screendance
(these are unfinished notes)
screendance
screendance is the term used to describe dance works made for, or presented on a screen (cinema, television/monitor, projection). competing terminology includes dance for camera, dance film, videodance and cinedance. with the exception of dance for camera these alternate terms describe subsets of screendance.
videodance is an unsuitable term because there is a large body of film based works in the artform. cinedance is problematic due to the non-film and installation / multi channel works in existence. thus screen dance is the most appropriate contextualisation and description.
screendance brings a dance aesthetic and compositional approach to the principles and practices of screen based artforms. as such, the theory of dance for camera is an extension of film/video theory.
identification
it is important to make a distinction between attribution and intention:
- attribution - works that we can consider to be screendance
- intention - works made with the intention of (re)presenting dance
just because a work exploits movement does not make it screen dance per se. for example, martial arts movies may share characteristics with screendance, but it would be erroneous to think of them as screen dance. yet whilst they may not be the same, it is clear that each praxis can help inform/extend the other.
video games are not screendance, due to their lack of dance intentionality. machinima in which dance is foremost could be considered screen dance, but is usually considered to be an example of dance and performance technologies.
videodance
video dance is a subset of screendance in which video technology (analogue or digital) is used throughout the production process. the choice of video allows the artists greater freedom and control in the creative process. rather than employing a cinematographer, editor (etc.) the artist will take on all these roles themselves.
the development of videodance has been heavily influenced by video art. videodance shares many video art presentation formats such as single-channel, multi-channel and installation based works. what videodance adds to the video art lineage is a dance aesthetic to the (re)presentation of movement.
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