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DANCE SCREEN SWEDEN – THE NEW MIX
Dance Screen Sweden’s TheNew Mix is an eclectic short film series, spanning the last thirteen years. While Pontus Lidberg’s The Rain has been screened and praised repeatedly around the world, and Klara Elenius’s Insight was shown last fall by DFA at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, many of the others will have their U.S. premieres at The Scandinavia House on June 1st.
THE HIDDEN
Made in 1996, this three-minute film ventures into the subconscious, featuring white-robed maidens, in a dark, conceptual piece that may keep you awake at night. The film is hard-edged and industrial in texture, no doubt the intention of director Jonas Akerlund, whose work includes music videos by artists such as Madonna, Metallica and U2. Set to chilling and eerie sound effects, the film straddles the line between music video and horror short. The maidens, despite their uncomfortable setting, possess a terrible beauty that is both thrilling and frightening, conjuring up images of fearsome and destructive goddesses.REWIND
2004 Guldbagge-award nominated REWIND (made as part of Magne Antonsen's MOVING NORTH series), is an intriguing short narrated in English, describing a tangled social web which develops among eight people who live in the same house and like to dance. The film is stylistically minimalist, with a no-frills set that draws focus to the narrative and the individual dance style of each character – characters that are, unlike their bright and simple surroundings, complicated and imperfect. The movement appears jagged and cut-off from emotion at times, like so much of our day-to-day communication. “They don’t look happy, do they?” questions the narrator, almost half way through the film, an existentialist critique on the complexities of human social interaction.WEIGHTLESS
This subtle, intelligent film made in 2004 makes a powerful statement on the relationship between our bodies and our modern physical environments. Feminine in tone, with an all-female cast, and a sultry female vocal score, it is a visual fusion of the organic (flesh and body) and the inorganic (furniture, fixtures and bedding). A play on the senses, the set is cleverly designed so that what appears to be vertical is actually horizontal. The viewer is baffled by the performers’ seemingly effortless defiance of gravity.Filmed within the confines of four walls that alternately serve as living room and bedroom, everyday items like lamps, blankets and chairs are turned into a magician’s arsenal of props that, combined with skillful editing and brilliant movement, create a masterful illusion. What makes this illusion so compelling is that it is not an illusion at all but only a tilted camera, a carefully lit and designed set, along with divinely inspired movement – nothing short of real magic – that makes this film so special. Dancers Malin Stattin and Tula Lundkvist move with the skill of athletes and the buoyancy of astronauts. A tour de force for the talented Erika Janunger, who plays multiple roles as director, art director, songwriter and lyricist.
2SOON
Graphic art meets dance in the 2005 short 2SOON. The piece gets off to a choppy start, with a somewhat abrasive, static-filled audio track and what seems to resemble 50’s retro special effects. Once past this two-minute introduction, the film ramps up with some vivid animation and colorful graphics. The choreography is avant-garde and the music makes a slow transition from musique concrète to acid techno – a perfect compliment to the quirky, off-beat styles of black-laced dancers Cilla Olsen and Kristine Slettevold, who move with an erratic quality reflective of their technology-inspired surroundings.PARADISE?
PARADISE? (2004) is a meditative piece, reflecting on the precarious state of mankind in nature, which is perhaps, a paradise. Assuming a low-tech style, the director turned the camera upside down, speeds up or reverses the film, and casts images on water. A sense of a technology void is reinforced with a soundtrack equally organic, as mellow synthesizers are paired with the sounds of frogs and cicadas. Simple and soulful, the film ends with a long gaze at the reflection of a man standing naked in water, beautiful and exulted, but vulnerable in his wild surroundings.INSIGHT
The 2007 film INSIGHT presents a minimalist view of life in suburbia, through the complicated interactions of three characters who walk (and dance) a fine line between rebellion and conformity. Movements mimic mundane, everyday tasks like washing the dishes and driving the car. The dancers, placed against backgrounds like neatly mowed lawns and shrub-lined driveways, become part of their suburban landscape. The music is pitch perfect, accenting nearly every move of the dancers. The set is consciously artificial, the clothing conservative, and the actors undoubtedly frustrated by their circumstances. The story shifts into a higher gear toward the middle of the piece, stating, “In time we became like strangers. Suddenly, the excitement returned.” The excitement, in this case, is a nervous breakdown on the part of the character that seemed to be the most subdued of the three. The film reveals the pent-up passions and emotions of humans who find themselves caged, like animals, in their tidy psychological prisons.TILA
Filmed in a darkened, bunker-like setting, TILA (2007) is a four-minute biographical snapshot of an exceptional character. A spotlight shines on the dancer from behind, without any other lighting or props of any kind. The focus lays exclusively on Tila’s innovative and extraordinary dance. As time passes, a feeling of sensory deprivation gives way to a heightened sensitivity, and we can enjoy the subtleties of the performance. Beads of sweat glow on her skin and her movements begin to resemble archetypical ideas and actions. Gentle piano music plays in the background and a soft light illuminates her movements. By the end of the film, the moment when Tila turns to stare toward the camera, is climax enough for the humbled viewer.THE RAIN
THE RAIN is a sensual and rather erotic piece about love and loss made in 2006. The genius of this film is obvious from the start: the entire film takes place under a constant torrent of rain, not the kind that we see whipping around in a storm, but rather an even, steady rain, soaking every corner of the screen, every fiber of clothing, crevice of the dancers to reveal the bare-boned beauty of the dance form.Cascading water turns ordinary objects into sensual focal points: a leathery chair as streams of water roll down its rubbery exterior; drips of water falling off of a Roman nose in profile; a string of white pearls that lay on a woman’s wet, glistening skin. Indoor scenes take on a theatrical quality, and scenes in natural, outdoor settings expand to become larger than life. Set on the grass, under trees, and in the streets, these locations free the dancers to run and dance like the wind. In these moments, the film really shines.
Once the novelty of the rain wears off, which takes sometime, movement is all that is left. With that, a passionate story of love, rejection, and resurrection unfolds: man and woman in an unhappy pairing, man and man who make a passionate connection, and finally, man and woman who make magic.
Ballet traditionalists will appreciate this movie, as many of the performers who foray into the experimental and modern dance arenas, return faithfully to the form during, or by the end of each tableau. This is especially notable in the strong performances given by Yvan Auzely and Hedda Staver Cooke, who takes a slew of creative risks that add surprise and depth to the film. Choreographer-director Pontus Lindberg and Giovanni Bucchieri experiment in a gutsy and erotic duet that incorporates impressive gymnastic skill.
Culminating with a climactic dance symphony, each dancer provides their own rendition of Lindberg’s tactile and sensuous choreography. With theatrical flare and a flawless attention to form, the dancers are at once lovers, ballet masters, and experimentalists. Stripped down to its essence, we see that despite the film’s fantastic novelty, it is a powerhouse dance feat.
Showings of this program in the US are made possible in part with the support of DFA, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the members of DFA, and the Susan Braun Trust.