15th Annual Dance Camera West Dance Media Film Festival Set for UCLA Beginning Today

Celebrating the vibrant art of dance, Dance Camera West, in association with the Center for THE ART OF Performance at UCLA, presents the 15th Annual Dance Camera West Dance Media Festival, a public event incorporating dance explored through film and live performance.

Taking place at MOCA, UCLA's Royce Hall and Fowler Museum from June 11, 16-18, 2016, this multi-disciplinary festival promises to offer something for everyone and will showcase many forms of dance including modern, postmodern, world, tap, Dance Theater, ballet, hip-hop and practically all dance that has been captured on film in a way that is of quality and essential value.

This year's festival highlights include live dance performances, special programming, the 3rd Annual CalArts Emerging Artists Competition, and the 5th Annual Dance Along. Film categories include screen dance, short films, feature length, documentary, animation and interactive dance media. Over 35 films will be screened over the course of the Festival connecting diverse cultures and environments through the exploration of dance.

In addition, this year's DCW Dance Media Film Festival offers attendees a chance to explore interesting multi-media and interactive art installations at the Royce Hall Dance Media Lounge. This free exhibit is open from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Thursday, June 16 through Saturday, June 18:

Learn, Capture, Repeat, a fun, lighthearted audience generated work where the public is invited to participate by learning and performing for the camera, a 3-second movement sequence. As more of the movement phrases are captured, they become more complex through digital processing and accumulation. These edited performances are immediately screened inside Royce Hall. The work allows everyone, regardless of ability, a chance to participate and share in the creation of long form movement phrase made specifically for the camera. This collaborative project between Stephan Koplowitz and Alan Price was first seen as part of Koplowitz's work Sullivant Travels, commissioned by Ohio State University for the re-opening of Sullivant Hall and named by Columbus Alive as one of 2014 "best" dance events.

A History of Cuban Dance is a live action virtual reality experience featuring organic, spontaneous, sexy dances which progress chronologically through Cuban history, including Afro-Cuban Santeria rumba, mambo, cha-cha-chá, salsa, and reggaeton, with documentary voices offering select lyrical insights into the story of the Cuban people as revealed in the moves. The piece features dancers from Danza Abierta and Ballet de la Televisión Cubana, as well as street dancers and musicians. Filmed on location in Cuba using Vrse virtual reality camera rigs. Director Lucy Walker recently premiered this experience at Sundance and SXSW.

Royce Hall Photo Gallery Top Dance Instagram Photographers David Krugman, Emma Portner, Lauren Randolph, Kenneth Brewster Edwards, Art Abelyan, and Rey Canlas, Jr., curated by Jacob Jonas, will be on display throughout the festival.

FALL is an experimental dance film installation directed by Paulina Rutman. Unceasing fall when the dance is announced in the shadows, as they go within every FRAMEWORK revealing the tide inside that room. The outside light comes through a large window. It auscultates and the film of the dance inside its glasses goes surrounding the bodies edge. One shadow, a prism through the memory of the sea rises dragging you.

DCW aspires to awaken and infuse the public mainstream with a desire for critical creative programming. The vision of DCW is to present the visual language of dance on screen in a way that stretches the imagination and changes the way we think about dance. The 15th Annual Dance Camera West Dance Media Film Festival is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, California Institute of the Arts, Center for THE ART OF Performance at UCLA, MOCA, and Fowler Museum at UCLA.

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Dance Media Film Festival Schedule:

Saturday, June 11

Past, Present & Future of Hip Hop, Special Pre-Screenings, MOCA, 1 p.m - 4:30 p,m., $15:

UNDERGROUND Dance Masters: Final History of a Forgotten Era, Thomas Guzman-Sanchez, USA, 2015, (90:00)

The entire origin, evolution, diaspora, and history of urban street dance.

Pharaohs of Memphis, Phoebe Driscoll, USA, 2014, (56:00)

Delves into the origins of Jookin', a form of dance that originated in Memphis in the 80's to keep gang warfare at bay.

Elektro Mathematrix, Etienne Li, France, 2015, (76:00)

Urban dance musical about what it is to be living as an electro dancer.

Thursday, June 16

Opening Night: VIP Reception, UCLA's Royce Hall, Westwood, 6 p.m., $100

Mine, Laura Karlin, USA, 2016 (6:15) World Premiere

From Invertigo Dance Theatre, shot in an abandoned mine in the Mojave, two people who know one another deeply but are continually finding new layers to their relationship.

Disportrait, Alejandro Alvarez and Ulrik Wivel, Denmark, 2014, (52:00), West Coast Premiere

Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato accepts the challenge of modernizing the tradition-bound Mikhailovsky Ballet in St. Petersburg.

Live performance by Invertigo Dance Theatre tells engaging stories through virtuosic movement, whimsical theatricality and live music. Founded in 2007 by Artistic Director Laura Karlin, Invertigo has quickly become a cornerstone of the Los Angeles' dance scene. A Bloomberg Philanthropies' Arts Innovation and Management (AIM) grant recipient, Invertigo has performed in such venues as the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Ford Amphitheatre, Alex Theatre, LACMA, Broad Stage and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Friday, June 17

Short Films Program, UCLA's Royce Hall, Westwood, 7:30 p.m.

Ravages, Alan Lake Factori(e), Canada, 2015, 13:53

Weaves a kind of abstract narrative, inviting the viewer to dive into a fragile symbolic universe where humanity confronts what is unchangeable.

Shift by Bandaloop, Rachael Lincoln & Amelia Rudolph, USA, 2015, (11:00)

A short mountain dance film featuring Bay Area vertical dance compay Bandaloop as they journey across the Sierra.

An African Walk in the Land of China, Pierre Larauza & Emmanuelle Vincent, Belgium/China, 2015 (13:20)

An African young woman roams the streets in search of a meeting in the age Chinafrica.

Migrant Bodies, Xavier Curnillon, Canada, 2014, (12:00)

Through the subjective force of movement, dancers perform a unique interpretation of the stages of the migration process.

Love Songs for Robots, Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski, Canada, 2015 (4:00)

Inspired by the ballet and sculpture of the avant-garde artist Oskar Schlemmer, with performance and choreography by Mistaya Hemingway.

Lov-ism: Things that Matter, Paul Sixta, The Netherlands, 2014, (4:00)

An invitation to observe the delicate politics of intimacy that emerge while meeting significant others in a physical surrounding.

NÉANTS, Nellie Carrier, Canada, 2015 (9:48)

Four characters see their destiny falling apart. An exploration about mourning, an anticlimax.

In Between, Blake Horn and Lillian Stamey, USA, (4:45)

A non-linear journey of a relationship that has been uprooted and UNRAVELED gripped by the inability to listen, trust, and surrender. Time is lost and understanding of love abandoned.

Dance of the Neurons, Jody Oberfelder and Eric Siegel, USA, 2015 (5:00)

Dancers echo the birth of neurons and synaptic connections, choreographer collaborated with neuroscientists.

Phrase, Benjamin Shearn, LACDC Kate Hutter, USA, 2015 (7:49)

A love letter to the city of L.A. and the artists of L.A. Contemporary Dance Company.

Secondary, Jacob Jonas, 2015 (5:00)

Exploring TOGETHERNESS and escapism through dance and fashion from Groceries Apparel.

Saturday, June 18 (day)

World Dance Films, The Fowler Museum, UCLA, Westwood, 1-4 p.m., $15

After the Curtain, Emelie Mahdavian, USA/Tajikistan, 2015 (70:00)

Four female dancers battle shifting cultural norms in this predominantly Muslim nation.

'hold (STILL), Jenny Stulberg, USA, 2015 (6:56)

First dance-film in the collection "Still Life Dances," a series of movement studies based on still life paintings from the de Young Museum in San Francisco.

Inheritor Recordings, Brian Johnson, Canada, 2014 (6:20)

Features 16 dancers from 605 Collective warps time and place to augment and expand 605's raw physicality.

Flamenco, Gloria Ui Young Kim, Canada, 2015 (12:00)

An impressionistic dance film about lust, lonliness and obsession as sparks fly between dance partners and lovers.

Rhizophora, Davide De Lillis, Vietnam, 2015 (16:00)

Follow a day in the life of 11 Vietnamese youths who live with disabilities caused by agent orange.

Saturday, June 18 (evening)

UCLA's Royce Hall, Westwood, 7:30 p.m., $15

For Two/Deconstructed: A Conversation with Melissa Barak, Jeannette Godoy, year, USA (7:34)

An intimate look at the relationship between a choreographer and her dancers during the rehearsal process.

Horizontes, Eileen Hofer, Cuba, 2015, (71:00)
Three generations of National Ballet of Cuba classical ballet dancers,

5th Annual Dance Along - TBA

Screening of CalArts Winners - TBA

CalArts Archive presentation and Emerging Artist Award - TBA

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For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.dancecamerawest.org or call 310-248-4944, or follow on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/events/998280296926916 and www.facebook.com/DanceCameraWestFilmFest.

Dance Camera West (DCW) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and developing the vibrant art of dance media. DCW connects diverse cultures and environments through its exploration of dance on screen, bringing hundreds of challenging and provocative films to Los Angeles from around the globe, effectively bridging the gap between the uniquely influential Los Angeles film community and the significant local dance populace. Even more importantly, Dance Camera West utilizes the accessible nature of dance as a non-verbal art form to reach across cultural, geographic, and socio-economic divides by making a special effort to engage a wide range of Los Angeles audiences of varying ethnicities and interests, offering everyone a chance to experience the thought-provoking thrill of dance media.

Globally speaking, Dance Camera West is one of only a handful of organizations that presents dance media, and the only one of its kind on the West Coast. Given that distinction, DCW has been fortunate to partner with some of the most prominent venues and organizations throughout the Los Angeles area. Co-presenters have included the Getty Center, REDCAT at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Directors Guild of America, the Hammer Museum, and many others.

Dance Camera West is a 501(c)3 dance media arts organization committed to fostering and promoting the vibrant art of dance film from around the globe. We seek to interconnect diverse populations and environments through the innovative art Fusion - dance on screen, which merges performance and cinematic aesthetics.

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