Cinemateket, Filmens Hus
29. Septembre - 6. Octobre
For the ninth successive year we have the pleasure of presenting a programme of films in which choreography, dance and music are the main ingredients. This years programme is produced by Ultima, Centre for the Art of Dance, Cinemateket and Dansens Hus.
The programme opens with Rhythm is It! based on Stranvinsky’s ground-breaking work The Rite of Spring from Diaghilev’s ballet in 1913. Today, 92 years after, the renowned Berliner Philharmoniker conductor Sir Simon Rattle and choreographer Royston Maldoon have initiated a fantastic project – 250 young people from Berlin put together their own version of The Rite of Spring.
This year it is 60 years since D-Day and the end of the second world war. The film Tanz Unterm Hakenkreuz (Dance under the Swastika) is the first to examine the art and the fate of German dancers who were active (or who were prevented from being so) under the Third Reich.
So-called Tanztheater (dance theatre) is a term for the form of dance developed from free dance. After the war this dance form was resurrected and is very much associated with the choreographer Pina Bausch. Since 1973 she has directed the Tanztheater Wuppertal and made her international breakthrough with her version of The Rite of Spring in 1975. This year she celebrates her 65th birthday, an occasion we will mark with a special programme in collaboration with WDR.
The Japanese dance form Butoh is also a result of the second world war, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; it also has influences from German expressionism. The founders of this dance form were Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) and the now 99 year old Kazuo Ohno. They wished to avoid western dance techniques and their distance to traditional Japanese dance. Today Butoh has many different traditions and styles. We will show two films about Kazuo Ohno, including a very recent portrait film seen through the eyes of cult film director Peter Sempel.
A much younger dance artist is Saburo Teshigawara who began his career in the early 1980s, quickly establishing himself with a worldwide reputation. He has a background in art and classical ballet, and he formed the company KARAS in 1985.
Japan was actually among the first countries to acknowledge Norway as an independent state after the dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905. Guldbaggar & Norrbaggar is our contribution to the anniversary, a selection of some of the best recent Swedish and Norwegian productions.
One of the most important arenas for dance and culture programmes in general is the TV screen. We have therefore invited NRK’s Arild Erikstad and SVT’s Gunilla Jensen Peyron to give us a visual and informative insight into the respective broadcasting companies’ own productions, what it would take to produce more, and what the future might bring. In addition Heidi Pruuli, Head of Dance & Music Department at Estonian Television (ETV), introduces the World Premiere of the dance film Another by René Vilbre and Helena Jónsdóttir, in collaboration with Ruslan Stepanov, Mait Malmsten and Teet Kask.
To complete the TV evening on the big screen, UK is represented with Dance film Academy a joint collaboration between the BBC, Arts Council England and the Scottish Arts Council which have brought together five artistic teams to immerse themselves in dance film making for two weeks. Each group created a pilot dance film to pitch to a panel of experts and just one was chosen to be made for broadcast. The Artistic Director of the project is the accomplished composer and dance filmmaker Thierry De Mey
De Mey has also directed the film CounterPhrases, his most recent collaboration with Rosas/Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker who visits Ultima with her performance Once. The film consists of ten different segments fanning out in a colourful presentation of ten contemporary composers. Another well established Belgian company, active on both screen and stage, is Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus. This year we show their film Blush which energetically explores physical instinct and the subconscious in mythical surroundings.
In Drømmenes Dans (Dances of the Dreams) we offer the first showing in Norway of the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalís collaboration with Walt Disney, started in 1946 but completed only two years ago, receiving an Oscar nomination last year. The Quay Brothers are inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman’s burlesque stories, from Russia we have Irina Evteeva’s Clown, while Japanese-French filmmaker Elain Escalle takes Japan and the atom bomb as a point of departure, incorporating both classical kabuki and modern butoh in a personal vision of the past and the future. Don’t miss it!
This year’s programme is unique in Norway and is the result of a collaboration between several organizations; it is a particular pleasure to welcome Dansens Hus as a new partner. Dance for Camera is now a member of the international Media & Dance (MAD) Network, currently comprising 38 festivals from 24 nations.
Finally we would like to thank ALL our contributors for their support, and especially Norsk Filminstitutt, Goethe-Institut Oslo, WDR, KARAS, KINODANCE/Alla Kovgan, Disney Enterprises and Arts Council England, for kindly making this year’s programme possible.
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!
Magne Antonsen
Artistic Director
DER FENSTERPUTSER
TÖRNROSA (Dans for TV)
