Refractions
http://www.vimeo.com/6163160About Refractions
In March of 2008 I received a Bravo!FACT production grant from CTV’s ‘Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent’ to produce Refractions, an experimental dance film that explores the depths of the human spirit and the creative process by translating refractive light into movement and emotion.
The concept for the film initially grew from my fascination with the idea that human emotion and movement can be mirrored in refracted light waves.
Our bodies and emotions serve as the refractive medium, and the conditions of our lives filter and refract through, at which point they exit the body bent, at an angle that is sometimes calm, sometimes anxious and at other times deceptive.
Featuring solo dancer Jonathan Turcotte, the style of shooting contrasts intimate close-ups of the dancer with extreme wide shots to reveal the magnificent expansiveness of the empty and decaying warehouse. The movements of the dancer represents the emotion created by refracted light and sound waves, thus defining the idea of ‘emotional refraction’.
As Turcotte dances among the massive columns and open spaces he interacts with animated objects and patterns of light waves inspired by Isaac Newton’s 1704 illustrations of light. Excerpts from Rainer Maria Rilke’s text have informed the audio composition.
His dancing is inspired in part by Sara Kathryn Arledge’s 1946 film Introspection, a seven-minute silent dance film set to Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden that revealed disembodied parts of dancers moving in black space.
The second act of Refractions is reminiscent of this as Turcotte dances in and out of shadows, light hitting his body intermittently, as if his body did in fact exist only in sections.
Being a product of my first grant, Refractions has enabled me to present on the national and international stage through screenings at various local and international film festivals.
I am now currently in production of my second Bravo!FACT film Strands, another short experimental dance piece involving live action and animation, to be released April 2010.