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Human Touch

I was first introduced to the work of Margot Gelber when she submitted a film she choreographed and directed to Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival (D2D), the LA based, international Dance Film Festival that I founded. Even after eleven years of running D2D, whenever new submissions arrive I receive them like small, surprising, and beautifully adorned gifts to cherish. 

Performance

If I Were You, a film by Margot Gelber

Place

Words

Still from “If I Were You,” a film by Margot Gelber

I was not disappointed—I was wowed. Gelber’s stunning dance film, If I Were You (with dramaturgy and co-directed by Rebecah Goldstone) begins quite literally with a face in hands. With the camera POV looking upwards from underneath, we see a medium shot of the hands of dancer Marlie Couto cupping the head and face of dancer Jesse Lee Thorne (who also produced the film). Both dancers are stunning, carrying the film forward as it navigates the nuances, complexities, and expectations of a relationship. The first notes of the original score by Sami Freeman are almost hesitant, not immediately establishing a rhythm, and yet incredibly hopeful. And the film proceeds accordingly, with the two dancers traversingthe complexities of modern love told with a nuance that no human language can touch, the wordless poetry of dance film.

Still from “If I Were You,” a film by Margot Gelber

Still from “If I Were You,” a film by Margot Gelber

The choreography is beautifully unpretentious and honest. For me, it does not immediately represent any genre of dance other than being profoundly human and genuinely felt. The stunning cinematography by David Markun captures all the angles of the structure and complements the dance as well. It looks as if the team followed a choreographed piece, and created movement and shots based on the beauty of the site, of the angles and of the day overall. The editing by Anna Tse is flawless. The whole film is at once technically astute and challenging, yet genuinely felt, simple, and profound. If I Were You  is additionally enhanced by a stunning location—the iconic Eric Wright house, located 2,000 feet above the Pacific coast in the hills of Malibu, California. The house itself is open and unfinished, with a panoramic view of ocean, hills and sky. The light and color of the film is embellished by LA’s oft blue-grey cloudy coastal skies.

Besides being awarded an honourable mention at D2D, If I Were You has won awards and accolades at several international dance film festivals. And if you happen to be in NYC on May 16 of this year, you can see live work by both Gelber and Thorne, as well as colleague Laja Field, at Triskelion Arts. 

Sarah Elgart

Sarah Elgart is an award winning choreographer, director, movement director, and producer, creating original content for stage, site and screen, whose work has been seen internationally. Sarah’s ScreenDance Diaries is one of the first articles on the genre of Dance Film (originally for Cultural Daily). An alumna of the Sundance Institute’s Dance/Film Lab, AFI’s DWW, and a director member of the DGA, Sarah is Founder/Director of Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival. 

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