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2022 · Dance – stage work

Simple Pursuits

Archive folder: JP & Hannah (Uplift)

Tara Pilbrow (direction); videography Maurice Ramirez

A short dance film in Tara Pilbrow's Uplift series, which pairs dancers with Alameda artists. Dancer Hannah Westbrook moves in and around the workshop of furniture maker JP Frary. Ben composed the music.

Recollections

“amazing workshop. i still see the spinning lathes in my dreams sometimes”

“I loved working on this little film! JP was so generous with sharing his craft, and getting to play in his space was really a delight. Dancing in sawdust was a highlight!”

Hannah Westbrook, dancer
Premiere
2023-11-09
Venue
Uplift Premiere Party, St. George Spirits (Alameda Point)
Where
Alameda, CA
Performances
Screened at the SF Dance Film Festival in the Bay Area Shorts program (closing night), Sunday Oct 20, 2024, at the Brava Theater.
Credits
Featured artist: JP Frary (furniture designer/builder); dancer: Hannah Westbrook; direction: Tara Pilbrow; music: Ben Juodvalkis; videography: Maurice Ramirez; editing: Pons Maar.

Ephemera

Close-up of a dancer with a fringe and a grey tank top looking straight into the camera, a warm, blurred woodworking shop behind her.

Stills from the finished film

A dancer in a grey top and red trousers crouches behind a faceted wooden figure, staring at it, in a sunlit woodworking shop.
A grey-haired man in safety glasses looks down at a wooden piece spinning on a lathe, lit warm gold.
Flyer for the UPLIFT premiere at St George Spirits, Thursday November 9, 6:30 to 9pm: a vintage van and a wheeled cart silhouetted at dusk against the San Francisco skyline, with the list of featured artists and sponsor logos.

Premiere flyer; the photo is from another Uplift film

A dancer in a red-orange outfit presses one hand and one foot against a grey clapboard wall, seen through a blurred opening.

Hannah in an Uplift promo photo

Collage titled UPLIFT, Tara Pilbrow Dance and Maurice Ramirez present: dancers against a doorway, a pipe and a wall, a singer at a microphone, a metal bird sculpture, and a dancer in dust, over the line A series of dance films highlighting the talent and diversity of Alameda’s Artists.

Promo image for the whole Uplift series

Tall, paint-streaked factory windows in a woodworking shop glowing pink and blue at sunset, a lathe in the foreground and angular wooden figures on a cabinet to the right.

Photo Hannah took of JP's shop at sunset, the night of rehearsal

A faceted wooden figure with an angular head and outstretched arms stands alone on the concrete floor of a large woodworking shop, clamp racks and lumber shelves behind it.

The wooden figure on the day of the shoot

A smiling dancer with a fringe, in a grey tank top and red trousers, leans her arms and chin on the head of a faceted wooden figure in a woodworking shop.

Hannah and the wooden figure, shoot day

Tara asking me to score the films.

Tara: Hello! How are you? How busy is life right now? Time for a small Alameda project? Looking for music for a couple of short (1-2 minute) dance films.

Ben: Life is wobbly. Got plenty time for ya if you want it

Tara’s idea for the lathe scenes.

Tara: What I love here is the shower of sawdust that comes out of it, and in some of the movement sequence Hannah has saw dust in her hands and is spraying it out as she moves in her circles.

Press

“a series of five short dance films 'celebrating the talent and diversity of the Alameda arts scene.'”

Elsewhere

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