UCLA National Dance/Media Project 1996-2000
In 1996, the Pew Charitable Trusts awarded a five-year grant to the Center to establish The UCLA National Dance/Media Project. The goals of this project were to increase the capacity of the dance field by supporting a broad range of innovative documentation and preservation activities, to broaden the conception, production and dissemination of dance materials and to conduct effective dance documentation in film and video. The Center successfully completed the three primary components: Fellows Program, Leadership Group and Dance/Media Publication titled “Envisioning Dance on Film and Video”.
Leadership Group. (1997-2000) Functioning as a research-and-development think tank, twenty national dance artists/choreographers, dance administrators, filmmakers, and producers/directors, designers of interactive media, scholars and educators met annually on the UCLA campus for four years beginning in 1997. The LG group was specifically charged to assess activity in this field, identify & disseminate information about best practices in dance documentation, participate in the Fellowship program by providing methodology and advance theory on the key issues concerning the use of media in the documentation of dance. Finally this group provided critical guidance as we developed the Fellowship Program and the Dance/Media Publication.
Fellowship Program (1998, 1999, 2000) This Fellowship Workshop was an opportunity for accomplished professionals to work for a concentrated period on conceptual and practical issues regarding dance film/video. This rigorous ten-week residency program supported twenty-four Fellows. Activities included seminars, laboratory workshops, master classes with distinguished visiting faculty, and independent projects. Each group not only sharpened their technical skills in film, video and digital technology, they developed new concepts and theories related to this profession. Fellows were dancers, choreographers, ethnographers and filmmakers with experiences ranging from PBS style documentation, creative animation, ethnographic documentation, and creative/experimental dance made for the screen.
The UCLA National Dance/Media Project formed a national partnership with the National Initiative to Preserve American’s Dance (NIPAD) named Save As: Dance. As a culminating effort, the fellows conceived and wrote grant proposals for the NIPAD Independent Project Development Fund. This process afforded the fellows an opportunity to strengthen their fundraising skills while thinking about future projects. Projects funded through this initiative had a cumulative effect on the field. Many went on to receive national awards and served as model projects for our field.
Envisioning Dance on Film & Video (Book/DVD)
Published by Routledge, 2002
Virtually everyone working in dance today uses electronic media technology. Envisioning Dance on Film and Video chronicles this 100-year history and gives readers new insight on how dance creatively exploits the art and craft of film and video. In fifty-three essays, choreographers, filmmakers, critics and collaborating artists explore all aspects of the process of rendering a three-dimensional art form in two-dimensional electronic media. Many of these essays are illustrated by ninety-three photographs and a two-hour DVD (40 video excerpts).