Dance on Camera Festival coming to U-M in February

Image from the film, "Yes, She Said", (USA, 2002), choreographer/director Laurie McLeod

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Direct from New York's 31st Annual Dance on Camera Festival 2003, the juried selection of internationally acclaimed dance works, made especially for the camera, will be screened for one night at the U-M Department of Dance's Betty Pease Studio Theater.

The show is 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Feb. 9 at Betty Pease Studio Theater/ Dance Building, 1310 N. University Court. Admission is free.

The 11 featured works—by artists from the U.S., New Zealand, France and England—define the latest trends in video dance, the hybrid art form that combines the craft and choreography of film/video editing and direction with the dynamics of dance and the moving body. Sponsored by U-M Program in Film and Video Studies and the Department of Dance, the festival features a sampler of the U-M Library's recent acquisitions and works direct from the Dance for Camera Festival 2003 at Lincoln Center in New York.

These works celebrate the inventive and telling interplay between the eye of the beholder and the human figure within the frame of the camera. Such international festival entries as "Hyper Alarm Dance" (USA), "Motion Control" (England) "Yes, She Said" (USA), "Black Spring" (France), "Utango" (USA), "Fly" (New Zealand) and a curated selection from The American Masters Program represent a new art form driven by new film/video technologies and the rising popularity and expressiveness of modern dance.

The festival presentation at U-M is co-sponsored by the University Library, U-M Program in Film and Video Studies, and U-M Department of Dance. Dance Film Association's 31th Annual Dance on Camera Festival 2003 is co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and sponsored by the Grand Marnier Foundation.

For more information, contact Prof. Peter Sparling at petespar@umich.edu or (734) 647-2288 or Terri Sarris tsarris@umich.edu or (734) 764-5388.