5 – 18 May

There is a Place

7 minutes 23 secs, PAL, 16:9

Winner of the Jury Award Best ‘Screen-dance Short’ at 2011 San Francisco Dance Film Festival, There is a Place is a collaboration between Tibetan Chinese dancer/ choreographer Sang Jijia and film-makers Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes.  The film combines the exquisite movement of Sang Jijia, with the stunning landscapes of the Scottish highlands and a soundtrack based on the hypnotic music of Philip Jeck.

Extracts from ‘Approaches to making dance for the screen’ (2003) by Katrina McPherson:

“Whilst the initial starting point for each of the video dance works I have directed may have be different, the work shares common concerns and approaches. These include:

• A formal exploration of video dance as a means of expressing human emotion;
• Ways of finding non-narrative structures;
• The combined use of sound and picture;
• A non-virtuosic use of the camera i.e. framing and movement on a human scale;
• The use of location;
• the use of repetition and looping in editing, to completely deconstruct the action as it happened live and create to structure, logic and rhythms unique to the video dance.”

Dancing Partners

“The camera, and its relationship to the human body, is central to my approach to making video dance. With the camera, I try to create an energy that involves the viewer in the movement, allowing them to become an active participant in the action, rather than simply a passive observer.

Whatever the idea for the work, my choices about how to use the camera are strongly influenced by my belief that at the heart of video dance is the expression of human emotion. When I look at movement through the lens, I try to do so as though I am involved in an interaction with the person or people in front of me. Like my own eyes, the camera is usually drawn to details of body and movement. Very often I am interested in what is happening in the face and eyes of the performer.

Through the use of close ups and different angles, the camera can take the viewer to places they could not usually reach. The lens can enter the dancer’s kinesphere – the personal space that moves with them as they dance – framing the detail of the movement and allowing an intimacy that would be unattainable in a live performance context.

In my experience, it is often the movement of the body parts outside the frame that creates interesting and active viewing. The framing I chose often focuses on a detail of movement, frustrating the audiences view of the ‘whole’, whilst at the same time creating dynamic and tension within the shot and forcing the viewers’ imagination to come into play.

How the camera moves in relation to the performers is another important aspect of filming dance. The choreographed camera, moving through space in relationship to the dancers, alters our perception of the dance, rendering it three-dimensional and creating a fluid and lively viewing experience.

However, what I have also discovered is that the carefully choreographed camera can lose out on an important element of dance: the feeling of spontaneity, the energy of the moment, which can make watching someone dance live such an exhilarating experience. This dilemma, and the search to find a solution, has also significantly informed my approach to making video dance.”

“The challenge that faces those involved in making video dance is to invent a new language. What we are making is not a dance, nor is it a video of a dance, or even for that matter, simply a video.

My ambition is to find and communicate ideas that can only be expressed through this hybrid medium and using a style and syntax that is unique to video dance. It can be challenging for everyone – artists and the viewers.

Particularly a longer work like ‘The Truth’ demands us to allow ourselves to experience the emotional flow of the work, to look carefully and actively and to suspend our judgement. Because it is screen-based work – and therefore by default associated with television – there is the danger that the expectation is that everything should be obvious straight away and on one viewing and for there to be a sense of narrative closure.

What I am more interested in is to take the viewer on an intense emotional journey, one that cannot necessarily be rationalised or explained away in words. However, nothing in the work is random or un-considered. In all the video dance that I have directed, my collaborators and I have tried to make work that, on one level, demands analysis and thought, and on the other, can be enjoyed on an impressionistic or experiential level. I hope you enjoy it!”

-Katrina McPherson, 2003

(From: http://www.makingvideodance.com/Writing.html)

CREDITS

Dancer: Sang Jijia

Camera: Katrina McPherson

Editor: Simon Fildes

Music: Philip Jeck

Dubbing Mixer: John Cobban

Co-producers: Simon Fildes, Katrina McPherson and Raymond Wong

Soundtrack: “I Just Wanted to Know” by Philip Jeck from the album ‘Surf’, Touch # TO:36, 1999, published by Touch Music [MCPS]

Filmed on location Glenferness and Dava in the Highlands of Scotland May 2010.

This work was made possible through the generosity of Dance House, Glasgow

City Contemporary Dance Company of Hong Kong, The British Council, Creative Scotland, Goat Media Ltd. This film is supported by China-UK Connections through Culture, a joint initiative between the Department for Culture, Media and sport and the British Council with support from the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly Government. Produced by Goat Media in association with Dance House and CCDC.