Hail the New Puritan
This week the From Below presents rare and incredible Hail the New Puritan (1987) on *TUESDAY, July 8 *at *8pm. *
Here is the link to RSVP. Doors will be at 7:50 and we’re starting the film at 8:10!
Hail the New Puritan is video artist Charles Atlas’ experimental made-for-Channel 4 gender nihilist ballet fictionalized documentary. The film is a staged day in the life of Scottish dancer, choreographer, and divinely beautiful angel, Michael Clark. For those of you reading this that aren’t immersed in contemporary dance (we at the From Below aren’t necessarily either!) Michael Clark is an enormously significant figure in the history of British dance culture, the ‘enfant terrible’ who, in the midst of Thatcher’s 80s, linked the spheres of classical ballet to the underground scenes of punk and ballroom culture. Extended dance performances, dreams, and interviews make up most of the film, as do interstitial moments, in which we watch Michael and his company walk about the city, rehearse and prepare, commute, see friends, or go to the club. I was stunned, aroused, simply by how Michael Clark moves, an irrepressible stupid grin on my face the duration of the film. His Puckish charms, prancing like a spark, bring Dance off the stage and into everyday gestures, blooming to show dance as a whole form of life done in the performance of living. The film conjures a gorgeous dailiness of the 80s British queer avant-garde and relishes in a delightful communal wildness of costume, stage, and gesture. This has been the career-long project of Charles Atlas, one of the pioneers of ‘media dance’ (i.e. dance pieces created specifically for film and video, and not just ‘filmed’ dance). Joshua Chambers-Letson describes it as the “long standing thread in Atlas’s work: the degree to which queer performance and the creative power of queer friendship combine to forge new, weird, and beautiful ways of being (and being together) during and especially after the end times.” As such, the film is populated by this community: Legendary performance artist Leigh Bowery designs the costumes and sets, while the music Clark choreographs to is provided by the angular sounds of The Fall, Glenna Branca, and Bruce Gilbert of Wire.
I honestly can’t really say much more; I find dance films hard to interpret. I just need you to know how visually stunning the motion, outfits, and sets are; how beautiful Michael Clark is; and how lovely it is to see all this put on to the music of our dear, favorite little chain-smoking goblin, Mark E. Smith. Hail the New Puritan showcases the vitality of an artistic community that makes me ache with bittersweet admiration and melancholy, and we’re excited to share that with all of you.
In hideous replica,
Stefan, Charlie, and Stark