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Music

Kia Labeija Slays in Pillar Point's New Music Video [Premiere]

"Dove" features the HIV crusader, activist, and icon dancing through the streets of Bogotá.
Images courtesy the director and Wild Combination

In "Dove," the latest single and video from the band Pillar Point, Kia Labeija catwalks, duck walks, and dips through the streets of Bogotá, Colombia in search of her lover. The music video leads us through an emotive dance narrative in search of that lost, caged bird. But the real dove we follow is the precious Labeija, whose movements take flight and animate the Colombian cityscape with a New York City intensity.

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Directed by Jacob Krupnick, best known for his 2011 award-winning feature-length dance film Girl Walk // All Day, "Dove"dives into Krupnick's signature use of the public space to make amplified dance narratives that are ecstatic and playful. He tells The Creators Project, “Since making Girl Walk // All Day, I’ve become more and more excited by the chance to tell stories through movement and music. I like the theatricality. I like the uncertainty that comes with working in public. I love that there’s an opportunity for universal expression, and that whether you film in New York, or Bogotá, or Bangkok, you can communicate profound and intricate feelings without using words.”

Many elements in Dove feel familiar—Labeija’s ease in an urban center, for example—but Krupnick’s hope was to remix these elements onto a new platform to form new perspectives. He says, "When I go see dance in formal settings—battles, or balls, or Broadway—I usually wish that I could see the performance in a more interesting environment. Stages just don’t interest me nearly as much as the real world does.” And so we see Labeija’s catwalk in city streets and intersections, open-air markets and plazas.

The video happened over two days time with a small crew—two dancers, four camera-related people from NYC, and a Colombian assistant. Krupnick says, “We worked with a 5K RED Epic mounted to a MoVI gimbal system to create sweeping cinematic shots, and a wireless follow-focus. With a camera crew this small, you wouldn’t normally be able to make work that looks like this. I was directing, helping coordinate movement, checking camera angles, and playing music as we moved throughout the city. Fanny packs were worn.”

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Dove is at once a video postcard of longing, an exploration through a new city, and a monologue about love. Krupnick says, “I love that people tend to see my dance films and piece together their own narrative where it’s not totally spelled out. Part of the joy in this kind of storytelling is that it’s not didactic. I want to create a story that makes sense, that’s thrilling to follow and impossible to turn away from.”

Pillar Point - Dove [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO] from Polyvinyl Record Co. on Vimeo.

To learn more about the director click here. Pillar Point’s new album Marble Mouth was released on Polyvinyl.

Related:

Girl Talk's All Day Gets A 71 Minute Music Video

Kia Labeija Tracks the Influence of HIV/AIDS on Contemporary Art

Kia Labeija's Firsthand Account of Growing Up HIV+