This article is part of my online research for the work-in-progress Dance Prototypes. Here are some of the questions which I am using to frame my research:

Which choreographic strategies are relevant when movement is contained within the video frame?

How do processes which occur in postproduction redefine what is meant by choreography?

How is the relationship between dance and music redefined in a transdisciplinary framework?

Dance Prototypes is an ongoing body of artistic research dealing with questions of movement and music begun as an artist-in-residence at the Forsythe Dance Company in Frankfurt as part of Motion Bank – Choreographic Coding Lab.

During the residency in Frankfurt I made recordings in this unique passage located on the outside of one of the buildings.

One of the key intentions in this work is to explore how the concrete sounds of dance movements can be used to make music.

I covered this L-shaped passage from three angles, creating three distinct zones of action in three camera setups. I named the setups:

1. Corridor (a wideshot with deep focus) lent itself to a series of moves which crescendo as they approach the camera. This setup contains the richest percussive frequency range and broadest dynamics of all the material recorded. The transition from this setup to the next takes the form of a sprint toward the camera with an exit stage left.
2. Parlour (a medium shot with mid-range focus) is primarily concerned with two actions; a) arrival through a pair of hinged, windowed parlour doors to create a series of bangs and groans, and b) the striking of a metal railing and my reception of its vibrations through interpretive movements. This railing is reminiscent of a stationary handrail often used in Ballet exercises, serving as inspiration for the name of the final setup.
3. Barre (a closeup shot with shallow focus) is devoted to the performance of a series of percussive techniques applied to the railing. The tones the railing emits are reminiscent of gong, bells, and chimes, however on a much lower register.

Using Corridor, Parlour and Barre, I constructed a reductive narrative sketch which lends overtones of story and cinema to the otherwise bare visuals of the recording:

Narrative as multidimensional overlay on the frame.

The Cinematic Dimension of Narrative

This narrative may function as a shot list for new material to be recorded in more cinematic locations. With such an approach, this material shot at Z-Centrum would represent a movement study — a dance prototype — a source of sample material used to compose a musical composition while simultaneously describing a choreography.

This composition could then be intercut with the newly shot cinematic material. There would be opportunities for matches on action and graphics which would reveal a self-reflexivity in the piece. Both draft and polish at once. Alternately, the new material could be edited into its own piece which stands as a more polished version of the original composition.

My original improvised movements may serve as an impulse which reverberates in cinematographic echoes.

The Musical Dimension of Narrative

The narrative can also simply serve as an indication of genre which can be used to create associative links to later musical choices. This approach is similar to the function that naming had in the work Faces of N. whereby names given to outfits of clothing carried double meanings as inspirations for genre influences.

In the case of N. wears Golden Lady, those genres were Juke and Samba.

With the chase there is urgency, danger, speed, crescendo, precipitando, saltando; the arrival and reception carry fanfare, resonance, ritenuto, energico; the recital is contemplative, percussive, scherzando, sostenuto.

The role of narrative in my musical approach may not implicate actual ballerinas on screen; the dancers may simply hover invisibly at the margins of the piece in the realm of metaphor.

The multiple dimensions of narrative are only one set of possible views on the raw material.

The narrative can be applied on both a frame level and an object level. In a future article I will expand more on the non-narrative object-oriented approaches possible with the raw video material.