Last Dance

Mirra Bank directs this documentary about the making of "A Selection," a 2001 dance performance by the Pilobolus Dance Theater. A collaboration between the Pilobolus artistic directors, Robby Barnett, Michael Tracy, and Jonathan Wolken; and the artistic directors of The Night Kitchen, Arthur Yorinks and famous author-illustrator Maurice Sendak (WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE), sparks the creation of a fantastic story and a dynamic creative process, all of which is captured in Bank's film. Starting from scratch with Sendak's loose suggestion that the story should be about the Holocaust, the artistic directors and dancers go to work. Sendak throws out an idea, the dancers interpret it, the Pilobolus directors modify it. And thus, through trial and error, building and deconstructing, this feisty group of artistic minds and bodies pool their energies into one unique vision. They create a powerful performance, with Sendak's dark cartoonish sets and costumes, a dance that is full of eerie configurations and movements, all to the music of Czech composer Hans Krasa.

LAST DANCE is a captivating documentary. The energy and strength--both physical and emotional--of the Pilobolus dancers is infectious. And the collaboration between Sendak's Night Kitchen and the Pilobolus artistic directors is presented as an intense, often conflicted, rigorous process. Archival footage from the Holocaust communicates Sendak's commitment to remembering his lost ancestors. In the end, watching the dancers move through the piece brings climactic closure to the film.