The term renaissance man is used rather too short film Ms. Peanut Visits New Atlas also created the 90-minute documentary freely these days, but it certainly applies to York (1999), before directing the Merce Cunningham: a Lifetime of Dance. And Charles Atlas, whose output includes film documentary feature The Legend in 2008, a year before Cunningham died, Atlas directing, lighting design, video art, set design, of Leigh (2002). The two filmed a production of the choreographer’s ballet live video improvisation, costume design and have remained close collaborators Ocean (inspired by Cunningham’s partner and documentary directing. – Atlas designed the lighting for collaborator John Cage) at the base of the For the past 30 years, Atlas has been best Clark’s production at the Barbican Rainbow Granite Quarry in Minnesota, the known for his collaborations with dancer and – but it was with another legendary performance unfurling against 160ft walls of rock. choreographer Michael Clark, who he began choreographer, who was himself Alongside his better-known works, Atlas has working with as a lighting designer in 1984. His a great influence on Clark, that directed more than 70 other films, fromAs Seen first film with Clark,Hail the New Puritan, was a Atlas came to prominence when on TV, a profile of performance artist Bill Irwin, mock documentary that followed dance’s punk he first mixed video and dance in to Put Blood in the Music, his homage to the renegade as his company, aided by performance the mid-1970s. diversity of New York’s downtown music scene artist Leigh Bowery and friends, prepared for Merce Cunningham was already of the late 1980s. In the early 1990s he made a new ballet. a leader of the avant-garde when What I Did Last Summer, a short film trilogy that First broadcast on in 1986, Hail Atlas joined his company as an celebrated New York’s gay subculture at a time the New Puritan mixed faux-cinéma vérité assistant stage manager, in 1970. when Atlas lost many friends to Aids. In 1999 style documentary with surreal interludes and He began filming him soon after, he released the filmIt’s a Jackie Thing, about extraordinary, dada-inspired dance pieces, set in experimental movement studies the excesses of Johnny Dynell and Chi Chi to the music of the Fall. Shot among the decay of shot between rehearsals. He became Valenti’s Jackie 60 parties, thrown in New York’s Thatcher’s Britain, the film now serves as a vital filmmaker in residence in 1974, Meatpacking District (Atlas’s home for many document of 1980s , when fashion, music, a role he held until 1983, during years) before its regeneration. art, dance and club culture collided. which time he became a pioneer Over the past decade, Atlas has become The pair continued their exploration of London’s of media and dance. “We really absorbed in live improvisation. His work with post- with their next collaboration, were committed to human experimental artists such as Mika Tajima and Because We Must. Recently screened to coincide movement and body, and what a William Basinski, electronic producers Christian with To a Simple, Rock’n’roll... Song, Michael Clark body could do,” Atlas explained Fennesz and Julianna Barwick, and his MC9 Company’s new ballet at the Barbican in London, during his installation-based work installation/performance in 2012, has seen him Because We Must was based on an original Charles Atlas and Collaborators, at compose and edit in real time. He’s also forged stage production from 1987. The piece mixed Tate Modern in 2013. “The way that new collaborative partnerships, such as Turning footage of that Sadler’s Wells performance with I learned from Merce is about really with New York band , hallucinogenic dream sequences and the surreal exploring all the possibilities of any a project that began in 2004. invention of club kid Leigh Bowery, who, as well given situation. We always started In January, Atlas has his first performance as appearing in the film in his own idiosyncratic with the questions and whether we in New York of his “stereoscopic 3D dance film”, outfits, co-designed all of the costumes with found the answer or not was not Tesseract, with choreographers Rashaun Stevie Stewart of 1980s fashion brand, and that important.” Mitchell and Silas Riener. Shortly after the longtime Clark collaborator, BodyMap. As well as collaborating with Michael Clark Company programme at the Atlas teamed up with Bowery and Clark again Cunningham on works that forever Barbican, we caught up with Atlas at his on the video installation Teach (1998) and the changed the way dance is filmed, studio in New York.

Words Andy Thomas Portrait Janette Beckman Images © Charles Atlas, courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York CHARLES ATLAS Famed for his filmic collaborations with choreographers Merce Cunningham and Michael Clark, over the past five decades Atlas has been pushing the boundaries of performance on screen. Charles Atlas

shot through the window. choreographed five solo dance about phrasing and Godfather where there were a lot of things going And then I made a short pieces and performed each one Atlas and Merce performance, all sorts on at the same time and they used cross-cutting Super 8 film of one of the in a different costume. The Cunningham, Westbeth of technical things between them. So we divided the studio into dancers from the company, last segment was particularly Studio, New York, 1970s about dance. He also separate spaces and had dancers doing different Valda Setterfield, doing one challenging as he choreographed developed my eye, so things and running from one space to another. This of Yvonne Rainer’s pieces it so he could appear on-screen I saw things like he was also the first time I used animated travelling during a residence in with all five costumes at once. The did so I didn’t need to mattes as transitions between shots. Before this Berkeley, California. That main thing we had to learn was the consult him as much I had only used cuts and never used dissolves, but became Valda Dances Yvonne relationship between the body and when editing. It was all I used them to connect to the movement so they from 1971 and was the first the camera and how to think in about rhythm and he would tear or crack into the next scene. time I had ever filmed dance. terms of multiple camera angles. was a master of that. But then I also picked up his Is the concept of space and the use of it one of When you started using How did the creative process work bad habits of being a your main interests? video was that your decision between the two of you? workaholic. I used to go I was interested in everything you could do with or Merce’s? He treated me like an equal, even to the studio every day. film, video and dance, so of course space was part I’d made a 16mm film of though there was a great difference of that. We never used special effects and always one of his dances called in our age and experience. I would tell What do you think respected what a body could do. Our work was Walkaround Time. That was him what kind of video ideas might Merce thought video based on the possibilities of the human body rather an existing stage piece from work for an upcoming piece and then brought to his work? than something you can only do on film. That was the repertoire of the company we would try and get those central to I couldn’t say from his never something that interested me. and so he didn’t choreograph the choreography. Before we started point of view, but I think it for the camera. I filmed the with moving the video camera we did it was an interesting first part at Zellerbach Hall stuff with a still camera, panning and challenge for him and he in Berkeley, using a single zooming, and then when we got it always liked challenges. handheld camera, then the right we started moving the camera. He was interested in section in Paris, where I That took about four pieces for us doing things he hadn’t rented three cameras and to get it right, because it gets really done before, in the same shot the final performance complicated when you move the way I was. So that’s why by Merce’s longtime dance camera and the dancers. I think we worked so well partner, Carolyn Brown, together. I thought he before she retired. Soon after What were the biggest challenges was the most interesting Merce said he wanted to start of filming dancers? I’m thinking in I had used one. We also used a dolly with a crane choreographer at the time and also working with video, so turned particular of pieces like Coast Zone arm to move around the dancers. We really were since. But I was part of that family to me. That was when we from 1983 – that must have been experimenting with depth of field with this piece. so maybe I’m a little prejudiced. Performance artist Bill Irwin in As Seen on TV, directed by Atlas, 1987 Atlas during a live collaboration with composer William Basinski, really started collaborating technically very difficult. Then we had cameras positioned around the room Strange Pilgrims, the Contemporary Austin, Texas, 2016 properly. I had never worked Everything is moving so it takes a and Merce threw a coin to determine where the You became known for your in video so bought a book lot of rehearsal. We always had the shoot would start and end. multi-channel video installations. Who were the first filmmakers to inspire you? called The Spaghetti City Video Manual and learned dancers for about six weeks, from When did you first use them? I was a big film buff in my early years. I was inspired everything from that. Then we spent three or four scratch. For the first four weeks, we I want to ask you about Merce’s use of the ancient The first one I did was in 1984 at by everything – from the New York underground to months just working on ideas before we began would rehearse the moves and work philosophical text, the I Ching. the Pompidou Centre in Paris. I also Hollywood. From the New York underground it was working on a piece called Westbeth. out how that interacted with the The I Ching was really part of Merce’s constant did something similar with Merce, really Andy Warhol and Stan Brakhage. I also really cameras. Then the last two weeks work in all of his pieces in various ways. There though, where we used to have live liked movie musicals, but at the same time people Could you talk about your next piece from 1976, were when we did the shooting. That were various elements of pieces that used some cameras with monitors and screens. like Carl Dreyer and Jean-Luc Godard. I had a wide Blue Studio: Five Segments, when you started to was just a matter of doing it over and form of chance methods to make decisions. That was like the third piece we did range of tastes – everything from D.W. Griffith to explore the possibilities of video and dance? over again until we got it right. For together, called Fractions, from 1978. Sam Fuller. Even though Merce never really liked watching Coast Zone, we used a moving crane You once said that Merce always started with a For that, I stationed video cameras himself, he was open to everything and shot to open, which was the first time question and whether you found the answer or not and monitors around the studio and What was your introduction to dance? was not that important. What were the other main the feed from each camera would Leigh Bowery and Rachel Auburn in Hail the New The Merce Cunningham Company. I hardly knew things you learned from him? appear on a monitor in a different Puritan, choreographed by Michael Clark, directed anything about dance before then. Before I started In the early days, we would sit there and watch place. This was really the start of my by Atlas, 1986 working with Merce, his work was the only dance all the takes together and I would learn everything live video editing, to create alternative I’d ever seen. And that was because I went to see it perspectives of the dancers or for Robert Rauschenberg [who created the décor different parts of the dance. for Cunningham’s work in the late 1950s] who was really my hero at the time. We never used One critic wrote that Fractions “tests the boundaries of perception… and in How did you move into making films yourself? special effects. turn demonstrates the inadequacy of I got a Super 8 camera in 1970 when I was 21. any one angle or structure”. You I started working on small personal films, doing Our work was could see this even more in a work these little home movies when I was travelling with like Channels/Inserts from 1982. the Merce Cunningham Company. My first work Still from Ocean, based only on the Channels/Inserts was using was called Cartridge Lengths and Long Shots and was choreographed by cross-cutting between different spaces filmed while we were on tour, just the things I saw Merce Cunningham, possibilities of the to show simultaneous dances. My along the way. Footage of me in a dressing room in directed by Atlas, 2011 inspiration for that was the parallel Because We Must, choreographed by Michael Clark, the Netherlands or the grey landscape of Pittsburgh human body. action of the wedding scene in The costumes by Leigh Bowery, directed by Atlas, 1989 84 J&N J&N 85 Charles Atlas

dance film and I told the I added a lot in the editing. It looks Johanna Constantine performing to live video editing within the installation MC9, producer I would do it like something you could do on your by Atlas, Tate Modern, London, 2013 Photograph courtesy of Tate Modern if I could work with computer now. But at that time, Michael Clark. And so I worked at this editing facility in we came up with the Ireland and I had to use about 10 idea of a half-hour dance machines at once. piece based on Echo and Narcissus [from Could you talk about your film work Greek mythology]. And from New York in the late 1980s? then by the time we got Put Blood in the Music focused on the proposal to Channel Sonic Youth and John Zorn, so it was 4 what they really really the two strands of New York’s wanted was an hour-long downtown scene of the late ’80s. Leigh Bowery and Atlas at Wigstock, New York, 1993 arts documentary for One was rock based and the other was television. So that’s the the jazz, free improv world. That was I was also interested in Secret of the Waterfall, budget I got. As I’ve said before, it was my love letter actually made for London Weekend where you used poetry rather than music. to London and the larger than life personalities Television, for Melvyn Bragg. Then That was with the choreographer Douglas Dunn of this underground scene that I knew couldn’t Son of Sam was shot in 1988 and was and was the first work I did for television. But last. Meeting Michael, Leigh Bowery and all these finished in 1991 and was a lot of I actually shot the piece in silence and put the different people in London was very important New York performers I knew from poetry into the piece in the edit. So the poetry to me. I felt very lucky to be in that position and the clubs. It was focused on the Aids affected the rhythm of the edit, rather than the I wanted to make something of it. epidemic and the violence of the time. rhythm of the dancers. I also shot the trilogy, What I Did Last As well as some wonderfully surreal dance pieces, Summer, including Butchers’ Vogue Shortly after this you began working with Michael it featured that hilarious improvised scene in that I made after being incensed by Clark. How would you compare working with Bowery’s apartment. Could you talk about that? Madonna’s appropriation of voguing. Michael to Merce? The plan was, we were going to shoot that day with These films were made with my It was completely different because Michael was Leigh, Rachel Auburn and Trojan. We knew that friends from the clubs and shot 21 and part of this whole underground scene in Michael was coming over and it was improvised around the Meatpacking District, 1980s London. But I got to use everything I had around an idea of them getting ready to go out. where I have lived since 1980. learned with Merce over the previous 10 years and And they were always going out to clubs. The way The other two films were called I started to apply it to a situation with Michael that I did it was each time we did a different take there Draglinquents and Disco 2000 was much more what my real life was like at the would be a set line to start out, and then they would and they were also coming from time. Less of the studio work I did with Merce and just go with that. My only instruction was: “You the clubbing mentality – so very performance. And once we did the intimate work with Merce, but I’ve never more the London scene at that time. I also didn’t don’t have to be nice to each other.” And I knew campy and sexy. performance in New York we went to Europe worked with them as work with Michael in the same way as Merce, they were good at that. Hail the New and did it for larger audience in big venues. choreographers before. because with Merce we worked much more on How do you compare the live video things together, and we had a lot more of a history. What was Leigh like to collaborate with? experimentation you are doing now Puritan was my You are now also working with different producers What is it about working with With Michael I basically picked things out of his He was completely cooperative and keen to do with what you were doing with Merce and DJs. You’ve done almost everything else so choreographers that continues work I thought I could do something with. anything and try anything. He really was fun. In in the 1970s? love letter to I wondered if you had ever considered making to inspire and challenge you? Because We Must, you can also see he was becoming I try not to repeat myself and I try music yourself? I just love dance and I love I think of Hail the New Puritan as being one of the more of a performer. He was never shy and retiring to engage with more and more London and the No, I have to draw the line somewhere. I have so performers. And I’ve always been very definitive documents of that creative time in before that, of course, but in terms of what he could complex situations. It’s certainly more many good musician friends and collaborators that much into collaborating. But this is London. Could you talk about the making of it? do on the stage he wasn’t that practised before. But challenging what I am doing now. I’ve larger than life I don’t need to. I guess I like to work with someone the first time I’ve done a major dance It started out as a proposal for a little half-hour he grew into it really quickly. always done a lot of planning and put else who is better at organising sounds. piece for a long time. It takes a lot a lot of thought into my previous work personalities that I of time, money and organisation to There was that with dance and now I am doing it live, What do you look for in producers you work with? actually pull these things off. incredible dream so that is really demanding. knew couldn’t last. I’ve only ever worked with electronic music sequence with the producers. And I normally work with music that Tesseract is at Empac, New York, Velvet Underground’s How did Turning come about? doesn’t have what you would call a regular beat. in January; Walker Art Center, ‘Venus in Furs’. Whose Me and Antony, or Anohni as she is I have done some things with pop music to Minneapolis, 16-18 March; and Still from a live audiovisual performance with idea was that? now known, were friends for 10 years accompany some of the parts of my films, but the Museum of Contemporary Art guitarist Fennesz, directed by Atlas, 2009 Michael had made a before we started working together. when I improvise or use live video I like the (MCA), Chicago, 23-25 March dance to the music and So I had seen a lot of his work already. more experimental electronic musicians. empac.rpi.edu walkerart.org it had started out as a The situation came up where Antony mcachicago.org single shot. Leigh had was to do a performance for the Could you talk about your upcoming piece with made the costumes, Whitney Biennial, in 2004. And Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Riener? Atlas’s work forms part of the which we didn’t see until he asked me to collaborate with him. Half of it will be a stereoscopic 3D film, projected exhibition Merce Cunningham: the day of the shoot. I was doing live video by then but I on the screen with the audience wearing glasses. Common Time, at the Walker Art The dancers were kind didn’t think I was ready to do it for And then the second half will be live dance with Center, Minneapolis, and MCA, of freaked out that they the stage. But he convinced me to go live cameras and live mixing, projected on the Chicago, from 11 February; and the Atlas on the set of The Pedestrians, a live installation with had to wear outfits with ahead and do it. My idea was to put screen in front of the dancers. So it’s two different Robert Rauschenberg exhibition at Mika Tajima and New Humans, South London Gallery, 2011 masks, so they couldn’t women on a revolving platform and kinds of 3D. The performance is called Tesseract the Museum of Modern Art, New Photograph Mark Blower see anything. Then after film them with two cameras and then and it has a sci-fi atmosphere. Rashaun Mitchell York, from 21 May the piece had been shot do a live mix portrait during the and Silas Riener are dancers I knew through their moma.org

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