Ex-Romance

1987, 48:22 min, color, sound, 16 mm film on video

Atlas' fascination with "narrative, psychology, dance, and flights of fantasy," is manifested in this dynamic videodance musical. Here the postmodern choreography of Karole Armitage is performed by Armitage, Michael Clark and others to American pop and Latin music. Framed and interrupted by the ironic observations of two parodic "public television" commentators, the dancers play fictionalized versions of themselves in a wry tale of contemporary romance, in which the dance literally and metaphorically advances the narrative. Atlas deftly stages elaborate dance sequences in unlikely settings — an airport lounge, a gas station, a baggage conveyor belt — that are presented alternately as fact and fantasy. Atlas manipulates the representation of truth and artifice, reality and fiction in this meta-narrative.

Choreography: Karole Armitage. Director of Photography: Paul Gibson. Editors: Charles Atlas, J. Mira Kopell. Sound: Bob Bielecki, John Driscoll. Music: Gene Ammons, J.S. Bach, David Alan Coe, Henry Fiol, Jeffrey Lohn, Gene Vincent. Executive Producer: Susan Dowling. Speacial Thanks: Brown University, Chalet Susse, Inc., Eastern Airlines, T.F. Green Airport, Kelly's Sunoco Station, The Met Café, Rhode Island Film Commission, Rhode Island School of Design, Steamed Heat Dance Plant, Brian and Christine Heller, Charlie Walker, Roger Williams Park, Caesar Video Graphics, Media Alliance, Studio Film Lab, The Cutting Edge, Andre Degas.

 
 

This is a video transfer of a work initially shot on film. This is best shown as a projection, to reflect the original medium.
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