_A paean to club culture, fashion, and dance directed by Partel Oliva_
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Nightclubs are spaces of energy and release, a place to cast off work-week worries and inhabit a truer, freer self. The sun sets and inhibitions are left behind, music enlivening the bodies of congregating dancers, the darkness and anonymity allowing for self-reinvention and the amalgamation of people and cultures who might not cross paths during the day. This is the space that "Club Ark Eternal", a short film released by KENZO to announce the Spring-Summer 2017 season, celebrates. As KENZO describes it:
"'Club Ark Eternal' is a tribute to club culture at a time of tragedy. With clubbing spaces obviously needing to be understood and protected, we tried to think of impossible alternatives. With many countries around the world entering a winter of the soul, we wanted to celebrate the kids who go out in 15°F/-2°C.
The movie captures the moment when people end up dancing alone, lost in themselves. Maybe they arrived a little early or maybe it’s 6am and the place is emptying. Maybe they withdrew from a packed dancefloor but kept on dancing to muffled music, on a balcony, in a hallway, in a kitchen.
The film is a series of solos, some deeply autotelic, some more open and willing to connect. By bringing party lights into Franklin Canyon, the natural world is turned into a club. The presentation is as fitful and irregular as the dances freestyled by the performers and framed by Ryan Heffington. The dances are intended to repel personal or political demons. Dances that aim to seduce or destroy. Rituals of remembrance or oblivion."
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Written and Directed by Partel Oliva
Movement Director: Ryan Heffington
Director of Photography: Jason McCormick
Dancers / co-choreographers: Tiffany Aliyah, Jonathan Bourdine, Junji Dezaki, Arne Gjelten, Habby Jacques, Alexander Pelaez, LaTonya Swann, Calvin Tolbert Jr
Stylist: Miyako Bellizi
Hair Stylist: Tanya Melendez
Make-Up Artist: Mia Yang
Original music by Lafawndah and BR-RR
Additional music by Caroline Shaw, “Courante” performed by Roomful Of Teeth
