Laura Taler

Laura Taler is a Romanian-born Canadian artist. Beginning her career as a contemporary dance choreographer, she now works in a range of media, including performance, film, sound, sculpture, and installations.[1] Taler's films The Village Trilogy and Heartland are heralded by Dance International Magazine as marking the beginning of the dancefilm boom in Canada.[2]

Laura Taler
Born (1969-12-21) 21 December 1969
Brașov, Romania
Websitewww.laurataler.ca

Early life

Laura Taler was born on 21 December 1969 in Brașov, Romania and first became involved in dance in elementary school.[3]

Art career

In 1995, Taler made her directorial debut with the village trilogy,[4] a 24-minute film that alludes to the millions of lives uprooted through emigration in the past century while reinterpreting the physical characteristics of early cinema. According to Gaby Aldor, "...it is as if the old language is no longer adequate, as if a new way of being, and therefore of dancing, has to be invented."[5] The film was screened worldwide, and won three significant awards: the Cinedance Award for Best Canadian Dancefilm at the Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video (1995),[6] the Best Experimental Short Film Award at the Worldwide Short Film Festival (1996),[7] and a Gold Hugo for Short Subject Experimental at the Chicago International Film Festival (1996).[7] In 2002, the Los Angeles Times' critic Lewis Segal wrote: "For depth of feeling, photographic sensitivity and movement invention, the central (duet) portion of Laura Taler's 1995 'A Village Trilogy' may be the most memorable footage in the festival. ...[H]er mastery of choreography and direction is unquestioned."[8]

Taler followed this up in 1997 with Heartland, a documentary about the dancer and choreographer Bill Coleman. it received the Best Experimental Short Documentary Award from Hot Docs (1998)[9] and the Cinedance Award for Best Canadian Dancefilm from the Moving Pictures Festival (1997).[10] In 1998, her Dances for a Small Screen, a collaboration between directors and choreographers from across Canada, premiered at the Canada Dance Festival. The film was nominated for five Gemini Awards, including a best director nomination for Taler, and went on to win the Gemini Award for best editing.[11] Deirdre Kelly, dance critic at The Globe and Mail wrote, "Dance has a reputation for being precious and esoteric, but Laura Taler wants to change all that."[12] Kelly described Taler's contribution to Dancers on a Small Screen as "an idea distilled to its bare essentials, a choreographed poem that would have made the symbolists proud."[12]

Taler's A Very Dangerous Pastime won Best of Festival award (2001) for Dance on Camera Festival.[6]

Taler was a fellow at the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry.[13]

Taler's publications include Tension/Spannung (Turia+Kant, 2010); Revisiting Ephemera (Blue Medium Press, 2011); and Embodied Fantasies (Peter Lang Publishing, 2013).

Filmography
Year Film Notes
1995 The Village Trilogy Director/Producer/Distributor/Choreographer/Dancer[14]
1997 Heartland
1998 Dances for a Small Screen - The Barber's Coffee Break
2000 A Very Dangerous Pastime
2001 Perpetual Motion
2003 Death and the Maiden
2005 Forsaken
2007 The Sorcerer
2008 Love Song
2014 Elsewhere

References
  1. Odom, Selma; Bowring, Amy (2 February 2011). "Dance and the Media". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
  2. "The Evolving Story of Dance on Film: An overview of new forms then and now". Dance International Magazine. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  3. Encyclopedia of Theatre Dance in Canada/ Encyclopédie de la danse théâtrale au Canada (2000). Arts Inter-Media Canada/Dance Collection Danse, Toronto, 672p.
  4. Judy Mitoma (2002). Envisioning Dance on Film and Video, Routledge, New York
  5. Aldor, Gaby (1997). "Labeling: The Dichotomy between Jewish and Israeli Dance". Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review. 20: 150–157 – via books.google.ca.
  6. Mitoma, Judy; ZIMMER, ELIZABETH; Stieber, Dale Ann (18 October 2013). Envisioning Dance on Film and Video. Routledge. ISBN 9781135376444.
  7. "Laura Taler - Awards". IMDb. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
  8. Segal, Lewis (19 April 2002). "An Intriguing Marriage of Choreography and Camera". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
  9. "1998 Awards - Hot Docs". www.hotdocs.ca. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017.
  10. "Dance and the Media | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  11. "Filmek - Love Songs". Media Wave Festival. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
  12. Kelly, Deirdre (16 January 1991). "Independents a Hit in Informal Setting". Globe and Mail (Toronto).
  13. "ICI Berlin: Laura Taler". www.ici-berlin.org. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  14. Mitoma, Judy; ZIMMER, ELIZABETH; Stieber, Dale Ann (18 October 2013). Envisioning Dance on Film and Video. Routledge. p. 305. ISBN 9781135376444.
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