Fleeting Images: Choreography on Film

Fleeting Images: Choreography on Film is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies class taught by Constance Valis Hill.

Course Description
From silent slapstick comedies, animated cartoons, water ballets and grandiose musicals to martial arts action films and music videos, the dancing body has riveted the camera's eye since the creation of moving pictures at the turn of the twentieth century. This course examines the centrality of dance in the motion picture; and at the same time, shows how the medium of film has transformed the physics of dance (time, space, energy) into fantastical visual dimensions. We will focus on works that have most successfully produced a true synthesis of the two mediums, negotiating between the spatial freedom of film and the time-space-energy fields of dance; the cinematic techniques of camera-cutting-collage and the vibrant continuity of the moving body. As we analyze the kinetic images that are choreographies of body and camera (discerning how each move is rhythmically paced, shot, edited, and scored; and the roles of the choreographer, director, editor in shaping and controlling the moving image), we hope to enlarge the concept of dancing in film genres and gain an understanding of how dance functions to maintain and assert cultural and social identifies. Putting into theory to practice, we will form small group collaborations to create an original study in choreography for the camera. Students will be expected to engage in all aspects of production, from concept, storyboard, choreography and performance to direction, lighting, sound, and editing. This course satisfies Division I distribution requirements.

Learning Goals

 * Expressive
 * Project-based
 * Reading
 * Writing