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Presented in partnership with Flatpack

In November 2020 DX teamed up with Flatpack to offer a unique opportunity to engage with some of the best digital work from across the globe, and learn more about the filmmakers and their work. To top it all off, choreographers and filmmakers joined a Masterclass exploring the process of making and distributing your own work.

Screendance Unpacked is part of the autumn season of Dance Insights Online.

Screendance Shorts

Dance films have seen a meteoric rise in production and popularity over the last few years with an abundance of new screendance festivals emerging, and filmmakers, choreographers, and dancers finding new and original ways in which to collaborate.

Key Information

When

Wednesday 18 November 2020


Where

Vimeo

As part of the Screendance Unpacked programme, DX worked collaboratively with Flatpack and screendance aficionado Sima Gonsai, to round up eight of our favourite shorts that represent the diversity of the genre, providing a snapshot of global screendance filmmaking. The films span four different continents and explore a whole range of narratives and subjects. Whether you’re new to screendance or seasoned follower, there’s so much to enjoy and be inspired by here.

Discussion: Screendance Deconstructed

Following on from the presentation of Screendance Shorts, filmmaker Sima Gonsai joined artists from the programme, Hadi Moussally  (Bellydance Vogue), Fabiola Santana & Will Dickie (Canning Town) and Brice Larrie aka Skorpion Dancer  (Am I Paris?), to discuss their films, the inspiration behind them, and how they made them.

Key Information

When

Thursday 19 November 2020


Where

Zoom

Each of the three films are completely different in their approach, making use of contrasting techniques. During the conversation, the filmmakers will elucidate on the barriers they overcame to create their films, and how some of the barriers and limited resources provided a useful framework to actually make the pieces.

There were plenty of opportunities for the audience to ask questions at the end of the discussion.

Hadi Moussally

Hadi Moussally was born in Lebanon in 1987. By age 18, he decides to go study film direction in France where he acquires a first master’s degree in “Fiction Cinema” from Paris-Est Marne la Vallée University. Moussally then chooses to take on a complementary masters in “Documentary and Anthropological Cinema” from Paris X Nanterre University, in the course of Jean Rouch. In that respect, Hadi Moussally acquainted himself with reality-cinema. The anthropological and documentary approach accustoms him with the sense of keen observation of his subjects and alerts him to the importance of instantaneous shooting; whereas his fictional background gives him the urge of creating sensual, esthetically pleasing imagery universes. From 2012, Hadi Moussally shifts towards the world of fashion and directs several experimental films some of which received various distinctions in festivals. In 2014 he made his first documentary on the end of his grandmother’s life, and in 2016 a docu-portrait on a senior model. In 2018 he completed an experimental project on albinism “Positive” whose photos have been exhibited at the UNESCO, the City Hall of Paris and Beirut Art Fair as well. In 2015 he founded the production unit H7O7 whose main objective is to enable the making and promotion of films and photos with “hybrid” vocation where is privileged the mixture of genres between experimental, documentary, fashion and fiction. In 2020, he founded the collective “Hybrid Wave” with around 30 hybrid artists from around the world.

Tanin Torabi

Tanin Torabi (طنین ترابی) is a contemporary dance artist based in Iran. She is working in the realm of performance, choreography, and film, exploring the connection between the three. Torabi holds an MA in Contemporary Dance from the University of Limerick and a BA in Sociology.

Torabi’s dance films have screened in more than a hundred dance film and film festivals worldwide and have received numerous awards in categories like “Creative Vision Award”, “Best Artist Film”, “Jury Award”, “Best Inspirational Film”, “Best Inspiring Woman in a Film”, “Best Experimental Film”, “Best Cinematography” and “Best Documentary”, to name a few.

Alongside her filmmaking, Tanin has choreographed a number of solo performances that have been performed internationally and has performed in ensemble pieces by international choreographers during her stay in Ireland. Her contribution to theatre pieces as a Movement Director and/or Choreographer has also been widely valued by theatre directors and their audiences in Iran.

Since 2020, Tanin has become one of the main members of The School of Hard Knocks dance company directed by the renowned NYC based choreographer Yoshiko Chuma. Her first collaboration with Yoshiko Chuma was in the company’s online show series called SML (Saturday Morning Live)- Zooma: Dead End, commissioned by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Will Dickie

I am a maker working across dance, theatre & live art, motivated by the richness & value of audience experience. Using body, autobiography & place, I create soulful performances for site & stage. I have dedicated 15+ yrs to performer training including time in India, Australia & Europe with key practitioners. I collaborate internationally & facilitate young, professional & disabled artists.  I am a self-produced independent performance maker, whose works receive nationwide support including Battersea Arts Centre, Heartnsoul & Arts Council England; touring to 40 different UK venues including Southbank Centre, In Between Time & Latitude Festival. In 2020 my work mades its international debut at The Blue Room Theatre, Perth – West Australia’s home for independent performance. The focus of my work is to apply my performance knowledge to create live experiences for audiences that feel both accessible & exhilarating.

Fabiola Santana

Fabiola Santana is a dance artist exploring performance as a medium for connection, transformation and exchange.  Her practice combines classical and contemporary dance training, immersive theatre, audience participation, Butoh, actor training, voice work, the Nobbs Suzuki Praxis, and live art.     These are a prism from which Fabiola looks into the nature of human interactions, identity, place, ritual, memory, landscapes, imagination, belonging, grief, loss, and bereavement practices.  With MA in Contemporary Dance (London Contemporary Dance School) , specialising in the embodiment of imagery as a catalyst for creativity and artistry. And a BA in Community Arts Practice – Award for Outstanding Creative Practice.  ​  Fabiola works internationally as a dancer, collaborator and workshop facilitator.   Afro-Portuguese, living in Liverpool.  ​  ‘What makes Fabiola’s work so distinctive is that it delves into difficult, sensitive, and often private issues, and does so with huge sensitivity and humanness. Her work is beautiful and also brave and intimate; it places ‘care’ at its big heart’ — Alice Booth, Lancaster Arts.

Sima Gonsai

Sima Gonsai is an award-winning freelance director/filmmaker with a specialism in screen dance, film training and video content production.  Movement and being moved is at the heart of my work, from documenting global communities to capturing dance on film. I have a keen eye for visual storytelling and have created work across screen dance, education and promotional film.    My film background began in 1998 with a focus on exploring the visual language of dance on screen. I was fascinated by finding new ways of artistically telling a story. This saw the release of my debut short film KITA.  The piece deconstructed Indian classical dance to its simplest form by experimenting with techniques of hand-drawn 16mm direct animation.  This experimental curiosity has been embedded in my work, leading me to document diverse cultures and environments around the world. Artistically filming my subjects is key in my approach to producing promotional film across the arts, corporate and charity sectors.

Masterclass with Joseph Toonga

A bespoke masterclass delivered by Joseph Toonga specifically for dance artists looking to enhance their creative practice.  A professional development opportunity where participants will explore everything from choreographic process, to techniques for working with dancers from different specialisms.

Participants were offered the chance to apply to take part in DX’s first Remote Residency – a paid opportunity to test ideas and receive support from the DanceXchange Artist Development team.

Learn more about the chosen artists

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