Four Choreographic Experiments, Seoul Dance Center, 2021
4 choreographic experiments involving a Bolex Camera, Go-pro camera, an iPad, and an iPhone. Two dancers, a sound technician, and a photographer participate in ‘games’ or ‘scores’ that involved use of cameras as silent spectators/voyeurs or as dancers-actors during the pandemic.
Through games and antics, I question the role of performance spectatorship in response to Yvonne Rainer’s “No Manifesto,” from 1965 and Mette Ingvartsen’s “Yes Manifesto,” from 2005.
The First Experiment
The choreographer, Yun Lee, designs a game where performers will ultimately fail.
Performers are asked to through a ball of clay and hit the bullseye (the lens of the camera) from a distance. Rhythms of failures emmerge in film in “Failing” (2022), shot in 16mm, hand-processed and edited by the choreographer.
1. Measuring
II. Installing
III. Throwing
Digital and Film Photography by Haeun Roh
The Second Experiment
One dancer holds the Bolex Camera while two dancers roll the dancer holding the camera. The spine of the camera holder is rounded. Their task is to protect the camera while being rolled.
In the ‘splicing’ of the film, which involved manually cutting the film into pieces and taping them together with Scotch tape I decided to select the footage that contained negative space and discard footage with body parts flying by. How might the negative space dance in the unit of of 24 frames per second?