Board of Directors
Photo by Ingi Jensson
Ana Baer Carrillo Vice Chair
Ana Baer Carrillo, MFA, is a Mexican video-choreographer living in the US since 2000, and she has been with SSF since nearly the beginning. Internationally active since 1990, her work has been produced in America, Asia and Europe by dance, film and screendance festivals, as well as by galleries, museums and institutions of higher education. In 2014 she co-founded WECreate Productions with Heike Salzer to further explore themes of identity, the body, and site-specificity through artistic collaboration. The international scope of her presentations, the diversity of the forms in which she works, and her frequent practice of collaboration are evidence of her twenty-first century, transitional, interdisciplinary contributions to the Arts. Currently on faculty at Texas State University, Baer Carrillo works across several discrete fields and genres, maintaining a clear dance-centric conceptual line in her research agenda. As Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors for Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Baer Carrillo serves on the Curation Panel and Programming and Events Team.
Michelle Bernier Chair
Michelle Bernier, MFA, is a freelance dancer, educator, and filmmaker living in Denver, Colorado (US). She holds a BA in Philosophy summa cum laude from the University of Southern Maine, and an MFA in Dance Choreography and Performance from the University of Colorado Boulder, with dual focus in somatic studies and digital media. Bernier has delivered lectures on dance cinema at Universidad de Campinas in Brazil (as a part of Sans Souci Brazil), Texas State University, California Institute of the Arts, ATHE, CoDEO, NDEO, and DSA (Oct 2021). Her films have been screened at ADF’s Movies by Movers, Screendance Festival (Stockholm), Rio Webfest, Life in Motion, and more. She is currently on faculty at Colorado Conservatory of Dance, Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities, and Metropolitan State University of Denver. Bernier began as a volunteer usher with SSF, and has served as Executive Director and Co-Artistic Director of SSF since 2015, continuing to cultivate her passion and experience to expand and diversify the organization. As Chair of the Board of Directors for Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Bernier serves on the Curation Panel and manages the Programming and Events, Funding and Support, and Values/Disruptors Teams.
Photo by Adam Riggs Pictures
Photo by Heike Salzer
Heike Salzer Secretary
Heike Salzer, PhD, MA is an award winning German dance artist fluidly operating in performance, choreography and site specific screendance. Under the name of Salts, she collaborates with international artists and her work has been invited to numerous festivals. In 2014, together with Ana Baer Carrillo, Heike founded WECreate Productions, producing collaboratively site-specific screendances, multi-media performances, and installations. Heike co-directed Tees Dance Film Fest (UK) in 2015/16 including tours to Mexico and the United States. She is Senior Lecturer in Dance Professional Practice at the University of Roehampton in London, where she convenes the MFA Dance and Embodied Practice. Heike holds a MA Choreography from the University of Leeds (GB) / Fontys Dance Academy (NL). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was awarded a PhD by Completed Work by the University of Roehampton (UK). As Secretary of the Board of Directors for Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Heike serves on the Curation Panel and Programming and Events Team.
Michelle Nance
Michelle Nance, MFA, currently serves as a Professor and Director of the Dance Program at Texas State University. Her choreography and screendance performances have been commissioned and produced in dance festivals and educational venues in the U.S., Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Barbados, Italy, S. Korea, Spain, Costa Rica, Scotland, Chile, Greece, the Netherlands, France, Iran, Egypt, England, Columbia, and Ireland. Ms. Nance earned her MFA in Performance and Choreography from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2001. As a dancer, Ms. Nance has had the honor and privilege of performing in the works of many notable American choreographers and dance companies, including: Erick Hawkins, David Dorfman, and many more. She currently co-creates and performs in screendance works and hybrid screen/stage works with WECreate Productions, in addition to The Margarita Clan. As a member of the Board of Directors for Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Ms. Nance serves on the Curation Panel and Programming and Events Team.
Photo by Nina Padilla
Photo by Richard Pfister
Rosely Conz
Rosely Conz, MA, MFA, is a Brazilian dancer, filmmaker, choreographer, and educator. Her screendances have been presented in Ireland, Barbados, Mexico, Brasil, South Africa, and in many states in the US. Since 2018, Rosely has been a curator for SSF and helped produce the two Brazilian editions of the festival in 2019 and 2020. Presently, Rosely is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Alma College where she continues researching how dance and screendance can address issues of immigration and displacement. As a member of the Board of Directors for Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Rosely serves on the Curation Panel and Funding/Support Team.
Jun Akiyama
J. Akiyama is a Colorado-based improvisation artist. He also actively studies the Japanese martial art of aikido and practices somatic psychotherapy (dance/movement therapy and body psychotherapy) and social justice counseling in Denver, Colorado.
Program Directors
Ana Baer Carrillo Artistic Co-Director
Michelle Bernier Executive Director and Artistic Co-Director
Advisory Board
- Bailey Anderson
- Omari Carter
- Keith Haynes
- Sarah Heller
- Adrianna Newport
- Crystal Polis
- Peg Posnick
- Megan Roney
- Holly Schlotterback
- Tom Wingerd
Founders
- Michelle Ellsworth Founder
- Brandi Mathis Founding Curator
- David Leserman (a.k.a. Hamel Bloom) Executive Director Emeritus
