Theresa Smith
Following positive feedback over the past two years, the Baxter is separating its Dance Festival from the Dance Film Festival.
Baxter associate producer and planning manager Nicolette Moses said dance films could be docu-mentaries or features, about the artists or artform, dance purpose-fully choreographed and staged to be filmed, or dance simply caught on camera.
“The possibilities are endless. The beauty is that it is so portable. It makes a whole lot of work more accessible,” she explained.
The film line-up at this year’s Dance Film Festival starts tomorrow with Point Taken 2(an interdisciplinary dance film project which showcases four short eight-minute dance films) which premiered at Cinedans in the Netherlands last year.
The Baxter Dance Festival is supported by both Dutch Dance on Screen Festival Cinedans and Gipca.
Thursday night’s film is Sacred Monsters, which features Anglo-Indian dancer and choreographer Akram Khan (most recently lauded for his choreography for the London Olympics opening ceremony) and Sylvie Guillem, filmed live at Sadler’s Wells.
This is the second of a trilogy of pas de deux created by Akram where both dancers recount their experiences of the classical world in a solo of their own before performing a duet.
Moses is especially excited about this particular film, having seen the two dancers in separate produc-tions elsewhere.
“Just the thought of the two of them performing together… We could never afford to bring them out here,” she said.
Friday night’s film is Of Heart and Courage, directed by Arantxa Aguirre and produced by JL Lopez Linares. It follows the world-famous Béjart Ballet Lausanne as they try to survive the death of founder and principal choreographer, Maurice Béjart (creator of seminal works such as Rite of Spring and Firebird).
Saturday’s early performance is Wayne McGregor: Across the Threshold, directed by Nigel Wattis.
This documentary profiles McGregor and includes discussions about how Covent Garden is embracing new directions in art and the relationship between traditional ballet and contemporary dance.
The evening film on Saturday features a programme of short films produced during the Gipca Film and Dance Symposium held in July this year, presented by Jeannet Ginslov.
Under the creative leadership of SA-born Danish dance-and-film-maker Ginslov, dancers produced short films. The programme is rounded out with a screening of some of her own films.
Ginslov will present the material and be on hand for a question and answer session after the screenings.
l The Baxter Dance Film Festival screens at the Golden Arrow Studio from August 8 to 11 at 7.30pm with an early showing on Saturday at 5pm.