Rhythmically Speaking dance company will bring a “screendance” to Zoom on Feb. 26. “RadioBody” was planned as a stage show at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in downtown St. Paul for February 2021, but was canceled by pandemic restrictions. The collaboration between the dance company and local composer Mike Lauer “explores the jazz sensibilities and human toil and triumph embedded in the work of pioneering alt-electronic band Radiohead,” according to a news release.
The stage show has been moved to February 2022, but selections will be featured in the screendance.
“RadioBody: The Screendance Iteration” will be submitted to dance film festivals, according to Rhythmically Speaking’s artistic director Erinn Liebhard. The Feb. 26 screening will include peeks into the creation process and a Q&A with the artists.
Composer Lauer and Liebhard selected one song from each major Radiohead album for the stage show. From those, three were chosen for the screendance iteration: “Knives Out” from the album “Amnesiac” (2001), “High and Dry” from “The Bends” (1995), and “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” from “In Rainbows” (2007). Lauer recorded his original renditions of these songs with an ensemble. The seven dancers in the company were filmed performing outdoors. Liebhard says the main film shoots feature “landscapes covered in rare, beautiful rime ice.”
According to the news release, there are 100 Zoom sign-ins available for the 7 p.m. screening on Feb. 26. A donation of $15-$20 is suggested, with 10 percent of the proceeds donated to the scholarship fund of Hopewell Music North. For more info and links to sign up, go to rhythmicallyspeakingdance.org/radiobody.
