ACDF Videos at Muhlenberg College

[Deirdre Towers]

The editor Daniel Kontz for THE CAMERA BETRAYS YOU submitted by Liz Staruch and Mark O'Maley from West Chester University is a young talent to follow. Daniel transformed the team's flip-book idea into a dynamic, graphically pleasing jaunt, taut with tension. Shot on the High Line in NYC, THE CAMERA BETRAYS YOU makes you grin and wonder, as it draws you into its go-go/freeze rhythm. The video was created with 10,000 photographs of action and celebrated by the High Line on their website. See http://www.thehighline.org/blog/2011/02/07/video-the-camera-betrays...

 

The video was one of nine from six colleges submitted to American College Dance Festival's 2011 Northeast Regional Conference at Muhlenberg College. Joshua Phillip Gleason's black and white cinematography and editing for SPOTLIGHT submitted by Maria Claudia Jaen from Towson University is also astounding.

 

As is sadly so often the case, the choreography was the least notable aspect of these videos with the exception of BENCHMARK, an improvisation by Katie Fierro and Jeremy Arnold from Muhlenberg College. Katie and Jeremy slump, slide, and confront each other with an organic grace and wit making the viewer feel like a wistful voyeur. They had their moment, a sweet if fleetingly honest one, and we were the witness. If only the camera left its frontal position in the end to zoom into the bench, still warm from the heat of their encounter.

 

Hats off to Corrie Cowart, dance professor at Muhlenberg for giving dance on camera a strong presence in this year's conference. She featured an installation of Tiny Dance Series, which DFA had celebrated in its 2010 Festival at the Walter Reade Theatre, a video of Allen Fogelsanger's movement interactive installation CANVAS & TRIGGERS_ SUITE mounted at the Varmlands Museum in Karlstad, Sweden, a lecture and workshop by myself,  a marketing workshop and 48 Hour Challenge judged by Anna Brady Nuse.