Thursday, March 12, 1998
Putting their footsteps down on film
DANCE: Fellowships let students capture essence in their
documentaries
By Megan Dickerson
Daily Bruin Contributor
Down the stairs of UCLA’s Fowler building, through the locked
door to the poster-strewn dance office and into a space the size of
a walk-in closet sits dancer Lisa Gross.
Surrounded by monitors, editing switchboards and thick orange
cords, she stares intensely at a man on a flickering screen, fast
forwarding a tape. In the ninth week of her UCLA National
Dance/Media Fellowship to preserve dance on film, Lisa Gross is
tired.
"I’m editing a rough sample of the film because our grant
proposals are due," says Gross, a Los Angeles dancer, choreographer
and filmmaker. One of eight fellows chosen from across the country,
Gross has been developing a documentary of street movement and
dance. "It’s an observation of different cultures overlapping,
observation of the relationship between strangers. (The project)
has just been with me for a long time, because my focus was mainly
dance and film."
This unique perspective on dance and film is the focus of the
10-week fellowship, which ends next week. Eight members of the
dance world, including two UCLA graduate students, participated in
a series of intensive workshops administered by the department of
World Arts and Cultures. In an area where documentation is often
neglected due to lack of money or time, these
dancers-cum-filmmakers are learning to record dance in a way that
transmits its essence.
"(Dance) is such a visceral experience, you lose that in trying
to really deposit work on the screen," says Jo Parkes, a UCLA Dance
MFA student and choreographer who has served as a day-to-day point
person for the program. "And it is often a poor substitute for the
live performance."
The fellowship is one strand of the "Save As: Dance"
partnership, which also encompasses the National Initiative to
Preserve America’s Dance (NIPAD). While NIPAD preserves already
existing film and bestows grants for further work, the fellowship
is the creative hand of the partnership. The fellowship provides
selected members of the dance community with technical training,
research and leadership activities, Parkes says.
Fellows learn new documentation techniques through field work
and two or three-day workshops led by distinguished dancers and
filmographers. Using cutting edge video and editing equipment, they
hone their camera skills by shooting undergraduate world arts and
cultures dance classes in the morning and analyzing the footage in
the afternoon.
"There’s so little money in the dance world," says Parkes, who
is also a dancer. "The facilities, the cameras and the editing
system are so expensive in the real world that the chance to have
the time, just when you’re not waitressing or doing anything else,
just to really do your work, is an amazing gift."
Members of the Los Angeles dance community and the UCLA faculty
led multi-day residencies, discussing topics from public
broadcasting to lighting and sound. Speakers included Michael Kidd,
the Tony Award-winning choreographer of "Guys and Dolls" and "Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers," and Ken Brecher, director of the
Sundance Institute.
The broad expertise of the workshop leaders and fellows, which
include an animator and several videographers, lends itself to a
revolutionary learning environment, says Sue Fan, assistant
director of the Center for Intercultural Performance.
"We’re looking at a broader interpretation of dance
documentation, in the sense that here we’re looking at the
relationship between dance and media and also investigating new
approaches to dance and its documentation," Fan says. "We’re trying
to create a place where people really invent and create. We’re
pushing the boundaries of dance documentation."
The results range from Gross’ documentary of street movement to
fellow Laura Margulies’ animated recording of hula dancing. Fellow
Bridget Murnane, a producer, director, writer, teacher and editor
from Massachusetts, used the fellowship to work with local
choreographers to record dance performances in old movie
theaters.
With the success of the program’s inaugural year, fellowship
director Judith Mitoma, also chair of the world arts and cultures
department, considers adding a dance documentation element to the
graduate department.
"I feel the fellowship is now an important contribution to the
field of dance, as well as to our development of advanced study in
dance and film in the department of world arts and cultures,"
Mitoma says. "The professional equipment will be used in future
years by the advanced students, for students seeking advanced
degrees in film and video."
As the fellows work to finish their NIPAD grant proposals, the
fellowship administrators work to extend the fellowship grant past
the year 2000. According to directors, the most far-reaching
effects of the program’s historical preservation have yet to be
seen.
"The future of dance is not going to exist unless we know what
the past is," Parks says.
DANCE: The department of world arts and cultures is currently
accepting graduate applicants for next year’s fellowship, which
will take place from January 11 to March 19 of 1999. The
application deadline is May 15. For more information on the 1999
Fellowship, contact Ming Ng at 206-1867. The "Save As: Dance"
program can also be found on the web, at
http://save-as-dance.org/.