Screendance as the art of body editing

Abstract

Screendance, a fusion of choreography with film language, uses photographic framing and editing to edit the body and its movement. We analyze the use of long shots in early recordings to show the full body and choreography. In classical editing, full shots and close-ups alternate to reveal parts of the action. Microchoreographies are shot with close-ups of dancing hands or faces. Some screendance pieces pursue abstraction with shallow depth of field and extreme close-ups of parts of the body that perceptually evolve into textures or abstract lines. Shot duration and reading time, camera angle and shot size contribute to the recognition of human form or the perception of moving abstract masses.