Dance Films Catalogue #2 Celebrated Throughout March
Festival
nioun rec
March 2022
In March, several dance films featured in the 2021 Dance Films catalogue will be displayed across the US.
The 2021 Dance Films Catalogue features films and documentaries by and with artists of various backgrounds. While most of the films are recent releases, the catalogue also includes titles from the past decade and earlier.
The Dance Films Catalogue aims to promote the work of choreographers, dancers and directors. It is a resource for contemporary and performing arts centers, dance film festivals, and universities to discover new works, new artists, and present them.
During the month of March, two festivals will highlight films from the catalogue, in which the ties between the dance and cinema are explored through the motion bodies and energies.
Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre & Performance
March 1-15 | Segal Center, New York
Several dance films from the catalogue and the catalogue itself will be celebrated during the Segal Center Film Festival on Theater and performance (FTP). The festival features global work from more than 80 artists hailing from 20+ countries. Experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers will be brought together to present work created for the screen to audiences and industry professionals from around the world. The festival is free and open to all.
Three dance films from the catalogue will be displayed during the FTP:
Confronted by the 2020 health crisis that rendered performances impossible, The National Historical Museum of Immigration, in partnership with Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, commissioned dance film La visite. The film generates a dialogue between elements of performer Wanjiru Kamuyu’s solo An Immigrant’s Story and the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris.
Lettres du continent (Letters from the Continent, 2020), a feature-length film directed by Faustin Linyekula and Virginie Dupray, features portraits of 21 dancers and collectives from across Africa, discussing the transformations to daily life and reflecting on new ways of creating. Among the 18 countries represented are Senegal (hip-hop dancer Belleka), Tanzania (contemporary dancer Samwel Japhet), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (dancer Jeannot Kumbonyeki), Comoros (dancer Salim Mzé Hamadi Moisi), and Togo (dancer Germaine Sikota). The dancers, directors, and performers share their troubles and hopes and how they navigate daily life and work in this context of crisis, reaffirming their need to continue creating and showing their vision of the world and the African continent.
In So Ava, Smaïl Kanouté returns to his African roots by retracing the path of the slaves who, through their forced exile, spread their beliefs and voodoo rituals across the world. Filmed in Benin, this short film enhances the ties that link us with our ancestors. Intrigued by the invisible and deeply convinced that when we dance, we never dance alone, Smaïl Kanouté immersed himself for a week in this enigmatic and mysterious community to learn its dances and voodoo philosophy, moving to purge the often-painful stories of the African diaspora.
Dance Camera West Film Festival
March 31-April 2 | Theatre Raymond Kabbaz
This three-day festival will highlight artists’ resilience and creativity challenged by the global lockdown, expressed through the media of dance and film.
The DCW festival will feature an exclusive set of international dance films that connects cultures, stage dancers old and young and tells stories.
The third part of the festival will be dedicated to European dance films. On April 2 at 8pm, Nioun Rec by Amala Dianor and Grégoire Korganow —a 2021 dance film, promoted by the Dance Films Catalogue curated by Villa Albertine, will be showcased. For this collaboration with artist Grégoire Korganow, Amala Dianor adapted the choreography from Man Rec (“only me” in Wolof) and transformed it into Nioun Rec (“only us”), the first work in a series of dance films entitled Ciné-Danse. In the film, accompanied by the dancer Nangaline Gomis, the choreographer presents a unique, site-specific creation within the walls of an iconic piece of modern architecture. Filmed at the Villa Savoye, a modernist villa on the outskirts of Paris designed by Le Corbusier, Nioun Rec fused the styles of urban, contemporary, and African dance.
