The short film Then Comes the Body tells the inspiring and unlikely story of a ballet school outside of Lagos, Nigeria. Film director Jacob Krupnick first discovered Leap of Dance Academy as millions of others did—through a viral video of ballet students dancing in the rain during the first summer of the pandemic. The school […]

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 […]

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 […]

Nashville Ballet and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum collaborated to celebrate the centennial of the late American musician Chet Atkins with an original dance film, set to Atkins’ recording of Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz,” choreographed and co-directed by Nashville Ballet artistic director Nick Mullikin, and set in the museum’s Hall of Fame […]

Recently retired New York City Ballet principal Harrison Ball stars in Catharsis, premiering tonight at Tribeca Festival, alongside Blondie’s Deborah Harry. The short film, directed by Brian Logvinsky, tells the story of Alex, a self-destructive dance prodigy who faces his own demons and the pain of his mother’s death by being hypnotized by a mysterious […]

Tutus take over Hong Kong in “Tutu Academy,” a stylish and cheeky short film created to mark Hong Kong Ballet’s 45th anniversary and the opening of its first associated school. Created by Washington, DC–based ad agency Design Army and choreographed by Hong Kong Ballet artistic director Septime Webre, “Tutu Academy” tells the story of a […]

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 […]