Arts
Jo Willman blends ballet, time in senior thesis ‘In Space and Time’
By Matthew Winkler | April 28Light splashes the vinyl floor of a ballet studio. Silhouettes of tree branches flicker in striated patterns as bodies pirouette, sway and plié atop the light and shadow in abstraction. The dancers’ faces are obscured as the movements of their legs and feet fill up the frame. A new composition forms as a vertical foot ‘en pointe’ freezes. The foot stands in graceful defiance of human anatomy, proudly facing the audience as if a painting to be admired. Such a considered vignette opens Josephine Willman’s senior thesis film, “In Space and Time,” a short documentary that examines the transition from pre-professional ballet training to ballet in a college environment.
