Vocabulary: “Dance”

A term that describes an acoustic and visual relationship between characters. It thus belongs in the same category as Shadow and Contrast. A Dance refers to a relationship of harmony or balance, whereby no narrative conflict has to be resolved. Although this term has a specific meaning to composers (referring to certain music genres) and film makers (referring to movement inspired by choreography, music or slapstick), on an intuitive level the term was applied to denote specific filmic elements.

Case 1: F = m.a

‘F = m.a’ (2014) by Melanie Kellens and Anouck Vaassen


Filmmaker: Melanie Kellens


Both characters in this film share the same narrative goal: the happiness of the protagonist. There is also a clear stylistic unity, characterized by round, sketchy shapes, and an outspoken unity of movement, whereby each is continuously triggered and inspired by the other. At moments [00:44-00:54] it can almost literally be considered a dance, with one character taking the lead. At other moments [00:21-00:24] it becomes difficult to distinguish the movements of both, as they seem to collapse into one another.


Music composer: Anouck Vaassen


Sonically the harp and the violin can be considered as highly complementary instruments. Throughout the film they act as autonomous musical partners, and in the end they blend together into one harmonious sound. Both instruments have one clear visual counterpart: where the violin relates to the more robust protagonist, the harp relates to the small, Tinkerbell-like side character.

Leave a Reply

Het e-mailadres wordt niet gepubliceerd. Verplichte velden zijn gemarkeerd met *