Chit-Chat: Grace vs. Gravity

In the previous post, you read that all new projects were pending, as if frozen by bitterly cold temperatures. However, I did in fact manage to launch one right after the big snowstorm that froze everything in place. 

Without further ado, here's the trailer:

Now for the ado. The magic ingredients were two wonderful dancers - Hsaio-Ju Tang and Shannon Yu - both of whom were strangers to me except as a fan of their dancing in recent performances. They were brave enough to allow me to "commission" them to work with me on a project. A three-day weekend was the only mutual free time they could carve out of their busy schedules. So that's what we did, sleeping at my house, rehearsing and shooting at the Nyack Boat Club nearby.  We made movement material the first day, rehearsed with camera the 2nd, and shot the 3rd. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

What did I know going into this? That it wouldn't be a major opus because we didn't have much time; that I thought of the dancers as superheroes; that it would be humorous rather than serious. I'd settled on a few royalty-free cuts from the online repertoire of Kevin MacLeod - whose work I first used 15 years ago for 890 Broadway. The music had just the pseudo-bombast I was looking for. The room at the boat club had a lovely wooden floor and big windows facing the (absolutely frozen) Hudson River. Unfortunately, neither the location nor the boat club look suited us thematically. So after an analog attempt to create an indoor set featuring flags that would echo the nautical flags outdoors, when it came to edit I turned to ... AI.

Yup, AI. It's the only time I expect to do so. In the past I've heartily foresworn slo-mo and other digital tricks (Ok, except in Thaw, where I used lots of dissolves, and in Dancing is an Old Friend where I was practically forced to exploit the pandemic era split screen.) In a serendipitous stroke of luck the editing platform I use - Premiere Pro -  had just added a very user-friendly "object mask" which essentially allows for green screen after the fact.  And Adobe Firefly offered a month's bargain on AI Generation - those too-false-to-be-true backgrounds seen above that substituted for the boat club. 

My hope is that viewers will smile at the subject matter itself, and at the mail-order superhero mask/cape combo. But I'm also hoping that they'll recognize that the imperfect CGI is also a goof. It's a wannabe illusion from an OG practitioner who wants you to be conscious of two things going on: the actual live dancing of very particular humans warring for your attention with all of the generic and hypnotizing generated environments.  Meta enough for you?

It's the 4th in a string of work I've made recently that might be considered "weird", "ambiguous", "personal", "wacky" = unprogrammable (with the exception of Inter Library Loan which is completely straightforward.) On the other hand, maybe my work has always been all of the above. At Dance Theater Workshop, in a 1990 concert of relatively conventional dances (and having recently given birth to my second son) I played as my theme song "Everything I do Gonh be Funky" by Lee Dorsey. Give it a listen. 

And/or check out this video of the young choreographer / mother eager to present, defend, invite, connect (you'll probably want to raise the volume after the music stops.)

Still (more?) funky after all these years.

A Historic Occasion

Behold a picture that's worth a thousand words. On top is a post-rehearsal snapshot of the cast of What Practice Makes circa 1983, likely right before a summer residency where we shared its evolution more or less daily with audiences at Jacob's Pillow's Inside/Out stage.

At left is a re-enactment of that grainy photograph by the current cast of Practice, who more than did it justice at recent performances of Peter Stathas Dance on February 13-14 at Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn. That was history being made: a revival that I somewhat dreaded  turning out to be a gift.

Adding to the historic significance of the weekend was our decision to honor Liz Thompson who had changed the course of Jacob's Pillow - and many of our careers - by inviting us to expand horizons at the Pillow. Performing outdoors in nature, being trusted to make work that mattered, having informal conversations with a risk-taking audience was a gift we kinda recognized at the time ... and then, like young folks do, moved on.

These recent performances were a chance for many of us in the dance community to be absolutely sure Liz felt recognized for that gift. Peter & I were joined in admiration by illustrious colleagues whose thoughtful tributes to Liz you can read here. On a personal note, I was gratified to have in attendance Angelika Dewey, daughter of my first and most important dance teacher, Joy Anne Dewey. In a wonderful coincidence, Gerri Houlihan - whose work was also shown this weekend - is a past recipient of the American Dance Festival's Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke / Balasaraswati award for teaching. It was moving to be able introduce Ani to Gerri and in so doing, honor a woman who left a great footprint in my life, and left this world too soon.

I also have to admit that it was wonderful to experience an audience witnessing live dance (especially since I had no responsibility for booking rehearsals, paying dancers or administering the many details associated with presenting work in NYC.) Will there be more of it? Not likely, for the reasons expressed parenthetically. 

So back to my lonely - or anyway, digital - process of editing pre-recorded movement. All of my dance film projects are currently pending, as if frozen by the recent below-freezing temperatures. But I'll get back to it soon. And, as always, you'll be the first to hear.

      SAVE THE DATE ~ February 13-14, 2026 

2 evenings of dance at the Mark Morris Dance Center Brooklyn, NY 

4 works,  including my 1983 quartet What Practice Makes

Saturday, February 14 a celebration of Liz Thompson, visionary director at Jacob's Pillow 1980-1990

info & tix: PeterStathasDance 

     Open rehearsal of What Practice Makes at Baryshnikov Arts Center Nov. 2025.  Photo: Lou Aguilar

Quick! Before the end of 2025, some kind of wrap-up. You might have been following on FB (martarenzi) or Instagram (#renzimarta) the series I've been posting of nearly 20 trailers from my videodance archives. Although not being revealed chronologically, the oldest is Thaw (2006) and the most recent so far is Kata (2023). Interestingly, both were shot at Rockland Lake State Park, apparently a touchstone for me. This year I'm a bit chagrined to report I won't be editing a WRAP UP of the year's work as I've done for the past several years. The truth is I haven't made anything brand new: hence my focus instead on the voluminous archives. I did say this was a Legacy year.

Speaking of legacy, I recently re-connected with Hetty King, EdD - Dr. Hetty King, to you - who danced with me years ago, notably in Soft Sell from 1986. Hetty asked if she could learn a dance from our time together to present at a dance teachers showcase next year.  I suggested I'm Not Very Pretty, a solo which is actually derived from Soft Sell. Hetty is in fact as beautiful as ever, and very youthful looking. But she's an older not dancer than has ever performed Pretty, so I expect it will have a different resonance than previously.

Late in 2025, I did edit an "instructional" video of What Practice Makes, pictured above, to help in the re-construction of that 1983 quartet by the members ofPeter Stathas Dance. [So far my favorite clips in the edited video are from the 1983 Inside/Out audience at the Pillow, complete with Farrah Fawcett haircuts and rapt focus.] The Baryshnikov open rehearsal was instructive in itself; the process of editing several past versions was even more so. Notes to the dancers: more pedestrian treatment of the movement material; more ensemble behavior; a tighter kinesphere; a more condensed use of the stage space.  I have some hope that the "instructional" video might turn out to have value as a bona fide dance video once there's performance footage from 2026 to intercut with it. 

Very early in 2026 there's a too-quick residency-and-shoot here in Nyack that I don't dare share much news of yet. I've "commissioned" two dancers I hardly know, whose dancing I admire, to create something that we'll film at the Nyack Boat Club. It's a leap of faith, apt for the dawning of a new year.

I'm still sitting on the final version of The Lake (shot at said touchstone over the course of several months in 2024-25) because I can't quite figure out if it's finished. Funny, I thought it was more of a dance film than it seems to be. The other project that's been stymied this past year and is now postponed till 2026, will focus on the quietly powerful Francine Maitland Abbott who I met making Where Love Leads in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania several years ago.  

So stay tuned for spring.  And for 2026 mid-term elections, please.

Calendar

I told you I might pop in more frequently to update the Renzi calendar for those who check in, or happen to live in the right location or just want to be in the know. Here's November and what I know of December 2025, annotated.

Inter Library Loan    November 9 @ 2:00    44th Asbury Short Film Concert   Phoenicia, NY

I was delighted to be invited to join this longest-running non-competitive touring exhibition of globally honored films. Curator Doug LeClaire who saw it at the Vero Beach Film Festival this past June. Hopefully, Library will be included in more venues in 2026.

Inter Library Loan  November 14-30     Moovy TanzFilmFestival    Koln, Germany

Months ago I heard that Library would be part of this cool festival. I saw a tiny clip of Library in the Moovy trailer, but no word of it online in the several programs they outline. When I inquired why not, this is what I heard: 

we have a program for children in particularly vulnerable social situations. This program is not open to the general public because these children require special protection. We are showing your film as part of this program. That is why it is not publicly available on the website. I am very grateful for your understanding and thank you for participating in the program with your wonderful film.

An also-ran, but of a heart-warming type.

Replica AND Blow Me Down     November 15 at noon    YoFiFest     Yonkers, NY

Two very different Renzi shorts in the same program in one of my favorite local fests, which has shown Renzi work 12 times in its 13 years - not bad, since my first submission was Honeymoon in 2015. That was also when Festival Programmer Patty Schumann first discovered this genre combining movement and camera which YoFi has dubbed "dance through a lens." Patty & I have a long-running conversation about how, even though my work can be categorized as dance through a lens, I'm happiest when it's screened alongside other shorts.

Inter Library Loan    November 21   Dancers' Short Film Festival    London, UK

This is the first year of this festival's existence, so I can't do the frequently-screened game yet. But I'm delighted to help inaugurate yet another dance through a lens festival ... especially since there are many long-established, rather costly ones I don't even bother with anymore!

Guardians of the Flame   November 22 Awards Gala Nat'l Ass'n for Multicultural Education

Because I was "only" the editor on the hour-long documentary Guardians of the Flame directed by Daniel Wolff, you don't hear much about it in here. Its festival run is just about over, but I'm proud to report that it won NAME's Multicultural Film Award this year. 

Replica AND Inter Library Loan   December 13-16      Athens Video Dance Project       

Not Athens, Ohio where I've also screened, nor Athens, Georgia where I haven't, this Greek fest is another where Renzi work has shown frequently over its ten-year history - 890 Broadway (2012) Wildwood (2014) and Kata (2023). 

A Day's Work      December 14-16      IMARP           Sao Paolo, Brazil

Admit it, you've completely forgotten about this one from 3 years ago. (Yes, it feels like 15.) Created at The Dragon's Egg with 3 students I'd met at Rhode Island College, performed live at Henry Street Settlement, all in preparation for a shoot in Connecticut. To jog your memory, here's the synopsis:  

They arrive at a factory with work boots and tin lunch pails. What kind of work is this? After a long day, they head home. Is this some kind of joke - or just a different kind of hard work?