In This Life

Grief as part of the human condition is a complex and physical experience, an ordeal borne by the heart and mind, a journey through which one’s passage is as universal as it is unique. The experience of grief puts into sharp relief the limits of language to both convey or to comfort. “There are no words…” Sometimes it is only through art or dance that we can best convey the complexity of this experience - beyond the boundaries and limitations of language.

With every major loss comes a period of mourning. There is grief for the loss of the person we once were, grief for the loss of the person we had hoped to be, and grief for the loss of the future we had envisioned for ourselves. The passage through this grief is almost like a shedding of old skin, where the older, wiser, hardened version of ourselves must emerge. A dear friend of mine described this universal process saying, “I have died many times.” She went on to list the major events that shaped her, events after which she would never be the same, after which she mourned so deeply for the loss of her former self, but that also that made her into the person that I love. “That is part of growing up,” she said.

This film depicts the very personal and intimate experience of one man going through this process. Struggling through denial and rage and bargaining and despair, he tries to change himself, to shape himself back into that person that he no longer is. He grieves the loss of his former identity, until finally - he just accepts.

This has been an incredibly special and profound film that has touched both Robbie and I and moved the crew. It stands outside the boundaries of genre: part narrative film, part dance film, and part video art. In five acts, this film explores the language of loss, conveying the complexity of grief in the often wordless way it impacts all our lives.

Today’s griever spends a lot of time by themselves, alone in the scrolls of social media. When this film is eventually launched, we hope to find them there. To approach them in a very personal and private time, to hand them a piece of beauty, of art, and to say, “you’re not alone.”

My own work pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling with unique films that play with the capabilities of the medium. I weave dance, magic, and experimental techniques into visually compelling, character-driven stories. For this series, I continued to explore what happens when dance, projection and art is blended seamlessly with narrative storytelling, allowing each to serve the other, creating a piece that lives in the space in-between.

ON DANCE FOR CAMERA
I’ve always been incredibly passionate about dance filmmaking. To this day, many of the master choreographers of our day can’t reach audiences beyond those that can afford tickets to their performances. So much of the world’s most beautiful choreography remains trapped on a stage, unavailable to the masses of people who would most want to see it.

My work liberates dance from the confines of the theater and re-imagines it in the world, setting it in a location that adds depth and subtext to the story.

It choreographs the camera with as much intention as the dancers, adapting camera techniques from narrative film storytelling (where what you don’t see is often as important as what you do).

My drive as a dance filmmaker is to create a work of art in and of itself, a piece that goes far beyond a flat documentation of a performance, so that viewers will have an emotional and visceral response to the power of the movement.

And most importantly, my work strives to touch viewers beyond the normal reach of a company, building new audiences for dance that will sustain the art for the future.