Convergence of movement
It began as an international dance-related film festival in 2000, and now, five years on, has evolved into a broader event called VideoDance, a platform for the convergence of movement and the moving image. An annual event, VideoDance is funded and organized by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, one of the major film institutions in Greece and a Culture Ministry division. On the agenda at this year’s event, between September 10 and 18 in Athens at BIOS (84 Pireos), and September 17-23 in Thessaloniki at the port’s Cinema Museum, are projections, video installations, concerts, and various other performances. Film projections will be followed by live performances covering a wide range of experimental projects based on the usage of new media, movement, and film. Other items on the agenda will include performances by three European-based groups whose ranks comprise young artists that have already managed to make their presence felt on Europe’s dance and experimental dance-theater circuits. All three groups will perform in Greece for the first time. VideoDance, founded by its current artistic director, Christiana Galanopoulou, is a non-competitive and non-commercial event. It is focused on the unique relationship between movement and the moving image, both when it is produced as a result of a choreography for the camera and when produced by the filmmaker’s idea of movement. At the festival, films are presented thematically, while sections presenting archival material on dance and film history, contemporary evolutions on movement and dance, video installations, live media improvisation on image and sound, are also included. Over the past four years, more than 300 recent and older dance films from around the world have been screened at two venues in Athens and Thessaloniki. The festival collaborates with several dance and film international festivals, archives and cultural institutions and is a member of the International Network of Dancefilm Festivals. For further information call 210.870.6000.
