A young dancer enters frame, and walks into an empty industrial warehouse…
No, this is not the opening line for one of those jokes, rather it’s the opening frames of Wide Open, a beautiful new video and dance short by The Chemical Brothers featuring Beck. As the dancer enters we take in the raw space, looking as if it was recently inhabited by an auto-mechanic – with ladders, pallets, and planks of wood leaning against walls lined with dirt and grease. Barelegged and dressed only in dance shorts and a tee shirt, the camera begins following the dancer wide from behind, then circles alongside and around, and finally tightens into a close up to meet her intensely troubled gaze head on. As the camera widens out again she begins to move, and looking down, we see as she herself realizes, that one leg is suddenly completely transparent, devoid of muscle or bone, outlined in a white ribbon that looks like a technological pre-visualization drawing. She begins to dance in a kind of muted anguish.
Choreographed by the brilliant British choreographer Wayne McGregor with stunning dance by the Japanese and British model/ballerina Sonoya Mizuno, Wide Open is shot entirely on steady cam in a single take. Directed by the duo Nic Goffey and Dominic Hawley, aka Dom & Nic, Wide Open features camera work that is beautifully and seamlessly choreographed to compliment the dance at every juncture. Gradually, as Mizuno dances, we watch as each of her limbs and finally her entire body becomes nothing more than an empty outline, ribboned in white, with a red beating heart – the last vestige of her humanity – visible inside.
Wide Open reads like a kind of futuristic, Kafka-esque, metaphorical plea… An allegorical warning against the potential dehumanization of technology, or perhaps of a time in the not too distant future when we might have chips implanted for convenience to replace external computers or smart phones. The Chemical Brothers always take bold stances and seem to regularly feature edgy and confrontational dance in their music videos, and Wide Open is no exception. Watch and be warned…
And enjoy.
Founder/Director of Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival, Sarah Elgart is a Los Angeles based choreographer and director working under the auspice of Sarah Elgart | Arrogant Elbow. Sarah creates original content for stage, screen, and site-specific venues. Her stage and site-works have been performed at alternative spaces including LAX Airport, The Skirball Center, Mark Taper Forum, Van Nuys Flyaway, The Bradbury Building, Jacob’s Pillow, INSITU Site-Specific Festival NY, and Loft Seven, where she created a rooftop work lit entirely by a hovering helicopter accompanied by Nels Cline (Wilco). Her work has been produced by venues including The Music Center, MASS MoCA, Dance Place, Los Angeles Theater Center, Mark Taper Forum and The International Women’s Theater Festival. In film Sarah has worked with noted directors including JJ Abrams, David Lynch, Catherine Hardwicke, and Anton Corbijn. Her own films include award-winning music videos, dance shorts, and an Emmy nominated PSA, and continue to be accepted into festivals internationally. In addition to teaching dance and film, Sarah writes a regular column, ScreenDance Diaries that focuses on the intersections of both genres internationally for online magazine Cultural Weekly. Sarah’s work has received support from organizations that include the Rockefeller Foundation, the NEA, City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, California Arts Council and more. She is an alumna of the Sundance Institute’s Dance Film Lab, a Fellow of AFI’s Directing Women’s Workshop, and a director member of the DGA.