Experiencing Interruptions?

DANCERS (slightly out of shape)

More crucial than its physical location, the pandemic is established early on as the main setting for DANCERS (Slightly Out of Shape). As they warm up and stretch, dancers Victor Lozano and Brittany Engel-Adams talk to Tanowitz about how their relationship with their bodies during a year of quarantine and restricted movement has deteriorated. As Sargent’s observational lens captures rehearsals, viewers see dancers at a distance from each other, in the large, enclosed space of LMCCs studio on Governor’s Island. The viewer is able to share in the feeling of a warm, collaborative atmosphere: Tanowitz’s communication with dancers is full of humor and a relaxed, creative focus. Sargent also offers intimate access to moments in between rehearsal: snippets of conversation, dancers in moments of reflection between themselves and their bodies, and flurries of movement and laughter. Tanowitz responds to the camera’s female gaze with casual conversation with Sargent—or with dancers who ask her questions and discuss their process.

  • Liz Sargent
    Director
    Strangers' Reunion, SLOW DOWN, Every Moment Alters,Flowstate
  • Pam Tanowitz
    Choreographer
  • Minos Papas
    Producer
    Tango on the Balcony, A Short Film About Guns, TUMI Perfect Journey,
  • Cyprian Films, New York
    Producer
  • Caleb Hammons
    Producer
    Fisher Center @ BARD, Oklahoma (broadway)
  • Gideon Lester
    Producer
    Fisher Center @ BARD
  • Joe Harrell
    Producer
    SLOW DOWN: River To River, ALLARTSTV
  • Melissa Toogood
    Key Cast
    "Dancer"
    Cunningham Documentary, Every Moment Alters
  • Jason Collins
    Key Cast
    "Dancer"
    Every Moment Alters
  • Lindsey Jones
    Key Cast
    "Dancer"
    Cunningham Documentary, Every Moment Alters
  • Christine Flores
    Key Cast
    "Dancer"
    Every Moment Alters
  • Maile Okamura
    Key Cast
    "Dancer"
    Every Moment Alters
  • Brittney
    Key Cast
    "Engel-Adams"
    Every Moment Alters
  • Victor
    Key Cast
    "Lozano"
    Every Moment Alters
  • Zachary
    Key Cast
    "Gonder"
    Every Moment Alters
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Television
  • Genres:
    Dance, Artist, Choreographer, French New Wave
  • Runtime:
    26 minutes 23 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 10, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • ALLARTS TV
    New York
    United States
    May 10, 2021
    North American Premiere
Director Biography - Liz Sargent

LIZ SARGENT’S extensive background in dance, theater and film inform a unique style to stories with complicated subject matter. The NYTimes describes her work as “imaginative...both lovely and disturbing”.

Her short film STRANGERS’ REUNION is an exploration of the pressure to reunite across language and culture. The script for Ritz Carlton & Hearst was 1 of 5 winning films to be fully produced working with RSA Hong Kong, Final Cut NY, Jungle Sound, Glassworks, with mentoring by Academy Award Nominee, Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas). Awards include: Best Director at Diversity in CANNES FF, BEST SHORT & BEST ACTOR at SOHO International Film Festival and BEST SCREENPLAY at BRAND Film Festival London. Released internationally in six languages online.

Sargent was commissioned by PBS/ALL ARTS to make an original filmmaker driven experimental documentary that was broadcast on PBS and is streaming on the PBS ALL ARTS app. The New York EMMY winning short film SLOW DOWN captures the themes of LMCC’s River To River Festival: deceleration, stillness and reflection from a filmmaker's perspective.

Newest films include a verite documentary (broadcast ALLARTS/PBS) and an experimental dance film for the acclaimed choreographer Pam Tanowitz with music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, Co-Produced with BARD Fisher Center. Other projects in development are dance/art films for MacArthur Award winning Eiko Otake, Helen Simoneau Danse and Adrienne Westwood.

Liz is a Producer for Cyprian Films, New York with credits including Flowstate: North Brooklyn Artists, Tango On The Balcony, ‘A Perfect Journey’ for TUMI and Tribeca Film Festival, Behind the Mirror (The Orchard).

Liz was a finalist for the 2020 AFI DIRECTING WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN, and short listed for NBC FEMALE FORWARD.

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PAM TANOWITZ DANCE Pam Tanowitz is a critically acclaimed choreographer and founder of Pam Tanowitz Dance.

Her 2017 dance “New Work for Goldberg Variations”, created for her company in collaboration with pianist Simone Dinnerstein, was called a “rare achievement” (The New York Times). Her 2018 creation Four Quartets, inspired by T.S. Eliot’s literary masterpiece and set to music by Kaija Saariaho, was called " the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century” (The New York Times).

Quick-witted and rigorous, the New York-based choreographer and collaborator has steadily delineated her own dance language through decades of research and creation. She was recently named a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and is currently the first-ever choreographer in residence at The Fisher Center at Bard in Annandale -on-Hudson, New York. Other honors include a 2019 Herb Alpert Award, 2017 BAC Cage Cunningham Fellowship, 2016 and 2009 Bessie awards, 2010 Foundation for Contemporary Arts award, 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, Hodder Fellowship, CBA Fellowship at NYU, and a New York City Center Choreography Fellowship. Her work was included in The New York Times “Best of Dance” 2013-2020.

She has created for Australian Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, The Royal Ballet, The Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America, Juilliard Dance, Ballet Austin, and New York Theatre Ballet. Other commissions include Bard Summerscape,The Joyce Theater, Barbican Centre, Vail International Dance Festival, New York Live Arts, Guggenheim Works & Process, Duke Performances, Peak Performances, and ICA/Boston.
Originally from New Rochelle, New York, Tanowitz holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Sarah Lawrence College, and is a visiting guest artist at Rutgers University.

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Director Statement


DANCERS (Slightly Out of Shape) nods to the verité filmmaking of the late 60s, with jumps-cuts and black and white cinematography. The visual style of the film takes its lead from moments in between dance as the filmmaker leaves intact the beats in between shots, which are usually edited out: a lens adjustment – or a tripod being picked up and moved. This tactile style creates an immediacy and informality as we feel the filmmaker’s presence and communication with Tanowitz. After the raw, black and white vision of rehearsal, the film stylistically shifts in a finale revealing pieces of Every Moment Alters, with its precise, evocative choreography seen through polished, cinematic filmmaking.

Says Sargent, “The cinematic treatment feels so complimentary to Pam’s process as a choreographer. We based the style and approach off of Pam’s love for French New Wave with a casual style that feels so true to the energy in her rehearsal space. We also wanted to let Pam discuss dance making in her terms rather than the often invasive or conventional questioning that occurs in many artist documentaries. This approach allows the audience to be witnesses rather than students to didactic explanations—giving agency to experience the choreography in terms of composition and intuition.”