Moving Images: A Miscellany.

FOR THE serious collector, the video and DVD release of Matthew Diamond's Dancemaker, a 1999 Academy Award nominee, is a cause for celebration. The film entranced theater audiences with its intimate, explicit perusal of choreographer Paul Taylor's world. Dancemaker is equally effective on the little screen. The drama of the day-to-day operations of Taylor's company in rehearsal in New York or on tour in India provides riveting human drama. The many dance sequences afford the viewer some of the scope of Taylor's artistic range, while the ongoing dialogue with him fills the screen with many moments of whimsical humor and some of devastating sorrow. The recollections of those who have worked with Taylor and observed him over time situate this important choreographer historically.

Dancemaker set a new standard for depth and artistry in dance documentaries and it is a must for any library. (Color, approximately 98 minutes, VHS, Documentary #NVG-5527; www.dancemaker.org or New Video, 126 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10011)

The same cannot be said for other recently received videos, although they may be appropriate for particular audiences. Burn the Floor captures a live performance of the British show of that name that toured the United States last spring. Although danced with enthusiasm and skill by forty-four champion ballroom and Latin dancers, the show suffers from a paucity of choreographic invention. Each sequence is buoyed up more by opulent, if not necessarily tasteful, costumes and dramatic lighting than by innovative and unpredictable dancing. (VHS and DVD, Universal Home Video, 10 Universal Plaza, Universal City, CA 91608; 818/550-1541)

Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theater: The First Twenty Years (1976-1996) details the development of this company in residence at Northeastern Illinois University. The many examples of the company in performance over the past twenty years are supplemented with interviews, which give the viewer an indication of how the efforts of founder/director Dame Libby Komaiko brought this company into existence, and how it has thrived in this university environment and reached out to a larger community. (www.cajal.com/ensemble or [e-mail])

If the lively engagement shown by twin dancers Veena and Neena Bidasha at the beginning and end of each of their tapes was more in evidence elsewhere in their workouts, then Bellydance Fitness for Beginners might be a more viable form of exercise. On four tapes--fat burning, basic moves, hips, buns and thighs, and arms and abs (each 30 minutes) --the sisters perform isolated movements, some influenced by their bellydancing, but most looking anything but vibrant. Nor are they that different from any number of other fitness-cum-dance workouts on the market. However, when the sisters give us a glimpse of performance, their energy is transformed from something static and bound to something quite fluid and joyous. Maybe they should just teach the dances. (www.goldhil.com or Goldhil Video, 137 East Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite 207, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360; 800/250-8760)

AT LAST! The much-loved and not-so-much-heralded jazz teacher Frank Hatchett has a profusely illustrated book that describes his technique and his teaching style. Since the volume is partly authored by Hatchett's student and protegee Nancy Myers Gitlin, the reader also gets to know "Papa Frank's" personal history and upbringing. Remember, this is the nurturing teacher who has been known to buy a student appropriate clothes and take him to an audition, and the sensitive man who closed out prying eyes while teaching some mature teachers how to do some of the more fluid jazz isolations. The book also tells the evolution of the jazz style called VOP (a sound Hatchett uses when teaching): the Katherine Dunham heritage and Hatchett's New York teacher, Syvilla Fort; traditional African dance and drums; Caribbean and calypso folk dance; film musicals; facial and hand expressions as seen in East Indian dance; hip-hop and street dance. While Hatchett's fusion of techniques demands extreme discipline and rhythmic sense, it also calls for the dancer to project his or her individual personality.

Hence VOP is more than imitation or improvisation--it is the making of an interesting character to watch, and perhaps, a creative artist. There are graded exercises for beginning, intermediate and advanced jazz dancers. (Frank Hatchett's Jazz Dance by Frank Hatchett and Nancy Myers Gitlin. 2000. Human Kinetics: Champaign, IL. $19.95 paper. ISBN: 0-7360-0025-9)

Please send copies of books or videos for review to Books Editor, Dance Magazine, 111 Myrtle St. #203, Oakland, CA 94607.