Mutable Bodies: Abstraction and Modern Dance in 1960s Argentina

Abstract

A frontal shot of a slowly moving, faceless body rising vertically from the floor as it forms a triangle with legs and arms opens the first known work of video dance in Argentina. The 10.25 minute piece was filmed on black-and-white 16 mm stock by Argentine filmmaker Marcelo Epstein in 1969, and features experimental dancer and choreographer Ana Kamien. As the initially dark frame becomes illuminated, the dancer appears immersed in a black scenery, which contrasts sharply with the contours of the white leotard that covers her body. Her horizontally extended legs form the base for a torso that moves back and forth, side to side, accompanied by tensely symmetrical arms that fold and extend, depart from the core and return to it, leaving the fingers of each hand reaching to the outside (Fig. 1). Sixteen seconds into the dance, a woman begins to read a poem as...