Swarming, OME, Cielo, and From Knee to Heart

Dance Camera West Festival
Reviewed by Marlena Becker
Through January 12

These reviews are part of the Z. Clark Branson/Stage Raw/Grow@TheWallis Mentorship Program for Young Journalists

Swarming, Experimental Short, Carrie Richter, United States 
OME, Experimental Short, Camila Arroyo, Mexico
Cielo, Short, Will Johnston, United States
From Knee to Heart Documentary Feature, Susanna Baranco, Spain

Dance Camera West Festival is currently screening over 50 dance films — including shorts, experimental pieces, and documentary features — at REDCAT in Downtown Los Angeles, and AUTOMATA, in Chinatown. Since 2000, Dance Camera West (DCW) has brought together two unique art forms famously centered in Los Angeles: dance and film. Over that time, DCW has expanded its outreach, receiving and screening films from dancers, filmmakers, and artists from around the world. This past year, DCW received 325 film submissions from over 40 countries. I was able to see four of the chosen films, reviewed here.

The first, Swarming, is an experimental short directed by Carrie Richer and produced by About Hole Dance Films, the company she cofounded. The company’s films are notable for their surrealism and whimsical elements. Swarming is certainly no exception, as Richer’s fundamental question is why bees swarm. The opening sequence features two dancers, Kate Westerlund Kosharek and Michaela Ellingson, inside a wooden structure. The dancers explore the space both individually and together, in a stylized, contact improvisation. The jerky, staccato movement renders the dancers less human and more like bees, a transformation that unquestionably transports the audience into the whimsical world of the honeybee. As the film continues, the camera frames different locations in a stationary position, while the dancers continuously move in and out of frame. This technique successfully simulates the experience of a buzzing bee, which can quickly fly in and out of one’s vision.

In addition to surrealist films, About Hole Dance Films maintains that it creates films with relatable narratives, stories, and characters. As Swarming unfolds, a relationship between Kosharek and Ellingson comes into focus, as if the bees they represent are working together to scout each location. However, the film lacks the urgency and persistence of a creature in pursuit of a new home. Working with bees as a subject, which inherently implies a colony, a family, and a support system, the film could have explored these themes much more deeply. Although there were creative dance and filmic elements, the narrative overall felt incomplete. Since narrative is crucial to About Hole’s mission, Swarmingultimately did not meet the production’s own criteria.

Camila Arroyo in her experimental short OME.

In contrast to Swarming, OME is not based on a fictional narrative, but rather on the director’s own life experience. As a Mexican woman living in Brooklyn, Camila Arroyo expresses her identity in this visually captivating, experimental short. The film opens with a rapid montage of images, spliced with videos of Arroyo herself dancing. All the images are from Brooklyn, and they range from buildings, nature, friends playing basketball, Mexican restaurants,

Arroyo herself, Arroyo with her friends, and more. They are all in such rapid succession that one cannot fully absorb each image. The ticking sound that scores this rapid montage serves to convey a sense of chaos within this world. When Arroyo’s dancing flashes on the screen, however, her graceful, fluid movements bring some relief and congruity to the established disorder.

This visual overstimulation comes to a striking halt after about one minute, when Arroyo simply stares at the camera head-on. The film then shifts its focus to Arroyo’s movement sequences, her own choreography—this is how Arroyo navigates her world. OME successfully demonstrates the dichotomy of Arroyo’s two worlds. The film beautifully displays how these differences seamlessly intertwine in Arroyo through her movement.

Short film Cielo directed by Will Johnston.

The third film, Cielo, directed by Will Johnston, starkly differs from most of Johnston’s previous work. With three college degrees pertaining to dance, it is no surprise that Johnston’s pieces are full of innovative, continuous choreography. However, in Cielo, virtually no choreographed movement occurs for the first half of the film. It opens with a dark screen and the sound of human panting; then, it reveals a woman, Eugenia Rodriguez, running through the desert. She jumps onto a masked man’s shoulder, and he slowly walks away, carrying her limp body. The man then carries Rodriguez through some visually breathtaking locations. Even amid the beauty, however, Rodriguez’s powerlessness and the man’s mystery give the piece a palpably unsettling tone.

Midway through the film, Rodriguez seems to wake up, and she realizes she is with her captor. Johnston’s choreographic style then returns as Rodriguez brilliantly executes the movement of a prisoner attempting to break from her constraints. Her solo is interrupted frequently by close-up shots of the masked man watching her, turning her struggle into his entertainment. Her movement sequence repeats itself, with slight variances, all ending with her body on the floor, facing the masked man. Johnston’s short clearly incorporates themes of power, gender, captivity, and how they each relate to one another. The film provokes the exact amount of discomfort necessary to affect the audience.

Spanish dancer Sol Picò, featured in the documentary feature From Knee to Heart, directed by Susanna Baranco.

Finally, From Knee to Heart, a documentary film directed by Susana Barranco, follows award-winning Spanish dancer and choreographer Sol Picó and her company. Unlike a typical feature documentary, which can often recount the subject’s entire life, Barranco chooses to focus on Picó’s life in the present — primarily, Picó’s most recent turning point in her career—her 50th birthday. Barranco thus chooses to highlight Picó’s newfound struggle in her career: her aging body.

Barranco’s ability to document candid scenes between Picó and her family, her friends, and her colleagues brings a unique humanity to Picó’s story. In the documentary, Picó’s collaborators describe her dance pieces as creating a “world that tells the truth.” In this way, Barranco’s decision to focus on Picó’s present truth could not be more aligned with Picó’s philosophy.

Throughout the film, Barranco includes snippets of Picó’s past performances. Her works incorporate movement, film, musicians, dialogue, creative sets, and more. They all demonstrate Picó’s talent, authenticity, and fearlessness. For example, in one piece titled Bésame el Cactus, Picó dances blindfolded on a bed of cacti. Picó explains this piece emerged when she was unsure whether her company would survive. She could not equate her anxiety and fear with anything but dancing blindfolded on a bed of cacti, so she did just that. Clearly, Picó expresses her truth on stage through her work, even the unspeakable truths.

Overall, rather than a documentary that focuses solely on Picó’s career, her achievements, or ven her dance skill, this film dedicates itself to Picó as a person. Despite her struggle to dance as she used to and her daily thoughts about quitting, Picó has not given up. Picó seems to defy the stereotype that a career in dance can only last a certain amount of years. Her dedication to her craft is surely an inspiration to all performers, theater-makers, and creatives around the world.

DANCE CAMERA WEST FESTIVAL at REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., Downtown; and AUTOMATA, 504 Chung King Ct., Chinatown; Thurs.-Sun., screening times vary; through Jan. 12th. Festival Schedule here. Running times: Swarming, 4:00; OME, 3:38; Cielo, 9:14; From Knee to Heart, 83:00