Must See Animated Dance Video

Today I stumbled across this seriously unbelievable dance animation video. At fist I wasn’t sure if I would like an animated dance video. One of the things I love is the dancers themselves and I think there are so many ways that animation could miss the beautiful qualities of dance. However, this video not only captures many of the beauties of dance, but also carries them to a new level and adds new layers of commentary to the dance. Ok, don’t take my word for it. Here’s the video:

See what I mean? Now go watch it again. It gets better the more you watch it I think.

Since we cover the music and I’m sure you’ll ask if I don’t tell you, the video is to the song “World Spins Madly On”, performed by “The Weepies”. You can find more information about how this video came together on the Ryan Woodward Conte Animated website. I love this list of concepts behind what he was trying to accomplish:

  • The exploration of the drawing the human figure in a variety of creative approaches.  This stems from years of teaching creative gesture drawing.
  • 2d Animation.  This process of animation revisits the passion in my early career as a 2d animator. The illusion of life!
  • Contemporary dance.  Although I am not a dancer, I appreciate the talent and dedication that goes into a beautifully choreographed piece.  A graceful moving human form can communicate more emotion that any length of dialogue.
  • and finally, the exploration of experimental processes and concepts contributes to my own personal growth as an artist.  Having worked commercially for years, this project has allowed me to stretch beyond my former understanding of art.
  • Great story and I’m happy to say he’s a professor at the University that I attended. I wish I was planning to visit family sometime soon so that I could see the full exhibit. I could see many of the images from the video as a pretty amazing t-shirt as well. Maybe I should contact him about selling some on the site.

    I also found this 5 minute preview of the documentary video that was made about the above animated video really interesting. I’ve embedded it below as well:

    As a real true fan of dance, I absolutely love the merging of multiple art forms like this video. I’d love to see So You Think You Can Dance use it somehow on the next season. Talk about a perfect special guest performance I think. It would be completely unexpected for most viewers and would be awesome! Are you listening Nigel?