The Camera-Dancer: A Dyadic Approach to Improvisation

Abstract

How can the light-weight video camera in the hands of the improvising dancer, enhance compositional choices in moment-to-moment or retrospective decisionmaking in studio? I propose that the camera in the hands of the dancer moving and passing the camera between dancing subjects/objects is a form of improvisational investigation. I refer to this dyadic approach as camera-dancer, distinct from the tradition of the camera as archival instrument, in multimedia or interactive performance. The camera-dancer as instigator/provocateur opens perspectives towards composition otherwise not considered. In this paper I highlight approaches that moving image pioneers Maya Deren and Dziga Vertov held towards the camera and how this has informed studio improvisations myself and dance collaborators apply. Perhaps it is how we as dancing operators react to moments before, discoveries in the moment, a retrospective 'camera consciousness,' that enhances compositional openings as a form of camera dramaturgy.

What I write about writing/dancing/writing

“…I propose a critical methodology crafted through years of studio research in improvisation; a camera-dancer dyad (the camera in the hands of the autonomous dancer) invites sustained practice(s) as ways of looking, enquiring and creating (Nikolai, 2016). My position towards writing at the academy is referential to the parallels between the visual practice of seeing, composing, recording and reviewing moving images.…”

Move: Durational Dance-Making as We Age

“…As such, a camera-dancer dyad is a dyadic approach distinct from the tradition of a camera as an archival instrument. I argue, therefore, that the pas de deux between dancers and their cameras opens compositional opportunities for the dancing dyad as “instigator/provocateur” of mid-recorded improvisation (Nikolai, 2016 , p. 131). From the position of the artist as a researcher, I propose a critical methodology, a camera-dancer dyad (the camera in the hands of the authoring dancer) that invites sustained practice(s) as a way of looking, inquiring, and making.…”

“…The improvisation between the camera operator being the dancer, holding a recording device in the form of a camera opens compositional opportunities that may provoke further advocacy. This advocacy suggests that a mature artist carries a cumulative insight that ageism is re-evaluated toward propositions that dance is not only suitable for young performers (Nikolai and Markula, 2021 ). We can improvise with our cameras, be impromptu and responsive.…”