The 30-member punk marching band Mucca Pazza, which is part of the Marching Banned film.

EMPAC Unveils Latest Dance Movies Commissions

With the widest definition yet of what dance on screen can be, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) has announced the four recipients of this year’s DANCE MOViES Commission. Chosen out of 71 proposals by a panel of artists, curators, and producers, the projects range widely in format, style, and intent, from a contemplative video installation, to massively processed images shot in a complex set, to riotous urban intervention.

The newly commissioned projects will be created over the course of one year by the four collaborative teams who are based in the U.S. and Chile, and will premiere in the fall of 2011 at EMPAC.

The DANCE MOViES Commission is a program launched by EMPAC to support the creation of new works in which dance meets the technologies of the moving image. Since 2008, 17 new works have been commissioned, many winning awards and touring extensively. The five projects currently in post-production will premiere during Filament, a festival of new work across genres at EMPAC October 1-3.

The EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission 2010-2011 recipients (in alphabetical order of titles) are:

A Circus of One — U.S., 15-minute looping video installation. Director/visual artist/performer: Alison Crocetta. Music/sound: Jason Treuting.

A video installation by a visual artist who uses the 16mm camera as a witness to performative actions while referencing the history of cinema. She constructs an evocative habitat for the solo character of a clown, successfully crossing the disciplines of sculpture, performance, and film.

Fauna — Chile, 20 minutes. Director/visual artist: Paulo Fernández. Choreographer/ dancer: Rodrigo Chaverini. Visual artist: Antonio Becerro. Music/sound: Tomas González.

The relationship between artifice and nature becomes the central focus for a video by an artist team from Chile. Using an elaborate layering of design, costume, movement, environment, and set, they create a fantastical world that provokes a sense of anxiety and fascination.

Marching Banned — U.S., 10 minutes. Director: Danièle Wilmouth. Choreographer: Asimina Chremos. Sound designer/band leader: Mark Messing. Band: Mucca Pazza.

A film following the mayhem created by a 30-member punk marching band as it navigates through the quotidian happenings in the city of Chicago. The collaborators subvert the forms of the traditional marching band, designing intricate choreography for the camera and people, maintaining the spontaneity of “actions for joy.”

Spring Cleaning — U.S., 10 minutes. Director/visual artist/performer: Pooh Kaye. Music/sound: John Kilgore.

A spirited animation from the pioneer of stop-motion in dance film, “aged but still agile”; a solo celebrating the explosion of spring in the countryside.

The commission is supported by EMPAC’s Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts. It is open to artists based in North and South America who are making video, film, and installation work.

For the full press release and information on past recipients of the DANCE MOViES Commission, go to http://empac.rpi.edu/commissions/DMC/.