Dance-a-bore-us

For everyone out there who enjoys Dance-a-lorus, I apologize for this post in advance.  People have different tastes, and mine certainly does not match up with those who thought Dance-a-lorus was a good idea.

To put it simply, having a bunch of people dancing around in front of a film is just too much visual stimulation.  I couldn't decide if I was to watch the dancers or the film that was being projected behind them.  Either way, I wasn't getting the full experience of either, so I felt I was being gipped in both departments, especially when the film was a bit narrative in nature.  

The dancers detracted from the film, and the film detracted from the dancers.  In any case, I'm sure each would be interesting shown separately, but I just couldn't put it together and capture the entire experience.

For me, a cool concept would be to film a dancer doing something on screen, not necessarily dance, but it could be.  Then, in such a way make it seem as if they come out of the screen, or walk off screen, and then the dancer could walk on the physical stage with just a static background behind them.  This way, I would be able to watch the film when the film is playing, and the dancer when the dancer is dancing.

Overall, the synergy of dance and film really doesn't work for me.  I was quite let down by something that the festival really seems to hype up, and I was disappointed afterwards because I skipped a screening of shorts that I also wanted to see in order to go to Dance-a-lorus, which sucked.  I heard the shorts were great.  I will never get a chance to see them again because someone thought it was a brilliant idea to dance around in front of a film.

I know if I made a film I wouldn't want someone dancing around in front of it diverting the audience's attention, and I'm sure the dancers want the audience to focus on them as well.  The dancers have the upper hand because anything live action is going to outshine something on a screen.  Plus, the dancers are in the foreground, further detracting our attention from the film.  I go to film festivals to see films, and no one was dancing around in front of any of the other films, and you know what?  I enjoyed all of those films a hell of a lot more because of it.

Case and point:  don't dance around in front of films... unless it's Rocky Horror, it really just doesn't work.  

Dance-a-lorus?  Dance-a-bore-us.