The 1st issue of the newly found Tanzfilmfestival took place from Thursday 22nd to Sunday 25th in Luzern. I’ve been there every evening and on Sunday morning! It all dealt withe dance films. I’m looking forward to next year’s issue!
On Friday, Thomas Steyaert and Raul Maia were invited as special guests. They screened BLUSH (here’s a critic), in which they performed as dancers. In addition they showed two films of their Sam Hogue and Augustus Benjamin series (I just LOVE the intro going: “Yet another beautiful ballet by…” ).
I especially enjoyed watching WALK. It awakened a feeling of pure, naive pleasure in me! At some scenes I couldn’t help myself but smile from ear to ear, trying to hold back small noises of enjoyment, and I felt my eyes sparkling, watching closely at the odd but poetic happenings on the screen! One thought was: “The SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN of modern dance!” … maybe even better than that…
After all the compliments one critic (after all I want this to be an honest, critical blog): There were some scenes, mainly towards the end of the film, which I wasn’t sure if they didn’t affect the otherwise so brilliant film negatively. It builds up the kinetic dramaturgy wonderfully in the beginning, one step leading to an other (literally), taking us on a walk on the muddy paths of dance (quite lirerally). But towards the end some scenes led to a lengthy stagnation. For one they start adding voices. Not bad per se, but coming a bit surprisingly after all the silence (but the noise scape is reeeally nicely done). And the cows are a wonderful coincidence and interesting to see their reactions, but I actually lost my interest in them rather soon.
After all, two thumbs up (sadly don’t have more than two)! And I would have bought a DVD right away if they have had any. Definitely belongs into my dance film collection!
Jotha W. 