time, and perspective of each site. The exploration and movement inspired by the body-site, within the context of a geographical-site, illustrates a parallel in both body and place.

“Cuddle” by choreographer/filmmaker Erica Pinigis. Stop-motion is used to show the dance of two lovers lying together, suspended in black space and bound by a single bed sheet, as their bodies intertwine, merging, coming apart and back again, exploring the movement and gesture of romantic love.

“I'll be on the dock in a minute” choreographed and conceived by Mad King Thomas and filmmaker Katinka Galanos. Sally Rousse, co-founder of James Sewell Ballet, stars in this semi-biographical dance, filled with both truths and fictions about her life. Sally tells a story about being run over by a truck when she was a small girl, featuring peculiar and fantastic interview footage mixed with live-action reenactments/re-interpretations of the events. The following themes are informing the work: the scale of human bodies (over time and between individuals), rewriting history, investigating the function of truth vs. fiction, and the dynamics of tangential conversations.

Performance Description:

April Sellers (Sage Award honoree for Outstanding Performance 2005) will restage her multi-media duet, "Women Bathing," which reveals the female form in 17-gallon metal washtubs. "Women Bathing," originally created with support by the Minnesota State Arts Board, will feature video by Kelly Radermacher, original music composition by Michael O'Brien, and performances by Kelly Radermacher and Pam Plagge.

About the Project:

In anticipation and celebration of Cinema Revolution's fifth anniversary, store owner and filmmaker John Koch hosted an open call last April for filmmakers and choreographers to come together and create original short works for the camera or for live performance and camera. Koch proposed that the participants explore the expressiveness of dance through a cinematic language placing themselves in site-specific contexts and focusing on the various structures of time.


Artist Information:

KATINKA GALANOS, filmmaker and artist. http://www.mnartists.org/Katinka_Galanos

MANDY HERRICK finds inspiration for dancemaking in public restrooms, inside her closet and on top of her skin. A freelance dancer and improviser, she has performed with the Black Earth Collaborative Arts Company, the Red Herrings, Jin-Wen Yu, Olive Bieringa, Sarah Jacobs, and currently dances with the Ready At Will (RAW) Dance Collective in Minneapolis. Mandy is a Certified Global Somatics Practitioner and works at the Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts.

JUSTIN JONES is a choreographer, sound designer and dancer. His choreography has been seen in MPLS at Bryant Lake Bowl, Patrick's Cabaret, Red Eye and the Southern Theater; in New York at CBGB’s, Galpagos Arts Space, The Gershwin Hotel, The Knitting Factory, The Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater @ Symphony Space, LaMama Etc., Sarah Lawrence University, The Theater at the Riverside Church and Ur; and in Seattle at Velocity Dance Center. Justin creates sound design for his own choreography and for other theater and dance makers including Ivy Baldwin, Genevieve Bennett, Chris Schlichting and Chris Yon. He has performed in the choreography of Tere O’Connor, Nick Leichter, Morgan Thorson, Kara Tatelbaum, Billy Siegenfeld, Chris Schlichting and Robin Lakes. Jones is a 2007 McKnight Foundation Choreography Fellow. He was also a 2003 NYFA Fellow for his work with long time collaborator Chris Yon holds and he holds BFA in Dance from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

JOHN KOCH is a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and studied photography and film at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, graduating with a BFA in Photography in 1999, with also a post-bac semester at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy in 2000. After returning home to Minneapolis he opened Cinema Revolution, a DVD rental store which focuses solely on foreign, independent, documentary, classic and cult films. The store has since grown into a local institution for film lovers, winning four straight City Pages "Best of the Twin Cities" awards. Koch has made seven short films and finished his first feature film "Je Ne Sais Quoi" in early 2008, which screened at the Ritz Theater for a two week run in June 2008 and at the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival in August 2008. He is currently in production on his next feature “The Seducer”, an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s “White Nights”.

MAD KING THOMAS is the collaboration of Tara King, Theresa Madaus and Monica Thomas. Formed in 2004 at Macalester College, the trio has performed at the 2006 Minnesota Fringe Festival, in Emily Johnson's Windfarm Series at the Rogue Buddha, at Macalester Colllege, in the 2005 American College Dance Festival, in 9x22 Dance Lab at the Bryant Lake Bowl, as guests in John Munger's Third Rabbit Show, in capture! the dance film series of Catalyst and Firetrunk Records, and in the 2007 Queertopia, a cabaret curated by Outward Spiral. They were recently awarded a 2008 Sage Award for Outstanding Performance for their work Premium White Morsels presented by Intermedia Arts' Naked Stages. Mad King Thomas creates dances that mix choreography, theater, prop handling, pop music, dress-up, and humor. Their ability to tackle culturally relevant material in entertaining, irreverent and surreal ways makes a singular brand of social commentary.

MEGAN MAYER is a performing artist, dancer, choreographer, director and photographer based in Minneapolis and directs an ongoing video project in which she dances in public bathrooms (http://www.youtube.com/boyscoutgirl). Her work has been commissioned by the Minnesota History Center and has premiered at Bryant-Lake Bowl, Walker Art Center, NYC's CATCH series and at The Soap Factory. Recent performances include Karen Sherman's “Tiny Town” at Theater Artaud in San Francisco and Laurie Van Wieren’s “like a movie I saw once” at The Ritz in Minneapolis. Megan will premiere a new work this July as part of Momentum: New Dance Works, commissioned by The Walker Art Center and The Southern Theater. http://www.mnartists.org/Megan_Mayer

DUSTIN LUKE NELSON is the founding editor of InDigest Magazine, and is a contributing writer with Guernica, Tiny Mix Tapes, Favorite 10,Twin Cities Daily Planet, and other places. His films have appeared behind bands, at some festivals, in some small bars, and on home entertainment systems. He currently resides in Brooklyn.

KEVIN OBSATZ is a filmmaker and a time-based media artist. He is involved in all kinds of projects, including documentaries, installation work, hand-developing 16mm and super-8 film, and web video. His recent feature-length documentary, Journeyman, has screened all over the country, and has won "Best Documentary" awards at the Gloria Film Festival and the Landlocked Film Festival. He has received grants from the Jerome Foundation, Northern Lights and IFP, and has created work with numerous performing artists and nonprofit organizations, in Minnesota and nationwide. Examples of his work are available at http://www.videohaiku.com.

ERICA PINIGIS is originally from Madison, Wisconsin, where she began her dance career at the Kanopy School for Contemporary Dance and Choreography. She has performed with the Kanopy Dance Company, Peel and Core Dance Company, University Dance Theater at the University of Minnesota, Zenon Block E performance group, and Marylee Hardenbergh’s Global Site Performance. Erica has just received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Minnesota. Since graduating, she has produced and choreographed Ooh La Lounge: An Evening of Dance and Jazz at the Suburban World Theater and the Varsity Theater, and has co-choreographed and produced Lulladreams & Insomnimares at the Red Eye Theater. This August, she began an artist residence at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, where she will produce a show at the end of her tenure.

KATIE RITCHEY is a local filmmaker, dancer, theater director and videographer. She works for Bellagala as lead videographer and owns her own videography and directing company, Behind the Scenes, with an emphasis on documentary style filmmaking. Katie performs Irish step dancing with the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band and recently collaborated and performed as lead vocalist on the Minnesota Centennial Showboat's production of 'A Mississippi Panorama.' Katie directs local events such as the annual Off the Page event where local real world writers and artists, such as Dan Barreiro and Gail Rosenblum, are interviewed by local high school students in an on stage community forum. She has also staged managed for local theaters including Theater Unbound. Katie studied acting theory under Kari Margolis and recently worked as a Studio Technician and Teaching Assistant for the CLA TV Studios. Katie graduated with high distinction from the University of Minnesota and is an alumni of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

APRIL SELLERS moved to Minneapolis in 1997 after graduating with a BFA in dance from Ohio State University. In addition to appearing as a dancer in original works of Liz Lerman, John Munger, Judith Howard, and Laurie Van Wieren, Sellers has established herself as an innovative choreographer and dance educator. She founded the April Sellers Dance collective in 1999. Ms. Sellers work has been seen at the Walker Art Center, Minnesota Fringe Festival, RedEye Theater, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, and the Varsity Theater. She is currently on faculty at St. Cloud State University.

GARRETT TIEDEMANN is a filmmaker, writer, painter, musician, photographer and poet. Between 2003 and 2007 he directed 16 films both in the Twin Cities and Los Angeles community that range between documentaries and fiction of many genres like comedy, thriller and drama. Often focusing on the development of personal identification, experiences of time and the influence of space; his films draw heavily from the era of silent cinema and an understanding that the films did in fact have a sound - it was just different from what is typical of a film’s sound today. This understanding is applied heavily to his films’ construction often turning the sound into a character all its own. He is currently submitting his feature film “Trickery Mimicry” to festivals around the world and is in pre-production on two separate documentary projects he is directing in 2009. To learn more go to http://www.myspace.com/cynarcirculation.

VANESSA VOSKUIL is co-founder/artistic director of the ensemble-driven performance company Live Action Set and an independent choreographer. Her individual work is specifically characterized by its ongoing search for new kinds of cooperation between dance, theatre, visual art, architecture and new contexts for presentation. Voskuil is known for her unique physical style of emotional storytelling and freely takes leave of conceptual ideas surrounding dance and theater often utilizing dynamic and poetic stage designs. Through her own physical idiom, she abstracts simple movements from everyday life into rich expressions of dance-theater. Her work has been presented at theaters and universities throughout the twin-cites area. Vanessa is a recipient of a 2006 Sage Award for Outstanding Design for her production, THE WHITE SOLOS and has been funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Moore Family Fund for the Arts of the Minneapolis Foundation. Vanessa is a long standing company member with Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater and has previously worked with site-specific performance company Skewed Visions and Catalyst Dances. She holds a BFA in Dance and BA in Theater from the University of Minnesota. http://www.mnartists.org/Vanessa_Voskuil

About Cinema Revolution:
Cinema Revolution is a locally owned and independent DVD rental store in south Minneapolis that specializes in foreign, independent, classic and cult films. The store recently opened its doors on a new retail space on October 16th, which was made possible largely by the support of member donations and the local film community banding together with contributions. The store is widely acclaimed for its selection of hard to find films, having won four "Best of the Twin Cities" awards from City Pages, and has a loyal following among film connoisseurs in the Twin Cities. The store has always been a strong supporter of the local film community, sponsoring and hosting many community events and film festivals since its inception in 2003. Past event highlights include the monthly Cinema des Artistes screenings at the Varsity Theater, two previous Anniversary parties featuring local film and music, the originally commissioned Fortune Cookie Film Project, Wednesday Night Film School and the GLBT Film Discussion series. http://www.cinemarevolution.com

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