16mm Documentary Series: Dance, Basement Films

16mm dance films from the Basement Films archive, curated by Basement Films members INCLUDING a brief discussion after the films with an esteemed panel of local dance instructors: Elana Anderson, Graham Stanford, and Luke Loffelmacher.

Showing:

Pas De Deux, Norman McLaren, 1968

Animation by Norman McLaren and produced by The National Film Board of Canada. Pas de deux is choreographed to Romanian pan pipe music by Ludmilla Chiriaeff.Ballerina Margaret Mercier dances by herself (or rather, with images of herself), before being joined by Vincent Warren to perform the pas de deux of the title.

It was filmed in a studio where the walls and floor were painted black. Lighting was from the sides, so only the dancers’ silhouettes appear, and their images are repeatedly multiplied 10 times.

Dance on a May Day, John V. Avildsen, 1977

Focuses on the National Dance Institute’s project of introducing boys to dance, featuring Dance Director Jacques D’Amboise.

AND instructional dance films from decades past

Afternoon coffee and cake served!