Dance for Camera | Saint Mary’s College

Description

This course is an introduction to the hybrid art form of screendance. Through in-class demonstrations and hands-on time in a studio environment, students will learn fundamental cinematography and editing skills with an emphasis on how they can be used to accentuate the body in motion. We will analyze experimental films, Hollywood musicals, music videos, and emerging platforms for screendance such as social media and virtual reality to understand how they create engaging dance experiences on a screen. Students will explore different tools the director can employ, such as a staged or improvised shoot, while maintaining a sense of intention with each shot.

The culminating project for the class will be a short dance film. Students will be guided through the creative process of developing a concise concept for their final project.

About Ben Estabrook

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Ben Estabrook specializes in translating dance to the screen. He has directed and shot dance films that have screened at Cinedans, Dance on Camera, Dance Camera West, the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and other festivals across the globe. During the pandemic, he brought ballet to the screens of dance lovers as the digital content producer at San Francisco Ballet.

He is currently a lecturer at Saint Mary's College and has worked as a lecturer at UC Berkeley and the University of Utah, and has given guest lectures and workshops on screendance at Stanford University, Young Artist Platform of Dance in Beijing, Southwest University in Chongqing, Mills College, and Brigham Young University. He is a founding staff member of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, for which he serves as the technical director. In 2015, he attended the first Symposium for Teachers of Screendance at the American Dance Festival. Additionally, he has participated in dance film workshops with Thierry de Mey and Katrina McPherson.

His interest in screendance led him to the University of Utah, where he studied under Ellen Bromberg and graduated with an MFA in Film & Media Arts and a Graduate Certificate in Screendance in 2014. He is thrilled to once again be living in San Francisco where he cheers on the Warriors with his wife and immerses himself in VR in his spare time.

Info

Spring 2024
Enrollment for this class is open to MFA Dance students at Saint Mary’s College.