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Dance Interpretations (16)
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Ballet AdagioNorman McLaren 1972 9 minÉblouissante démonstration de la technique de l'adagio du pas de deux. Ce court métrage expérimental tourné au ralenti souligne la maîtrise des danseurs, la précision de leurs gestes, l'équilibre de chaque pirouette, arabesque ou jeté. Document de travail unique pour les élèves des cours de danse classique, ce film révélera aux autres spectateurs une dimension inconnue du ballet. L'Adagio d'Albinoni forme la trame sonore sur laquelle évoluent David et Anna Marie Holmes, danseurs canadiens de réputation internationale. -
CODADenis Poulin & Martine Époque 2014 11 minThis short animation draws on advanced digital technologies to offer a new vision of dance in cinema. With motion capture (MoCap) and particle processing, designers Denis Poulin and Martine Époque create virtual dancers free of their morphological appearance. In this balletic and hypnotic film, dynamic traces carry the motion of the real dancers behind the on-screen movements. Addressing environmental themes by way of metaphor, CODA is a fused universe where space and time collide, deploy, and dissolve. In this technically and formally innovative film, luminous bodies in the infinite space of the cosmos transform and evolve to the rhythms of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
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Cactus SwingBeth Portman & Susan Crandall 1995 5 minBased on a song by the Great Western Orchestra, this animated short traces the adventures of Pete, the North West Mounted Police officer who is awakened in the badlands by a varmint band and witnesses a cactus line dance.
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Corpus and the WanderingJo Roy 2024 7 minOne dancer, one body, one phone. In a time of collective alienation and technological mass control, one woman rediscovers her soul and reclaims her mind. A short, experimental self-portrait composed of 100 video screens, Corpus and the Wandering transcends the walls of a fragmented grid system to uncover the shared humanity in each of us, and our place in the cosmos.
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DanceLise-Hélène Larin 1979 2 minIn this short film from the Canada Vignettes series, a map of Canada morphs into human forms that share the country's natural resources to the rhythm of a dance.
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Hen HopNorman McLaren 1942 3 minThis joyful short animation features a dancing hen that transforms into an egg. The film was made without a camera by Norman McLaren, who drew directly onto 35 mm movie stock with ordinary pen and ink. Colour was added optically.
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Let's All Sing Together (No. 2)1944 8 minFour popular songs with animated backgrounds, sung by the Four Gentlemen Quartet: Oh Susanna, with a short cartoon sequence of two couples in a square dance, Carry On, Short'nin Bread, and Pack Up Your Troubles.
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LOCAVéronique Paquette 2024 5 minThrough the energy of tango, a woman finds a path to freedom. A mesmerizing visual performance created with waves of ink and black-and-white geometric shapes.
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Lost Action: TraceMarlene Millar , Crystal Pite , … 2011 3 minThis short film addresses the revolving cycles of human conflict through contemporary dance. Celebrated choreographer Crystal Pite and dance filmmakers Marlene Millar & Philip Szporer commemorate the fading legacies of WWI, while also creating a moving homage to Pite’s mentors and contemporaries, whose lives and short careers are pitted against the fleeting nature of the dance art form. Featuring Theodore Ushev’s haunting and distinct artwork, the film explores the themes of conflict, loss, and rescue we all experience as we cycle through states of love and war.
Warning: Although this film was shot in 3D, the streaming and downloadable versions are available in 2D only. -
MatrioskaCo Hoedeman 1970 4 minThe protagonists of this animated short are Russian dolls, also known as matryoshka dolls, or babushka dolls - sets of beautifully painted wooden dolls of decreasing sizes that nestle one inside the other. Here, the dolls dance, twirl and swirl to Russian tunes before hopping back into the mother figure.
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NarcissusNorman McLaren 1983 21 minIn this short film by Norman McLaren, dancers enact the Greek tragedy of Narcissus, the beautiful youth whose excessive self-love condemned him to a trapped existence. Skillfully merging film, dance and music, the film is a compendium of the techniques McLaren acquired over a lifetime of experimentation.
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ORAPhilippe Baylaucq 2011 15 minORA is a stunning meeting between the artistic worlds of choreographer José Navas and filmmaker Philippe Baylaucq. It is the first film to use 3D thermal imaging, producing visuals like none that have ever been seen before: the luminous variations of body heat seen on skin, bodies emitting a multitude of colours, a space filled with movement that transforms itself.
Warning: Although this film was shot in 3D, the streaming and downloadable versions are available in 2D only. -
Polychrome PhantasyNorman McLaren 1935 2 minIn this early film Norman McLaren shot crystal formations through a low-power microscope, using polarized light with the lower part of the picture masked off. The film was then rewound and a scene of dancers was filmed.
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Pas de deuxNorman McLaren 1968 13 minThis short film by Norman McLaren is a cinematic study of the choreography of ballet. A bare, black set with the back-lit figures of dancers Margaret Mercier and Vincent Warren create a dream-like, hypnotic effect. This award-winning film comes complete with the visual effects one expects from this master filmmaker.
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Two BagatellesGrant Munro & Norman McLaren 1952 2 minTwo short Norman McLaren films in which animation technique is employed with live actors. In the first, entitled On the Lawn, a male dancer waltzes to synthetic music. The second is a fast march, In the Backyard, accompanied by an old-fashioned calliope.
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Variations on Ah! vous dirai-je, mamanFrancine Desbiens 1985 13 minIn this short animation a single room is the setting for a lyrical dance through time about family roots. The objects in the room swirl, rearrange and change themselves to reflect the passing seasons, years and generations. As Victorian Christmas fantasies give way to computer-age realities, the procession of objects reaffirms the values that endure the vagaries of fashion and the ravages of time.
