URBAN BODIES / Physical Cinema is a live performance that takes place parallel to the screenings of 8 short video-dance films, created by a group of dancers, choreographers and video artists. All films are based and inspired by the teme of the divided City of Nicosia. The performance programme is a resultof a Video Dance Workshop and Seminar entitled URBAND BODIES - Physical Cinema that took place betweern the 24t and 31st of March 2005 and was organised by ECHO ARTS Living Arts Center in collaboration with Brave New Media. The participantsof this 8 days Spring Intensive workshop worked under the direction of guest video-dance artist Luts Gregor (film makeer - Germany) and Arianna Economou and Alexandra Waierstall (dance artists - Cyprus). The aim was to create choreographies as pysical stories told for the camera. During the process the participants explored, among others, the theme of the human body in relation with the urban space of the old and new parts of Nicosia. The films (4-5 mins each) were made by the Green Line, at places cosen by the participants, and are the result of this collective work.

The live performance that will accompany the screenings is related to the content, choreography and material of each film and looks at the exchange of roles between the choreographer, dancer, director and film maker and how they interact with and for the camera. The moving body together with the moving camera are joined togeter in a rare dialectical moment of inter-exchangeability between otherwise strictly defined roles. The result is a shared film between the dancer, the choreographer and the filmmaker.

Watch the performance of URBAN BODIES 2005 here