Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 601
Date: 1984-01-01
Subject: Modern dance; Times Square (New York, N.Y.); Amusement parks; Coney Island (New York, N.Y.)
People: Armitage, Karole; Atlas, Charles; Boassert, Lita; Byrd, Donald; McMullen, Patrick; Vishno, Mary Beth
Copyright Holder: Karole Armitage and Charles Atlas

Clip Description
"From an Island Summer" was created by choreographer Karole Armitage and video artist Charles Atlas. In "From an Island Summer" Armitage and two other dancers perform her upbeat movements in two distinct sections. The first, dated August 27, 1983, takes place at Coney Island, at the beach and in front of refreshment stands advertising shish kebab and pizza. The reactions of passersby are incorporated, including those of a young man and a woman who are in fact intentional performers in the video. The dancers are seen on a circular ride at the amusement park. In the second part of the work, dated August 25, 1983, the performers are seen working in a rehearsal studio. The dancers take to the streets and are seen performing in front of a movie theater and at Times Square in New York City. The same man and woman who appeared in the Coney Island segment are amid the crowd. In both segments, the wandering eye of the camera rests on street texts in the form of advertisements and newspaper headlines. Armitage's movement style incorporates punkish elements and classic ballet-like legwork. Produced and directed by Charles Atlas.

Music for the Coney Island section is "Ven Y Baila Mi Son" by Henry Fiol. The second section is accompanied by experimental classical-style music entitled "We'll Be There" by Rabbie Burnsmith and his Ticket Toots.

Producer Susan Dowling incorporated the Coney Island section of "From an Island Summer" as a segment in the "Alive From Off Center" show "Summer Dances." Dowling later included a longer segment of this same section in "Solos, Duets, and Pizza," a work that was also broadcast as an episode of the PBS series "Alive from Off Center," and on Channel 4 in the U.K. Copyright: Karole Armitage and Charles Atlas.

Program Description
This episode of "New Television" features two works by Charles Atlas - "Put Blood in the Music" and "From an Island Summer."

In "Put Blood in the Music," Charles Atlas presents a documentary-style work where critics, artists, and musicians are interviewed about the New York music scene and its many influences.

In "From an Island Summer" Karole Armitage and two other dancers perform her upbeat movements in two distinct locations - Coney Island and Times Square, New York.

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/From45.HTML