ScreenMoves regularly organises events featuring discussions, dance and films, and at ‘My Moving Moment 2’ all three were combined as it invited some of the dance scene’s most distinguished names to select the moments from dance films that have moved them the most, display them and then discuss them with the rest of the panel and audience afterwards.
The event started with the screening of a short French animated dance film, ‘Coquino’ by Jeff le Bass. Honestly, I didn’t know animated short dance films were a genre, but it was wonderful and challenged my perception of the concept of dancing. It was definitely an interesting start to the proceedings.
We were then treated to more interesting and unique pieces of dance film history, each from a different genre of dance movies. There was, perhaps inevitably, a clip from ‘West Side Story’ selected by the actress and dancer Therese Glahn who talked about the revelation of seeing this sort of wild and intuitive dance when she was young and studying classical ballet.
The choreographer Tina Tarpgaard then brought a piece that somewhat worked to broaden the concept of dance: a clip from the Hungarian movie ‘Werkmeister Harmonies’ by Béla Tarr, which features almost no music and no professional dancers. Rather the focus is on the movement and the tension it can create, or release.
Next Jacob Stage, a physical performer and choreographer with the Mute Comp Physical Theatre, brought the audience back to modern times by distributing iPads for the audience to share and view two different contemporary music videos. Stage talked about how wonderful it is to see more varieties of dance in music videos, as opposed to “bikini-clad babes shaking their asses”, as he put it, because “sometimes it’s more engaging to watch people dancing who are into it, even though they have no professional training”.
All in all, the event was a success. The varied and intriguing videos of dance and the discussions that followed were interesting and entertaining, with enthusiastic participation from both the panel members and the audience. ScreenMoves regularly organises events featuring discussions, dance and films, and if you can understand Danish, even just a little, I can only recommend you check it out.
My Moving Moment 2
FIVE STARS
Dansehallerne
February 2
