Ian Robinson and Nederlands Dans Theater members explore abstraction through movement in DADU

A choreographed short from Jacob Jonas The Company’s free film series, Films.Dance.

In DADU, four members of The Hague’s Nederlands Dans Theater – Kele Roberson, Annika Verplancke, Jesse Callaert and Mikaela Kelly – explore abstraction through the framing of movement, in the setting of the Dutch hamlet of Spaarnwoude. Filmed on Super 16mm stock, the piece was directed and edited by Ian Robinson, a former dancer with Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company.

DADU was filmed during the pandemic in various locations around Spaarnwoude, including a stunning installation by Dutch sculptor Frans De Wit called Klimwand en Schijf in Grofpuinheuvel (Climbing Wall and Disc in a Mound of Rubble). The piece is part of Films.Dance, a free series at the intersection of dance, music, fashion, and film produced by LA-based Jacob Jonas The Company.

“Using the limitations of daylight and film, these dancers explore the terrain of Spaarnwoude and the relationships and space between them, looking for meaning in abstraction through the framing of movement,” says Films.Dance of the piece, which features cinematography by Amsterdam-based Sam du Pon and a score composed by Awir Leon, a singer-songwriter, producer and former dancer with Emanuel Gat Dance.

Films.Dance was launched by two Los Angeles cultural institutions, the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, in partnership with Chicago’s Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater and Somewhere Magazine to create a series of 15 free films shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, which have involved the participation of more than 150 artists from 25 countries.

You can watch all of the Films.Dance programme at the project’s website.

Credits:

Dadu

Director & Editor: Ian Robinson
Choreography in collaboration with the dancers.
Featuring: Jesse Callaert, Mikaela Kelly, Kele Roberson, Annika Verplancke
Composer: Awir Leon
Cinematographer: Sam du Pon
1st AC: Alyssa van Veen
Color: Will Adashek
Line Producer: Daan Dagevos / Since ’88
Still Photographer: Laura Zalenga
Special Thanks: Jann Maätita, Camalot, Studio L’equipe

Films.Dance

Produced by Jacob Jonas The Company
Executive Producer/Creative Director: Jacob Jonas
Producers: Jill Wilson, Emma Rosenzweig-Bock, Mathieu Wothke
AssociateProducers: Joy Isabella Brown, Francisco Cruz, Steve Hackman, Emily Kikta, Rubberlegz, Anibal Sandoval, Mike Tyus, Peter Walker
In partnership with Somewhere Magazine
Co-presented by Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts