SSF @ Arvada Center: The World is Our Stage 2022

Blue Monday tells the story of a relationship – mutual support, aggression, shifting power and resolution all play their part in a compellingly original piece created in one fluid shot in a sunny dance studio in Barcelona.

When a guest is enthusiastically welcomed into her hosts’ immaculate home, she is inspired to reciprocate with an unexpected introduction to her own world. The result is a surreal and often absurd navigation through familiarity and estrangement, observed through mannerisms and habits, which serve as a metaphor for the fabric connecting and dividing individuals.

A Lucky Generation is a dance expression that highlights the effects of change, modernization and identity crisis within the Nigerian society, with Lagos as a visual reference point. It starts with a brief narrative extracted from A Lucky Generation in the book, “There was a Country” by Chinua Achebe. Afterwards, we see our Subject interact with various environments within Lagos state, Nigeria. Our Subject’s face is barely visible from the beginning. The mask and skeletal costume are all symbols representing mystery, conflict (internal and external) and eventually, rediscovery and renewal. The film ends with the Subject revealing his face, suggesting that he has found himself, but yet isn’t satisfied with the results. It now poses a question as to whether he embarks on another journey to understand this Self or he allows the society dictate for him.

At the age of 41, Bernd Burgmaier wears his pointe shoes to dance his favorite female role, “The Dying Swan” one last time. After a fulfilling dancing career in Les Ballets Trockadero, he leaves the stage, finds love, and settles in Tel-Aviv. A docu-dance that challenges the binary perceptions of life and gender.

A lonely naked man is fast asleep, surrounded by the sounds of his dreams. The protagonist wakes up in an unfamiliar area, there is no one around. The Voice appeals to him, it’s a mother’s voice, which accompanies him and brings him to conversation. When the man is ready to answer, the Voice breaks off. The dance sets in. Note: This film contains brief instances of nudity.

Do You Mind Can I Ask What Happened (To Your Legs?) is a semi-narrative moving image work that reflects on what it’s like to experience having a progressive degenerative condition and is the late Simon Fildes’ most tender and compelling work. The film is a love story with a twist, set in the beautiful landscape surrounding the Scottish highland Village of Achiltibuie. Part drama, part screendance, the film draws upon the filmmakers’ deep rooted passion for movement both physically and in-camera.

Synopsis coming soon.

Above the waves, beneath the sky, against the rock. Moving against a staggering vertical cliff face, suspended above wild crashing ocean, two artists dance with the roaring wind and each-other in a celebration of human connection, our experience of nature and the vast wilderness that is the Wilyabrup sea cliffs. A choreographed performance of two bodies in gravity-defying motion tethered to the rockface, this vertical dance frames the artform against truly wild nature that shows the beauty, fragility and resilience of the human body and the environment. Filmed on Wadandi land in the south west of Western Australia.