June 10, 2003 -

OTTAWA -- Toronto's Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video teams up with the National Arts Centre (NAC) and the Canadian Film Institute (CFI) to present Reel Dance on the Road. A programme of sexy, sassy short films on dance, Reel Dance on the Road features the Ottawa premiere of Perpetual Motion, a 49-minute documentary profile of choreographer José Navas and cellist Walter Haman.

Director Laura Taler and José Navas will both be in attendance to chat about the film. The Reel Dance on the Road screening (lasting approximately 90 minutes) is on Sunday June 22 at 19:00 at the Auditorium of the Library and Archives of Canada, 395 Wellington Street. Tickets are $6 for CFI members, seniors and children 15 and under, and $9 for non-members.

A tale of passion and creative collaboration, Perpetual Motion (produced with the participation of the National Arts Centre) documents the evolving relationship between the two men. Though both are established artists, they come from strikingly different backgrounds and disciplines. Navas is an internationally acclaimed modern dancer and choreographer, dedicated to exploring the limits of his art. Haman, the cooler and more composed of the duo, is an accomplished cellist, widely acknowledged for his performances in the classical tradition.

A year before the events documented in the film, the two met, had a brief, intense affair, and parted after creating a duo piece for cello and dance. As the film begins, the two men return to the Banff Centre for the Arts to make a new, more fully realized collaborative work. Over the course of six months, in Banff and Montreal, the two engage in a moving and intense dialogue as they face the challenge of creating an original performance (the result would be The Haman/Navas Project, which toured to great acclaim from 2000 to 2003). Navas clearly feels the need to explore his life, artistically and personally. The more contained Haman finds Navas challenging his beliefs, forcing him to move beyond the boundaries of conventional art practice.

Taler, whose career began in dance and choreography, empathetically chronicles the dynamics of the duo's creative process. The conclusion, a brilliant set piece, plays out the partners' conflicted but intense relationship. This is a film about love and creativity realized with discretion and compassion.

The complete list of films to be shown is:

Moving Pictures Festival Trailer (Canada), directed by Gregory Nixon – 1 minute

Horses Never Lie (Canada), directed by Kathi Prosser; choreographed and performed by Caroline Richardson – 5 minutes

The Barber's Coffee Break (Canada), directed by Laura Taler; choreographed and performed by Tedd Robinson – 7 minutes

Shadowboxing (Canada), directed by Jason Ebanks – 4 minutes

Motion Control (UK), directed by David Anderson; choreographed and performed by Liz Aggiss – 9 minutes

Fly (New Zealand), directed by Shona McCullogh – 7 minutes

Perpetual Motion (Canada), directed by Laura Taler (nominated for a 2003 Canada's Golden Sheaf Craft Award for Direction) – 49 minutes

The Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video exists to celebrate work that explores and explodes the kinetic possibilities of movement captured for the screen, supporting innovative film and video work that goes beyond simple dance documents. Also on the Reel Dance on the Road programme is The Barber's Coffee Break, Taler's 7-minute collaboration with Ottawa choreographer Tedd Robinson; former National Ballet artist Caroline Richardson in the lyrical Horses Never Lie; and cutting edge work from the UK and New Zealand.

The Canadian Film Institute (CFI) was incorporated in 1935 as a federally-chartered, non-governmental, non-profit cultural organization. It is the oldest film institution in Canada and the second oldest film institute in the world. In 1988, the CFI was merged with the Conservatory of Cinematographic Art (Montreal) to form Cinematheque Canada, but the organization retains its autonomous programming, budgetary, and administrative activities in Ottawa. The CFI's mandate is to encourage and promote the production, diffusion, study, appreciation, and use of moving images for cultural and educational purposes in Canada and abroad. To this end, it organizes ongoing public film programming, distributes a small collection of films, and is involved in the publication of books and monographs on various aspects of Canadian cinema. The Institute presents a regular public programme of contemporary, historical, and international cinema in the National Capital region, presented in the Auditorium of the National Archives of Canada. It also curates and circulates a number of its film series to various cinematheques in other cities across Canada.

More information may be obtained from the Canadian Film Institute (telephone 232-6727, website www.cfi-icf.ca ) or from the Moving Pictures Festival (website www.movingpicturesfestival.com)

Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations, NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

Biographies

Award-winning director Laura Taler has been a child television actor, professional dancer and choreographer, and a producer of both performing arts and television programmes. Romanian-born Taler began choreographing at a young age, infusing her work with nostalgia and rebellion. Her exploration of the effect of movement in different media and in unusual places has led to performances intertwined with photography, text, and film footage. In 1991, she began producing Dances for a Small Stage, which ran for five years at Toronto's Rivoli Café. She also created such dance pieces as I Want to Be a Man, The Hunger Artists and the courier, as well as The Third Land and Lambton, Kent, and Other Vistas. Taler made her directorial debut in 1995 with the village trilogy, an award-winning filmdance. She also completed Heartland (winner of multiple awards in 1997) and co-produced Dances For A Small Screen, which was nominated for five Gemini awards in 1999. A VERY DANGEROUS PASTIME – a devastatingly simple dance guide, commissioned from Taler by the Canada Dance Festival, also drew numerous accolades and awards. Following Perpetual Motion (2002), Laura Taler began work on Death & the Maiden, a wordless love story expressed through music and gesture, set to and inspired by Schubert's string quartet of the same name.

At once a talented choreographer and a charismatic performer, José Navas studied dance in his native Venezuela before moving to New York to study at the Merce Cunningham Studio. He relocated to Montréal in 1991, where he worked with some highly reputed companies while starting his own choreographic work. In 1995, José Navas founded the Compagnie FLAK and decided to dedicate himself to his own creations. He has quickly become a regular at some of the world's most prestigious venues for contemporary dance: the Holland Dance Festival, Vienna's Im Puls Festival, London's Dance Umbrella, the Springdance Festival in Utrecht, and the Canada Dance Festival. His work has been internationally acclaimed for the universes he creates: formalistic, fantastic, a place where the audience's only compass is their own emotion. Recognized today as one of Canada's most important ambassadors for contemporary dance, Compagnie FLAK's repertoire contains over fifteen pieces. José Navas's unique creations have been performed in more than twenty countries.

Walter Haman is Principal Cellist of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy and the Napa Valley Symphony Orchestra. Born in Fresno, California, he began playing the cello at the age of 13 and made his first concerto appearance two years later. Winner of numerous prizes and awards, he has appeared in recitals and with orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. In 1993, he was the First Prize winner of the American String Teachers Association Solo Competition, and in 1998, he won the Elizabeth Harper Vaugn Competition as well as the Shenson Award. In 1997, he received a Masters Degree, with Special Distinction, from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser. Also a frequent performer of new music, Walter Haman has worked with many leading composers, including John Adams, William Bolcolm, Bernard Rands, Steven Rouse, and Gunther Schuller. He has given world premieres of works by Tamar Deisendruck, Alan Fletcher, John Heiss, and John Zorn, and has recorded music of Peter Blanchette, Tamar Deisendruck, David Kechley, and John Zorn.