Tamara Rojo, a former Royal Ballet principal dancer and artistic director of English National Ballet, is now forging new paths as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet. Over the course of her decade-long leadership of ENB, Rojo oversaw the creation of many dance films, most notably helmed by the creative team of Jess and Morgs (Jessica Wright & Morgann Runacre-Temple). These films have delighted audiences at SFDFF over the years. One of those films, An Evening with Taglioni, w...

La Mezcla is a polyrhythmic San Francisco based dance and music ensemble rooted in Chicana, Latina and Indigenous traditions and social justice. Its founder, Vanessa Sanchez, spoke with us about the process of developing the company's latest work Ghostly Labor, a film and soon-to-be dance theatre piece that explores the history of labor in the US Mexico Borderlands. We spoke about the extensive research and development of the work, rhythmic crafting and hybridization and capturing clean sound...

Steven Melendez is the artistic director of New York Theatre Ballet, a Manhattan-based ballet company dedicated to performing classic masterpieces and new contemporary works for adults and innovative hourlong ballets for young children. Steven's introduction to ballet began as a young child through the New York Theatre Ballet School's LIFT scholarship program that creates an equal opportunity and an accessible dance training environment for talented at-risk homeless and underserved children. ...

Bella Lewitzky was a modern-dance pioneer and an outspoken politically active champion of artistic freedom. The theatrical premiere of the documentary Bella, about Lewinsky’s life, work, and activism will take place at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival this fall with director Bridget Murnane in attendance. Clare had the opportunity to speak with Bridget about her close connection with Bella throughout her life as well as the questions she hopes the audience will ask themselves when they s...

Lenora Lee, artistic director of Lenora Lee Dance and Olivia Ting, multimedia graphic designer, had been collaborative partners for quite some time, and are currently working on their newest premiere "In The Movement" which will run for nearly two weeks at the beginning of September at ODC theater. Chris spoke with them about the experience of taking dance and creating an immersive environment, the importance of honoring the history of the people and the sites they choreograph and create on, ...

Nadia Adame is a Spanish multidisciplinary award-winning artist with a spinal cord injury and the current artistic director of AXIS Dance Company. She studied Ballet & Flamenco at the Royal Dance Conservatory of Madrid and has a BA in Theatre from the University of Colorado. She was a company member with AXIS (2001-2003) and Candoco Dance Company (2007-2008). In 2004, she co-founded and was the Co-Artistic Director of Compañía Y in Spain, a multimedia and performance collective. Nadia’s c...

Sean Dorsey is recognized as one of the country's first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographers and the first transgender artist to appear on the cover of Dance Magazine. Sean not only presents his own work through Sean Dorsey dance, but is also the artistic director of Fresh Meat Productions which invests in the creative expression and cultural leadership of transgender and gender-nonconforming communities. He was most recently featured in KQED's If Cities Could Dance serie...

If you've seen dance in the Bay Area, you've probably seen Babatunji. His extraordinarily athletic and almost superhuman movement style has captivated audiences both onstage as a longtime company member for Alonzo King Lines Ballet as well as onscreen in films by Post:Ballet, Max Savage and Kate Duhamel's Candy Bomber, among others. Clare spoke with Babatunji about his dance journey and his insight and experience as a dancer on film. @babatunji @clschweitz @sfdancefilmfest @linesballet @sf...

Tori Lawrence is a choreographer & filmmaker who produces immersive site-specific dances, interdisciplinary performance installations, and dance films that explore the relationship among body, landscape, and architecture. During the month of June 2022, Tori has been in residence with Sara Shelton Mann at the Fort Mason Center of Arts & Culture on the experimental performance work 7 Excavations. In this episode, Tori offers detailed insight into the creation of the work and refle...

This week, Chris interviewed the team of SFDFF Co-Produced film I Just Wanna Dance, which has been dancing along the festival circuit this year. The crew of Amanda Beane (director), Kristina Willemse (camera/jib operator) and Zoë Mountain (editor) reflected on how their dance backgrounds translated to the film and how it allowed for a greater creative and collaborative trust amongst the team. I Just Wanna Dance will screen as a part of the Homegrown: Perfect Day program as a part of Frameli...

This week, we welcome Dancing Through the Lens co-host Chris Ouellette. Chris' unique path in dance includes training at San Francisco Ballet, performing internationally with Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, and acting as a company manager for AXIS Dance Company. This conversation touches on Chris’ first encounter with dance film, his work with accessibility in dance spaces and how some of our audience may already have a picture with him Subscribe to SFDFFs new dance film series Encor...

Dancing Through the Lens is back and we are kicking off by speaking with Irish Dancer and Tiktok star, Morgan Bullock. The 2021 documentary Steps of Freedom (dir. Ruan Magan) memorably features Bullock dancing at an intersection in New York, a visual metaphor for the many crossing paths found in the history and trajectory of the development of Irish Dance. Co-host Chris Ouellette and Morgan spoke not only about her role in the documentary, but also touched on topics related to technique, her ...

This fall saw another edition of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and for the first time in two years, screenings in front of a live audience. We were fortunate to be able to present four live programs during the twelfth edition of our festival and were especially honored to host the North American theatrical premiere of Coppelia, a filmic reimagining of the classic story that blends live action ballet with charming animation (catch our interview with producer Adrienne Liron in Episode 1...

Rashaad Newsome is a world-renowned multidisciplinary artist whose work blends multiple practices—including collage, sculpture, film, music, technology, and performance and crafts compositions that speak of and to Black and Queer culture. His latest filmic work, Black Magic documents a 2019 live performance that explores trans women and their contributions to the vogue fem lexicon and expands and activates it with the use of motion tracking software and visual effects. Clare spoke with Rashaa...

2020 was a special year for Amy Seiwert’s Imagery as it marked the 10th anniversary of the Company’s SKETCH series. The company had planned planned SKETCH 10 : WRECKED, which would have brought in six choreographers, including Seiwert and choreographic fellow Ben Needham-Wood, to work in pairs to “wreck” or edit each others work. In response to the changing art landscape due to COVID-19, we instead produced four documentary dance films, entitled SKETCH FILMS: Red Thread. Two...

If you have attended the San Francisco Dance Film Festival over the years, you have likely seen captures of spectacular live performances from around the world such as A Swan Lake, Betroffenheit and Revisor. The producer of these films, Adrienne Liron, has a new offering for our SFDFF audiences in the form of Coppelia, a visually opulent adventure that blends live action ballet with charming animation starring internationally renowned ballerina Michaela dePrince. Clare had the privilege...

This week, Coral sits down with the 2021 SFDFF Co-Laboratory team of dance-based performance group Fog Beast and filmmaker Lindsay Gauthier. Directed by Melecio Estrella and Andrew Ward, Fog Beast weaves social, physical and aural curiosities driven by the lived experiences of convening and creativity. Lindsay Gauthier is a San Francisco based filmmaker and is also the founding Creative Producer of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival's Co-Laboratory. In this episode, the team discu...

On this second episode of a two-part conversation with Turffeinz member Gary “ Ice Cold” Morgan and YAK films co-founder Yoram Savion, we discussed how Yoram’s early filmmaking days in Oakland served as the best possible training ground for collaborations with street dance artists from around the world. We also discuss Gary and Yoram’s collaboration with the Oakland Ballet on the new film “What I See”, which will screen at SFDFF this October. Links RIP Rich D Dancing in the Rain https:...

If there is any style of dance that the Bay can call its own, its turfing. Whether seen on a BART train or an E-40 video, the physics defying physical storytelling of turfing can turn any place into a stage. But it was one performance from the group Turffeinz captured in the rain in 2009 that saw turfing thrust onto an international stage, changing the trajectories of both the dancers in front of the camera, including Gary “Icecold” Morgan, and the person behind the camera, Yoram Savion, cofo...

This week on Dancing Through the Lens, Coral spoke with Evie Ladin. Not only is Ladin the director of the Oakland-based MoToR/dance, she is a singer/songwriter with many groups including the eponymous Evie Ladin band and also the director of the International Body Music Festival (a project of Oakland-based nonprofit Crosspulse). The episode discusses her upbringing in music and dance, technical considerations of creating music videos, and the inspiration behind 2021 SFDFF selection Drumset.&n...