Short Video Artworks (1985) marked the series premiere of Alive from Off Center. In John Sanborn and Kit Fitzgerald’s Ear to the Ground, percussionist David Van Thieghem “plays” the city of New York as he uses everyday objects as instruments. Zbigniew Rybczynski’s The Discreet Charm of the Diplomacy depicts a cocktail party at the White House, where animals are also invited. Ringside by Michael Schwartz showcases a dance by Elizabeth Streb, followed by a futuristic music video for Laurie Anderson’s song “Sharkey’s Day.” William Wegman’s Singing Stomach features a man contorting his torso to look like a face alongside another segment of Wegman teaching a dog how to spell. Lastly, At Battersea Power Station features a performance by Sankai Juku.
This program opens with a piece performed by the dance group "Maasai," which explores an African tribal dance and its variations performed in 1980s London. The second and final segment, "Parafango," is a collaboration between choreographer and dancer Karole Armitage, video artist George Atlas, and musician David Linton that depicts a woman's surrealistic dream about a man she encounters at a party.
Smothering Dreams features an interview with video artist/sculptor Dan Reeves as well as clips from his video piece of the same title. The work juxtaposes footage from combat against shots of everyday children’s play in order to critique America’s fascination with war and violence. In the interview portion of this 1985 episode, Reeves shares his personal experiences of serving as a US marine in Vietnam during the 1960s. Smothering Dreams is dedicated to the soldiers of 3rd Platoon Company A 1st Amtrac Battalion and the North Vietnamese soldiers who died on January 20, 1969, along the Cua Viet River.
Artists who poke fun at the medium of television are the focus of this 1985 episode. As noted by host Susan Stamberg, Comedy on Video is highly self-reflexive since these artists not only mock commercial television but also educational television, a subgenre in which Alive from Off Center can be included. Segments include Zbigniew Rybczynski’s The Day Before, William Wegman’s Man Ray – Man Ray, “Joan Logue’s TV Commercials for Artists, and Tom Rubnitz and actress Ann Magnuson’s Made for TV.
Directed by video artist Shirley Clarke, Tongues (1985) is a collaboration between playwright Sam Shepard and actor Joseph Chaikin. According to Chaikin, Tongues is about “somebody being reborn and reborn again.” In the video, Chaikin performs a monologue that addresses existential concepts such as birth, death, and rebirth in many different voices. At one point, he carries on a dialogue between two people. His performance is punctuated by the sound of percussion instruments and various visual effects. This episode also includes an interview with Clarke about her work and the medium of video by host Susan Stamberg.
In this program, dance pieces by five different choreographers are featured. "Summer" is the theme of the dances, which are performed outdoors. Inspired by the teenage life in a working-class neighborhood, the first dance, "You Little Wild Heart" by Marta Renzi, is performed to music by Bruce Springsteen in an actual suburban neighborhood. In the second dance, "District 1" by Rudy Perez, Boston's City Hall Plaza is transformed into a kind of summer playground. In "George's House" by Dan Wagoner, a group of young women play "hide-and-seek" by popping their heads in and out of the doors and windows of a cabin to the rhythm of the country music accompaniment. In "Secret of the Waterfall" by Charles Atlas and Douglas Dunn, performers move to the phrases and words of a poem, which appear on screen as part of the visual composition. The final piece, "From An Island Summer" by Atlas and Karole Armitage, follows a group of dancers through Coney Island from the boardwalk to the amusement park, as passersby react with surprise.
A Personal History of the American Theater demonstrates the unique talents of celebrated actor/storyteller Spalding Gray, and reveals often amusing monologues that transformed his personal life into a powerful series of one-man shows.
This program, hosted by Susan Stamberg, showcases various alternative rock music videos, beginning with "The Dancing Man," in which a recurring song torments a man (Bill Irwin); the song plays on the radio, on a delivery boy's boom box, and in a music box. The video "The Women's Group" by the British New Wave group "The Flying Lizards" offers a satirical view of a "woman's world" and the "traps" that she faces in a relationship and marriage. "Lake Placid 80" by artist Nam June Paik uses fast-paced images of Olympic ice skaters as they whirl to the beat of a rock song. In "Record Players" by Christian Marclay, unidentified hands "play" acetate LPs by scratching them, waving them, and finally breaking them into several pieces. "Once in a Lifetime," a music video by "Talking Heads" band leader David Byrne, is followed by Joan Logue's "TV Commercials for Artists" in which she presents unconventional video portraits of Steve Reich (clapping hands), Nam June Paik (playing a piano in an unorthodox way), John Cage, and Laurie Anderson (using her head and teeth as percussion instruments). The final segment, "Act III", is a piece by John Sanborn and Dean Winkler with music by Philip Glass.
Season two of Alive from Off Center begins with engaging segments from 1986 that showcase state-of-the-art video technology, dance, and comedy from the period. John Sanborn and Dean Winkler demonstrate their pyrotechnics in Lumiere. Charles Atlas’s Jump, originally made for French television, is a rhythmic and visually stunning dance cabaret featuring choreography by Phillippe Decouffle with music by the Residents, a San Francisco–based avant-garde art collective. The episode concludes with works that blend performance with social satire: Doug Hall’s These Are the Rules and Teddy Dibble’s The Sound of Defiance.
This program features the broadcast premiere of the "doo-wop" opera "Sister Suzie Cinema," which integrates the "a cappella" singing of the all- male group 14 Karat Soul into a nostalgic salute to the music, movies, and teenagers of the 1950s. The program also includes a discussion of the video with its makers: writer Lee Breuer, composer Bob Telson, and director John Sanborn. The presentation of this video opera followed a successful run at the Public Theater in New York City and on national and international tours.
Hosted by Susan Stamberg, this program features three pieces by movement artist Michael Moschen and a dance performance by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane. Moschen performs "Fire" with a pair of burning torches that he moves quickly in circular formations, creating ghostly images of light; in "Light," he holds a crystal ball but never completely encloses it in his hands, which makes it seem to float as he moves around the space with it; and in "Sticks," another highly kinetic piece, Moschen transforms metal poles into moving geometric forms. The dance team of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane perform "Rotary Action," an athletic piece about their own creative relationship.
Hosted by Susan Stamberg, this program features works by two video/computer artists: "Mt. Fuji," by the Japanese artist Ko Nakajima, and "Hyster Pulsatu," by the Dutch artist Jaap Drupsteen. Both works offer unusual depictions of landscapes. In "Mt. Fuji," photographic images of the mountain are formed into graphic rectangles, which then become three-dimensional geometric shapes that move about the Japanese landscape and interact with nature. In "Hyster Pulsatu," mimes interact with a computer landscape derived from Drupsteen's own musical compositions. Brightly colored shapes pulsate to spare electronic music as human performers travel by train, by foot, and by sea through a computer-generated environment.
This episode contains a parody of a "how-to" instructional video about photography starring noted photographers William Wegman and Michael Smith. Host Susan Stamberg introduces the video as a "spoof on America's obsession with instant self-transformation." The video itself mixes actual advice on successful photography with a more lighthearted take on the art form. The film unfolds over the course of ten major rules. Wegman outlines each of the rules to Smith, who is following Wegman around to determine whether Smith has an aptitude for photography. Through a series of skits, Wegman instructs photographers to follow the rules, which include keeping a darkroom locked, looking good, using model release forms, being creative, and saving receipts. Wegman also takes his new charge on a tour of the studio, demonstrating what a darkroom looks like and how an equipment cage works.
In this program, hosted by Susan Stamberg, three dances created especially for performance on television -- two from America and one from France -- are enhanced by computer technology, graphic design, and special camera effects. "Visual Shuffle" uses computer designs to visually transform the space and the movement of the dancers; "Fractured Variations" relies on camera techniques to emphasize how the dancers' move together and alone through realistic space; and "Rude Raid" creates a futuristic vision of man's primitive need for warfare and its horrific outcome through the use of graphic designs, camera tricks, and costumes.
Hosted by Susan Stamberg, the program features dance pieces by Charles Moulton, David Parsons, Trisha Brown, and Skip Blumberg. "Nine Person Precision Ball Passing," choreographed by Charles Moulton, involves three rows of three dancers each, passing balls to each other in quick, rhythmic formations that form increasingly intricate patterns. In "Caught," a stark, solo piece by David Parsons, filmed in black-and-white, the dancer's movements are captured in an intense strobe flash. In the third piece, "Accumulation With Talking Plus Watermotor," filmed by Jonathan Demme, choreographer Trisha Brown performs a dance while talking about its evolution since 1971. In the final piece, "Towards A Minimal Choreography" by video artist Skip Blumberg (shown after the program's closing credits), shots of a skater moving back and forth across the ice at a distance are intercut with closeups of his skates in motion.
Hosted by Susan Stamberg, this program features video art by Teddy Dibble, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Max Almy, and Ben Bergery. The program begins with Dibble's short, humorous pieces. In "The Nose Knows," he sniffs several microphones, selects one, and mouths the words to an instrumental of "The Girl from Ipanema"; in "A Scar-y Story," he increduously describes a strange condition afflicting his face, as bandages accumulate on it; in "The Sound of Music," he sits alone at a desk, answers a phone, and repeatedly puts the caller on hold; and in two "Q&A" segments, he acts out answers to questions about evolution and how many grapes he can fit in his mouth. In the Yonemotos' "Vault," a florid, melodramatic send-up of television and film cliches, a young couple plays out their romance in a mixture of Bergmanesque flashbacks and soap opera parodies. In "Perfect Leader" by Max Almy, a man is manipulated via a computer program into the ideal politician for the modern media age. In the final piece, "From Hippie to Yuppie" by Ben Bergery, a series of paired phrases appear on screen in colorful graffiti, reflecting the life journey of sixties generation. Phrases include "Baby Boomers," "From Lenny Bruce to Laurie Anderson," "From VW Bus to BMW," "From Organic to Gourmet," and others.
This program features three works by dancer and choreographer David Gordon. The first, entitled "Dorothy and Eileen," combines dance with storytelling: two women share stories about their relationships with their mothers while dancing. The second piece, "Close-Up," is an intimate male-female duo danced in silence. The program concludes with "Panel," in which Gordon himself portrays several panelists who engage in a mock debate about his work.
This program features two video works by performance artist Laurie Anderson. The first, "Late Show" (an excerpt from her film "Home of the Brave"), is a music video of one of her songs. The second, "What You Mean We?," is a fantasy in which Anderson creates a clone of herself so that she cope with her busy schedule. As she is interviewed by a talk show host (played by Spalding Gray, off-screen), she introduces the clone (who is male), explains the reasons for his existence, and describes her relationship with him. The clone later composes a song in Anderson's place while she relaxes, and he begins work on his own project -- a film script. Scenes from the "film" are shown; Anderson gives the clone her opinion of it, and suggests that he work instead on a film about "two guys on the road." Scenes from the new "film" are shown. Later, the clone appears on the same talk show that Anderson had appeared on earlier and introduces his own clone -- played by Anderson.
Hosted by Laurie Anderson and her male double, a computer-generated clone, this program features comic artist Bill Irwin. Trying to find a calm oasis at a tense audition, Irwin wanders into an empty rehearsal space and becomes tangled in the cords and wires of a camera and video monitor. Plunged into a modernist nightmare, he becomes trapped in the television in a kaleidoscopic, channel-hopping odyssey. While trying to escape his electronic prison, he enters the action of a soap opera, takes center stage with a Joffrey ballerina, comes face to face with Sesame Street Muppets Bert and Ernie, bumps and grinds in an MTV video, and weaves in and out of the colored test pattern.
This program is devoted to puppet animation by The Brothers Quay, based on stories by the Polish writer Bruno Shulz. The program opens with a prologue by performance artist Laurie Anderson, who introduces Shulz's work. She converses with a small computer-altered version of herself, and then reads some of Shulz's writing. "Street of Crocodiles" is set in a dark mechanical world-within-a-world inhabited by porcelain puppets, some with open, hollow heads; dusty, dirty machinery parts; animated screws and pins; and, occasionally, a piece of raw, red meat amidst the sepia, monochromatic tones of this industrial microcosm. This is followed by short segments from another work by The Brothers Quay featuring a similar style of animated puppetry, entitled "The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer -- Prague's Alchemist of Film." Segments are entitled "Metaphysical Playroom: A Tactile Experiment" and "The Migration of Forms."
Exploring the frontier of 1980s state-of-the-art technology, Steps (1987) by award-winning music video director Zbigniew Rybczynski takes off in an unexpected direction from the famous Odessa steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein’s classic Soviet masterpiece Battleship Potemkin. Using a process he developed to combine found film images with new video, Rybczynski causes all sorts of unexpected things to happen as a group of Americans tourists show up at the Odessa steps just as the Cossacks are about to fire on the striking workers.
Operation X (1987) highlights a comedic collaboration between performance and video artists Mitchell Kriegman and Teddy Dibble. Conceived in the tradition of television pioneer Ernie Kovacs’s humor, Operation X presents a series of short comic vignettes woven together using the unique attributes of the television medium. Relying on conceptual and visual puns, associations, and various sound and image tricks, Kriegman and Dibble create a freshly updated homage to the early innovations of television.
In this program, Robert Craft conducts the Columbia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a performance of Igor Stravinsky's musical drama "The Flood," which is based on the Book of Genesis and the York and Chester Miracle Plays of 1430-1500, and was originally commissioned for television by CBS in 1959. In this version, real and electronically manipulated images are blended to create a surreal effect. Cast members mime their roles, accompanied by voice-over narration and dialogue by Sebastian Cabot, Laurence Harvey, John Reardon, Robert Oliver, Richard Robinson, Elsa Lancaster, and Paul Tripp. The program begins with a prologue by performance artist Laurie Anderson, who discusses Stravinsky and gives a brief history of "The Flood." The story of Noah -- briefly preceded by the stories of Creation, the fall of Lucifer, and Adam and Eve -- unfolds in segments entitled "Melodrama," "The Building of the Ark," "The Catalogue of the Animals," "The Comedy," "The Flood," and "The Covenant of the Rainbow." In preparation for a great flood sent by God to destroy all of the creatures on Earth who have become corrupt, Noah is instructed by God to build an ark to save himself, his family, and pairs of animals from all species.
Five Dances on Video (1987) showcases modern dance pieces made for television and film that push the physical boundaries of performance. In Air Dance Landings, Elizabeth Streb wears a white leotard and is filmed against a black background as she appears to dance through the air. In New Puritan’s Dance, Michael Clark and others dance to the songs “Ludde Gang” and “Copped It” performed by the British post-punk band the Fall and filmed by filmmaker Charles Atlas. The Daytime Moon, which was produced by Sandy Smolan and Ethan Hoffman for the Minnesota Opera Company, features choreography by Japanese Butoh choreographer Min Tanaka and soundtrack by composer Libby Larsen.
This 1987 episode of Alive from Off Center opens with a prologue by performance artist Laurie Anderson followed by artist-choreographer Meredith Monk’s film about Ellis Island. Set to haunting music and vocals, Ellis Island features present-day color footage of the site combined with black-and-white shots that take viewers into its past, as the experiences of American immigrants are expressed through dance and re-created in a manner that merges imagination with history.
This energetic 1987 program features the Women of the Calabash, an all-female percussion and vocal ensemble who perform with calabashes. Reviving traditional African rhythms infused with contemporary Latin American, Caribbean, and African American sounds, the group creates a blend of melodic harmonies to express the beauty of a rich and vital cultural heritage. Skip Blumberg, an early video artist, directed this episode that includes short dance pieces by choreographers whose performances take place in unusual environments: Pooh Kaye and Elizabeth Ross Wingate’s Sticks on the Move and Dee McCandless and Gene Menger’s Aquamirabilis.
In this program, following a brief prologue by Ann Magnuson and a special appearance by Skip E. Lowe, performance artist Tom Cayler delivers a comic monologue entitled "Men Die Sooner," in which a professor of medicine gives a lecture on his theories about why men die sooner than women -- with a bizarre twist. In "Endance," a short documentary about dancer/choreographer Timothy Buckley and his decision to leave the dancing profession to work in costuming, performance clips of Buckley's choreography are intertwined with interview clips of Buckley; former company member Rocky Bornstein; Burt Supree, dance editor and writer for The Village Voice; choreographer Wendy Perron; photographer Chris Callis; ex-company member Karen Pearlman; and country-and-western singer Angel Dean.
Flaxton's "The World Within Us" chronicles the memories of a dying writer; in "Commitment: Two Portraits," Blondell Cummings explores female black America's experiences.
This program begins with a brief prologue by performance artist Ann Magnuson, followed by the video "Le Deuxieme Jour," based on the piece "Godard" by composer John Zorn. The video uses a collage of images, sounds, and music to evoke the work of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. In selected excerpts from "The Fourth Dimension," artists explore the possibilities of visual perspective through experimental animation of actual images of a man and a woman. "Sotto Voce" features the work of choreographer and dancer Stephen Petronio, who performs to the music "Dance Music for Borneo Horns (Mood Borneo)" by Lenny Pickett. Interspersed between the featured videos are Joan Logue's "30 Second Portraits of Artists," which consist of brief clips of the works of performance artists Takis, Orlan, and Jochen Gerz.
Beginning with a brief prologue by William Wegman, this program features Dutch artist Jaap Drupsteen's surreal video interpretation of two plays written by Gertrude Stein in 1943, in which performers interpret the action of the plays to the music and voices of Fay Lovsky. "In a Garden: A Tragedy in One Act" is about a woman who believes she is a queen being fought over by two men claiming to be kings. In the play "Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters: A Melodrama," three orphan girls meet two brothers, and they decide to perform a play about
This program, which includes a brief prologue by William Wegman, features four separate films of dance for the camera from Montreal. In "La, La, La, Human Sex Duo No. 1," a male and female dancer demonstrate an acrobatic battle of the sexes. In "Jericho," dancers use simple spoken phrases, breath, and economic movement to create a world that teeters on the edges of isolation and tortured interpersonal relationships. In "Tell," four men holding apples perform a dance that portrays their struggle for dominance. Finally, in an excerpt from "Exhibition," five identical women dance on a stage; as the backdrop is pulled away, a vast field completely enclosed by a border of tulips is revealed.
This program features Skip Blumberg's "Dancing Hands," a film containing various segments in which performers "dance" with their hands. The program opens with a prologue by Ann Magnuson in a spoof on a call-in ad for elaborate "press-on" nails, followed by the first segment, "Hip Hop Hands," in which the duo Magnificent Force performs to the music of James Brown, Prince, George Clinton, and M.A.R.R.S. In "Ballet Hand Isolations," members of the New York City Ballet are dressed in black and filmed against a black backdrop so that when they dance, only their hands are visible. In "Cassie's Dream," Wendy Perron acts out a story with her hands, and in "X-Ray," she performs a hand duet with Lisa Bush. In "Finger Tapping," Harold Nicholas of the famed Nicholas Brothers performs a tap dance with his hands to "Not Now, I'll Tell You When" by the Count Basie Orchestra. In an excerpt from "Joe and Blanche," hands act out a relationship between a man and a woman. A handshake sequence entitled "Prevailing Conditions" is filmed against a backdrop of news clips. In "Between Two Hands," a performer demonstrates how her hands dance together. Finally, in "Body Music for Hands," Keith Terry, who also performs the opening title piece, creates music with his hands, body, and voice.
This program features David Byrne's documentary about the CandomblŽ religion of Bahia, Brazil, which integrates its African roots with the Roman Catholic traditions of Brazil through the use of ceremonial music and dance. The film combines interviews and documentary footage of religious ceremonies and day-to-day activities interspersed with excerpts from other films about Brazil to explore the religion and to demonstrate how it has permeated Bahian culture as a whole. Those interviewed include a CandomblŽ priestess; a seventh-grader who explains an order called "The Sons of Gandhi," a group of more than 7,000 men who pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi as an expression of peace; and Wally Salam‹o, a poet who explains how Bahian dances have become a secular extension of CandomblŽ. Topics addressed include the origins of CandomblŽ; the ceremonies that involve trance, music, and dance; the role of men and women in the community; the role of the orishas, Yoruban deities linked with Catholic saints, who enter the priestesses while they are in a trance; the importance of nature and a belief in the inexplicable force that allows the orishas to enter the priestesses; and a look at the terreiro (temple ground) where followers of CandomblŽ live and worship. Included are performances of many Brazilian songs (with English subtitles). Additional footage includes excerpts from the films "Iawo" by Geraldo Samo, "Bahia por Exemplo" by Rex Schindler, "O Pagador de Promessas" and "Depois Eu Conto" by Anselmo Duarte, "Continental Drift" by Green Mountain Post Films and The National Film Board of Canada, "Bahia de Todos os Santos" by Trigueirinho Neto, "Barravento" by Glauber Rocha, and "Elizabeth Bishop: One Art" by the New York Center for Visual History. (Narration in English; other portions in Portuguese with English subtitles.)
Directors Philippe Gauthier, Alice Isserman and Pierre Etaix evoke the experimental cinema master's style
Three dance works exploring relationships: Bill T. Jones' tribute to Arnie Zane; Susan Marshall's "Arms"; Ishmael Houston-Jones' "Relatives"
A Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction explores gravity and momentum.
Jane Alexander stars in "Mountain View", choreographer Marta Renzi's collaboration with film maker John Sayles.
Four animated shorts including Jim Blashfield's "My Dinner with the Devil-Snake".
An Award-winning dance-theater piece by Philippe DeCoutie evoking ancient rituals.
Three dance pieces -- Raoul Trujillo's "Shaman's Journey"; an untitled work by DanceBrazil; Eiko and Koma's "Undertow"
Three dance pieces.
Meredith Monk's "Book of Days" explores village life in the Middle Ages.
"Postcards" is a "witty, twisted tale of romance on the road and on the rocks." It chronicles the story of Fred and Janet, a couple separated by his business trip, who conduct their relationship through the mail. While reading the postcards, the actors appear in front of various video representations of domestic and roadside settings.
This edition presents a documentary about the ancient Hawaiian art of hula, a dance practiced since the early Polynesians arrived in the islands around 500 A.D. Beginning with a brief overview of the history of hula and definitions of Hawaiian hula terminology, this program focuses on interviews with, and performance footage of, the "kumu hula" (master teachers), who have been largely responsible for keeping this art alive through the centuries, and who express strong feelings about the primary importance of the hula tradition in maintaining a unique and vital Hawaiian culture. It is explained that each kumu hula leads a "halau" (school of dancers), and these halau fall into two major styles of hula currently danced: "kahiko" (ancient hula), a mixture of dance and chants, featuring traditional Hawaiian percussive instruments; and "'auana" (modern hula) modern dancing and singing with western instruments. Performance highlights of these two forms are contrasted to illustrate the differences. Included are interviews with and/or footage of the following kuma hula: Aloha Dalire, Pua Kanahele, Nalani Kanaka'ole, George Na'ope, Charles and Nina Maxwell, Frank K. Hewitt. Also included is the following: footage of the various halau dancing at hula festivals and in pieces performed specifically for this program, including "animal dances" from three islands -- Elaine Kaopuiki's "turtle dance" from Lana'i, John Kaimikaua's "dog dance" from Moloka'i, and Nina Maxwell's "lizard dance" from Maui; and footage of the movie "Waikiki Wedding" (1937), with Bing Crosby and Shirley Ross, for which Louise Leiomalama Beamer served as dance and language advisor.
The first half of this program investigates the club scene and the types of music and dance associated with it. Various unidentified disc jockeys discuss house music and the development of hip hop and voguing while dancers demonstrate their techniques. In addition, a variety of drag queens participate in a voguing ball, a competition in which the men present exaggerated versions of fashion models. In the program's second half, members of The Doug Elkins Dance Company dance along the streets of New York City, seemingly oblivious to the traffic and pedestrians around them.
This program features a selection of five short film and video pieces from around the world, presenting music and images unique to each culture. The videos are as follows: "Kneeplay" ("Kniespiel"), a rhythmic piece from West Germany involving men in lederhosen who play wooden spoons on their knees and stomp their feet, edited in time to a pulsing beat; "Hammer," a piece from the U.S., which begins with a slow gospel song about a slave fleeing from bondage, coupled with solemn images of the black experience in America, and shifts to a driving rap interpretation of the song illustrated with images of defiance and joy; "Dhikr," from Yugoslavia, features intercut images of a meeting of chanting Islamic dervishes; "Living Eastern European Animals," from Hungary, presents images of various separate herds of animals which break through their fence enclosures, join as one mixed group, and move through an empty city towards a bridge at sunset; "The Shepherd" ("O Pastor"), from Mozambique, tells the story of a poor shepherd who falls in love with a girl from town whose well-to-do father forbids their engagement. Includes a promo for the upcoming season of this series.
This program explores Butoh, an avant-garde dance movement that challenges the taboos of modern Japan. Mark Holborn describes this subversive form of dance theater as originating in the sixties; rooted deeply in the archaic traditions of ancient Japanese myths, folk stories, and demons; and utilizing violent language and anguished and sexually explicit imagery. Holborn further chronicles the creation of the movement by two artists, Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. Akaji Maro, who formed the group Dai Rakuda Kan to add drama and enlarge the spectacle of Butoh, characterizes the dance movement as drawing strength from traditional Japanese culture and letting the body speak for itself, thereby rejecting the superficiality of everyday life. After a performance by Dai Rakuda Kan of tormented, frenzied groupings of individuals, Maro further comments on the role of Butoh as one of exploring national identity in a world of hybrid cultures. Next, Yoko Ashikawa, Hijikata's principal dancer and director of her own group, Hakutaboh, is shown advising her dancers in their dramatic interpretations. In the final segment, Isamu Ohsuga, who left Dai Rakuda Kan in order to form Byakko Sha in 1980, talks about the aftermath of the bombing of his home in Hiroshima, which leads to clips of his troupe's performance of "Civil Wars" and "Tama Jari Hi Me."
This program presents a series of spoken performances of writings dealing with frustration and passion. In the first segment, "Living in Flames," Todd Alcott walks about the city expressing his feelings of frustration and hypersensitivity. In "Stories I Ain't Told Nobody Yet," Jo Carson explains that she has combined every possible mixture of words to write every phrase ever written, and in "The Day I Married" Carson dispenses her mother's advice on making potato salad and describes its moral component. Chris Durang and Kristine Nielsen discuss global warming and a complex theory on the psychoanalysis of fire in "Under Duress with Durang," Rinde Eckert sings in French about passionate emotions as English translations are projected across his body in "L'Enfant Ardent," Robert Joy recites in specific detail the actions involved in lighting a cigar in "Time and Again," and Fred Curchack dons a variety of masks and voices to recite passages from Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
This program explores performance artist Douglas Dunn's version of the way in which dancers have stepped their way through history. Dunn's theme here is that man has evolved through dance rather than through the physiological routes proposed by archeologists. Dunn begins by emerging from the mud prehistorically, does an interpretative dance to music of the English Renaissance, rises up from beneath a large drop cloth, walks and poses through a paint-splattered world, dances in aviator attire amid the clouds to the aria "Nessun Dorma" from the opera "Turandot," chants in a non-language while focusing on certain parts of his body, moves to Baroque cello music in quasi-period garb, talks about knowledge gleaned from fossil records, dances to a Mozart piano score, and closes the program with a dance to a traditional Hawaiian song while an English translation is spoken.
An adaptation of Jim Cartwright's stage play directed by Alan Clarke, "Road" is a raw contemporary drama set in working-class northern England which reflects the cross-generational rage of the disengaged and unemployed. Progressing through a series of scenes depicting familial arguments and longing soliloquies -- sometimes spoken directly to the camera -- by embittered hopeless people who are nostalgic for the past, this drama climaxes in the encounter between a quartet of emotionally-wounded adults who meet at a run-down dance hall. Hoping to liberate themselves from their frustrations and listlessness, the foursome become intoxicated, listen to Otis Redding music, and rant about their inconsolable bitterness in a desperate attempt to unearth a modicum of hope for the future.
Muscular punk icon Henry Rollins hosts this presentation of spoken-word poetry performances. The performances by the poets range from straight readings to recitations accompanied by histrionics and stylized video effects. Performances include the following: Matthew Courtney performs "Honey, I'm Home"; Sharon Mesmer flirts with existentialist philosopher Sartre in "Jean-Paul Sartre"; Carl Watson deals with time and physics in "Heart Attack"; Don Bajema explains male violence in "I Know What You Women Want"; and Rollins discusses the word "kill." Then Maggie Estep offers her comic meditation on loyalty, which is called "I Swear"; Bob Holman performs his hip-hop piece, "The United States of Poetry"; Nicole Breedlove condemns the frivolousness of the media in "Front Page or Bust"; Deacon Lunchbox performs "Lewis Grizzard, I'm Callin' You Out"; John Leguizamo performs "Latinisms," which is accompanied by the music of Rene DeJesus, Roland Ramos, and Federico Vasquez; and Heather B. raps a capella in "A Positive Piece." In addition, Sekou Sundiata reads from "Blink Your Eyes," which is about police harassment; Willie Perdomo recites "Nigger-Reecan Blues" with help from Paul Beatty and Tito Lespier; Suzi-Lori Parks reads from "Blacks and Jews in New York"; Rollins offers thoughts about censorship; Mutabaruka performs "The Prisoner"; Peter Cook pantomines a poem called "I Am Ordered Now to Talk"; KRS-1 explains the need for cross-cultural education in "You Must Learn"; Todd Colby shouts about the reason why he is nearly "freaking out," in a piece from "Lemon Brown"; Jessica Hagedorn reads "Lullaby" with Paloma Hagedorn Woo; Thomas Pinnock tells "An Immigrant Folk Tale"; and Rollins states that others should express their views through poetry.
This program consists of two quirky, short comedic films by writer/director Hal Hartley: "Theory of Achievement" and "Ambition." "Theory of Achievement" is set in Williamsburg, New York -- "the Paris of Brooklyn" -- and concerns the intermingling of several overeducated, underemployed young adults who ruminate on the nature of art and life, as they search for cheap apartments while avoiding the drudgery of unsatisfying employment. "Ambition" concerns a man who studies his own intense need to accomplish great things in a world that is "a dangerous and uncertain place." With dialogue and action that is absurdly comic, this film examines the ideals and contradictions of desire.
"Praise House" is an ensemble dance-theater piece by the Urban Bush Women.
Dinizulu and his African Dancers, Drummers and Singers; Susan Marshall's "Contenders."
This installment features a collection of elaborately staged and filmed modern-dance routines by the avant-garde dance troupe Ultima Vez. The program begins without any sort of introduction; the first piece consists simply of two men blowing on a feather in an effort to keep it afloat. In another routine, a male dancer stalks a female dancer around a post-apocalyptic urban set. Whenever he reaches out to molest her, she dodges the advances by twisting her body at the precise moment at which he would make contact. After a few minutes, she begins to fight back, stomping her feet at the man and creating a simple rhythm with her footwear. The group also explores natural rhythms in a piece that is based around the members' throwing cinder blocks at each other. A few of the moves are stunts; one man throws a large brick thirty feet into the air and stands under it as it falls back towards him, only to get pushed out of the way at the last second by another dancer. Large chunks of this footage are presented in slow motion. The last routine the group performs is made up of an unusual series of actions. One dancer soaks his shirt in a cauldron of boiling water as he tells a fairy tale about the plight of a bird stuck on a sky-less Earth. Eventually, the man takes the soaking shirt out of the pot and puts it on. As he wrings out the still boiling water, another dancer convulses on the ground next to him.
Ruby Shang's "Dances in Exile"; "Loose the Thread" by San Francisco's Oberlin Dance Company
"The Dormitory (Le Dortoir)" is a stage work by the dance group Carbone 14.
This program, the first in the series under its new title, "Alive TV," compiles memorable segments from past installments of "Alive From Off Center" into a thematically-organized montage. Highlights include the following: a discussion of David Gordon's work by ten characters, all played by Gordon himself; an Eric Bogosian piece about the defensive discomfort of an ambitious businessman who has gotten a promotion at the cost of a friend's job; a selection from Meredith Monk's "Book of Days" that takes a young girl from a village in the Middle Ages to modern Manhattan; a portion of a Blondell Cummings dance/performance piece in which a woman recalls collective female experiences and relationships from a time past in a stylized kitchen setting; and Laurie Anderson introduces her clone to an interviewer. Also includes pieces by Ann Magnuson, William Wegman, Micha Bergese and Pookiesnackenburger, Tom Cayler, Bill T. Jones, Spalding Gray, Peter Fischli and David Weiss.
This edition presents an updated, adult version of the famous seventeenth-century English puppet play about foolish, boastful Punch and his nagging wife, Judy. In this biting live-action interpretation -- which is manipulated and edited to have the look of a cartoon -- two actors play each of the principal characters and music from old Warner Bros. cartoons plays throughout. After an introduction by the clowns, this Punch-and-Judy show highlights the universality of the couple, taking their battle of the sexes from the Garden of Eden to a divorce court.
This program explores the programming of the promotional video channel MTV. Highlights of this episode include the following: brief clips of various videos from the 1980s; promotions for MTV; public service announcements created for MTV about voting, drugs, books, environmental awareness, racism, and AIDS; and a short entitled "Joe's Apartment," which tells the tale of a man who lives with cockroaches. Also, as the credits roll, shrieking comedian Gilbert Gottfried performs a stand-up routine about MTV.
This program features six short films. In "Thanksgiving Prayer," writer William Burroughs recites a cynical poem about America as related images are superimposed against his body. "Gotham" carries the message that "crime never pays," and features clips of violent behavior. "Pull Your Head to the Moon (Stories of Creole Women)" depicts a bitter young man seeking comfort in a visit to his Creole grandmother while someone very close to him is dying of AIDS. In "Too Darn Hot," a video from the AIDS benefit video program "Red Hot and Blue," pop duo Erasure perform Cole Porter's "Too Darn Hot." The video includes information intended to raise awareness over AIDS. Finally, "Sharp Rocks," dedicated to "all native brothers and sisters under the sky, over the earth," encourages Native Americans living in the larger society to return home and share their knowledge with their people.
This edition -- shot in black-and-white -- features an inside look at the current hip-hop dance scene in Brooklyn. The dancers talk fondly of their borough; discuss clothing and fashion trends; the development of hip-hop since the early 1980s "old school" days of breakdancing; and comment on the ever-changing club scene. Throughout, dancers are seen performing in various outdoor neighborhood locations and in the clubs. This program is closed-captioned.
This program presents an abridged version of the feature-length film "Looking for Langston," which examines the significance of homosexuality within the milieu of the Harlem Renaissance. Using the poet Langston Hughes as its centerpiece and reference point, the film blends archival footage, vintage jazz, and voice-over poetry into an audio-visual essay on the homosexual experience in Harlem during the jazz age. Includes visually-interpreted selections from the works of Hughes, Essex Hemphill, and Bruce Nugent.
This edition presents five short animated films. In the humorous "Creature Comforts" by Nick Parks, clay-animation animals discuss and critique their lives in a zoo, lamenting the lack of space, fresh meat, and native climate. "Wake Up Call" presents director Pooh Kaye awakening and starting her day amidst a fantastic animated world of shifting shapes and washes of brilliant color. In "Photocopy Cha Cha" by Chel White, photocopied body parts are animated to the rhythm of a cha cha enhanced by a contemporary dance beat. Animators Christoff and Wolfgang Lauenstein create a spartan world hanging in space in "Balance," as several tall thin animated figures in numbered overcoats contend with a mysterious musical object on the floating platform where they co-exist. The final film, "Picnic," by Paul Vester, uses cheery cartoon figures and colors intercut with photos of murder scenes, tortures, and executions, as some unknown being or force invades the sunny, but menacing, cartoon world.
Based on the folklore of Venezuela's Yekuana Indians, 'Watunna' tells an animated creation story. It begins with a good spirit who creates a likeness of himself on earth. When the likeness is born, however, it buries its placenta, which grows into an evil man who brings war and other evils into the world. The good spirit turns the evil people into animals as punishment. Later, he tells his nephew to guard a stone in which the spirits of many good people are kept. While his uncle is gone, however, the boy digs into his magic bag and lets out the darkness. The people are scared by the darkness, but a messenger from heaven soon delivers the sun, moon, and stars. The tale instills women with the power to harbor piranhas inside themselves, to house fire in their stomachs, and to turn into toads at will. At the conclusion of the piece, men dancing by a fire turn into colorful birds and fly up into the air, shedding many of their feathers. As a snakelike water queen leaps into the air, the feathers cling to her, and she forms the first rainbow. In the second segment, "Ogichidag" ('Warriors'), Jim Northrup reads a poem about the history of military men in his family and says that he himself joined the United States Marine Corps just in time for the Cuban Missile Crisis, and fought in Vietnam, the only war America didn't win. His son is a warrior now as well, and Northrup wonders what good can come out of it. Commercials deleted. This program is closed-captioned.