I love choreographing with live dancers, but I wanted to go to another art form.

I don't know, there was just something about it.

The editing aspect really attracted me.

I liked the, I always envied painters being able to go into a studio and paint whenever they wanted to, or not have to put up with sick dancers or.

Dancers who had certain limitations, I wanted more control over the product.

Grappling and I just think if you could get this shoulder and know that that hand is going to be there.

Choreographer Victoria Urus first began making dance videos in 1987.

I choreograph, shoot and edit and produce and direct because as I say I really like to have a lot of control over everything.

The only thing I don't have control over is when the dancers don't do something absolutely the way I want them to and at the same time having the technical things go right.

But then I can just reshoot until it's right.

Many choreographers seem to have trouble with video because it makes people look smaller.

And it does have its limitations, but I am very fascinated by those limitations.

If you stop thinking in a proscenium way about choreography and actually get the camera in on the choreography, people can see bodies in ways that they don't normally see them.

Or even abnormally see them.

Every piece is very different and I really like going off of different.

I don't have one single vision.

Each piece is its own small vision to me.

Sometimes the music, I will just have to choreograph a certain piece of music.

Sometime an event will set me off.

And I don't ever decide what's going to set me up.

It's just something that starts needling me.

Sometimes the dancers will be a major source of inspiration, either from the beginning or in the process.

Their relationships will suggest something to me, or the kind of dancer they are.

The administrative responsibilities of running a dance company or presenting performances can be enormous.

Victoria and choreographer Susan Hadley, John Giffin, and composer Bradley Sowash formed a company with arts manager Jennifer Blumberg called Five Minds.

Five Minds emerged as an umbrella organization to help manage each of us and our individual projects and to do grant writing and administrative help for all of us.

And we're trying to pool our resources on that level.

And we are doing it through this organization, Five Mind.

Well this was a really not a very good time to start a company because their money is being cut back greatly and uh... As far as i'm concerned it's not taking a great toll i'm not a big production person i really like dealing with dance Two projects are really consuming me right now.

One is a new video called Slipshod.

And in that work, I decided not to use any live choreography.

I decided to just go in and be site-specific with whatever I had the dancers do.

As for choreography, I'm working on a piece that I'm calling Table of Contents right now, and I'm using no music for this new piece.

I'm having the dancers vocalize, either with exhale, inhale sounds, or occasionally we use words.

I'm trying to get at new things with this process.

Since again, I feel I was somewhat facile using music.

I wanted to just try something very new, and this is very new for me.