A new feature-length dance film by director John Bush
This groundbreaking film, created in collaboration with choreographer Nadine Helstroffer, portrays dance as urban pilgrimage. SHIMMER was shot entirely outdoors on the streets and in the parks of New York City and environs. Photographed in shimmering light, each dance scene yields a unique moment in the natural life of a great city - radiant in its fleeting passage while reflecting our own evanescence.
SHIMMER is suffused with universal Buddhist themes celebrating the impermanence, radiance and fluidity of being - the elusiveness of it all within the precious gift of each moment. This compelling film merges both dance and the environment into a world of poignant transience. In each new setting, Nadine shares her choreographic vision through a cast of eight dancers, expressing this intertwining mystery of ephemeral beauty, awakening and urban life.
The DVD also includes ABSENCE PRESENCE
FEATURE LENGTH • 55
MINUTES • $19.95 (Availabe June,08)
DVDs are Region 0 and encoded to work on all players worldwide |
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“Nadine Helstroffer is one of dance's treasures --
a poetic, luminous performer
whose choreography
reflects her insight into life, nature and spirituality.”
ABSENCE PRESENCE, an on-site solo dance piece commissioned for Nadine Helstroffer by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, performed on the museum’s gallery floor of the exhibition "Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art" in 2005 and filmed by John Bush. The dancer moves through different locations along the gallery in a breathtaking journey of transformation.
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Review of ABSENCE PRESENCE:
"She began moving, imperceptly
at first, rather butoh-like. Accelerating
to slow, the dancer began to shed
the layers of gauze she had previously
untangled, like a tree drops its
leaves... Her arms now seemed
weightless and extraordinarily
fluid as she slowly opened her
eyes. We had witnessed a
startling transformation, akin
to the birth of a dancer or of
a dancing form of spirit or substance… To
finish, Helstroffer turned her
attention to the giant feet (of
the Buddha). At the feet
of the feet she recapitulated the
ethereal, mesmerizing, and fluid
arm and body movements exhibited
in the first section. She
ended the performance by kneeling
and disappearing behind the stone
pedestal - perhaps subsumed by
Buddha? Helstroffer is a
magnetic, compelling performer."
Philip
W. Sandstrom, The
Dance Insider
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Here is what the critics say about Nadine’s choreography:
“magical, ” “compelling,” “dreamlike” -- The New York Times
“fascinating,” “poignant,” “mysterious” -- Village Voice
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