Change Your Image
artsforum_magazine
Reviews
Eclipse (2013)
A cosmic dance
Innocence, vulnerability, and grace suffuse this new short film from filmmakers Linda Arkelian and David Cooper. Two male dancers swoop and turn as if gravity scarcely impedes them at all, as they explore and contemplate the universe and their place in it. There's gentleness and a tender tentativeness to their cosmic dance moves, as, all the while, a light source effectively mimics the sun. The result is lyrical and lilting, a most convivial union of moving images and music. "Eclipse" is a strong follow-up to the same filmmakers' 2012 debut, "Hands." It's the best kind of non-narrative filmmaking, in which theme, music, cinematography, choreography, concept, direction, and editing yield a beautifully evocative result -- a cosmic dance of the human race in its infancy striving to find its place among the stars.
Hands (2012)
Poetry in Motion
Two artists from separate disciplines have combined their talents to produce this lovely expression of beauty in motion. This short dance film from collaborators Linda Arkelian and David Cooper, exquisitely filmed in natural light, is a gorgeous expression of movement and mood set to the note-perfect piano music of Canadian pianist and composer Stephan Moccio. His composition "Ow" (from his album "Exposure") seems tailor made for this lovely, lyrical expression of dance's ability to transfix, entrance, and enchant. It is gracefully, and at times playfully, performed by Arkelian. The result is wonderfully expressive. Arkelian's choreography and performance and Cooper's cinematography conjure magic.