All Your Modern Dance Heroes Made a Short Film Together

Some people fantasize about who they would want to invite to their dream dinner party. Here at Dance Magazine, we fantasize about which choreographers we would want to collaborate on our dream dance project.

The weird thing is that someone actually made the fantasy come to life. Filmmaker Mitchell Rose, a former choreographer/performance artist who often collaborates with dancers, got 42 choreographers from around the U.S. to create one long piece of solo choreography that strings together movement from one artist to the next. Each choreographer picks up where the other left off. Rose calls it “Exquisite Corps” (a play on the term exquisite corpse, in which a group of collaborators create a sequence, but each only sees the end of the previous contribution). Take a peek:

We love watching how the movement transforms as it gets passed along. It’s strangely satisfying to see how Susan Marshall’s subtle changes of direction flow into Faye Driscoll’s wild pizza-eating arabesque, and how Eiko Otake picks up Stephen Petronio‘s gestural motif, which Daniel Ezralow then keeps going before he jumps underwater. The project brings together so many dance icons from different generations and styles, sharing a short solo in their homes, studios and city streets. It’s like a great big group celebration of the booming creativity in American modern dance today.

Can we put in a request for a sequel? More please!