Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 301 (1987)
Date: 1987-01-01
Subject: Choreographers; Modern dance; Dance production
Copyright Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation; Charles Atlas

Clip Description
This episode of "New Television" features "Hail the New Puritan," video artist Charles Atlas' look at British choreographer Michael Clark.

"Hail the New Puritan," 1987, by video artist Charles Atlas, is a portrait of the British modern dance choreographer Michael Clark. Clark is seen over the course of a day rehearsing with his dancers, staging his works for promotional reasons, being interviewed by a writer, socializing with friends, and club hopping. Guest appearances by Leigh Bowery, Clark collaborator, costume designer, and performance artist, and his friend Trojan are littered throughout the work. While all the events are staged, many take on the atmosphere of a more typical documentary style. The dancers in Clark's company become characters, and a camera follows their movements throughout the day. Many lengthy sections of Clark's dance works are shown. Clark is presented in a somewhat tongue in cheek vein as a sensation and an "enfant terrible." At one point, we see him running through the streets to escape from a group of admirers.

"Hail the New Puritan," which was called "Dream Dancer" while in development, was broadcast as Episode 301 of the 1987 season of "New Television." Segments of the work were also shown on an episode of "Alive From Off Center."

Program Description
This episode of "New Television" features "Hail the New Puritan," video artist Charles Atlas' look at British choreographer Michael Clark.

"Hail the New Puritan," 1987, by video artist Charles Atlas, is a portrait of the British modern dance choreographer Michael Clark. Clark is seen over the course of a day rehearsing with his dancers, staging his works for promotional reasons, being interviewed by a writer, socializing with friends, and club hopping. Guest appearances by Leigh Bowery, Clark collaborator, costume designer, and performance artist, and his friend Trojan are littered throughout the work. While all the events are staged, many take on the atmosphere of a more typical documentary style. The dancers in Clark's company become characters, and a camera follows their movements throughout the day. Many lengthy sections of Clark's dance works are shown. Clark is presented in a somewhat tongue in cheek vein as a sensation and an "enfant terrible." At one point, we see him running through the streets to escape from a group of admirers.

"Hail the New Puritan," which was called "Dream Dancer" while in development, was broadcast as Episode 301 of the 1987 season of "New Television." Segments of the work were also shown on an episode of "Alive From Off Center."

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/New223.HTML