In the quiet chaos of backstage, a dancer meticulously laces her pointe shoes while another leans over in fatigue; nearby, a couple rehearses their choreography. These seemingly mundane moments often go unnoticed, yet for Belgian filmmaker Sam Asaert, they reveal a compelling contrast between the polished personas dancers present onstage and their more vulnerable selves […]

Closer Than Yesterday, directed by Lisa Le Lievre, follows San Francisco Ballet’s Carmela Mayo as she prepares for the 2022 Helsinki International Ballet Competition. The documentary shows Mayo, who had recently recovered from surgery, rehearsing competition variations with partner Esteban Cuadrado and coach Tiit Helimets. A series of twists and turns complicate the days leading […]

After years of staring at a screen editing films, Berlin-based filmmaker Boris Seewald felt compelled to work with a more tactile medium and turned to painting. He dug up unused footage from his previous dance films and employed an animation technique called rotoscoping (think A-ha’s “Take On Me” music video) to translate the footage into […]

Daniil Simkin has always been curious and forward-thinking about how dance can utilize digital platforms. The international guest artist and former American Ballet Theatre and Staatsballett Berlin principal was an early adopter of social media and YouTube (who can forget 2013’s “Simkin and the City”?). His later independent projects, like 2015’s INTENSIO at The Joyce Theater and […]

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts library is a striking setting for The Way Back, directed and choreographed by UNCSA School of Dance alumni Grady Bowman and Ashley Lindsey and featuring dancers Wyatt Florin, Claire Schiffer, and Ava Strickland. Themes of separation and a relentless pursuit of re-connection play out among unexpected […]

Choreographer Qiaoqiao Zhang and director Phillip Kaminiak collaborated on the eerie film “Circle,” which juxtaposes the experience of living in a big city and the phenomenon known as the “death spiral” in which ants lose the pheromone track of their group and follow each other in continuous circles until they die. Shot in Mexico City, […]

Get to know Daphne Fernberger, a dancer with L.A. Dance Project, filmmaker, choreographer and meditation devotee.

The field of screendance is chock-full of artists redefining what it means to make dance, and to create films. Now that the pandemic has put a spotlight on the genre, it’s time to highlight some of the artists. The following nine screendance makers, collectives and production companies represent a variety of aesthetic approaches to the […]