BIRDHAUS, a film by London Contemporary Dance School Screendance graduate Camila Serrano opens with a bird watcher in a brutalist architectural setting. With a mask on, the watcher nips around the building, peaking and hiding behind its external pillars, watching and waiting for… a bird?
Suddenly, the watcher notices just that – a giant red bird! Making the most of the moment, click, the watcher takes a picture! A bit stunned, the bird is frightened by the noise and together they are caught in a stare off.
As moments pass, the watcher starts to adopt the bird’s movements, and what ensues is a communication of sorts using their arms and wings. They mirror one another’s movements in what seems a constant negotiation of moving near to one another and entering one another’s spaces. A meeting.
The red bird taps the watcher with its beak and darts away. The watcher pursues the bird who is now dancing. Film ends with the bird leaving and moving to another site where it hold the binoculars – a reversal or sorts?
Whimsical, almost child-like and innocent in its tone, BIRDHAUS is a curious dance film that shows how movement is a form of primal communication between different bodies and species.
Creative credits:
- Film by Camila Serrano
- Performed by Chan Tin Lok ‘Maggie’ and Jon Rodd
- Original music by Bartosz Szafra?ski
- Costume by Florence Meredith
Watch BIRDHAUS here.