Written, Directed and Produced by Keith Glassman, LIVES BEYOND MOTION is a unique look into what attracts, seduces and propels, in this case, men to pursue a career in an artform that is filled with hurdles before, during and even after they reach their goals. Over the span of ten plus years, Glassman interviewed more than 30 professional male dancers from very diverse backgrounds and dance styles. As a result, this documentary is filled with rare video and film footage of dance artists sharing their stories of what attracted them to dance, and the challenges, sacrifices and successes they experienced along the way. Lives Beyond Motion is an inimitable look into their lives as men, dancers and artists.

Four of America’s most revered male dancers and choreographers who appear in the film include: Kennedy Center honoree, Bill T. Jones, Alvin Ailey Interim Associate Artistic Director, Matthew Rushing, Guggenheim Fellow, Lar Lubovitch, and MacArthur Genius, Kyle Abraham.

Lives Beyond Motion will have its World Premiere as part of Dance Camera West’s Doc Day Afternoon Program. The film screens at 4:00 pm on Sunday, February 2, 2025 at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre followed by a Q&A with filmmakers and cast members including Lar Lubovitch, David Roussève, Antoine Hunter, myself and more. Tickets are on sale now.

A.I.M in Motion (forward), Bill T. Jones (behind) - Photo by Douglas Thompson.

A.I.M in Motion (forward), Bill T. Jones (behind) – Photo by Douglas Thompson.

In full disclosure, I am honored to be included among the incredible list of male dancers who appear in this documentary.

The seeds for Lives Beyond Motion were first sown by Glassman who has had a wonderful career as a dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director of Keith Glassman/Dance and Performance. He was forced to alter his focus in dance following his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis (MS). This beautiful documentary proves, however, that it has not dampened his creative abilities in the least.

Glassman was quick to tell me that the film was not entirely his creation. Like all films, Lives Beyond Motion took other collaborators to create his vision.

“I’d like to emphasize one thing: all the collaborators turned my idea into a movie. Almost every visual image and each and every chapter heading dance sequence (Shoji and Dion) was either found or created by Douglas,” Glassman wrote in an email. “ Jerome had the idea to shoot the guys moving in the studio with his lights and Douglas took it from there. Douglas also suggested or found most of the non-Angel music (online music libraries). I’m indebted to all of them and honored that they did their professional best for the movie.

The people Glassman is referring to are The Angel, Producer and Composer; Jerome Thomas, Cinematographer; and Douglas Thompson, Producer and Editor.

In preparation for this article, all four of these talented people agreed to an interview and for just over an hour, I was repeatedly in awe of their dedication, wisdom and insights into their artforms.

My first question went to Glassman. What was the genesis of this documentary?

“I was interested in the answers. I wanted to figure out why I was still wanting to dance even though I was older and I wasn’t getting any kind of payback directly for whatever I was doing,” Glassman began. “So, I then talked to Jerome about it. I was thinking it was a coffee table book and Jerome, who had experience making films said, ‘well, why not make it a movie?’”

Thomas was willing to shoot the interviews and he and Glassman began with interviewing male dance artists based in Southern California. After raising funds through several crowd fundings, they travelled to San Diego, Seattle, San Francisco and then to New York City. Once they had the interviews, they began putting the collected materials together.

Always interested in how collaborators find each other, I asked them how they met.

Jerome Thomas, Cinematographer - Photo courtesy of the artist.

Jerome Thomas, Cinematographer – Photo courtesy of the artist.

Glassman and Thomas knew each other at UC, Irvine. Glassman was earning his MFA when he met Thomas who at the time was the Production Manager/Supervisor at the UC Irvine Performing Arts Facilities. Glassman would ask for assistance in making videos and over time, the two sparked up a long time friendship. “Interestingly enough,” Thomas said. “Out of all the people I met and worked with at UC Irvine, Keith is the only one that I’ve stayed in touch with.”

In 2017, The Angel received an email from Glassman. “Keith asked if I would be interested in scoring his documentary centered on men in contemporary dance. He told me that he hoped to get a woman’s take on the film as a composer. And from there I became the only woman creative on the filmmaking team. Keith sent me some scenes early on, so I could get a good sense of the depth, tone and feel of the film, even in its rough state. And we discussed music in terms of instrumentation and dramatic and emotional support.” The Angel said, “Though Keith thought he might be close to locking picture, that would actually take a few years. But what he shared with me over time, including a moving segment about the 80s AIDS crisis, really spoke to me, not only as a composer, but as a one time student of contemporary dance, and New Yorker, who had lost many friends to AIDS.”

The Angel, Producer and Composer - Photo courtesy of the artist.

The Angel, Producer and Composer – Photo courtesy of the artist.

Once she had a chance to watch the rough cut, Angel told Glassman that she saw great potential for the film to find a mainstream audience, though Keith’s original intention was for the film to be an educational tool to share with students and the dance community. Angel added, “There is such humanity in the life lessons and philosophical views shared by all the men, including one from Bill T Jones that deeply resonated with me about what it takes to build a life in the arts. I felt like this legacy film, so beautifully created by Keith, had a universal appeal. And this led me to join his team as a producer as well as composer.”

Douglas Thompson has been immersed in the multimedia world for some time and did installations for Heidi Duckler Dance and for the founder of Dance Camera West, Lynette Kessler. “I happened to be living in the Posthouse, which was the studio art compound of Bella Lewitzky when Keith originally got in touch with me,” he said. “so I was kind of channeling the dance vibe there and it seemed appropriate.” Thompson related how he finds it very interesting that Bridget Murnane’s documentary BELLA was showcased and won top prize at Dance Camera West and that this documentary, Lives Beyond Motion will also be showcased this February at Dance Camera West.

Dion Pratt - Photo by Jerome Thomas.

Dion Pratt – Photo by Jerome Thomas.

“One thing that was interesting to me was asking all of these different dancers, many of whom I didn’t know,” Glassman explained. “[is that] they were willing to spend some time in person. So, I was blown away by that. I didn’t know when I interviewed them, who would be featured in it or what the movie would be about, in a certain way. I had some questions but everything else sort of extrapolated from there on its own.”

There are a lot of dance video and film clips in Lives Beyond Motion, many with their own music score. So, in the 25 years The Angel has been scoring film and television, my question to her was about how she manages to put her own voice into films like this one.

“Even in a documentary, it is my job to create the sound of the film by working to picture and tapping into the uniqueness of the subjects, their worlds and what they evoke. From there I build the specific palette of sounds and instrumentation so the music I create will have its own voice that is intrinsically connected to the film. With thirty-three men featured, my score in Lives Beyond Motion is eclectic. I began with an evocative, energetic opening theme, which also functions as connective tissue throughout.”

Shoji Yamasaki - Photo by Jerome Thomas.

Shoji Yamasaki – Photo by Jerome Thomas.

Angel explained that the way Thompson had edited the film, his creating chapter breaks allowed her to reimagine ever-evolving 15-20 second segments of her opening theme for continuity. “I also created themes that tied diverse stories together, and within them I found certain childhood touch points to explore. So there is a delicate, sophisticated nature to some of my pieces to match the vulnerability and grace of these incredible men. Before I began writing, I had told Keith that I planned to include the vocalist, Marc Sardou as an instrument, using his warm, beautiful vocal texture within several pieces of score. There is an intimate, touching quality to Marc’s voice in my ‘in memoriam’ piece called, “Broken Memories,” and a strident, joyful feeling from his featured vocals in my end title piece, “Best Left Unknown,” which echoes the opening theme with Marc as my horns, bass, percussion and more… To quote David Roussève, “This is my bliss.”

Thomas, who filmed the interviews in people’s homes and studios, said that filming in multiple and diverse venues was the most challenging part of shooting this particular documentary. “Trying to make it look fresh, trying to make it look new, but also maintaining a sense of consistency from shot to shot or from interview to interview,” he explained. “I just went with the actual energy of the space.” The best time he had shooting was in really cool lofts in New York and where the team was staying. It was there that he could rearrange and shoot in different corners of those large spaces. “That was probably the most creative time I had. Not to say the other ones weren’t, but I just had a lot of fun and I could feel the energy of being in New York.”

Lives Beyond Motion interview - (L-R) Jacques D’Amboise, Keith Glassman, Jerome Thomas - Photo courtesy of the artists.

Lives Beyond Motion interview – (L-R) Jacques D’Amboise, Keith Glassman, Jerome Thomas – Photo courtesy of the artists.

When Glassman and Thomas first started filming the interviews, Thomas said that he was just documenting, He is very thankful that they pressed on because three of the artists interviewed Gus Solomons, Jr., Frank Shawl, and Jacques D’Amboise have since passed.

I next asked Glassman and Thompson about the editing process. Thompson stated that when Glassman first approached him, he was working on a project about gypsy music in Eastern Europe with a few amazing performances that were used within that documentary. “But when you have too much of a good thing, you have to learn how to balance it out,” he said. “You find the emotional peaks and valleys and the stories being told and then punctuate that by performance. And it feels good about the way that it flows. The same thing could be applied toward the dance film.”

Knowing that they could not have nonstop dance performances and interviews, Thompson said “that the key is to find the thread where you can weave in and out of the stories in a very coherent manner without it feeling forced. And going back to what Angel said about the musical composition, we had incredible honesty and vulnerability expressed in the interviews.”

He went on to use my interview as an example. “You, Jeff, putting your identity on the line and just telling the truth about what happened in your life and the sacrifices that you made, and so many of the dancers made to follow their art and never compromise, became a key thread” Thompson added.

He described that there was the excitement of the kinetic energy of the dance and then they found the counterbalance of the almost depressing circumstances these men endured such as poverty, sexual politics of people not accepting that they were men dancing. “So that was really a key thing to find a fluid storyline and a balance where we could kind of surf those highs and lows and allow it to maintain being a consistent story throughout,” Thompson explained.

Dance artists in Lives Beyond Motion - photo courtesy of the artists.

Dance artists in Lives Beyond Motion – photo courtesy of the artists.

Because there were so many men interviewed for this film, I asked Glassman how he went about selecting an order in which they appear. He explained that the editing was not done in that order but like I am doing for this article, he listened to all the transcripts and selected have the best soundbites about various parts of their lives. “And so that became a conversation of those people together and likewise for the next group and subject,” Glassman said. “And then what Douglas would do, which was great, he would edit those so that they were more specific. Not everyone speaks on camera fluidly. There are breaks in their discussion or use the wrong language that Douglas would clean up and bring out the highlights of that.”

For example, my interview was approximately seven minutes long but Douglas edited it  down to five minutes making what I said more to the point and removing any extraneous sounds. “I’m indebted to him for figuring out how to do that and I assume that’s his experience and knowing how to make use of the tools to make it work better,” Glassman added.

The six five of us had a very long discussion about how the title, Lives Beyond Motion, was chosen but rather than go into all the detail,  I wanted to highlight what The Angel said. “The film speaks to every artist across the arts because every creative  can relate to the journeys of these men.” By that I believe she meant that every artist in any genre, can relate to having to reinvent oneself as they age. Find a way to continue being a part of their art community while not being at their peak of creativity. For dancers, that means staying involved with the artform even after they cannot long move the way they did in their 20s, 30s or 40s.

Lives Beyond Motion poster - Courtesy of LBM.

Lives Beyond Motion poster – Courtesy of LBM.

As to the significance of the title, Angel added, “I felt that our title should let the  audience know that they were not only going to see an exploration of dance and performances, but that they were also going to learn about the lives of these celebrated men” She went on to express how the word “Beyond” in the title also opened up the fact that everyone is speaking so transparently, and in depth, about their lives in addition to their dance and the importance of dance within our culture.

The inclusion of Lives Beyond Motion in this year’s Dance Camera West Film Festival, alongside David Roussève’s retrospective, gives this documentary a wonderful springboard to its 2025 festival run, with sales agent/consultant Alexia Melocchi of Little Studio Films, currently testing the waters for international distribution. To view the trailer for Lives Beyond Motion, click HERE.

You will want to stick around following Doc Day Afternoon because it is followed at 6 pm by David Roussève’s Retrospective which includes two films directed by Roussève. The films are preceded by a private reception.

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WHAT: Doc Day Afternoon featuring Lives Beyond Motion, directed by Keith Glassman; Elegy, directed by Kitty McNamee; Risa directed by Kate Weare and Jack Flame Sorokin; Dancing with Time, directed by Marie Lavorel, Tamar Tembeck, and Paul Tomand; and Tango, a rematch with life, directed by Pablo Destito, Agustina Videla.

WHEN: Sunday, February 2, 2025 beginning at 1:00 pm (PST). Keith Glassman’s documentary film Lives Beyond Motion will be screened at approximately 4:00 pm.

WHERE: Barnsdall Gallery Theatre located in Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please click HERE.

To learn more about the entire Dance Camera West film festival, please visit their website.

 


Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.

Featured image: Lives Beyond Motion – (L-R) The Angel, Keith Glassman, Kyle Abraham, Jerome Thomas – Photo by Devilishly Good Productions.