Making Video Dance

This short video dance was filmed during the time that I was undertaking the Diploma in Electronic Imaging from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and completed in the following year. The starting point for the concept of the film was to draw together the moments and rhythms of highly stylised ballroom dance with the relaxed idiom of postmodern dance choreography, juxtaposing the forms and creating unique into screendance through montage editing.

Swoop was filmed on Hi Band Umatic, a 3/4 inch tape which was the high-end format used at the School of Television at DJCA at that time. As a director and editor, I had been exploring the creative possibilities of the repetition and looping of shots since starting to make video dance in 1989. In many ways, the looping of images and sounds in SWOOP represents the most complex and detailed of this approach to editing that was possible when working on analogue tape. It would not be until 3 years later, with the editing of Pace on the new non-linear digital edition system AVID that I was able to push the repetition to a greater extreme, through effectively ‘cutting and pasting’ shots. The desire to do so, however, is evident in SWOOP.

Working with sound designer and dubbing mixer John Cobban for the first time, the soundtrack for SWOOP was created specially for the film, and is based on actuality /synch sounds made by the dancers as they performed that were recorded on location. John took these sounds and layered and looped them into the soundtrack. When I was editing, we went back and forth a number of times to adjust the structure and timing of the visual and sonic material. Although the first time that John and I worked together, this set the process that we have continued to work with in our collaborations in the 29 years since.

Swoop has rarely been screened. It was made at the time when there were very few screendance festivals and prior to the Internet. In 2016, I received funds from Creative Scotland to digital video dance works that I had made on tape between 189 - 1995. Swoop was one of the works and I am happy to share it here.

Choreographed by Massimo Agostinelli (Canada) and directed by Katrina McPherson (Scotland), this short silent screendance was designed to be screened as part of a live performance of Massimo's choreography, presented in Montreal in 1993.

The live show and the film shared the title L'Angelo Caduto (the Fallen Angel), representing it as a work that celebrated and mourned the many wonderful individuals - friends and colleagues - that international dance community, and Massimo and Katrina personally, lost to the AIDS pandemic.

The film was shot in the shabby Georgian splendour of Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms. It was shot on remainders off-cuts of 16 mm film, donated by STV's N.B. culture magazine programme.

Dancers: Annie Gillespie; Karen Grant; Bridget McCarthy; Aled (second name?) and a fifth dancer whose name is not recorded.

Cinematography: Kathy Friend

Editor: Katrina McPherson

Choreography: Massimo Agostinelli

Director: Katrina McPherson

A Film in the Fridge Production, 1993.

Co-directed and performed by Katrina McPherson and Quebec choreographer Harold Rheaume, this new screen dance collaboration was funded by the British Council (BC), the ministère de la Culture et des Communications (MCC) du Québec et le ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie (MRIF) du Québec.

Paysages Mixtes/Mixed Landscapes was premiered at RISE Festival in Findhorn on 5 May 2019 and was subsequently presented by Katrina and Harold at Screendance.Scotland, a festival that took place in Perth on 10-12 May, 2019.

Paysages Mixtes / Mixed Landscape had its Canadian film premiere at Le Festival de Cinema de la Ville de Quebec, taking place 15 and 16 September 2019 at La Maison Pour La Danse

Paysages Mixtes/Mixed Landscapes was selected to be included in the library of the influential IMZ Dance Screen Festival which took place in Germany in November 2019.

As a result of having seen Paysages Mixtes/Mixed Landscapes film whilst taking part in a screendance workshop taught by Katrina McPherson in Scotland in the summer of 2019, the director of the Dance Camera West Festival in Los Angeles programmed the film for a the opening screening of the Festival at the Redcat Theatre in Los Angeles on 9 January 2020, and invited Katrina to be there to present the film, alongside another of her works, There is a Place (2010). That evening, Katrina was awarded a Career Achievement Award, alongside the choreographer Edouard Lock.

In April 2020, Paysages Mixtes/Mixed Landscapes was selected as part of the programme of the long-running and influential Movies by Makers Screendance Festival at the American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina.

A performance installation by Natalia Barua, Simon Ellis and Katrina McPherson.

The collaborating artists have written:

“During a 2 week residency in Edinburgh and Glasgow in March 2018, we explored ideas that feel important to us as artists working with performance, cameras and screens. Through discussion and creative exploration, we engaged with ideas of agency, embodied camera and the female gaze, we read Rebecca Solnit and Virginia Woolf and listened to a talk by Jill Soloway, we looked out at a snow bound city and experimented with projectors. All this contributed to a presentation of the work in progress at The Work Room in early March 2018, which we introduced with the following text:

Humans upload nearly 300,000 photos to the internet every minute. The scale of our immersion in visual culture – the ways in which images act on us, and shape our thinking and habits – is impossible to comprehend. With each image, the ways we see and are seen are changed. Gaze is a project that explores the work of images in shaping our lives, our thoughts, our politics and our autonomy.

 We are Katrina McPherson, Natalia Barua and Simon Ellis, three cis-gendered dance artists working through performance, installation and film. We have just completed two weeks of research and development in Edinburgh and Glasgow supported by Creative Scotland and The Work Room. The project was initiated by Katrina McPherson to explore perceptions of memory, archival practices, the relationship between what is remembered and what is documented and the presence of screens in dance and in life. As our practices and conversations evolved during the fortnight we started to focus on ideas, questions and reading to do with:

 - privilege: who is seen by whom and how?

- the ways in which power is present and absent in front of and behind cameras

- the male and the female gaze

- the primacy and power of images in our visual culture and the currency of the live body “

Supported by The Work Room, Creative Scotland and C-Dare (Centre for Dance Research) at Coventry University.

we record ourselves (2016). A single-screen dance film and 22-monitor screen dance installation created with dance artists Simon Ellis, Natalia Barua, and Owa Barua.

Katrina was commissioned to make this work and by Threshold arts, Perth as part of a residency at the Margaret Morris Archive. Its creation was also supported by Creative Scotland and the University of Coventry.

In June 2017, we record ourselves won the competition to be re-worked for the 10-meter high MediaWall at Bath Spa University as part of the Journal of Media Practice and MeCCSA Practice Network Annual Symposium. The single-screen version of we record ourselves has since been screened at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Light Moves Festival of Screen Dance in Ireland; Quebec City Film Festival, Canada and Opine Dance Film Festival in Philadelphia, USA.

Coire Ruadh (2015). Co-directed by Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes, this screendance work was filmed by Katrina in the Cairngorm Mountains, working with dance artists Frank McConnell, Ruth Jensen and Robbie Synge.

The single screen version of Coire Ruadh has been presented at over 20 international festivals including the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, USA, Danca em Foco in Brazil, Videodanza in Argentina and Light Moves Festival in Ireland.

Goat Media now holds the distribution rights for Coire Ruadh. The link here takes you to their vimeo page, where the work is available as pay-per-view.

Uath Lochans (2014) Co-directed by Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes, and featuring dance artists Marc Brew, this screendance work was filmed by Katrina in the foothills of the Cairngorm Mountains.

Uath Lochans has been presented at has been screened at more than 35 dance film festivals world-wide including in Ireland, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, USA, UK, India, Spain and Sweden. 

Goat Media now holds the distribution rights for Uath Lochans. The link here takes you to their vimeo page, where the work is available as pay-per-view.

In 2011, Katrina received individual artist funding from Creative Scotland to make this single screen work, which she filmed on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, working with dance artists Rosalind Masson, Simon Ellis, and Dai Jian. Co-directed by Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes, and with a soundtrack by James Weaver and David Lintern, The Time It Takes has had over 40 international festival screenings including in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Montreal, Tokyo & Stockholm. 

There is a Place (2010). Made in collaboration with Chinese Tibetan dancer/choreographer Sang Jijia and Simon Fildes, with a soundtrack by Philip Jeck, this short film was funded by Creative Scotland, Dance House Glasgow and CCDC, Hong Kong.  The film won Jury Prize for Best Screendance at San Francisco Dance Film Festival in 2011, with many international screenings including in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Utah & Buenos Aires.

Away From Here (2011)

Directed by: Katrina McPherson
Choreographed by: Frank McConnell

The wilderness landscape of the Scottish Highlands, where I lived for 15 years, has featured significantly in my collaborative screendance works, many of which I have filmed as well as directed. A desire to consider the natural environment not just as background, but rather as a mutual presence, even performer in the work, lead to the exploration of landscape over e series of works, including those that were choreographed Away From Here (2011) and those that were improvised, such as The Time It Takes (2012), Uath Lochans (2014) and Coire Ruadh (2015).

In her article entitled “Bodies in place: location as collaborator in dance film.” published in the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Melanie Kloetzel writes the following about Away From Here:

“Dramatic tension develops between performers and site as long shots contrast with amplifying close ups of bodies investigating place. Directly in the middle of the 13-minute film, for a full one minute and 15 seconds, the place is shown in full glory, almost absent of a dancing body. Again, we see the place as a character in motion – steady shots highlight the swaying of the trees, butterflies flitting between flowers, ferns bobbing in the wind, and clouds moving rapidly across the sky.”
(Published online: 16 Jul 2014.)

In the current time of climate crises, and an increasingly on-line, un-embodied existence, need to re-connect with the natural environment has become even more crucial. I feel that the approaches that I have developed towards making work that does this can support a healthier relationship to the natural world.

Dancers: Karin Fisher-Potisk, Kate Gowar, Robert Tannion and Matthew Morris.

A 30-minute screen dance work directed by Katrina McPherson, with choreography by Paulo Ribiero and Fin Walker and produced by Ricochet Dance Productions, 2003.

Commissioned for the Arts Council England's 'Capture' series in 2001, Sense-8 was a collaboration with Touchdown Dance, working with sighted and visually impaired dancers in the Contact Improvisation form. The Dance Director was Katy Dymoke and the Screen Director was Katrina McPherson.

Moment was awarded Best Screen Choreography award at the IMZ Dance Screen Festival in Monaco, with screenings at many festivals, curated programmes and on broadcast TV across the world, including at Moving Pictures, Canada, Mostra Video Danza, Barcelona, and Rotation ’03 in Helsinki, Finland.

Pace was choreographed and performed by Marisa Zanotti, directed by Katrina McPherson, with a specially composed soundtrack by Philip Jeck. Pace was commissioned in 1995 for the BBC/Arts Council of Great Britain’s prestigious Dance for the Camera series and was broadcast on BBC2.

Pace has subsequently had numerous international festival screenings including at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany, IMZ Dance Screen, and Rotation ’03 in Helsinki, Finland. The work has been written about extensively and in February 2015, Pace was curated by John Akomfrah to be part of the History is Now exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London. Most recently, Pace has had public screenings at the Regards Hybride Festival in Montreal, November 2019 and as part of the Scottish Academy + Visual Arts Scotland Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy Gallery in Edinburgh, December 2019 – February 2020.

A documentary featuring the renowned improvising dance artist Kirstie Simson. Over five years, Katrina McPherson filmed Kirstie Simson performing and teaching across Europe, culminating in a one-off performance with Michael Schumacher, Kenzo Kusuda and Dai Jian at the Universal Hall in July 2010. Force of Nature combines specially filmed performance, documentary footage and in-depth interviews with Kirstie, in which she talks about her life-long practice, and her passionate belief in the power of dance to bring people together and transform lives.

Kirstie Simson has been a continuous explosion in the contemporary dance scene, bringing audiences into contact with the vitality of pure creation in moment after moment of virtuoso improvisation. She is an award-winning dancer and teacher who has "immeasurably enriched and expanded the boundaries of New Dance". according to Time Out Magazine, London.

2001 UK Pal.

Directed and filmed by Katrina McPherson, edited by Simon Fildes.

This is a film about a project that celebrates the creativity and potential of the women of HMP Holloway. For five demanding weeks nearly 200 women contributed their time and skills to a challenging and demanding programme that brought together dance in performance, dance on film, original writing and the design and making of costumes and backdrops. It culminated in a live performance to an audience of inmates and guests.

The challenge in making this film was to capture the essence of the incredible work being done by Royston Maldoon, his colleagues, and the people they work with. We strove to create a documentary that contained the factual information that needs to be imparted and whilst at the same time communicate the power and potential of dance as a means of expression and as a tool for social change.

Dance United works with marginalised groups and divided communities promoting dance as a means of raising esteem and changing attitudes. The approach is distinctive. The work is with people, not issues, and with individuals, not labels. At the heart of the work is a passionate belief in the power and joy of dance and its transforming potential.

Produced by Goat Media for Dance United.

Directed and filmed by Katrina McPherson and edit by Simon Fildes.

This documentary celebrates the power of the creative arts by profiling the successful Adugna Community Dance Theatre in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.

What began as an experimental project in the streets of Addis Ababa is now a vibrant, internationally acclaimed, success story. It is a story of a struggling urban population and of empowerment; a story of social outreach and advocacy and of feeding skills back into the community. It is the story of young people from the streets of Addis Ababa who are radically changing their lives and the lives of others. This film celebrates the culmination of five years of intensive work by the Adugna dancers under the artistic direction of Royston Maldoom, Mags Byrne, and their Anglo-Ethiopian team. Adugna has already achieved a high profile with performances at both local and international levels. Adugna demonstrates the tremendous potential not only of Ethiopia’s youth but of all young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Adugna Community Dance Theatre is testimony to what can be achieved when the creative arts are given a central role in

human and social development.

The challenge in making these films was to capture the essence of the incredible work being done by Royston, his colleagues, and the people they work with. We strove to create two films that contain the factual information that needs to be imparted and whilst at the same time communicate the power and potential of dance as a means of expression and as a tool for social change.

Dance United works with marginalised groups and divided communities promoting dance as a means of raising esteem and changing attitudes. The approach is distinctive. The work is with people, not issues, and with individuals, not labels. At the heart of the work is a passionate belief in the power and joy of dance and its transforming potential.

Produced by Goat for Dance United.

Pictureshow (1997 & 98), a live screendance work made in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Harold Rheaume (Quebec), writer Marianne Carey (Scotland) and composer Haftor Medboe (Scotland). Performed in Glasgow and at Tangente Theatre in Montreal.

Pictureshow was filmed and directed by Katrina McPherson.

This short film was made in collaboration with choreographer Harold Rheaume during a two week residency with Le Groupe de la Place Royale in Ottawa, Canada. We had been invited to explore the creative possibilities of dance for the screen by Le Groupe's dynamic director, Peter Boneham. It was an exciting opportunity its for us as young artists, to work with the dancers of Le Groupe, as well as a cameraperson, and to film on location (in an old prison which hd been converted into a Youth Hostel). Harold and I then went on to collaborate on Pictureshow, a live screen dance performance work which we made in 1997.

Fragments II is a video dance work by Katrina McPherson, made in 1991 whilst she was a student on the post-graduate Electronic Imaging course at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Arts in Dundee, Scotland.

Fragments II was made with Randomoptic Pick Up Company which Katrina co-founded with Vanessa Smith and Karen Grant, fellow graduates of the Laban Centre, London.

Dancer/ choreographer: Vanessa Smith
Camera: Ruth Clark
Director and editor: Katrina McPherson

Ellipse is the first ‘video dance’ made by Katrina McPherson. Filmed and edited on SVHS, Ellipse was conceived as a single screen work and as the video component of a live performance for dancer and ‘video piano, conceived and directed by Katrina, danced by Vanessa, with piano composition and performance by Annie Gillespie. This was work presented at the Robin Howard Theatre, Glasgow, by Randomoptic Pick Up Company (1989- 1993), which Katrina and Vanessa Smith co-founded with Karen Grant.

A compelling portrait of how we are: demanding; fragile;playful... There is something we should all know and understand about each other.

Choreography/direction: Janice Parker

Camera/direction: Katrina McPherson

Performers: Chris Murray, Robin Pritchard, Nenny Rollo, Adrian Ross,

James Scott; Janice Parket, Karen Anderson

Video Assistant: Eveline Nicolette

Editor: Simon Fildes

Soundtrack: John Cobban

Production Co-ordinator: Joanna van den Berg for Lung Ha’s Theatre Company. 

There’s Something You Should Know is the outcome of a year-long performance and video project which explored ways of enabling people with a learning disability to work with drama, dance and video specialists to create individual and collective artworks.

There’s Something You Should Know was a collaboration with dance-artists Janice Parker (Creative Scotland Award winner, 2004) and Karen Anderson of Independence (Glasgow), to engage with a group of people who have severe learning disabilities and often very limited physical movement, to create a video dance work.

Methods employed during the filming process drew on the research that I have done in previous projects into the use of improvisation as a core element of making video dance. The soundtrack was created with actuality sounds recorded whilst filming, a technique that we have developed together over a number of screen-based works. The resulting 6-minute single screen work combines the formal aesthetics of non-narrative video dance, whilst at the same time foregrounding performers who would otherwise not be seen within the public domain. There’s Something You Should Know has been recognized as an innovative and challenging example of its genre and has been selected for screening as part of a number of high-profile international curated screen dance and video art programmes.

International screenings: Traverse Theatre as part of In Transit, a Scottish Arts Council study-day on Arts and Disabilities (21/06/05) and as part of curated programmes: at the Rotation 2005 Festival at the Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki, Finland (18/10/05); New Territories Festival at Tramway, Glasgow (8-12/02/06) as part of the CRATE ‘Captured: Performance to Camera’ programme (curators: Lei Cox and Pernille Spence) also at Threshold Space, Perth, Scotland (27/10/06); at the Opensource: (videodance) conference (18/06/06); the Ultima Film - Dance for the Camera Festival in Oslo, Norway (01/10/ 2006) and the Video Danza Festival International Festival de Buenos Aires, Argentina, (28/11/2006); Reelmoves Dance on Screen Festival, Sydney, Australia, (16/05/2008), as part of international artists screening; Dance Camera West ‘Screendance: a new visual language’ programme, Los Angeles, USA, (5 & 6/06/2008), ‘Screendance: State of the Art’ Festival, as part of the American Dance Festival, North Carolina, USA.

This is my director showreel from 1995. It includes excerpts from some dance films and arts docs that I directed for broadcast on the BBC and STV and features such stars as The Space Kittens, Thrum, Ewen Bremner in Trainspotting (stage version), Randomoptic, Russell Hunter and a young Kelly Macdonald.

A short musical film set on the streets of Glasgow, based on a story by Marianne Carey and directed by Katrina McPherson.

The film features veteran Scottish actor Russell Hunter and a young Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting; Gosford Park). Dancing, some days has an original score by Haftor Medboe and was choreographed by Stuart Hopps.

It was produced by Jane Skinner and commissioned by the Scottish Film Production Fund, British Screen and Scottish Television, in association with The Scottish Arts Council. (7 mins; 1996).