4/30/17: A girl, a crow, and a building in decay. This is Painted, stunningly choreographed and performed by Dorotea Saykaly, with concept and cinematography by her partner, Duncan McDowall. I love it a lot, but my OCD side really wants the video to end in her taking a shower.

Though it claims to be the first in a trilogy of dance films, there are only two. When asked about the third, McDowall responded, obliquely, “The third part is silence for now, but it’s coming.” That was a year ago.

The series explores the human race’s tug-of-war with nature and the transience of the physical world in relation to that nature. Painted was awarded Best Dance Film at the 2012 Fastnet Short Film Festival.

“Imagine if you’re walking in the wilderness and find an abandoned building and when you look through a window you see this woman in black just dancing by herself. I would tip toe the hell out of there.”  -commenter acemachine26

(That comment was so comically visual, I couldn’t resist including it.)

You can follow Dorotea Saykaly on her website and on Vimeo and Instagram. You can follow Duncan McDowall on the Possible Studio website and on Instagram.

Here is the second video in the series. It starts with a kind of Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth, and ends, well, I’ll let you find out for yourself.