Sep 10, 2009–Mar 21, 2010

Dance with Camera

Dance With Camera, 2009. Installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania.
About

Dance with Camera is an exhibition and a screening program that explores a crossover between artists and dancers who make choreography for the camera. The exhibition features art works in film, video, and still photography that exemplify the ways dance has compelled visual artists to record bodies moving in time and space. Screenings elaborate the show’s theme with iconic dance films, ranging from Busby Berkeley’s Hollywood musicals to Maya Deren’s avant-garde films. Dance with Camera, on view September 11, 2009-March 21, 2010, in ICA’s first floor gallery, spans 70 years of art and film, and features over 30 artists and filmmakers between its exhibition and screening program.

The art works in Dance with Camera show the camera lens as not merely a recording device, but also a stage and audience simultaneously. The camera creates a unique space for dance. In some instances, choreography is created for the specific space of the camera; in others it is created in editing. The camera, unlike the stage, allows close-ups that bring us near the performer. Editing is used to compress time and create structure, and even to transform relatively static performers into dancers. Still photography freezes time while also expanding the notion of dance as time-based. Dance itself is a mode to explore broader themes of narrative, structure, metaphor, and abstraction.

This exhibition travelled to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (August 7-October 17, 2010) and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (January 15 – April 30, 2011).

Installation Views
Jenelle Porter, Bruce Nauman; Dance or Exercise on the Perimeter of a Square
Books & Editions
Dance With Camera book cover
ISBN
9780884541189
Pages
174
Publisher
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Year
2010
$35.00
ISBN 9780884541189
Publication Date
2010
Authors
E. Denby, S. Clarke
Authors
E. Denby, S. Clarke
Publisher
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Price
$35.00
ICA is grateful for primary funding from an Anonymous donor. We acknowledge additional support from Jody and John Arnhold & Babette and Harvey Snyder. Further funding has been provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; The Dietrich Foundation, Inc.; the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art; friends and members of ICA; and the University of Pennsylvania.