Film Festival Reviews

Movie Review: “If The Dancer Dances”


 

“If the Dancer Dances” follows a group of New York City’s top modern dancers as they reconstruct an iconic and mysterious work by the legendary Merce Cunningham, revealing what it takes to keep a dance alive. Timed to coincide with Cunningham’s centennial, the film confronts one of the most urgent issues facing the dance world today: how do we prevent the loss of masterworks to time?

American choreographer Stephon Petronio decides to continue to express and challenge himself by preparing his dancers for Merce Cunningham’s performance of “Rain Forest.” “Rain Forest” premiered in 1968 and was considered unconventional, raw and earthy. There are also no still moments in the performance, the movements are animalistic and have a sense of constant awareness and control. Merce was considered very unique in his teaching and would never explain too much or teach with music. Merce taught his choreography through snapping his fingers and counting with a stopwatch.

To help with technique and choreography, Stephon brought over dancers from the Merce Dance Company to ensure its accuracy. At first, the moves look very mechanical, lack feeling and intent but over time, the dancers learn to open up, trust their bodies and retrain themselves how to learn.

I thought this documentary was beautiful with some amazing footage of the original “Rain Forest” performance with Merce himself. Commentary of the original dancers of the 1977 performance includes Meg Harper, Gus Soloman Jr. and Albert Reid, who all explain the specific way in which they interpreted and learned Cunningham’s work. The documentary ends with the final performance of “Rain Forest,” which I thought was executed beautifully. If you love the art of dance, you are going to appreciate this documentary.

 

“Now playing in select theaters

 

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Malika Harris

Malika is a Writer from NYC who loves movies and talking about them.