Dance Legacies

Two Seconds After Laughter
David Rousseve | USA | 2011 | 16m
Weaving stunning cinematography shot in Java by Cari Shim Sham, traditional Indonesian dance, postmodern gesture performed by Sri Susilowati, original Sudanese music, and a potent narrative, this stunning film creates a border-jumping dialogue on a universal irony: The heart longs most for the place called home to which it can never return.

Sand | Cari Ann Shim Sham
USA | 2010 | 10m
A rhythmic and visual study, this engaging short looks at a tradition being passed down from father to son. Sand dance stems from turn of the 20th century vaudevillian and traveling shows. With only a handful of people still performing it, this dance is a rare archive of the transference of sand dance or “passin' the sand,” from one generation to the next. Featuring emerging tap dance artist Kenji Igus and his father Darrow.

Black Train Is Coming
John T. Williams | USA | 2011 | 3m
Inspired by a 1920’s sermon about Hell and Damnation by preacher Rev J. M. Gates, this short blends old time religion with modern day Flex and Turf dance styles choreographed and performed by ENinja and Joyntz Scott to create a winner.

Pursuit
Amy Campion | USA | 2011 | 4m
Parkour artist Danni G races down the sidewalk, flies over obstacles and careens through crowds of breakdancers, salsa dancers and krumpers.

Re-staging Shelter | Bruce Berryhill & Martha Curtis | USA | 2011 | 29m
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, founder of Urban Bush Women created “Shelter” in 1988 in response to the plight of the homeless in New York City. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a new version of Shelter was created and then reconstructed for Virginia Commonwealth University dance majors. The dancers were challenged to look at issues of displacement and what Zollar calls “An Actor’s Process through a Dancer’s Body.” In a 1990 review in The New York Times, Jennifer Dunning wrote, “Zollar's 'Shelter' is so filled with compassion and anger that it becomes a powerful incantation against the evils of obliviousness and neglect.”