Look how the music video for New Faith begins! The video begins in a pose and then jumps into action. Yes it's a pose! The figures begin to slap or hit each other on the face. But more than that! The figures are posing as 'slappers' or 'hitters'. Fantastic color and the costumes are a part of the overall pose which itself helps to create the setting for the video.
See the movement too in New Order's classic music video ! Maybe you can say that there is more movement than dance. But what is dance? No movement is at the heart of choreography and what we have at the core of the video are dance movements, including the slapping sequence at the beginning. Yes the movements in New Faith are a dance. Yes this is choreography! Still you could say that what is happening is more movement than dance. It is perhaps movement as color or movements through new rhythms and directions. Setting is important too but one of the most important settings is the constant movement in color and the hypnotic development in rhythm and melody.
The costumes too: Some might call them shapeless but these costumes themselves lend a shape to the movement in the video. And it is the job of the director and other designers to combine the rhythm and movement of the choreography as well as the costuming into the music itself. And the main setting is the music! But that is not all! The setting is also a strange baroque world, shapeless and full of color and rhythm. Yet this shapelessness also has a certain shape too. Yes the whole setting is certainly baroque. It is decadent and colorful as you picture the 'baroque' to be ;
The costumes again; The accent is on the baroque. There seems to be an emphasis too on the 'robotic'. However there is something strange and baroque, grotesquely beautiful but human too about the costumes. Yes the human element is important. In the costuming too there is much color and shapelessness and this shapelessness is moving towards shape. The costumes are not really robotic; they are baroque. For example, the legs in many of the costumes don't accent the legs i.e. they don't taper down to give shape to the legs. Rather the legs balloon out and there is nothing robotic about this. Look again at the baroque costuming! One of the main figures is the woman in black ; Human as she is ; For look how she gestures in a human and not a robotic way! This is a romantic video aiming to be fantastic and baroque.
Observe too the large bib that 'stands out' in another figure's plush maroon and white mix costume. And look where the pocket is! Can one call this object a pocket instead of a bib that the figure puts his hand into? Can one really call the structure a bib? It is more a collar; Collars give shape! And this 'piece' is more a collar than a bib.
And the costumes again: The costume are not shapeless ; they are classic in the traditions almost of harlequinade and anti-fashion. And anti-fashion is almost a central part of what fashion is.
Look at the overall dance movements and choreography in the video. The music has shades, layers...constant layering in the music and the rhythm and melody is relentless and non-stop and that is what the choreography must be too! it must be relentless, hypnotic and non-stop in its movement and action. There is constant development too in the music and there must be also be constant development too in the dance and setting too. You feel that there are different threads and layers in the music and the same must happen for the choreography and the overall production of the music video.
The movement is relentless and the dancing too. Look at the harlequins dancing backwards. Yes they are dancing backwards. Dance is rhythm and dancing can go back as well as forward. This piece of choreography almost takes this literally.
The movements and the dance: See too how they dance in the video! At the beginning, two figures slap each other and then they suddenly look so human and frail. When the figures almost 'double-slap' each other, there is again a strange baroqueness about this. There is also a humanness and frailty in this dance-movement. Yes, I think you can call this opening sequence a dance-movement. And that is what dance is! It's really something very human; when people suddenly touch each other, in this case, slap each other..yes there is something close and human about this. It is indeed important to bring in the human element into a dance movement.
The movements of the figures are classic but also wild yet restrained. Look how the figures jump with their bodies close to knees and ankles. There is true movement here ; you could say real slapstick movements because the movements in the body are accented. This is not the human body but a body that can become so distorted and then re-shaped through new movements and actions.
Color: There is also the black color which appears throughout the video especially in the forum of the figure dressed in black. Black is the color of elegance but it provides too a strange contrast against the wondrous baroque colors. There is also the face paint. What is important in the video is how devices such as face paint are used to accent parts of the body. Costume items such as the head coverings and the paint distort and re-shape the figures.
Look too at the primary colors of red blue and yellow at the start of the video. And there are the boots too! All of this adds to the relentless dance movements in the video ; the constant movement and upwards rhythm in the video. There is constant layering in the video and there is something multi-layered and polyphonic too about the music itself.