Up & Over It -- post-pop irish dance duo

Subject: Up & Over It -- post-pop Irish dance duo
From: CapriUni
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 06:05 PM

"Up and Over It" is Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding, two Irish stepdancers who (mostly with film maker Jonny Reed) explore the medium of Irish dance in a modern context -- dancing to current pop songs or to no music whatsoever (other than the music created by their bodies)

A friend of mine on LiveJournal cued me into them by posting a link to one of their videos on YouTube.

They often use the tensions created by the rhythms of step dancing as a theatrical medium to explore the emotional tensions within a scene.

Here are a few examples:
Hand Dance (July 2009)

State of Play (Peter Harding solo, dancing and walking in alleys and back lots of London)

Podium Live (July, 2010; filmed live on stage, dancing to techno music, and blending in elements of modern ballet. You may want to expand it to full screen to see them properly, some of the camera shots are filmed from a distance)

If you don't like artsy short film, or modern music, you might be completely put off. But I find their work intriguing, and it's got me thinking of video, itself, as a folk medium. After all, the technology of recording moving pictures is over a hundred years old, and cameras are so inexpensive and lightweight these days that video has become a way for "ordinary folk" to share their everyday experiences with other ordinary folks... so.

And even though I, personally find the work of these three "checkered," for my personal taste, it has got me noticing the musicallity of ordinary sound in a way I might not have, otherwise (such as the rhythms I'm creating typing out this post).