"But now the rains weep o'er his hall,
with no one there to hear." - The Rains of Castamere
It has already been a long journey just to get to this pitch, and I have already learned so much. Starting out I had no idea if I should pick Fields and Frames, or Dance Video - I had ideas for both, and at first I figured I would be able to do everything. I quickly found out that that was not the case.. Since then it's been a rollercoaster, and believe it or not, the pitch is ready, the dancer is found, and the location is almost ready too - can you believe it ? Now, there is still a long way left to go, I've got most of the pre production left, and the project is far from getting signed off and ready to shoot yet, but you know, lets look on the bright side, we're getting there.
My dance video is heavily influenced by Bill Violas video art installation "Tristan's Ascension" as in it will feature falling water and one performer. I will combine this with dance elements from casual street dance and martial arts. This piece will show a narrative that reflects the constant battle between nature and humans, and how in the end we might be better off if we could find a way to work in harmony, and live together, side by side, without obstructing the other.
The set itself is fairly straight forward - just a black room, with a spotlight, and water raining down from above - but its the dance that tells the story between the two characters. In this narrative both the dancer and the water itself will play their respective parts as two opposing forces, who are both trying to achieve an action, but is being obstructed from completing that action by the other part. The water wants to do what water wants to do when it rains, to reach the ground, and the human wants to complete these movements without distraction.
The video will start with the dancer performing their moves undistracted, but slowly the water starts dripping, and increasing in amount. After a while the water is now physically making it difficult for the dancer to perform the moves, and as the water pressure increases (we will achieve this by using a hose, or just increasing the amount of water being poured), the dancer also increases the intensity oh their moves - making them more powerful and aggressive. It will be obvious that the dancer and the water is out of harmony with each other, and that they are in a way egging each other on to become more annoyed, and more tempered. There will be a crescendo in this part of the video where it becomes intense until the point where the dance can't go on, after this the video and the dance will almost come to a full stop, before slowly starting up again as the dancer realised that its possible to dance with the water if they just change their moves slightly. At this point the dance will change from the previous more aggressive and combat inspired dance, and transform into a more flowly, abstract dance that's inspried by the art of Tai Chi. The dance goes on, but this time in harmony with the water, letting it flow with the body, instead of interrupting it. This goes on for a while until we get to the end of the video where the dancer and the water is in complete sync and camera pans out.
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| The North Pole melting |
Now it wouldn't be much of an art uni video if it didn't have a deeper meaning now would it? Well of course it does, and this time I don't feel like it's very subtle. It's about humans and nature having to learn how to work together and live along side each other on this earth, instead of constantly slashing away at each other. Like in the dance, the two parts keep egging each other on - we destroy the atmosphere, the water heats up, and natural disasters come more and more often, and round and round we go. Now, there have been made countless documentaries and films about this subject, and this is my contribution - and my wish - that maybe one day we can learn to work together and take care of each other.
TJ
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