High School Student Film Competition

Dance Films Association’s First Annual
High School Student Film Competition:
Capturing Motion NYC

Congratulations to Anna Vomacka, director of We Three and the winner of Capturing Motion NYC!


Dance Films Association seeks New York City high school student dance film submissions in conjunction with the 2012 Dance on Camera Festival co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center to be held Jan 27-31, 2012. Student film submissions should be between 1-5 minutes in length and should feature dance as the film’s main component. Student submissions should address the relationship between dance and the camera, linking the two in imaginative ways. Films can be documentary, narrative or art films.

Any dance subject may serve as inspiration: social or street dance, dance in religious settings, professional dance, or non-dance images filmed so they evoke dance. Films may also inspired by existing dance films; an example of this may be found in the Jerome Robbins’ NY Export: Opus Jazz film teacher guide. DFA will feature the jury’s selected films at a special student film program during the festival. The top film selection will screen at Lincoln Center.

Dance Camera West is excited to be partnering with Dance Films Association in it’s first Annual High School Student Film Competition: Capturing Motion NYC. As a partner in supporting future filmakers, Dance Camera West will be hosting the winner of the NYC competition at it’s annual film festival in June 2012. The selected film maker will be a guest of DCW and their film showcased in one of the many screening venues in Los Angeles for the 11th annual Dance Camera West Film Festival.

2011 Workshops

Creating Dance for the Camera
Workshop led by Zach Morris (Co-Director Third Rail Projects & Moderator of DFA’s Dance Film Lab)

Abrons Arts Center
Friday, December 16th
6:30pm-8:30pm
This introductory workshop seeks to highlight and address the unique technical, practical, and artistic challenges of creating dance film from a choreographer’s perspective. Staging and choreographing for the camera will be introduced through a series of focused exercises including storyboarding, elementary lighting techniques, framing/composition, and shooting strategies. Methods for approaching editing and post-production will also be addressed.  

Zach Morris
Zach Morris is a choreographer, director, visual artist and Co-Artistic Director of Third Rail Projects. He is also the organizer and moderator of the NYC Dance Film Lab, a Movement Research teaching artist, and an adjunct faculty member of the Florida State University School of Dance. He has previously served as the Co-Creator and Co-Director of the Westbeth New Works Program and as the Inter/National Program Associate at Dance Theater Workshop. Zach has a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Hosted by Beacon School
Workshops led by Deirdre Towers and Ellen Bar

Tuesday, November 15th
1:00pm-2:30pm
Beacon School- Computer/ Digital Film Lab (room 323)
Workshop Info
Deirdre Towers, curator of the Dance on Camera Festival, will lead an Advanced Film Class, touching on the history of dance film accompanied by interesting footage and speaking on what it means to begin working in the dance film genre.

Deirdre Towers
Deirdre Towers has produced the Dance on Camera Festival, co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, from 1995 until the present. Her training as a producer began through working for the Theatre Guild on the Broadway production “Musical Jubilee,” and subsequently working for documentary filmmaker Peter Rosen on several projects related to music. She has written about dance film and flamenco for over twenty publications, including Dance Magazine where she worked for 5 years, and served on the juries of Dance Screen, Grand Prix de Video Danse, the International Emmys, and the American Dance Festival.  As a dancer/choreographer, she has performed at a wide variety of venues. She has been a teaching artist for City Center during the Flamenco Festival since 2006, for American Ballet Theatre for 3 Summer Intensives, and for Maria Benitez’ Institute of Spanish Arts for 6 summers.  A graduate of Hamilton College with a Masters in Arts Administration from NYU, Deirdre  studied dance and drumming in Ghana through World Learning.

SEE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE FOR PHOTOS FROM THE WORKSHOP!
Monday November 21st
10:00am-12:00pm
Beacon School- Dance Studio (room 234)
Workshop Info
Combing the Advanced Film Class and Hip Hop Class, Ellen Bar will show excerpts from her dance film Jerome Robbins’ NY Export: Opus Jazz and discuss the challenges of filming.

Ellen Bar
Ellen Bar attended the School of American Ballet from the age of eight and was asked to join the New York City Ballet as a corps member in 1998.  She danced featured roles in classic works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins and Christopher Wheeldon, and was promoted to Soloist in 2006.   As a child, Ellen danced as a Candy Cane in Emile Ardolino’s The Nutcracker with New York City Ballet; as an adult she appeared in the feature film Center Stagedirected by Nicholas Hytner and created an animated character in Barbie of Swan Lake.  While dancing full-time, Ellen earned an Associate’s Degree in Business from Penn State University and continues to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in English at Columbia University.  In 2005, Ellen was part of the original ensemble cast of the NYCB revival of NY Export: Opus Jazz when fellow NYCB soloist Sean Suozzi conceived of a present-day, on-location film adaptation of the ballet.  Together, Ellen and Sean developed, produced and creatively helmed the project from inception to completion.  In May of 2011, Ellen retired from her 13 year career as a professional ballerina and is now Director of Media Projects at New York City Ballet.

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