Although many documentaries have captured artists in the tumultuous throes of creative process, rarely do they demystify the process for the viewer. The well-cultivated image of art-making as some murky, mysterious ritual (illuminated only by the occasional thunderbolt of inspiration, followed by shrieks of "Eureka!") is rarely cracked or deconstructed by the documentarian; indeed, in films like Al Pacino's Looking For Richard or D.A. Pennebaker's Moon Over Broadway, the creative process is presented as such an elusive, majestic animal that the entire documentary wilts under its inscrutability. The creative process is perhaps even harder to capture in dance documentaries; with a (usually) wordless art form and the cinematic seductiveness of its physicality in performance, the understanding of how artists create something astonshing from little more than an idea is often impossible to attain.

Which is why fans of performance documentaries should be rejoicing in the streets over Mirra Bank's energizing film LAST DANCE, making its way to DVD this month after winning a slew of international awards in its theatrical release. LAST DANCE captures in sharp relief one of the preeminent dance ensembles of the 20th century -- the acclaimed Pilobolus Dance Theatre -- which is cause enough for celebration. However, the director's ultimate goal is not mere archivism...she is hunting wilder game, namely, the illusive elemental seeds of creativity itself. To find it, she peers directly into Pilobolus' tempestuous collaboration with the award-winning storyteller Maurice Sendak, author of the classic children's book Where The Wild Things Are. Over a series of weeks, the dancers and the author work to find a common language: battling over ideas and forms, nuances and details, even the nature and purpose of art itself. Stripped of the pretentions normally associated with art, LAST DANCE offers up a wholly human, tantalizingly imperfect struggle to create beauty and resonance...and in the process, showing the art of making art as it has rarely been seen before.

One of the most exquisite gifts of Bank's film is its focus on the dancers -- as people, as performers, and in the unique collaborative framework of Pilobolus, as engaged creative partners. Their athleticism and grace are unparalleled, but their willingness to reach beyond their own boundaries is remarkable to see. Their flexibility (both physical and organizational) becomes to glue that holds the theatrically-minded Sendak and the improvisationally-bound choreographers together. It is in the bodies of the dancers, especially in the highly moldable clay of Otis Cook and Benjamin Pring, that ideas meld. Anyone who has ever wondered how actors learn all those lines, or pianist know where all the keys are, or how dancers move with such magnificence, will find LAST DANCE to be astonishing.

The DVD includes a healthy set of extra features, including interviews, outtakes, and four short films on the Pilobolus work process. Each resonates within the context of the larger film marvelously. Although LAST DANCE should take a rightful place among the great American dance documentaries (which might include Mark Morris' Dido and Aeneas, Bill T. Jones' Dancing To The Promised Land, Martha Graham: An American Original, A Tribute To Alvin Ailey, and the collected video works of Merce Cunningham), it should be enjoyed by anyone interested in the best of human experience. One can only hope that the film's title is proven, over time, to be untrue.

-- Gabriel Shanks

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