This second collection of Byrne's dance collaborations, shot both in the studio and outdoors, includes dances choreographed specifically for his camera as well as those adapted for video. The ritualistic Fields, choreographed by Susan Hadley, was shot outdoors in a plowed field and in an urban plaza, where dancers clad in suits perform primitive movements based on the gestures of agrarian labor. In Inside Eyes, Byrne's camera literally leaves his hands as dancers shove, hold, lift and crash into the lens. Byrne and his animated camera take the viewer inside the physicality of the choreography, as he swoops along the dancer's bodies. in Bodies of Water Remembered, Byrne and Wendy Morris use dolphins, a bathtub and an ocean coral reef to create a dream-like subterranean adventure, by turns whimsical and haunting. In Undertow, performers Eiko and Koma appear to float through the frame, propelled by inexplicable forces in an embryo-like video space created by Byrne. This dramatic figure study, in which the bodies are transformed into organic forms, is rendered in rich tones of black and white. Based on a stage production by Codanceco and choreographed by Melanie Lien, That Means I Want to Go Home was reconstructed by Byrne in cinematic terms as a dramatic, multi-layered montage that deals with alienation, loss of control, and the desire to return home.
Fields: Choreography: Susan Hadley. Music: Bradley Sowash.
Inside Eyes: Choreography: Victoria Marks.
Bodies of Water Remembered: Choreography: Wendy Morris. Music: Monica Ray.
Undertow: Choreography/Performers: Eiko and Koma.
That Means I Want to Go Home: Choreography: Melanie Lien.
Director/Editor/Camera: James Byrne.