Dance for the Camera
The Reunion
In the 1990s the BBC and the Arts Council had the idea of twinning talented, emerging choreographers and film makers to create short dance films made specially for television. The result was Dance for the Camera, a ground-breaking initiative which started in 1993 and resulted in seven series of films, the last being made a decade later in 2003. Dance for the Camera involved many choreographers and film makers who have since gone on to make major names for themselves.
For The Space I have selected some of my favourite films which demonstrate the enormous range of possibilities which movement and film can create together and the virtuosity, drama, pathos and sheer fun captured by Dance for the Camera.
By Peter Maniura, Launch Curator, The Space
Director: Jayne Parker
Choreographer: Ian Spink
Artist film-maker, Jayne Parker’s collaboration with choreographer Ian Spink of Second Stride fame is an elegeic and deceptively simple film, shot in an empty theatre. Featuring Lynn Seymour, one of the greatest and most expressive ballerinas of the 60s and 70s, the film reunites her with Donald Macleary her ballet partner of 30 years earlier. Their careers went in separate directions and the narrative echoes the formative moment of their meeting and the subsequent long absence.
Click here to watch Dance for the Camera: The Snowball Effect