Maya Deren and Experimental Work in Video

"And what more could I possibly ask as an artist than that your most precious visions, however rare, assume sometimes the forms of my images.


Deren was a dancer, choreographer, poet, writer and photographer. In the cinema she was a director, writer, cinematographer, editor, performer, entrepreneur and pioneer in experimental filmmaking in the United States.

When she was born in Kiev in 1917 and was named Eleanora. In 1922 the Derenkowsky family fled to New York due to the threat of anti-semitism in the Ukraine. They contracted and Anglicized their name to Deren.

As a young woman Eleanora Deren studied journalism and political science and became active in student politics at Syracuse University. Deren transferred to New York University where she was awarded her undergraduate degree in 1936. At Smith College she completed a Masters Degree in English Literature and symbolist poetry in 1939. After college Deren began working as an assistant to the famous dancer and choreographer, Katherine Dunham. Deren found inspiration and nomadic adventure with the innovative Katherine Dunham Dance Company, touring and performing across the US. It was in Los Angeles in 1941 that Deren met Alexander Hammid, a Czechoslovakian filmmaker working in Hollywood. In collaboration with Hammid, Deren produced her first and most remarkable experimental film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).

In 1943 she changed her name to Maya and shifted her focus from dance to film.

Rhythm is a defining element of all of Deren's films, it arises from the play of repetition and variation which is integral to her experiments in narrative. Meshes deploys an innovative style of cutting on action where the protagonist steps over such disparate terrains as the beach, soil, grass and concrete. The rhythmic drumbeat and the repeated movement highlight her deliberate progress across these discontinuous spaces. As the central, consistent element, Its soundtrack enables Deren's temporal and spatial experimentation."

from the article by Wendy Haslem:
Maya Deren: The High Priestess of Experimental Cinema
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/deren.html

for more information on the woman "who makes the world dance":
http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/deren9.html#text

"Some Metaphors For The Creative Process" by Maya Deren
http://www.wam.umd.edu/%7Emolouns/amst450/village/deren.html