Suggested books for the dance on camera aficionado

2008 Annual Review
Glorious photos and descriptions of DFA's 36th Dance on Camera Festival's winning films plus provocative essays including: DORKY DANCE, YOUTUBE, AND THE NEW VAUDEVILLE by Latika Young; GLOSS, GRIT, DANCE/STORY, Lloyd Newson's THE COST OF LIVING by M. Candace Feck; EVOLUTIONARY DREAMS by Marcia B. Siegel; SCREEN DESIGN by Betty Jenkins; TIMELINE by Virginia Brooks; ELECTRIC SALOME and TRACES OF LIGHT, Book Reviews by Jody Sperling. Free to DFA Members. Discounted if purchased at a Festival 2008 venue. 80 pages, 4 color. Published by DFA. Order now

Anarchic Dance
by Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie
Comprising a book and DVD-Rom, this package is a visual and textual record of the work of Divas Dance Theatre. The DVD-Rom features extracts from Aggiss and Cowie's work, including the highly-acclaimed dance film Motion Control (first premiered on BBC2 in 2002), rare video footage of their punk-comic live performances as The Wild Wigglers and reconstructions of Aggiss' solo performance in Grotesque Dancer. These films are cross-referenced in the book, allowing readers to match performance and commentary as Aggiss and Cowie invite a broad range of writers to examine their live performance and dance screen practice through analysis, theory, discussion and personal response. Published by Routledge, 08/02/2006.

Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye
by Rudolf Arnheim
Originally published in 1954, the 1974 edition inccludes chapters on balance, shape, form, growth, space, light, color, movement, dynamics and expression. 508 pages with extensive notes, illustrations, photoss, and bibliography. ISBN: 0-520-02613-6 Published by University of California Press

Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
by Michael Ondaatje
The author of "The English Patient," became so intrigued by the editing of his subsequent film that he pressed the famous editor Walter Murch to explain his process. Marvelous secrets divulged. Published 2002. Barnes & Noble

Dance on Screen: Genres and Media from Hollywood to Experimental Art
by Sherril Dodds. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

Dance and Technology/ Tanz und Technologie
(in German and English) Moving towards Media Productions - Auf dem Weg zu medialen Inszenierungen Edited by Söke Dinkla, Martina Leeker Including DVD 440 pages, ISBN: 3-89581-079-7. To order, visit the following website: www.buch.de

Digital Performance
Edited by Emanuele Quinz.Published by Anomos An independent research group based in Paris that disseminates information about new developments in contemporary arts. 408 pages.

Dying Swans and Madmen: Ballet, the Body, and Narrative Cinema
by Adrienne L. McLean. Published by Rutgers University Press. 2008.
From mid-twentieth-century films such as Grand Hotel, Waterloo Bridge, and The Red Shoes to recent box-office hits including Billy Elliot, Save the Last Dance, and The Company, ballet has found its way, time and again, onto the silver screen and into the hearts of many otherwise unlikely audiences. In Dying Swans and Madmen, Adrienne L. McLean explores the curious pairing of classical and contemporary, art and entertainment, high culture and popular culture to reveal the ambivalent place that this art form occupies in American life. Rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/Dying_Swans_and_Madmen.html

Envisioning Dance on Film and Video
edited by Eilzabeth Zimmer, Judy Mitoma, and Dale Ann Stieber
This book chronicles the 100-year history of dance for the camera and gives readers new insight on how dance creatively exploits the art and craft of film and video. In 53 essays, choreographers, filmmakers, critics and collaborating artists explore all aspects of the process of rendering a three-dimensional art form in two-dimensional electronic media. Many of these essays are illustrated by 93 photographs and a 2-hour DVD (40 video excerpts). Published by Routledge, 2002
ISBN: 0-415-94170-9

Explorations in Art and Technology
by Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds.
This book explores the fascinating relationship between artist and technologist through studies of innovative projects that push the boundaries of digital art. The research sheds new light on the nature of interaction between people and computers and provides insight into the characteristics of environments in which creativity can be enhanced. In doing so, it presents a case for organisations to develop strategies for offering environments in which collaborative, sustainable partnerships can thrive. What emerges is a story of new visions and new forms in a field that is set to transform traditional norms in both art and technology as we move through the 21st Century. Published in 2002 by Springer-Verlag, London. ISBN: 1-85233-5459. Amazon.

Film Choreographers and Dance Directors: An Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia, with a History and Filmographies, 1893 through 1995
by Larry Billman
Published by McFarland. 1997 ISBN 0-89950-868-5 181 photographs, appendices, bibliography, 664pp.A comprehensive reference work to 970 choreographers who worked in nearly 3,500 films. For each, there is a biography, a description of their choreographic style and a listing of their stage, television, music video, nightclub, concert and film credits. The author Larry Billman is the Director of Entertainment for Tokyo DisneySea.

Filmdance - From 1890-1983
4 essays, 19 artist statements, plus all the films shown at the 1983 Filmdance Festival; $20. Make checks to Kinetic Awareness Center. Mail to: Elaine Summers, 537 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Making Video Dance
by Katrina McPherson
A ’how-to’ manual for choreographers, dancers and students who want to make dance films by a Scotland based artist. The guide combines practical help with aesthetic discussion in an anecdotal and accessible style. This manual includes exercises to be used inside, or outside the classroom, a production diary, interviews with leading practitioners on both sides of the camera, and a glossary of terms. Published by Routledge, Available through Amazon.

Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde
edited by Bill Nichols
Regarded as one of the founders of the postwar American independent cinema, the legendary Maya Deren was a poet, photographer, ethnographer, filmmaker and impresario. Her efforts to promote an independent cinema have inspired filmmakers for over fifty years. Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) ranks among the most widely viewed of all avant-garde films. The eleven essays gathered here examine Maya Deren's writings, films, and legacy from a variety of intriguing perspectives. Some address her relative neglect during the rise of feminist film theory; all argue for her enduring significance. The essays cast light on her aesthetics and ethics, her exploration of film form and of other cultures, her role as (woman) artist and as film theorist. Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde also includes one of the most significant reflections on the nature of art and the responsibilities of the filmmaker ever written--Deren's influential but long out-of-print book, An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film, in its entirety. Published by U.C. Berkeley Press, 2001 ISBN: 0-520-22732-8 Amazon.

River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West
by Rebecca Solnit
A great read! Fascinating anecdotes. Sure to inspire you. Penguin Books, 2004.

The Visual Story: Seeing the Structure of Film, TV and New Media
by Bruce Block. Explores the "science" of visual presentation, from perspective to tone color and rhythm. Amazon

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