Dance Camera West Announces Dance Media Film Festival

A unique cinematic experience that focuses on the intersection of cinematography and choreography, the month-long film festival features all forms of dance media. Chosen by Los Angeles Magazine as “Pick of the Month” for their June 2008 issue, Dance Camera West (DCW) again partners with the city’s most prestigious venues in offering a global perspective on a new visual language through a host of experimental shorts, documentaries, features, and symposiums with visiting international artists.

The June festival opens at the REDCAT Theater in downtown LA, with its legendary kick-off party on Friday, June 5, 2009. Presenting "ScreenDance: A New Visual Language," three programs of short films from around the world will captivate audiences on Friday and Saturday night during the opening weekend. DCW will present two days of programming at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theatre on Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14, featuring the Los Angeles theatrical premiere of Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About.

On Friday, June 19 DCW presents the Choreography Media Honors, showcasing award winning creative teams in a panel discussion. The month-long festival continues with an outdoor screening, VideoDanza II, Saturday, June 20 featuring artists from Latin America at the Braude Center Plaza in Van Nuys. On Sunday, June 21 at the Autry National Center a matinee program of two documentaries featuring indigenous artists exploring the contemporary sacred.

Known as one of the world’s premiere presenters of dance media, Dance Camera West has expanded the audience for dance in Southern California with the presentation of more than 1,000 dance films since 2002. Speaking to its global diversity, festival founder and director Lynette Kessler explains, “Dance is an art form that is universally understood and celebrated. It can break down the language barriers that oftentimes separate Los Angeles’ culturally diverse communities as it allows the audience to engage with dance media from around the world. In playing directly to an audience drawn from one of the world’s great arts capitals, the festival provides wide access to innovative and experimental dance on-screen. In 2009, DCW builds upon the foundation of the previous seven festivals to bring to Southern California a selection of the most boundary-pushing dance films anywhere."

Dance Camera West founder and executive/artistic director, Lynette Kessler is an accomplished dancer, choreographer, and media artist with an MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and a BFA in Dance from York University in Toronto. Known for her innovative collaborations and dance work for the screen that have been shown in film and video festivals worldwide, Kessler has received numerous awards including an Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellowship and an artist residency at Headlands Center for the Arts. She is a founding member of the Media & Dance Festival International Network, has served on dance film review committees for EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts) Commission, American Choreography Awards, Dance on Camera Festival in New York, Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film in Toronto, and is a guest lecturer at UCLA, UC Irvine, and Cal Arts.

Kessler sits on the board of directors for the following organizations: Buckminster Fuller Institute, Dance Channel TV, and the California Ear Unit. She is an active member of the advocacy groups: Arts for LA, California Arts Advocates, and Americans for the Arts. And most recently has been invited to the Media Arts Advisory Committee to guide the new Media Arts initiative to create the fifth arts content discipline for LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District).

Dance Camera West is a non-profit organization committed to fostering and promoting the vibrant art of dance media from around the world. DCW aims to bridge the unique mix of film and dance communities in Los Angeles through the exploration of this hybrid genre. DCW also strives to create a broader and more engaged audience for dance and dance media by merging both performance and cinematic aesthetic.

DCW is one of only a handful of organizations in the world that present dance media, and the only one of its kind on the West Coast. The 2008 festival was featured in a FOX News segment, and Los Angeles Magazine selected Dance Camera West as its Pick of the Month for the June 2008 issue. The Los Angeles Times selected the Dance Camera West Media Film Festival as one of the Ten Best dance events in Los Angeles for 2006 and 2007. DCW was voted one of the “Top 25 Dance Organizations to Watch” by Dance Magazine in 2005 and 2006. -- www.dancecamerawest.org