Dancer

With Dancer, Dara Friedman (DE, 1968, based in  Miami and Bad Kreuznach) explores her interest in performance, urban space and structuralist film. Shot in black and white, the film captures sixty artists dancing over the course of forty scenes, alone or in couples, by day and night, down the pavements of Miami, in its parks and car parks, on rooftops and beaches. Flamenco, ballet, modern, break, pole, belly dancing, music theatre and ballroom dancing follow one after the other – even skateboarding and vogueing. Interrupting the normal flow of their urban environment, the dancers provide a poetic metaphor for the liberatory potential of self-expression, while highlighting the social restrictions that structure everyday life – particularly in public space.

Inspired by choreographer Pina Bausch, Friedman developed a minutely detailed filming process, adapting each scene to the dancers’ bodies, thereby reducing the gap between reality and moving image and drawing the viewer intensely into the action.