Master Class Cédric Klapisch: Framing the frameless

I realise that there is an increasingly strong relationship between dance and the filming of dance. 

Even if I consider that dance is a “performing art”, created to be seen in real-life and “live” in a theatre and thus not to be filmed. The fact of filming has nevertheless become a significant complement. 

This has been even more true in the last two years where the successive lockdowns obliged dancers to ask themselves more questions than before about the notion of a filmed performance. 

For many years now, video has been a complementary tool for the memory and writing of dance. The various existing choreographic notation systems (stenochoreography, the Laban or Benesch system) can sometimes be replaced or at least completed by video to keep a trace of the creative steps of a choreographer. 

The notion of performance capture thus assumes particular importance today, even if the fact of retranscribing in two dimensions a work created to be seen and felt in three dimensions raises many questions. 

For years now, I have filmed different dance types. 

For documentaries, as part of performance captures. Also, I have just completed a feature length film that incorporates many dance scenes. 

Each time, specific staging issues arise.
The solutions are never the same.
Dance is an ideal activity to film.
It’s just about the “very best food” for the camera….
Yet its mysterious nature often makes the task very complicated.
All the staging possibilities offered to the director present challenges to stimulate creation. 

Cédric Klapisch 

Source : Numeridanse