Dance Fans Love Youtube

Addicted to YouTube dance clips

I'm happy to learn that I'm not the only person who is obsessively watching dance videos on Youtube. Caroline Miller, director of Dance UK wrote a piece today in the Guardian about her secret addiction to watching dance videos on Youtube. Well, I'm sure Caroline knows a lot more about what she is looking at than I do, and she embedded a few great dance videos into her story.

"I'm a dance fan and I've got a guilty secret. YouTube. It's literally changed my life and my sleeping habits.

I've spent 36 years watching live dance performances but I could never fill the gaps of the shows and dancers that I was too young to have seen or which happened abroad, or I just plain missed. Each time a dance critic would compare a contemporary artist to one from history I would wince with jealousy that I could not make a similar judgment myself.

One quick peruse for dance on YouTube though, over a year ago, brought up such a treasure trove that a 10-minute peek online turned into eight hours of obsessive viewing, taking me through to the first light of dawn ... and I've never looked back.

YouTube is an unbelievable resource if you enjoy dance as an artform. It's a library, an encyclopaedia, an international dance tour guide, the talent spotter's delight and an information forum."

(LINK to Guardian story)

Here's one of Caroline's picks. It's totally gorgeous!
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Amelia Lalala Human Steps
Thanks mdugnani

Stephan Koplowitz

Catching the 5:23
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Wow, I love this video by Stephan Koplowitz. Produced in 2002, "Catching the 5:23" was shot on location in New York's Grand Central Station and depicts a business man catching a train who is oblivious to all the unusual activity going on around him. The seven minute video stars Jay Longan as the businessman and features an original score by Quentin Chiappetta. The dancing is excellent and location, of course is stunning. I think it was quite an accomplishment to "choreograph" this amazing piece!

The man in the gray flannel suit takes the same train home every night from his job in the big city. As he passes through the wondrous halls of New York's Grand Central Terminal he seems to be missing the magic around him.

Written and Directed by Stephan Koplowitz
Starring Jay Longan with an original score by Quentin Chiappetta

Thanks lanycart

Stephan Koplowitz and his TASKFORCE company is currently performing a site-specific piece at various watery locations around Los Angeles, entitled "Liquid Landscapes" The dancers will be performing in fountains, rivers, the ocean, and other waterways in 10 events over the next week. Here's a good story about it in the LA Times.

Here's a little video promo for the work.

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Thanks lanycart

Progressive Coma

Backwards Dancing

This is a really cool dance video choreographed by Johannes Wieland that is playing in reverse. It's a great idea that creates a completely unique performance that is totally different from the way the dance would appear on stage. The music is also playing backwards, and the overall effect is mesmerizing!

"There are agile, handsome dancers; a clever use of video; and lots of sexy and provocative and mysterious incidents"
John Rockwell, The New York Times

johannes wieland choreography
2006, 80 minutes; 6 dancers
music: Bert Kaempfert, Vladislav Delay, George Gershwin (amongst others)

direction/text/choreography: Johannes Wieland
dancers: Eric Jackson Bradley, Brea Cali, Jon Guymon, Kristin Osler, Lillian Stillwell, Isadora Wolfe
set: Frederica Nascimento
lighting: James Clotfelter
costumes: Carol Bailey
video: Monica Gillette
music: Bert Kaempfert, Vladislav Delay, George Gershwin (amongst others)
sound design: Jon Guymon

progressive coma
Uploaded by johanneswieland

Wayne McGregor

Choreography about AI, Tech, Neuroscience, and Cyber Culture dances forward, into the Apocalypse.

Wayne McGregor does not like to be bored, and continually sets new challenges for himself and his dancers. He is also fascinated with neuroscience, so in his new work entitled, "Entity" he explores the question of "What is the relationship between the brain and the body". Original music Joby Talbot, Jon Hopkins.

Wayne McGregor founded the Random Dance Company in 1992, at the age of 22, achieving international renown thanks to the exploration of the relationship between dance and technology, and collaborating with multidisciplinary artists in creations that have consecrated his company as one of the leading groups on the British scene. Winner of the “Time Out Live Award” in 2001 and again in 2003, and courted by the mainstream of international dance, Wayne McGregor has received commissions from the Royal Ballet and the Rambert Dance Company, but has also been responsible for the choreographic movements in the fourth episode of the Harry Potter film saga, The Goblet of Fire, created the choreography for the musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber, Woman in White, site-specific installations for the Hayward Gallery, Canary Wharf, Centre Pompidou, and was director and choreographer for Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell at the Teatro alla Scala. The thirty-seven year old McGregor was recently nominated resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet, the first in 16 years and the only one from the world of contemporary dance.

From Danza Ballet (LINK)

This is a really great documentary short about the making of Wayne McGregor's latest work, "Entity", commissioned by Het Muziektheater (Amsterdam), Sadler’s Wells (London), Biennale de la Danse (Lyon), DanceEast (Ipswich), Swindon Dance / Bath University ICIA / Wyvern (HST) (Swindon/Bath) - in collaboration with Fondazione Teatro La Fenice di Venezia.

Wayne McGregor and Random Dance Company
"The Making of Entity"
Thanks sadlerswells
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Make sure to visit Sadler’s Wells on Youtube. The London dance house offers a wide variety of very well produced dance videos about upcoming and past shows at the theatre.


Chroma - Royal Opera House
Chroma
Music by Joby Talbot and The White Stripes
Choreography by Wayne McGregor
A Royal Opera House production
Thanks RoyalOperaHouse
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The Royal Opera House is the home of The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera, ROH2 and The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Nina Winthrop

Modern Dance, NYC

Constraints III
Thanks nwandd
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Constraints II
Thanks nwandd
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