Kinodance Company dances and screens New London film at Conn

When Kinodance Company takes to the Connecticut College stage Friday, it will have a dual focus - performing its own dance piece and giving a sneak preview of its New London short film.

The Boston-based artist collaborative was here in September to shoot footage of local children playing traditional games like hopscotch and jump-rope. The children were 75 students from the New London Dual Language Arts Academy, filmed at locales like the New London Public Library.

Part of the idea was to explore how youngsters create rites and rituals through street games.

Alla Kovgan, Kinodance filmmaker, says, "I think it's an incredible portrait of childhood in many ways and also has a melancholy feeling about this disappearing culture of children (playing) in the streets."

Kinodance choreographer/dancer Ingrid Schatz says they also noticed the reaction of city residents to youngsters playing old-fashioned games in the streets.

"A veil was lifted. They were looking at the streets differently, but I also think they were looking at young people differently," she says.

After the film, titled "New London Calling," is previewed Friday, Kinodance will perform another piece, "Denizen," live.

Members of the collaborative, which was selected by Dance Magazine as one of the "25 to watch" in 2008, took inspiration for "Denizen" from Armenia cinema. Of particular interest was Artavazd Peleshian's 1975 film "The Seasons," which examines the relationship between people and nature.

Kinodance members actually travelled to that country in 2006, visiting some of the same sites where "Seasons" was shot.

They filmed on a hill with haystacks and inside an abandoned church. They spent a day with a shepherd and his flock of sheep. They adapted choreography to the sites and filmed those sequences.

Kinodance choreographer/dancer Alissa Cardone says that, ultimately, they were inspired by what they saw to ask questions about their own relationship with the land they live on.

The final product - the show that New London audiences will see - combines live dance with the Armenia footage.

Kinodance Company: "Denizen" and "New London Calling," 8 p.m. Friday, Palmer Auditorium, Connecticut College, Mohegan Avenue, New London; $15-$22 ($13.50-$20 seniors, $7.50-$11 students); (860) 439-2787.