
Dance on Camera Festival 2017
Dance on Camera Festival remains the longest-running dance film festival in the world, providing a platform for choreographic storytelling and creative expression, and intimate access to innovative media artists and their cinematic works. Each February, the Festival presents feature-length documentary and narrative films, inventive short films, filmmaker panels and special events, cutting edge media and art installations, as well as engaging community and student programs.
Dance on Camera Festival remains the longest-running dance film festival in the world, providing a platform for choreographic storytelling and creative expression, and intimate access to innovative media artists and their cinematic works. Each February, the Festival presents feature-length documentary and narrative films, inventive short films, filmmaker panels and special events, cutting edge media and art installations, as well as engaging community and student programs.
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David Barba
2017|
USA|
83 minutes
This documentary follows dancer Marcelo Gomes from his native Brazil to the Metropolitan stage and beyond to show how much dedication and discipline are required to reach the top and how much physical stress is imposed on the body in the process. Screening with: Our Five Senses (Ben Rich, 5m).
Marie-Hélène Rebois
2016|
France|
80 minutes|
English and French with English subtitles
This film plunges us into the spellbinding world of renowned choreographer Trisha Brown, whose work remains as beautiful and mysterious as ever. Screening with: Between Stephen and Yvonne (Kevin Hayden, 10m).
Susan Glatzer
2016|
USA|
84 minutes
There’s no way the viewer can keep still or not feel the joy when watching this documentary about the current swing dance world, which also examines the social and personal issues that affect the lives of the dancers.
Arantxa Aguirre
2016|
Switzerland|
79 minutes|
English and French, Japanese, and Spanish with English subtitles
Fifty years after it premiered a dance piece set to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Ballet Béjart Lausanne, led by Gil Roman, who danced in the original production, sets out to reimagine the monumental work for a new generation. Screening with: Being and Nothingness (Alejandro Alvarez, 8m).
62 minutes
Two made-for-television films are shown as part of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts’s ongoing exhibition about American dancer, writer, choreographer, and seminal postmodernist David Gordon. Screening with: Exquisite Corps (Mitchell Rose, 6m).
Ron Honsa
2016|
USA|
70 minutes
Choreographer Robin Becker adapts Pulitzer Prize–winning author David Maraniss’s chronicle of the Vietnam era They Marched into Sunlight into a full-scale contemporary dance in this new documentary. Screening with: Jonah (Andrew Michael Ellis, 10m).
Jonathan Demme
2016|
USA|
90 minutes
Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme fully captures the excitement of the final two shows of Grammy-winning superstar Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience World Tour in this vibrant concert film.
Yara Travieso
2017|
USA|
80 minutes
This musical reimagining of Euripides’ violent tragedy, a work of dance-theater in the style of a Latin-disco-pop variety show, is directed, performed, filmed, edited, and streamed in real time with a live studio audience. Accompanied by an original score performed live by the band Jason and the Argonauts.
Alexandre Peralta
2016|
Brazil|
90 minutes|
Portuguese with English subtitles
The film tells the story of two youngsters in the Fernanda Bianchini Ballet Association for the Blind in São Paulo, the only ballet school in the world for the visually impaired.
Kersti Grunditz Brennan
2016|
Sweden|
97 minutes
This film closely follows Marie Lindqvist, a principal dancer with the Royal Swedish Ballet for over 20 years, capturing her thoughts and her down-to-earth personality in rehearsal, onstage, on the road, and at a star-studded gala. Screening with: Broken Memory (Tomoko Mikanagi, 4m).
Peter Glushanok
1957|
USA|
31 minutes
We celebrate the incomparable Martha Graham, who helped shape the history of modern dance in the 20th century, in a 60th anniversary screening of this iconic dance film. Followed by a selection of interviews with members of Graham’s company from 2007. Screening with: Crises (Helen Priest Rogers, 22m).
Orlando Rojas
2016|
USA|
78 minutes|
Spanish with English subtitles
A highly personal look at Rosario Suárez, the former prima ballerina of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and an expressive dancer with a dazzling technique and a singular interpretive style, this film plays like a grand melodrama. Screening with: Wheel of Life (Marcia Jarmel & Ken Schneider, 15m).
Matthew D'Arcy
2016|
Sweden|
52 minutes
Filmmaker Matthew D’Arcy captures Brooklyn-born flex artist Storyboard P on his home turf and follows him to Sweden to teach and perform. Screening with: Lost in the Shuffle (Simone Maurice, 23m).
59 minutes
This selection of short dance films features narrative films from the U.S., the U.K., China, Japan, Finland, and Canada.
63 minutes
These kinetic short films focus on the movement and amazement of the human body, using the cinematic form to highlight the human form.
Free Panels & Events
60 minutes
Bare Feet in NYC with Mickela Mallozzi, a 30-minute TV travel series, follows Emmy Award–winning travel host Mickela Mallozzi as she combines her two passions in life: travel & dance.
60 minutes
Capturing Motion NYC, a program of Dance Films Association for high school students in the five boroughs, presents screenings of this year’s finalists, plus a selection of previous winning films.
Highlighting the captivating magic and athleticism of dancers through photography, this exhibit by Brooklyn-based husband-and-wife photography team Ken Browar and Deborah Ory, presents images from their best-selling book, The Art of Movement.
60 minutes
Danseur by Scott Gormley is a documentary about the gender stereotypes, challenges and bias that young men face in ballet.
Emerging Movement Summit @ Dance on Camera
Presented by the Emerging Movement Council
Hosted by Paul Galando, President of DFA and Chair of Education
In celebration of the 45th Anniversary of the Dance on Camera Festival, this year we are focusing on inclusion and the proliferation of information to our community. Beginning with this year’s Dance on Camera Kickoff Party, we invite members of our community to join us as we take Dance Films Association programming into the next 45 years. Throughout the festival, we will present talks with filmmakers and artists, culminating in a summit on emerging movement education and production. Topics include: dance film training and education, live technologies, archiving, inclusion and disability, and virtual and augmented reality. The Emerging Movement Summit is made possible with support from Dance/NYC and the Emerging Movement Council.
60 minutes
On the heels of the Sundance premiere of her new VR project Through You, co-created by Saschka Unseld, choreographer and filmmaker Lily Baldwin joins the Dance on Camera Festival for a conversation on dance in VR.
Filmmakers, dancers, curators, librarians, historians, technologists, teachers, and dance film enthusiasts alike are encouraged to attend this morning meet up, with bagels and coffee provided by DFA’s Board of Directors.
60 minutes
In this panel discussion and presentation, we talk with leading teachers and administrators as they describe their unique programs, which are shaping the landscape of dance film and emerging technology in dance.
60 minutes
Following a live motion capture dance performance of Aether, join us for a panel discussion led by Oscar-winner Ken Perlin, Javier Molina, and Paul Galando. Audience members will get a look into how live performance is being filmed via motion capture and presented in VR.
60 minutes
“On Display Global” is performed live by Heidi Latsky Dance Company at the United Nations and simultaneously around the globe in celebration of International Day of People with Disabilities—an international observance promoted by the United Nations since 1992.
60 minutes
How are dance artists and companies presenting and preserving themselves? This panel will help to familiarize the process for both choreographic and academic research and presentation with industry professionals.
Dance on Camera Festival remains the longest-running dance film festival in the world, providing a platform for choreographic storytelling and creative expression, and intimate access to innovative media artists and their cinematic works. Each February, the Festival presents feature-length documentary and narrative films, inventive short films, filmmaker panels and special events, cutting edge media and art installations, as well as engaging community and student programs.



































