Taste Of Night

I don’t sit and I don’t write special scenarios for dance films. I just listen to music. At some point all the film from beginning to the end rises before my eyes. This was also a case with the film “Taste of Night”. I was driving a car and listened to music. Suddenly I just understood the idea of the film and who should performed in it. All I had to do is arrive at home and write down in details all I imagined in my mind. Later, I worked with choreographers and dancers, explaining to them what has to happen at each moment of music.

In my opinion, first of all, screendance is an opportunity to show dance to larger number of spectators. The cinema allows to place dance in the atmosphere that transfers a dance essence most precisely. The spectator has an opportunity to see performance from different points, to feel its volume, to move through space, to notice all tiny details that might be unnoticed during live performance. It is possible to involve any number of dancers. Perception of the viewer is influenced not only by the dancers, choreographer, and the director, but also by camerawork. It seems to me that there are now grandiose technical capabilities for interesting experiments in camerawork that allows to present dance to the viewer in the best way. Though live execution makes the viewer involved in creation of the dance, screendance is the best manifestation of all the participants of the project. Various special effects, computer graphics, animation strengthen an impression of dance, help to create the necessary atmosphere. There is only hope that a search of innovative ways of use of the camera equipment and plasticity won’t reduce the level of mastery of dancers. Screendance also helps to bring dance to new audience that might not have the possibility to go to theater for a live performance. So it might inspire and educate the larger population. I always adored the ballet. I do not have professional education in either filmmaking nor in dance. Living in Saint-Petersburg (Russia) I had a possibility to enjoy this art presented by high quality dance troupes and dancers. It happened that several years ago I begun to dance Tango Argentina. The stereotyped impression of tango as a retrograde dance in a red dress with rose between the teeth made me want to change this point of view. I wanted to shoot the dance film with the idea of a tango as the dance whose expressive opportunities are boundless. Now around the world the Argentina tango is popular. Its social importance can’t be overestimated. In reality the focus is on the Internet and gadgets and leaves not enough time for live contacts. The tango gives the chance to not only better understand your partner, but also to realize his/her potential. No other partner dance demands from dancers  such coherence of actions, such sensitive relation to each other, such penetration into inner world of the partner, such ability to communicate through their movements. Tango Argentina is a continuous improvisation. One of the main aims for me is to attract people who have nothing to do in their life with dance to enjoy and to become interested in dances. That is why all my films has strong storyline behind as it helps non professional audience to follow the film. My films do not present movement and dance as the main presentation. They are the mean of storytelling. Learning Tango myself I manage to communicate with magnificent dancers and choreographers. I see their huge potential, and I wanted to also give them an opportunity to try a new genre. A genre of cinema, and to show the whole world their talent. I have conceived the movie consisting of several parts where each part represents the small short story told by means of a tango. Taste of Night presented at the festival is one of the parts. Having begun to create this tango project I have understood that I simply do love to create dance films. Now I shoot films in which dancers of the different genres performs.