This half-hour film was commissioned by Peterborough New Dance & Public Energy to commemorate ten years of presenting contemporary dance in Peterborough, Ontario. It was first screened at PND’s 10th birthday party on November 18, 2004, at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in Peterborough. The film includes archival footage of live performances by over 100 artists from across Canada as well as the U.S. and U.K. not to mention Peterborough itself; selected interviews with touring dance artists; a behind the scenes look at the gals working in the office; excerpts of local television stories.
— from the original DVD cover
This year, we celebrated Public Energy’s 25th anniversary by having performances and remixing footage for a dance party. Fifteen years before, we celebrated Public Energy (known then also as Peterborough New Dance) with a 10-year anniversary movie. It’s now available online for the first time in its entirety.
During the making of this short, I was tasked to go through all the performance documentations (gently guided by impresario Bill Kimball) and I created sequences of choreography clips that collided or colluded with each other. As an editor, this was one of the more fun projects I’ve ever put together. I took inspiration from the old TV episodes of That’s Hollywood that I grew up on as a kid and the genius of Chuck Workman who often edited those Academy Award film clip montages.
The subject of this short documentary is dance as presented by the cultural catalyst that is Public Energy but there are so many different ways one can stitch together contemporary movement. Consider the work that goes into grouping similar moves or costumes so that one performance seems to continue in the next although the clips themselves may be years apart. It was a pleasure and an honour to be able to work the calibre of talent compiled in this short half-hour.
Only previously available as a DVD, this short documentary that I directed and edited, produced at PowerHouse has never been seen in its entirety online. This the online digital premiere of this fifteenth-anniversary edition. Enjoy!
THE PETERBOROUGH NEW DANCE SPECTACULAR 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SHOW Directed and Edited by LESTER ALFONSO Assisted by BILL KIMBALL Executive Producer STEPHEN ROSE
