6:53, Four-channel video / one-channel audio / alternating soundtracks

Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays.
- George Balanchine

I filmed fifty dancers of all levels in a space stripped of the context you’d normally find in a dance environment. Volunteers were asked to dance alone, in a wide open space, but could choose the song they moved to. I’ve re-cast the dancers’ movements and also experimented with how different soundtracks imply new meanings to specific movements.

The main soundtrack is loosely composed from some of the dancers’ song selections. Three alternating soundtracks show that even though we dance in response to (or along with) a particular song, our movements can be fantastically interpretive of other forms of music.

The range of messages we express through dance is wide and uneven-- for the experienced, it might be an allegory or a gesture or a formal style. I’m just as interested in the expressions of non-professional dancers, and what they convey: aspiration / uncertainty / ecstatic release / dopey glee.




Full versions:


Original score


Grace Jones' "Williams Blood" (Aeroplane Remix)


Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff"


Ananda Shankar's "Metamorphosis"