DO-SEE-DO: STEPS TO THE CAMERADANCE
DO-SEE-DO: STEPS TO THE CAMERADANCE
The following Videologues are examples of an approach to the video medium based on the assumption that the experience of moving informs the way we see movement and conversely that learning to see movement in a new way influences our dancing. I have observed that each person has a unique way of seeing. Video (shooting & playback) is a tool that we can use to examine how we see movement and enables us to share our vision with others.
While watching a pair of dancers doing Contact Improvisation and referring to the monitored (tv) image of a live camera view of the event. I questioned the cameraperson about what s/he was seeing. Our dialogue was recorded as the soundtrack to the dancing. Videologues are annotated transcripts of these soundtracks. The two transcripts below were taken from tapes made during a Contact Improvisation Jam at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. in April of 1977. Both of these camerapersons were relative novices with the videocamera.
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EPILOGUE
The cameradance is just another dance. Locating your point of view is a warm-up for learning. When you place a camera to your eye you are faced with a new coordination between eye/mind/hands/body. All of a sudden you are a beginner about seeing. You begin to modulate your vision to suit the peculiarities of the video medium. At the same time, you look for ways to manipulate the camera to produce images that are a clear translation of your peculiar way of seeing. Thus evolves your technique for shooting.
LISA NELSON is a dancer. She has been making videotapes dance and teaching others to for the last few years. She is avidly interested in what others have to say on the subject of seeing movement, be it through the camera, or what have you. This is the first in a series of articles about videodance. The next one will concern itself with how to watch videodance on playback.