New York Dance: States of Performance

2010 / 97 min. / color
Directed by Michael Blackwood

With the participation of Beth Gill, John Jasperse, Ralph Lemon, Sarah Michelson, Jennifer Monson, Christopher Wheeldon, Ann Liv Young. Curated by Gia Kourlas. Narrated by the choreographers.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the canvas of dance and choreography has shifted to encompass a multitude of meanings, but it always starts with one brave artistic voice and a calling – to bring a world, born from nothing, to the stage. Apart from the work itself, it is the fragile, ephemeral quality of dance that creates a bond of intimacy between a performer and the viewer. In this age of YouTube, the very act of presenting live bodies in a performance setting is a radical act. While such a path is far from easy, the seven choreographers seen in this film work tirelessly to both question and embrace their chosen form, producing work that celebrates the strange, startling and poetic beauty of dance and performance.

“NEW YORK DANCE: States of Performance” is the third survey of advanced choreography following “MAKING DANCES: 7 Postmodern Choreographers” (1979 – curated by Marcia B. Siegel) and “RETRACING STEPS: American Dance since Postmodernism” (1988 – curated by Sally Banes).