Marisa Hayes is a Franco-American writer and artist. She has published reviews, books, and articles about dance for a variety of print and electronic media. Currently editor in chief of the French dance journal Repères, cahier de danse, Marisa also co-curates the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy and teaches the Erasmus+ university summer dance program in Paris. Initially trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance techniques in the US, Marisa also studied butoh in Japan with Kazuo Ohno. She holds degrees in interdisciplinary arts, dance history, and visual studies from Goddard College (Vermont) and the Sorbonne in Paris.
Tunneling through the labyrinth of Prague's underground transport system, a subway car is packed full of dreamy-eyed commuters. Drifting between states of sleep and consciousness, the somber-clad workers perform a mechanical dance of nodding heads and drooping shoulders.
Radiohead frontmanThom Yorke, who executes the same choreography as his fellow travelers, struggles to make a connection with a female passenger danced by Dajana Roncione (Yorke's partner in real life).
The opening images of the new short film Anima, now on Netflix, are playful yet dystopian, accompanied by a soundtrack of electro beats and Yorke's dronelike vocals that are sourced from three songs on his latest solo album of the same name. But there are no vain attempts to link the singer to his music by mouthing the words on camera. Instead, he portrays an unnamed protagonist in a loosely woven narrative performed through dance.
Inspired by silent cinema, Anima recalls an era when screen actors were strongly encouraged to hone their dance skills for stories told through the body.
Whether she's performing on stage, in music videos, or on television, French electro-pop sensation Chris (formerly known as Christine and the Queens) never seems to stop moving.
