Sleepdancing I: Ar e Luar

Available through Vimeo On Demand

Dance in a new form…

Sleepdancing proposes a novel approach to guided sleep in a new format of digital danceworks. Born as a collaboration between Max Levy Choreographic Works and art duo Cosa Mentale, Sleepdancing blends dance and digital animation into tools for guided hypnosis, an interplay of choreographed bodies and choreographed code that lull the viewer to relaxation.

With this unique goal, Sleepdancing stands apart from the standard performance mindset. Here, there is no pressure to be an attentive audience, no obligation to interpret high art. Here, close your eyes when you’re ready; sink in and drift off. Sleepdancing offers a unique opportunity through the beauty of dance and visual art to glimpse the fantasy beneath our eyelids.

Ar e Luar

The first installment Ar e Luar (Portuguese: Air and Moonlight) sets us on the moonlit surface of a distant recurring dream; Lunar goddesses reflecting and echoing one another in an oneiric mixture of intimacy and abstraction, guiding a delicate balance of dance and design. A sound, a spell, an incantation, Ar e Luar suspends us between concentration and serenity to shepherd the last thoughts of our day to the stars.

Conception, Direction, Choreography: Max Levy
Dancers: Patscharaporn Distakul, Josianne Fleming
Digital Artwork: Cosa Mentale
Composition: Max Levy
Camera: Jubal Battisti
Editing and Color: Max Levy
Photography: Yaiza Davilla Gomez
Management and Communication: Lucia Rossi
Rehearsal Assistance: Miguel Toro
Poster Artwork: Max Levy

Special Thanks: Barbara Albers, Kittima & Chartchai Distakul, Anna Driftmier, Emilia Fridholm, Julian Krüger, Vanessa Shield, Guido Stuch, Harumi Terayama, Elsa Valbuena, Widerstand und Söhne

Sleepdancing I: Ar e Luar is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the NEUSTART KULTUR program, tanz digital aid program of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland and a project in cooperation with Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and Tanzplattform Rhein-Main.

The research phase of the project was funded by the Hessische Kulturstiftung’s Brückenstipendium.