SSF @ Peak Academy of Dance 2025

A poignant and timely reflection through the eyes of a child on our human impact on the natural world. The legacy of our time is the challenge for generations to come. Understanding our human impact on the natural world and environment the film negotiates time, scale and innocence while reflecting on ways of seeing, belonging and connecting to our natural world.

Female Jingle Dancers and Male Fancy Dancers offer a combined piece in honor and recognition of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (specifically amongst Native American and Alaskan Native women). “Ozhigaabawi” means “One Stands Ready.” As a group of indigenous dancers, we feel it is important that we not only represent the beauty of our communities, but also the realities of our people. It was important to me to create a work that empowers both our female and male dancers to show that they stand ready to make a change for the better. Traditionally, Jingle is a dance of healing and strength. Men’s Fancy is a dance of agility and strength. Our hope is that by putting them together, we offer strength and healing to those who have been harmed by sexual and physical violence — not just the individuals but also the families and communities at large.

Lift Off is a caption of play and joy of five merging female aerial dancers doing what they love: dancing in the air. Despite of their aging bodies they have released themselves from what they are expected to be able to do with their minds and bodies. It is a revolution on movement!

This is a one minute dance film interpretation of a woman experiencing the confusing and schizophrenic nature of loss. Confronting many versions of herself and the beginning of the healing process.

I heard once that hope is just a memory of the future. What a beautiful perspective on something that offers so much light throughout life. To challenge the normal flow of time and acknowledge that we somehow have already experienced the future shows us that the present moment will soon give way to what we hoped for. Our choice to follow a path that leads us to our biggest dreams is just retracing our steps. Memories of the future. How magnificent.

F3VER follows the journey of Andrew “3D Dance Fever” Jones, a native of Bakersfield, CA, who defies societal expectations as a street dancer, high school substance abuse counselor, and globally recognized dance fitness instructor. As Andrew navigates the challenges of his hometown, he discovers the power of dance as a transformative tool, using its rhythms to overcome personal adversity and inspire others. Through movement-based scenes and heartfelt moments of reflection, the film shines a light on Andrew’s resilience and showcases the universal language of dance as a means of healing, self-expression, and empowerment.

I feel confined/stuck. In this home. In this room. In this mind. Confined to both psychological and physical space. Stuck in a continuous, never ending loop. Ever changing but staying the same. I feel confined…stuck in this Home/Room. This film was created as a part of Sans Souci Festival’s Community Dance Film Project, with funding from the City of Boulder Arts & Culture.

A witty and whimsical meditation on free will, identity and the afterlife. A narrative made through the collision of unlikely elements: dance, digital code, Franz Liszt, and playful echoes across the history of onscreen physical storytelling, paying homage to films like “Modern Times” and “The Red Shoes.” A man in white-winged angel shoes is awakened, then multiplied and manipulated through all the dimensions of infinite black, finally to be returned to his original form and spat out onto the junk heap of history.

This film is restricted to viewers in Colorado, USA. Click here to watch.

Boy meets girl at a coffee shop, and the two are thrown into a mud wrestling ring to find a common path forward, while their best friends act as coaches.

As middle school student Greyson Fries’s first complete solo film, this work represents the documentary aspect of the craft of dance filmmaking that the cohort studied under Tanja London.

This film was created by CJ Marchiondo, who offers a contemporary, light hearted take on a dance documentary, and doubles as a way for the Ridge Runners to promote what they do on social media.

Arianna Bray, who studies film at her high school, crafted this short documentary with an inclusive and sensitive approach to the dancers who comprise the Ridge Runners, including their treasured square dance caller, the late Harold Myers, to whom these films are dedicated.

The student filmmakers collaborated with dance filmmaker Sarah Heller and local professional dance ensemble Essential Dance Company on the creation of a unique work for the camera, exploring contemporary dance in a rural mountain setting.