Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 405
Date: 1982-01-01
Subject: Modern dance; Cities and towns
People: Gillessen, Kristin; Kaufmann, Urs; Rub, Maria; Tankard, Meryl; Woernle, Bettina
Copyright Holder: Eine X-Film Produktion, Bettina Woernle

Clip Description
"Sydney an der Wupper" is a film featuring the Australian dancer Meryl Tankard. Tankard goes through a day in the city, riding the subway, taking a singing lesson, and bathing at a public house. As the work progresses, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Tankard's character imagines herself dancing with a man across train platforms and through streets. In one scene the two of them are dancing on a hockey rink, sliding across the icy surface. Tankard climbs ladders and catwalks at dizzying heights above the train platforms. Finally, she arrives at an abandoned booth-shaped bar. At this point she is dressed in a reddish evening gown with jewels. She pours herself a drink and smokes in the bar, and we see her vamping it up. Dialogue from "A Place in the Sun" plays and adds to the melodrama, as Tankard continues to vamp it up. She struts about the booth and on a platform outside. As the work draws to a close, we find her singing and dancing in the booth bar, shimmying and belting out a tune in English. The film has a bluish hue to it, and the red of Tankard's wardrobe stands out prominently. The work is almost 50 minutes long. Musical direction was by Christina Bollman. A Puccini aria plays at different intervals throughout the work. Directed by Bettina Woernle.

Program Description
This episode of "New Television" features the dance work "Sydney an der Wupper" by Bettina Woernle, and the comic piece "Oh Nothing" by Dennis Day.

"Sydney an der Wupper" is a film featuring the Australian dancer Meryl Tankard. Copyright: Eine X-Film Produktion, Bettina Woernle.

Dennis Day's humorous look at relationships centers on the continuing encounters between Rebecca, a graphics consultant, and Kevin, a systems analyst. Copyright: Dennis Day.

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Sydney138.HTML