28.4.23 - Bruce Conner, 'BREAKAWAY' screening at Nottingham Contemporary
Bruce Conner, BREAKAWAY (1966) will be shown as part of Movement and Momentum: A Dance for the Camera Screening at Nottingham Contemporary, Wednesday 3 May.
Further information
BREAKAWAY features the dancer, choreographer, and singer Toni Basil dancing energetically against an empty black backdrop to an upbeat soundtrack, a Motown-inspired pop song called Breakaway that she released in 1966 as the B-side to her first single, I’m 28. Throughout the film’s five minutes, Conner deploys dizzying camera zooms, stroboscopic effects, and rapid-fire cuts that transform Basil’s choreography into a psychedelic spectacle of pulsating, blurred, ecstatic movement.
The screening is programmed in relation to the current exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary – Carolyn Lazard: Long Take – which responds to the legacy of dance for the camera. Spanning almost fifty years of movement, it will be followed by a conversation between Rachael Davies and Rebecca Bellantoni who will unpack the nuance of this experimental form, its relation to their own practices, and more broadly how it has impacted art, access, and contemporary dance.
Movement and Momentum: A Dance for the Camera Screening
Wednesday 3 May 2023, 6.30–8pm
Nottingham Contemporary
Weekday Cross
Nottingham
NG1 2GB