roxana

A writer observes the making of her friend's movie: watching Moze Mossanen's Canadian dance film, Roxana, come to life.

Name:
Location: Ontario, Canada

A Canadian writer, story editor and educator of film and media and film and theology in two academic settings. Creator/Curator of Lutherans Connect devotionals. Diaconal candidate in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Interested in ways to integrate spirituality and the arts in a celebration and love of visual and written language.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

rising to the unforseen....

Productions the size of this one inevitably have their challenges and unforseen circumstances. This week, dancer Greta Hodgkinson has fallen ill and another dancer has had to leave the company. On a movie shoot, or any show for that matter, the unexpected is treated like fuel for the imagination: now... okay, how can we turn this into a plus? The unexpected is even expected in some ways - the question is not will something come up, but what will it be? And how will we handle it? In this case, rehearsal schedules are being adjusted and Roberto himself is going to step in and perform for the departing dancer. No one seems to have blinked. Moze says by far the hardest challenge of his day is deciding what to wear..... now that's a dilemma!

Artistic challenges are the best kind: the opium of creative life. Here's Moze:
What Roberto and I are dealing with almost every day is how to embue the choreography with as much narrative elements as possible so that the musical sequences are as much about moving the story forward as the dramatic elements. Of course, this is the basis of any modern, dramatic musical entity – film or otherwise – but our task is to make the transitions as seamless as possible so that both drama and dance are unified and inseparable. Still, it was completely thrilling today watching the “nightclub dance” burst into fire with the spark that is Roberto’s choreography and the gasoline that is the dancers. There’s definitely something awe inspiring about simply watching bodies flying through the air in breathtaking patterns and combinations to wonderful swing music.
It helps to have been through this before - there is an underlying sense of confidence that can only come from experience.

As a different sort of challenge (and not unforseen), the music of gifted and acclaimed Canadian composers Alexina Louie and Alex Pauk, will be gorgeous, but added in mostly later. In the meantime, Moze and Roberto are using guidetracks: pieces of music that approximate the sound and rhythm the dances will have. The rescoring of the dances will present an added element for editor Jeff Bessner when the time comes, but not an unusual one. So the beat goes on. And the beat is pulsing!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home