Warm and breezy sweeps the mood of this short dance film called, SOLARA. The choreography is by Shauna Walker and the film is directed and edited by Barry Walker. The dancers are Shauna Walker, Denesa Chan, Jeroen de Wit, Joshua McBride and Lisa Moore.
This short dance film was shot on site in the Mojave Desert which is located in southeast California, US. The piece shows a group of people from different walks of life coming together by a shared desire to make some kind of difference. They are drawn together to an exact location in the Mojave Desert with a collective deep desire to connect with their environment and with each other to take a journey together. The energy builds, the winds start to blow and the day passes by till they successfully achieve their sweet reward…..the delicious cool rain.
I am taken by the warm colors of the desert and how the dancers come together one by one in the lone, empty and arid hot place. The dance seems to me to be a sacred ritual that so many civilizations have done before, to dance for rain. Everything about this film is simple. The setting is simple in color and in space. The five dancers are dressed simply in bare feet and the movement is simple, lyrical with some beautiful images that give a sense of spacious freedom. The drumming of their feet against the hard sand is an unexpected act that is primal and powerful in their call for rain.
The opening shot of the film shows a lone dancer standing in the sacred desert space is she begins the ritual dance. With long wide shots we see each dancer join her as they build up in unity by dancing together in unison. These wide views are interspersed with close ups that show various shots, angles and directions of the dancers. I enjoyed the shots of the dancers running and leaping into the sand across the desert in a large circle, as if they were in worship anointing the sacred ground, only to return to their starting places again. It was a sharp dynamic contrast to the fairly stationary sequences that came before and after.
It looks so warm dancing in the desert! Their clothes and hair blowing in the breeze as they reach and move with abandonment giving a wonderful sense of freedom! This is a lovely dance film to watch!
Enjoy this warm and breezy sojourn in the Mojave Desert and SHARE
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