Groovers & Makers: Jazz 2025

Five characters, an empty bar, a shared secret…Distanced Swing is shaped by the necessary waves of Covid-19 restrictions and plays with the feeling of an endless loop of the days of the pandemic and the attempt to stay apart while dancing together.

JP is faced with a no-win decision as a consequence of decisions made long ago.

In a British-Ghanaian household bound by tradition and religion, a young girl lives under the oppressive control of her abusive father. At the family dinner table, heated arguments reveal the deep rift between them as they confront the scars of their shared history. AUDIENCE WARNING: This film references domestic violence and may be unsuitable for some viewers.

Rhythm, tap dance and history weave together to create a symphonic arrangement. Improvisation and composition synergize. Tap dance, drums and typewriting skills collide and generate pattern and flow. Rhythm is a core human function and this film illuminates the beauty of participating in life’s music – past and present.

Shot in part at 10,000 feet at Gross Reservoir in Colorado over a span of 12 years, this short film, featuring the indomitable Rennie Harris, shares a dreamscape glimpse into the vernacular dance form, hambone, or “Patin’ Juba.” This work positions the powerful resilience of the Black male body in the face of white surveillance and the survival and evolution of the dance/music form of hambone within and beyond the histories of enslavement.

Join us above the Los Angeles skyline as one life-loving woman makes a surprise entrance. Commanding the attention of the entire party, she ignites the day and sparks connections between the Angelenos. You never know what might happen at a party in L.A., but “That’s Life” in Los Angeles!

Convivencia brings to light the lives and stories of female essential laborers along the US/Mexico borderlands through Tap dance, Son Jarocho, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The film highlights interviews with migrant domestic laborers from La Colectiva de Mujeres, a female-led collective of domestic workers in California. The film addresses the struggles, resistance, and resilience of these women to showcase their significant contributions to our communities and celebrates their spirit of community, joy, and resilience. Convivencia is a unique fusion of oral histories, percussive dance, footwork, and folkloric dance from choreographer/director Vanessa Sanchez in collaboration with filmmaker John Jota Leaños.

One night in Buenos Aires, a group of friends gather at a milonga (Tango Social Club) to enjoy a challenging dance piece in the form of a “fugue,” where emotions seep through their bodies and they immerse themselves in every note of each melody offered by this exciting and mysterious contrapuntal composition by the great Argentine musician Astor Piazzolla.

“…They loathe art, the product of a yearning for life, because that, too, evades control.” – Josef Skvorecky

From Jazz to Jackboots is an experimental animated dance film exploring the Nazi regime’s methodical restriction of jazz through their “10 Rules for Dance Bands.” The film reimagines itself through progressively censored variations of jazz standard, “Minnie the Moocher,” transitioning from freeform expressionist painting and collage to statuesque perfection. Through sophisticated animation techniques and meticulous visual design, the work unfolds as simultaneously joyful, lyrical, ethereal, surgical, horrific and funereal — a timely reminder that the battle between artistic expression and authoritarian control remains urgently relevant today. AUDIENCE WARNING: This film references Nazi propaganda and may be unsuitable for some viewers.

Cut Me Summa Dat Noise celebrates the rhythms of everyday life through the eyes of a neighborhood matriarch who sets the tone for a new day with the beat of her own heart. As the neighborhood comes to life, people of all ages unite in a joyous cacophony of sound that illuminates the connections between them as members of a vibrant and diverse community in rhythm.