DANCE ON FILM ARTISTS 2018
ALLISON BEDA & TARA CHEYENNE FRIENDENBERG
Director Allison Beda has a penchant for delightfully, deliriously, awesomely messed-up and characters, and is particularly fond of telling stories about intelligent women, making inspired, though sometimes foolish choices. Her artistic practice delves into the "personal" passions, obsessions, and often poetically explores the intersection of cinema, dance and "narrative" (which is sometimes documentary) - It doesn't fit into a neat category, or any category at all, resulting in bold and unique films. Ms Beda turned her first career as an international fashion model into the feature documentary How To Be A Model (which critics deemed “an intriguing insider look filled with shattered stereotypes”). Her very first short film Know Your Alphabet toured the world with the likes of Stan Brakhage, and is still being invited to screen internationally. Allison Beda’s short film Just A Minute (made withe the 360 Collective) played as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics, she received a Legacy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Film” for her short 9-1-Mum, and her BravoTV commission film 30-LOVE, has done two world tours. She also recently directed the series pilot for Sleeping With The Dead which won "Best Spoof" at Action On Film Festival, and her first fiction screenplay Unpredictable (written with novelist Eileen Cook) is a Screencraft screenplay award comedy semi-finalist. Allison is a member of the 360 Collective (with composer James Maxwell and choreographer Claire French) and is a contributor to the cultural magazine IMAGISTA. She has a BA in film from Simon Fraser University, and an MFA from University of British Columbia. Her work as a IATSE camera operator on various network features and television series helped her hone her strong visual style and her work as an Associate Producer on shows like the SYFY/NBC series 12 Monkeys taught her exactly what and when you can (and cannot) "fix it in post". Allison Beda’s production company A Muse Productions loves making films about women who make trouble and film art that defies categorization. www.allisonbeda.com
Tara Cheyenne Friendenberg is a choreographer, performer, educator, and Artistic Director of Tara Cheyenne Performance. Based in Vancouver, she has been creating and performing her unique brand of hybrid dance-theatre for the past decade and is known for her expert blending of comedy, dynamic physicality, and character work. Tara has been nominated for several Jessie and Ovation awards for her theatrical choreography and is a 2014 recipient of the Chrystal Dance Prize. www.taracheyenne.com
JADE CHARON
Jade Charon is a choreographer, community activist, dancer, and teaching artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She began dancing at the age of 5 with City Ballet Theater, and trained with many local dance organizations around Milwaukee such as: Art in Motion, Milwaukee Ballet School, Feet of Praise Dance Ministry, and graduated from Milwaukee High School of the Arts as a dance major. In 2005, she joined Signature Dance Company where she served as a company member and choreographer. In 2007, she was accepted into Columbia College Chicago. Jade thrived artistically and academically, and received an Opportunity Scholarship which granted her a full ride for her academic achievements. Upon graduating from Columbia, Jade interned with Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles for 3 months. In 2011, Jade Charon graduated from Columbia College Chicago with honors receiving a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Dance and Theater. After college, she became a backup dancer for Kanye West and performed at Summerfest Music Festival and Essences Fest. Jade’s passion for youth and community landed her a pioneer role of, Youth Choreography Dance Artist Mentor, for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. Through this role, Jade was a part of a national research study held by The Wallace Foundation, and had the responsibility of creating a high quality dance program for the youth of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee with a 5.6 million dollar grant. Jade’s professional experience in church ministry , dance, education, and community is the driving force behind her choreography. She is currently a MFA dance student and Graduate Opportunity Fellow, at the University of California, Los Angeles where she explores the ways in which dance can be used as ministry to uplift people of color and heal all people. www.jadecharon.com
ILANA GOLDMAN & GABRIEL WILLIAMS
Ilana Goldman is an Assistant Professor of dance at Florida State University and has taught and choreographed for schools and companies across the United States. She received her BFA from The Juilliard School, where she was awarded the John Erskine Prize for Artistic and Academic Excellence, and her MFA from the University of Washington. Ilana danced professionally as a principal dancer with Oakland Ballet and Sacramento Ballet, as a guest artist with Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, and most recently as a dancer with Trey McIntyre Project. Her dance films Convergence, Fledgling, and InterState have screened at numerous international dance festivals.
Gabriel Williams is a filmmaker, dancer, educator, and researcher. He has danced principal and soloist roles with Oakland Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, New York Theatre Ballet, and as a guest artist with the Trey McIntyre Project. He has appeared on the TV show Glee, starred in the feature film Shteps, and performed in equity summer stock musical theatre. His award-winning dance film Contaction, and his films created in collaboration with Ilana Goldman, Convergence and Fledgling, have screened at numerous national and international film festivals. He has taught classes at the Florida State University since 2015.
Monica Campbell
SIMA GONSAI & LEE FISHER
Sima Gonsai is a visual artist and filmmaker, based in the West Midlands. For the past 12 years her practice has specialized in screen based work. She became established in 2004 with the launch of “Cycle Dialogues”, a four year touring visual arts project, documenting and connecting multi-cultural communities through experimental film, video installation and published writings.
Originally trained in Bharata Natyam dance, her career began as an amateur performer where she later studied a Masters in "Screen Dance’. Currently, she is developing her practice as a screen dance director. Since 2011, She has independently produced and directed a series of screen dance films in collaboration with Freefall Dance Company and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Her recent success has launched her as a director both raising the profile of British screen dance as well as promoting dancers with severe learning disabilities. As part of this work, She has attended several festivals, gaining a wide network of curators, producers, screen directors, choreographers and dancers. Most recently, her screen dance films have been screend at San Francisco dance film festival, Loikka, Oklahoma, Sweden, Romania and Flatlands dance festival.
Lee Fisher started his career as a student at the Royal Ballet School, before joining the then Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet in 1988. He then moved with the company to Birmingham and became a soloist with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. While dancing with the company, he completed an MA in Dance in Education and the Community at the University of Birmingham. After his recent retirement from dancing, Fisher became the Acting Education Manager within BRB Education Department. He is also Artistic Director of Freefall, a company of dancers with learning difficulties.
JUSTINA GRAYMAN & VANCE "JOHNNY HOBBES" BROWN
Justina Grayman (Creator/Director/Choreographer): Justina Kamiel Grayman, phd is a director, dancer, and movement creator who creates revolutionary films + experiences for people who want revolution. Every experience she creates is for the purpose of individuals and groups breaking free from what constrains them. With a background in contemporary/ modern dance and psychology, her approach to designing dance, film, and experiences is one based on their ability to viscerally resonate with and move people. As a dancer, she was a company member in STREB Extreme Action Company and most recently performed in Drop at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) with Kristin Sudeikis Dance. As a director, she creates films about unfree groups breaking free. And as a movement creator, she makes raw, dynamic human movement that allows us to express our inner struggles and explore what it would be like for us all to break free together. Justina has a BA in Psychology from Stanford University, PhD in Psychology & Social Intervention from New York University, and her work has been featured at American Dance Festival’s Movies By Movers & Downtown Urban Arts Festival. Justina’s ultimate mission is to use her films to unite people in revolutionarily free living spaces. She currently dances, teaches psychology at Walden University (Intergroup Conflict and Resolution; Racial and Ethnic Identities; Psychology of Gender), leads movement classes, and makes short films that inspire revolutionary action. Her ultimate mission is to use her films to unite people in revolutionary action and revolutionary living spaces. Stay in touch at: instagram.com/justinagrayman.danceandfilm + www.justinagrayman.com
Vance "Johnny Hobbes" Brown (Co-Director/Songwriter): Johnny Hobbes' mission is to use music, filmmaking, and grassroots community development to advocate globally that every human being have access to their basic needs and much more. Johnny believes all people deserve the freedom to discover their passions and the opportunity to use their power to pursue paths that inspire them and serve others. Stay in touch at: instagram.com/johnny_hobbes + www.johnnyhobbes.com
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CARA HAGAN & ROBERT UEHLIN
Cara Hagan is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice is informed by movement, words, digital space, contemplative practice, and community. Ms. Hagan has the pleasure of sharing her artistic pursuits across the United States and abroad. Most recently, Cara has set choreographic works on students at the UNC School of the Arts, Missouri State University and on professional dancers at the Dance Barn Festival in Battle Lake, MN. Her recent guest residencies have included Thirak India, where she taught, performed and lectured across the north region of India, at James Madison University, where she taught a series of workshops on dance film, and at UC Boulder, where she was a guest artist as part of the 2017 U.N. {W.R.A.P} Series. Further, Cara has made recent performance appearances at the Asheville Wordfest, the Taos Poetry Festival, the On Site/In Sight Dance Festival, and the Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh. A recipient of several grants and awards, Cara recently received a 2014-2015 NCAC Choreographic Fellowship Award, a 2015 Sustainability in the Arts Grant and a 2015-2016 University Research Council Grant. Ms. Hagan serves on the dance studies faculty at Appalachian State University, as well as serving as director and curator for ADF's Movies By Movers, an annual, international dance film festival that hosts events at both the American Dance Festival and Appalachian State University. Cara's scholarly and creative work can be found in various publications, including the Snapdragon Journal of Art and Healing, Headwaters Journal of Expressive Arts, the International Journal of Screendance, and in the book, Dance's Duet with the Camera: Motion Pictures, edited by Telory D. Arendell and Ruth Barnes. Currently Cara is under contract to complete her first solo authored book through McFarland Publishing. www.carahagan.net
Robert Uehlin is an award-winning screendance cinematographer from Oregon. He has studied film production at Northwest Nazarene University and at the University of Oregon where he also taught. His work has been screened at the American Dance Festival, The Utah International Screendance Festival, The Northwest Screendance Exposition, the 40 North Dance Film Festival, and the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema.
For Uehlin, screendance is the most powerful vehicle for conveying the simple beauty of the human form in motion. In his work, audiences are transported. They go with the dancers into new spaces where they explore their own relationships with nature. They dance alongside them as partners and witnesses. And they are brought closer to the choreography itself, moving with the camera, echoing the choreography, experiencing a kinesthetic empathy unavailable to traditional dance audiences. robertuehlin.gallery
RAVEN JACKSON, DONALD C. SHORTER
& FELIPE VARA DE RAY
A native of Tennessee, Raven Jackson is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, & photographer currently attending New York University's Graduate Film Program. In her work, gray areas of life are often detailed. She is particularly interested in stories which add texture to the pivotal experience of coming-of-age and/or into one's sexuality - as well as the body's relationship to nature.
Nettles, winner of an inaugural Flies Collective Film Grant, is her fifth narrative short film. She's currently developing a feature-length script exploring coming-of-age themes in the American South. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, TriQuarterly, CALYX, Kweli, Phantom Limb, PANK, and elsewhere. Her chapbook of poetry, little violences, is available from Cutbank Literary Magazine. Raven is a Cave Canem fellow and a graduate of the New School's Writing Program.www.raven-jackson.com
Donald C. Shorter is a former company member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. During that time he had the honor of creating THE NAZ with Bill T. Jones, which was performed in his one-man show As I was Saying. Broadway national touring credits include Hairspray, La Cage Aux Folles, A Chorus Line, and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. His regional credits include: The Muny Theater, Theater Under The Stars, Theater Of The Stars, Gateway Playhouse, and Riverside Theater. Donald is the creator, writer, and performer of his one-woman show GENDEROSITY, which looks at the process of his drag transformation and uses drag to talk about gender nonconformity. Shorter has restaged choreography from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Barnard College, Towson University, and University of Idaho. He has premiered solo works at the Pompidou Centre, The Wild Project, Dixon Place, The American College Dance Festival, ALLGOLD artist space at MOMA PS1, The Actor's Fund Building, Center for Performance Research, 92nd Street Y, and at the Performance Mix Festival. Shorter is currently a co-host of the PBS Digital Studios web series First Person PBS. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies from West Chester University and received an M.F.A. in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts under a Dean’s Fellowship. Donald is currently Assistant Professor of Dance at Sam Houston State University. www.donaldcshorterjr.com
Felipe Vara de Rey is a cinematographer and director born in Madrid, Spain. He graduated in political science, and after a brief period of time working on social research, he shifted gears and went on to study cinematography at Madrid's Film Institute.
Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, Felipe moved to NYC to pursue NYU’s Grad Film program, where he now teaches two cinematography courses.
Over the last decade, Felipe has shot and directed numerous projects, including feature films, documentaries, music videos, short films, political campaign videos, and commercials. He recently wrapped the Netflix Original feature See You Yesterday, executive produced by Spike Lee. Nosotros is his feature-length directorial debut.
ANNA MARIA JÓAKIMSDÓTTIR HUTRI, MARIA SAIVOSALMI, & ANDRIUS KATINAS
Anna Maria Jóakimsdóttir Hutri was born in Iceland, grew up in Sweden and lived in Finland since 1997. Directed shorts, TV-dramas and commercials.
LISA & JUJU KUSANAGI
Lisa Kusanagi is a Japanese conceptual artist. Her expertise contributes to a wide variety of roles including body expressionist, art director, choreographer, performance artist, filmmaker, and educator. She leverages her multi-cultural upbringing to influence the creative elements in her highly conceptual projects. She is also known for her virtuosic physicality as a performer. Both her multi-media live performances and films have been presented across world: United States, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Albania, Kenya, Australia, China, and Indonesia. Her films, including work by Kusanagi Sisters, have won several awards and have been screened at over 30 festivals, 12 universities, 3 galas and many venues including AMC Theatres, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, The Four Seasons Hotel, and JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE billboards. As an Assistant Professor of Dance at University of the Americas (Mexico; 2015-2017), Kusanagi has taught dance-for-camera, dramaturgy, dance studies, dance and alternative techniques, and repertoire. As a guest-teacher, she has given master classes and workshops at Hollins University (VA), Sonoma State University (CA), Winona State University (MN), Patrick Henry High School (VA), Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (MI), Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (Mexico), Performática (Mexico), Australasian Animal Studies Association (Australia), and Sharing Project Napoli (Italy). With decades of dance and performing arts experience and bodily art exploration, she has collaborated on productions with international artists across multiple disciplines, such as: Yvonne Meier, Demelza Kooij, Lars Koens, Elise Schweitzer, and Ran Bagno. Kusanagi holds an Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Hollins University (VA) and a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts, emphasis in Dance, from Sonoma State University (CA). To see more, please visit: www.lisakusanagi.com (website) and user20507624 (vimeo)
JuJu Kusanagi is a Tokyo/Seattle-based artist who creates interdisciplinary live art performances and raw installations. Born in Sydney, Australia, JuJu spent her youth in Tokyo, Japan before moving to the United States to pursue her career. Her rigorous art practices and explorations include dance, music, film, photography, visual art, and illustration. Graduated from the Cornish College of the Arts (WA) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, magna cum laude, JuJu has enriched her collegiate education with independent studies in 3D sculpture, visual art, technology, and intermedia arts in collaboration with Microsoft (Holo Lens), and Institute of Emergent Technology & Intermedia. Her works have been featured across United States, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Albania, Kenya, Australia, China, and Indonesia. She was granted 2015 Arts Incubator residency and 2015-2016 iET+I (Institute of Emergent Technology and Intermedia) Student Residency, 2016-2017 iET+I Alumni Residency, 2016-2017 Arts Incubator Residency, and 2017 Spring Cornish Residency. JuJu constantly explores dynamic potentiality of the live art and performance by creating durational site-specific works that are uniquely physically experiential based on realism and virtuosity. She dedicates herself to offering art as a way to shed light on empathetic action as a positive activism and the visceral nature of the human experience. www.jujukusanagi.weebly.com. https://www.facebook.com/KusanagiSisters/
SHARON LEAHY
Sharon Leahy has spent a lifetime creating dance and theater for the stage, working with traditional forms to express/impress contemporary themes. As a choreographer she has been commissioned to create work by Jacob's Pillow, the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project, and many others. She was an artist in residence at the University of Dayton and has taught master classes at colleges across the country. As Artistic Director of Rhythm in Shoes, she led an ensemble of dancers and musicians, touring nationally and internationally, presenting original performance art that was both surprising and familiar. Carry it on…Sharon's first dance for camera and has been seen at numerous dance film festivals including Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, The International ScreenDance Festival at the American Dance Festival and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. She has won the Blue Ribbon in the clogging contest at both the National Folk Festival at Wolftrap in Virginia and the Appalachian String Band Festival in West Virginia. www.leahygood.com
JASMINE LYNEA & ANNIELILLE GAVINO
Jasmine Lynea is an Independent Film Director/Producer/Photographer/Videographer/Editor, based in NYC and PHL. A graduate of Temple University, Jasmine has been directing, producing, and editing music videos, short-films, promos and documentaries. Her first film, Take 5, created in 2015, is a mock-documentary that highlights a high-school star athlete's struggle with hyper-masculinity, heteronormativity, and sexuality within the culture of what he loves, basketball. This film was featured in Chicago’s Black Alphabet Film Festival, Philadelphia’s Blackstar Film Festival, and New York’s Big Apple Film Festival, Katra Film Festival and more. In 2017, her second film, The Mixtape: Stay Black Baby, artistically captures Black America set in North Philadelphia. This powerful moving collage, paints a picture of African American communities, from police brutality, transphobia, poverty to mass incarceration. Stay Black, Baby features music, dance, poetry and documentary, colorfully displayed and structured like a visual mixtape. The film is an official selection of the Langston Hughes American Film Festival,San Francisco Black Film Festival, Baltimore International film festival, Hiphop film festival, Colored scenes film festival and more. During the production of her second, she also started a Youtube channel called XLR media which is a platform that has featured various young artists of color, presented in a short video format, simulating an “ audition tape”. Jasmine has also worked with New York Film Academy since 2014 as an editor, producer and as a teacher assistant supervisor. Other freelance credits include production manager for Oldhead web series, editor for web series Ariel+Miranda+ Fate, film collaborator for Dbdance Project production on the life of Kalif Browder story. Coming this fall, Jasmine will be joining the teaching artist faculty of Fels High School as the Film/Video instructor. www.jasminelynea.com
Annielille Gavino, affectionately known as Ani ( meaning "Harvest" in her native tongue, Hiligaynon) is a native of the Philippines. Annielille studied Tourism Management prior to pursuing her dance training at the Alvin Ailey School NYC, simultaneously assisting Horton Master teacher, Milton Myers. She danced professionally with the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble ( Denver, CO ) and the Dallas Black Dance Theater (Dallas, TX). Through these mixed repertory companies, she was able to work with legendary choreographers such as Katherine Dunham, Donald McKayle, Eleo Pomare, Diane McIntyre, Alonzo King, Ronald K. Brown, Chuck Davis and many others. Annielille is also trained in folk dances of the Philippines. Her passion for polyrhythms has led to her investigation of Flamenco, Bharatanatyam, and various techniques of the African Diaspora. Currently, Annielille is is a freelance teaching and movement artist/ choreographer. She dances with Kun- Yang- Lin/Dancers ( Philadelphia). Her recent collaborative work conceptualized by tabla player, Lenny Seidman is funded by Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and celebrates the rhythms of tabla, taiko and dance. Ani has also recently collaborated with visual artist, Saya Woofalk where Ani uses her improvisational skills against Saya's Hybrid Digital Art. Ani has also appeared on camera in the forms of a shorts and dance on films directed by, Jasmine Lynea, Torian Ugworji and Marit Stafstrom. A natural story teller, her first attempt at story slam was presented by NPR/WHYY and Common Space and directed by David O'Connor. Her works have been commissioned by Dance Place, DC, funded by Small But Mighty Arts Grant, presented at the Fleisher Art Memorial, Barnes Foundation, fBronx Academy Of Dance, DUMBO, Come Together Festival, Philadelphia Fringe and more. She continues her artistic journey as a political artist through her project based company, Malayaworks ( named after her daughter Malaya Cassandra. ) Follow her @ IG: ani_malayaworks
MARLENE MILLAR & SANDY SILVA
With a background in contemporary dance and design, Montreal filmmaker Marlene Millar created her first award winning film The Woman and the Sink in 1989. Marlene received her BFA in Film Production from Concordia University, studied in the graduate program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1999 received a Pew Fellowship in Dance Media at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 2001 Marlene and Philip Szporer co-founded the production company Mouvement Perpétuel, directing and producing acclaimed arts documentaries and dance films. Their television broadcast partners have included Bravo!, ARTV, APTN, CBC and TéléQuébec. Their work is widely seen in festivals internationally and has been featured at world events including the 2010 Cultural Olympics, the World Exhibition in Shanghai, a UNESCO tour of Latin America. Their most recent collaboration is Bhairava, a site specific dance film featuring dance artist Shantala Shivalingappa. Projects exploring new technologies include Lost Action: Trace, a stereoscopic (3D) live action/animated film with choreographer Crystal Pite, animator Theodore Ushev and the National Film Board of Canada; 1001 Lights, a for gallery installation and CRU a three part street dance web production for la Fabrique culturelle.
Marlene has created numerous film installations including Terminus and Quarantaine 4 x 4 (Red Rabbit Project)and is currently in production with Witness, a personal essay installation. Marlene's work is part of an ongoing exhibition "WOMEN" in Perth, Scotland, and was recently featured at the Ming Gallery of Contemporary Art in Shanghai.
Lay Me Low , Pilgrimage, Move and Traverse are directed by Marlene for Sandy Silva Dance and are currently on the film festival circuit and have garnered seventeen awards and prizes to date including Best Dance Film at Aesthetica Short Film Festival, First Prize at Cinematica, Audience Award for Best Short Dance Film at Cinedans, Amsterdam, Special Jury Prize at Des Arts // Des Cinés in France, Best Screendance Short under 10 minutes at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and the first Prix Lumiere at Cinédanse Québec.
Credits as Creative Producer include the dance films Vanishing Points, Hoop, Turnaround Tango and Hands On by director Marites Carino, Twitch by director Jules de Niverville and the installation Out of Mies by Lynda Gaudreau. Mentoring emerging filmmakers has been an important part of Marlene’s activities since 1994. She has taught filmmaking workshops across Canada and internationally at institutes such as Centre Imagine in Burkino Faso, Impulstanz in Vienna, University of Bowling Green in Ohio, Loikka in Helsinki, Malakta Art Factory in Finland. In Canada she is a regular guest lecturer at Concordia University, and has mentored documentary filmmakers in Iqaluit, Igloolik, Cambridge Bay and Pangnirtung, Nunavut with the Nunavut Film Development Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada. Marlene also has an established career as a film editor.
Active in the filmmaking community, Marlene was on the Board of Directors at Main Film for 10 years and is a long standing member of the Documentary Organization of Canada. www.marlenemillar.com
Sandy Silva was among the first to combine body percussion techniques andcontemporary movement with percussive dance - her work stands at the vanguard ofcontemporary artistry in traditional music and dance. Over the past three decades, Sandy has developed a personal vocabulary of movement and sound based on the percussive dancepractices of Hungary, Appalachia, Cape Breton and Andalusia, and the idioms of circus,contemporary dance, and theatre. Silva’s choreography weaves a dialogue between thesegestural and rhythmic vocabularies, blending the local and the post-modern in an organic,bodily response to her world. The result is an incredibly dynamic and emotive expression at the crossroads of movement and sound. www.sandysilvadance.com
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ALICE PENNEFATHER & CHARLES HASWELL
After studying photography at Falmouth College of Arts, British film-maker Alice Pennefather spent 6 years travelling and working abroad, focusing on scuba diving and filming underwater. Returning to London in 2011 she rediscovered her love of dance and now works as a freelance photographer and cinematographer. With several years experience photographing for companies such as The Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Garsington Opera and ZooNation, she has also developed her skills with moving image above and below the water on several commercials, major BBC and ITV dramas such as Miss Marple, Eastenders and Poldark, short films and working on major features such as Tomb Raider, Kingsman, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, The Mummy (2017), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Paddington 2.
The Sun is God is Alice’s second film as a director as well as director of photography. Her debut, Dreams of Giverny achieved Official Acceptance into Other Venice, Marina del Rey, Frostbite and London International Short Film Festivals in 2017 and Rosebud Film Festival and Utah Dance Film Festival in 2018.
Alice said: “ 2018 marks 100 years since the end of the First World War, so I felt it a fitting time to make a film about remembrance. Of course we also wanted to make a follow up short to Dreams of Giverny - following on the theme of great artists and their inspirations. So setting this film at Petworth House, where JMW Turner spent a lot of time painting, seemed an obvious choice. The National Trust have been so generous and helpful. It was a dream to work there.
My original vision was set to a Turner sky with sunset and warm orange tones. On the day actually it was very grey and raining at times. But in the end I think that contributed to the tone of the film and I feel it’s created something very beautiful. ” IMBD Page www.pennefatherfilms.com
Ballet enthusiast and film producer Charles Haswell was born and raised in London. After a long and successful career as a company director of The David Lloyd Slazenger Racquet Club, which later became David Lloyd Leisure, he then spent 10 years as a company director of Gallery One, an art gallery with premises in London and Grayshott, Surrey.
Alongside these business successes, Charles satisfied a passion for film and television by co-founding Projector Pictures (formerly Projector Productions) with actors Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughan – for which he was also a company director. Projector Productions has achieved many successful, and a number of BAFTA nominated productions, such as Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998 Channel 4), Cinderella (2000 Channel 4), Twelfth Night, Or What You Will (2003 Channel 4), Kidnap and Ransom (2011/2012 ITV1).
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PAULINA RUTMAN
Paulina Rutman is a Chilean artist based in Santiago, Chile. For over 30 years, she has been fully dedicated to the field of dance, specializing in choreography and dance film. She has worked in musicals, dance films and performance. Her vast experience and educational background include studies at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, USA), The Edit Center (New York, USA) and Dance Film Association (New York, USA). She also runs her own dance company and teaches choreography composition in Santiago, Chile
Her films have been screened in festivals such as File Electronic Language (Brasil), Loikka Dance Film Festival (Finland), Danza Em Foco (Brasil), Dance Screen Festival IMZ (Austria), Dance Camera West Festival (USA), Dance Screen Festival (Sweden), and In Out festival (Poland). www.paulinarutman.com
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SHANTALA SHIVALINGAPPA, MARLENE MILLAR,
& PHILIP SZPORER
Born in Madras, India, brought up in Paris, Shantala Shivalingappa is the child of east and west. She grew up in a world filled with dance and music, initiated at a tender age by her mother, dancer Savitry Nair.
Deeply moved and inspired by Master Vempati Chinna Satyam’s pure and graceful style, Shantala dedicated herself to Kuchipudi, and received an intense and rigorous training from her master. Driven by a deep desire to bring Kuchipudi to the western audience, she has performed in important festivals and theatres (such as: Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Sadler’s Wells–London, Mercat de les Flors-Barcelona, Jacob’s Pillow Festival-USA, New York City Center, Herbst Theatre-San Francisco), earning praise and admiration from all.
Acclaimed as a rare dancer by artists and connoisseurs in India and Europe, Shantala combines a perfect technique with flowing grace and a very fine sensitivity. Since the age of 13, she also had the privilege of working with some of the greatest artists of our times: Maurice Béjart (“1789…et nous”), Peter Brook (for whom she played Miranda in “The Tempest” and Ophelia in “Hamlet”), Bartabas (“Chimère”), Pina Bausch (“O Dido”, “Néfès”, and “Bamboo Blues), Amagatsu (“Ibuki”). Such experiences make her artistic journey a truly unique one.
Today, Shantala shares her time between touring with her solos and expanding her own choreographic work in the Kuchipudi style. Passionate about human encounters and the artistic journey they trigger, she also revels in collaborating with various artists in the exploration of dance, music and theatre.
With a background in contemporary dance and design, Montreal filmmaker Marlene Millar created her first award winning film The Woman and the Sink in 1989. Marlene received her BFA in Film Production from Concordia University, studied in the graduate program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1999 received a Pew Fellowship in Dance Media at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 2001 Marlene and Philip Szporer co-founded the production company Mouvement Perpétuel, directing and producing acclaimed arts documentaries and dance films. Their television broadcast partners have included Bravo!, ARTV, APTN, CBC and TéléQuébec. Their work is widely seen in festivals internationally and has been featured at world events including the 2010 Cultural Olympics, the World Exhibition in Shanghai, a UNESCO tour of Latin America. Their most recent collaboration is Bhairava, a site specific dance film featuring dance artist Shantala Shivalingappa. Projects exploring new technologies include Lost Action: Trace, a stereoscopic (3D) live action/animated film with choreographer Crystal Pite, animator Theodore Ushev and the National Film Board of Canada; 1001 Lights, a for gallery installation and CRU a three part street dance web production for la Fabrique culturelle.
Marlene has created numerous film installations including Terminus and Quarantaine 4 x 4 (Red Rabbit Project)and is currently in production with Witness, a personal essay installation. Marlene's work is part of an ongoing exhibition "WOMEN" in Perth, Scotland, and was recently featured at the Ming Gallery of Contemporary Art in Shanghai.
Lay Me Low , Pilgrimage, Move and Traverse are directed by Marlene for Sandy Silva Dance and are currently on the film festival circuit and have garnered seventeen awards and prizes to date including Best Dance Film at Aesthetica Short Film Festival, First Prize at Cinematica, Audience Award for Best Short Dance Film at Cinedans, Amsterdam, Special Jury Prize at Des Arts // Des Cinés in France, Best Screendance Short under 10 minutes at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and the first Prix Lumiere at Cinédanse Québec.
Credits as Creative Producer include the dance films Vanishing Points, Hoop, Turnaround Tango and Hands On by director Marites Carino, Twitch by director Jules de Niverville and the installation Out of Mies by Lynda Gaudreau. Mentoring emerging filmmakers has been an important part of Marlene’s activities since 1994. She has taught filmmaking workshops across Canada and internationally at institutes such as Centre Imagine in Burkino Faso, Impulstanz in Vienna, University of Bowling Green in Ohio, Loikka in Helsinki, Malakta Art Factory in Finland. In Canada she is a regular guest lecturer at Concordia University, and has mentored documentary filmmakers in Iqaluit, Igloolik, Cambridge Bay and Pangnirtung, Nunavut with the Nunavut Film Development Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada. Marlene also has an established career as a film editor.
Active in the filmmaking community, Marlene was on the Board of Directors at Main Film for 10 years and is a long standing member of the Documentary Organization of Canada. www.marlenemillar.com
Philip Szporer is a Montreal-based filmmaker, writer, and lecturer. He has been immersed in the Canadian dance world for the past 30 years. Currently, he teaches in the Contemporary Dance department at Concordia University and is a Scholar-in-Residence at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts. In 1999, he was awarded a Pew Fellowship (National Dance/Media Project), at the University of California, Los Angeles. And in 2010 he was the recipient of the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize awarded by the Canada Council of the Arts. He was recognized with a Distinguished Teaching Award from Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in Spring 2016.
In 2001, Philip along with Marlene Millar co-founded the arts film production company Mouvement Perpétuel. Together they have co-directed and produced many documentaries and short dance films to great acclaim. Their work is seen widely a festivals worldwide and at major events such as the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and a UNESCO tour of Latin America.
Projects exploring new technologies include Lost Action: Trace, a stereoscopic (3D) live action/animated film with choreographer Crystal Pite, animator Theodore Ushev and produced by the National Film Board of Canada, and Leaning On A Horse Asking For Directions, an interdisciplinary investigation into visual perception and kinesthetic empathy involving multi-channel stereoscopic 3D (S3D) environment for exhibition, and bridging BaGuaZhang martial arts and contemporary dance choreography. Recent new platform productions include 1001 Lights, for gallery/museum installation and CRU a three-part street dance web platform production for La Fabrique culturelle (Télé-Québec).
Philip also created Inquiry Into Time and Perception, Study #1, two short video portraits for wall-sized projection installations which act as “windows” opening onto the passions and the ambiguities of physical and emotional manifestation. These studies draw on a deep vitality, and intrinsic qualities address the senses, intellect, and imagination.
Philip has served as artistic advisor for interactive exhibits and installations, including the Corps rebelles/Rebel Bodies exhibition at the Musée de civilisation in Québec City, and the Toile Mémoire interactive map project created by the Regroupement québecois de danse (RQD).
He is also host and creative producer for the Ces lieux où Montréal dansait/Dancing Montreal, Now & Then series of films, produced by the RQD.
He has guided dance-film workshops in Finland, Portugal, the United States, and Mexico. Philip’s activities as a broadcast journalist have included stints at CBC Radio, as a dance columnist for Radio-Canada’s radio arts magazine Aux arts, etc., and correspondent for The World (BBC/WGBH-Boston). His dance writings have been published in Hour, The Dance Current, Ballettanz, Tanz, and Dance Magazine, among others. Philip has also worked as a choreographic facilitator in Montreal, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States and has given writing workshops and has lectured widely across Canada, the United States, and Europe.
ZORNITSA STOYANOVA
Zornitsa Stoyanova is a performance artist, curator, writer, lighting and video designer based in Philadelphia, PA. A native of Bulgaria, she creates, produces and presents performing art and video under the name Here[begin] Dance.
She questions the ideas of the constructed structures of performance and pushes the boundaries of social propriety. Mylar reflective material and custom lighting are integral part of her most recent work. Since becoming a mother her work has focused on abstracting the female body, feminist ideas and imagery.
She also seeks out professional development opportunities researching art practices in abstracting the body and looking for emotional content and potential for meaning. Her most influential teachers include Deborah Hay, Meg Stuart, Miguel Gutierrez, Michelle Boule, Ishmael Houston Jones, Susan Rethorst, Fay Driscoll, Luciana Achugar, Danny Lepkoff among others.
Her yearlong residency at <fidget> space in Philadelphia explored personal narratives from the female perspective along with custom lighting and Mylar multimedia interaction. Explicit Female evening length show, a collection of photographs and a collection of dance on camera films were produced as a result.
Zornitsa is also a supporter for a sustainable dance community and is deeply invested in helping further conversation and collaboration. As Here[begin] Dance she has curated and produced Current: an evening of dance and art and Dance Cinema Projects. She has hosted and organized multiple classes for the community and taught free workshops in making web sites for artists and budgeting. In the past three years she has ran a community dance workshop called Get What You Need. She teaches improvisation technique for performance, dance on camera and composition and has done so in Philadelphia, France, Hungary and her native Bulgaria. Zornitsa writes for thinkingdance.net and is the Programs Coordinator at Mascher Space Cooperative. Her latest community/activist project is Birthing Bodies, Birthing Art residency and she is presently working on Lick My Gun evening length performance.
