"Dance video" is a unique artistic genre that encompasses the aesthetics of dance and video. It captures dancers on and off the stage, and offers an insight into the power of motion to explore the souls of dancers.

The 2009 Jumping Frames Dance Video Festival, which kicked off Sunday afternoon at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, is a chance for artists and audiences to share the unlimited possibilities of dance videos in an artistic context.

The festival opened with "Coffee With Pina", by Israeli visual artist Lee Yanor. Yanor spent three years travelling with dance guru Pina Bausch in Paris, France and Wuppertal, Germany, and kept records of Bausch's intimate moments at her own home studio. The film, mixed with the footage of Agua and Rough Cut, two of Bausch's masterpieces, creates a stream of consciousness that immerses viewers in beauty, strength, and the intense enjoyment of life.

Yanor used super 8 millimeter film and video to create the production. Her camera focuses on the characters on the margins of the stage. She transfers musical elements from parts of the performance to other parts, and introduces sounds of trains, wind and rain into the soundtrack and created layer upon layer of image.

Israeli visual artist Lee Yanor said, "It's kind of a creative process. It does not come all at once. I created it like photographs. So you take parts, and you put them together. She(Pina Bausch) is an extremely important artist today. And for the film, I experienced with her the intimate moments, very very intimate and true moments. And I think this is the treasure."

The Jumping Frames Video Dance Festival was initiated in Hong Kong in 2004. It is a biennial festival which aims to facilitate the conversation between two established art forms--Video and Dance. This year the festival was introduced to Beijing.

This time around, the festival is comprised of four parts: the screenings of the opening and closing films about Pina Bausch; the Hong Kong Video Dance Series, presented by Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company; Competition Selections, showcasing award-winning works from all over the world; and China Dance Video Showcase, including pieces created by the up and coming driving force of the field in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The Jumping Frames Dance Video Festival runs until April the 4th. The closing film will feature "One Day Pina Asked Me", a piece investigating Pina Bausch's world of choreography. It will be screened at the French Cultural Center.

(CCTV April 1, 2009)