Cinema Dance

This past weekend I attended a film excursion known as Cinema Dance. We traveled approximately 4 hours outside of Prague to the middle of the woods, known as Pisnic (pronounced Peez-niche). It actually reminded me a lot of home, the forest was very similar to the ones in PA. I felt like I was on a ski resort, without the skiing. The cabins were all on the water and several fishermen were also having their weekend there. I actually felt really relaxed while I was there, even though the film shoot is looming...NEXT SATURDAY! Eeep.

Anyhow, the trip to this location was long. On the train, I re-met Sila and Ivan. I also met Andreas, Olivier, Rodrigo, Ekaterina, and Alli. Sila is from Turkey, Ivan is from Montenegro, Adreas is from Spain, Olivier is from Corsica, Rodrigo and Ekaterina are from Mexico and Alli is from the U.S. Talking with them definitely made the train ride go faster. There were a total of 24 students in the program, we were eventually broken into groups of four. There were four Czech dance students, including someone from my group named Radim.

The purpose of Cinema Dance is to create unity and to understand other forms of Art and how they relate to film. The reason dance is involved in this excursion is to open the weekend with discussions about movement and how they're crucial to the art of dance and the art of film. The four dance students open the first evening (Thursday) with a few numbers that they choreographed. This marks the beginning of the cinema dance. Next, we are put into groups. All 24 names are thrown into a hat and drawn out one by one until 6 groups of four are created. Once our groups are formed, we pick a number of one through four, then the producer, writer, camera operator and director's are chosen/named. I was the producer, Radim the director, Ekaterina the writer and Stephanie the camera operator.

I ended up rooming with Sila. I had met her before (she's in my classes) and because I went to a housewarming party she had a few weeks prior. The cabins are made up of only 2 beds in a room and a tiny (but functional) plastic radiator. The bathrooms are a short walk away and communal. The next morning, Sila and I decided to try the dance class the dance students had organized. In the light of the morning, I realized the wonderful location of the cabins - on a hill overlooking a wide river. It was positively gorgeous! Especially with all the newly fallen snow. Anyhow, the dance class was attended by about half of the Cinema Dance participants, including Pavel & Pavel. We stretched and played trust games and practiced movement exercises. It was a calming and bonding experience.

I need to find the schedule to get the details put in chronological order...

On the train ride back, we had to take two trains. We piled into a bus to leave Pisnic, oddly enough, that was when everyone took a lot of pictures. After a short bus trip, we waited to board the first train. It lacked compartments, but we spread out into one car so it would be easy to transfer without losing anyone. On the next train, it was difficult to find places to sit, most of the compartments were not only occupied, but full. I squeezed in with Philippa, who fell asleep rather quickly. We were later joined by Sandy, Olivier, and Grimur. Grimur is from Iceland, very tall, very blonde, and very blue-eyed. Luka and I later joked about him being descended from a Viking God. It took me a while to get around to meeting Grimur because during the train ride to Pisnic, he had brought his own supply of bourbon and sucked most of it down before we got to the bus to the campsite. Grimur is also one of the older, quieter participants of FAMU International, and I guess I was intimidated. The course of this leg of the trip was spent mostly talking about native foods. We were starving by the time we got to Praha.