MEET THE TEAM

Margaret Wiss (she/her/hers) is interested in the interaction between dance and science. As a choreographer and artist, she wishes to reveal the invisible motion of physical forces in the world. Attracted to dynamic movement, which investigates the perception of dance as a scientific sport, she explores the interactions of dance and the environment – inside and outside the body. She has performed at multiple venues, notably The Kennedy Center and Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, and has worked with Pilobolus Dance Theater as well as choreographers Jennifer Hart, Kinsun Chan, and Adele Myers. Her work has been presented across the United States. She has choreographed for PDX Contemporary Ballet, North Atlantic Dance Theatre, The Harvard Ballet Company and the DanceBARN Festival. This past fall she was a Visiting Artist at Mount Holyoke College and choreographed for the Five College Dance Department. She is a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, magna cum laude, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Kinesiology with high honors from the dance department. She has an MFA in Dance from NYU Tisch.

Colin Minigan (he/him/his) is a Composer born in Massachusetts. His music is concerned with issues of space, time, and the dichotomy between human society and the natural world. He takes interest in American experimental music, as well as (among others) the traditional music of Bali, Tuva, and Uganda. He uses these varied interests to inform his own compositions. In addition to concert music, he has also composed music for theater and dance. Colin obtained his B.A. in music composition from Skidmore College in 2016, where he studied Composition and Ethnomusicology. He will be attending Berklee College of Music's graduate program in the fall to obtain his MFA in Composition. He has studied West African, East and Central Asian music at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and has attended the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival, and the inaugural season of Connecticut Summerfest.​ Colin has studied composition privately with Daron Hagen and Anthony Holland. He also plays and teaches piano and guitar. He has an MM from Boston Conservatory - Berklee College of Music.

Alexandra Rigobon (she/her/hers) carries a copy of the periodic table of elements in her wallet. A materials scientist by training, she is interested in the application of scientific concepts outside of the traditional world of research and technology. Most notably, Alexandra spent a year researching the structure of pointe shoes and developing customizable inserts that improve comfort while en pointe and reduce the risk of injury to ballerinas. She has also worked at VICARTE in Lisbon, collaborating with local glass artists and conservationists while exploring the application of 3D-printing to the art form. Alexandra is also a passionate advocate of STEAM education, working to improve accessibility and promote interest in underserved communities, including piloting a global teaching program in Fortaleza, Brazil. She is a graduate of MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Currently she is in business school at MIT & Harvard.

Tracy Chen (Guest Curator) has a Masters of Science and is a pole dancer. She believes strongly in the arts and science not being mutually exclusive but mutually nourishing; tons of evidence suggest that there’s a scientific way of improving your craft, and that artistic endeavors, in turn, inform innovative breakthroughs in science. Chen experimented with different genres of dance before being pulled into the world of pole, where physics and human anatomy continue to fascinate me on a day to day basis. In 2018 she began teaching pole dancing and has been placed bronze in my category at the Pole Sports Organization’s 2018 Northeast regional events.

SCHEDULE

October 30

7PM \ Kickoff & Premiere

November 1

7PM \ Film & Voting Link Closes

9PM \ Award Announcement

*all times are in Eastern Standard Time

FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM \ OCT 30 - NOV 1

Kam | Zeynep Akcay | 3.5m

Led3Times | Alessandro Amaducci | 3m

Small World | Danny Boulet | 3.5m

drop | Callie Chapman | 3m

SIR Model of Infectious Disease | Evolve Dynamicz | 3m

We are all on the same bus | Nuno Serrão | 2m

The Path She Walks (Excerpt) | Marloes ten Bhömer | 4m

Swarm Raid | Anna Lindemann & Ryan Glista | 4m

REVIVE | Samantha Sadoff | 4m

Polar Bear Dirge | Klementina Budnik | 3.5m

Total Runtime: 37m

DANCE & TECHNOLOGY

Kam

“Kam", meaning "Shaman" in old Turkish, is a film expressing the primal, potent energy of the female body via long exposure pixilation/2D animation techniques. The film deconstructs & reconstructs movement using the optics field's light recording principles.To record light, first photographers had to expose their subjects for a long period of time, creating traces of movement on the frame. This effect was often considered as undesirable. This film consciously uses this artifact by condensing the motion of the dancer and by recreating the flow in a poetic way. Dance has an enormous poetic capacity in creating aesthetic results with traces of motion. It is also an important element of a shamanistic culture, where the human body is accepted to transform into different animals/energy forms, enforcing the optical principles used in the film.

Credits: Zeynep Akcay, Director | Sevinc Baltali, Dancer

https://www.zeynepakcay.com/

Led3Times

Amaducci’s Led3Times is a dance of speed and light. The charged electricity of the cinematography is frantically choreographed upon the dancer and costume, generating a sci-fi fashion show and robotic catwalk.

Credits: Alessandro Amaducci, Director | Sara Capello, Choreographer | Adriana Delfino & Andrea Massaioli, Fashion Designers

http://www.alessandroamaducci.net/ // @alessandr0amaducc1

COVID-19 INSPIRED

Small World

*WORLD PREMIERE

Small World is a giant optical illusion. Boulet skillfully plays with the viewer’s perception of gravity. Inspired by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the film is a dance exploration of the confines of a small world where everything changes and moves in unexpected ways. When what is up and what is down and what is still and what moves is in constant flux...the question arises- to what extent do we adjust to fit the new normal in this world?

Credits: Danny Boulet, Director/Producer/Editor | Performance, Leah Jones

http://www.wittypixel.com/ // @wittypixel_productions

drop

*PREMIERE

Chapman’s drop is an underscore of psychological internment while in lockdown due to a pandemic. Using an algorithmic structure, a wading pool, underwater housing, and sunlight the film was made as a representative of a holding pattern with a variation. Computational methods provided the editing structure for the film. Chapman, questions when does a simple algorithm and organic thought match up when creating art? When does it differ? If a pattern is seen in nature, distilled down to an algorithmic structure, does it then become seen as something as inorganic due to its an extraction from its context? Or, is it fitting to a multitude of contexts? XSFF 2020 will be the premiere of drop!

Credits: Callie Chapman, Director/Producer/Choreographer | Ivan Korn, Music

@calliechapmankorn

SIR Model of Infectious Disease (excerpt)

In the time of COVID, Professor John Straub from Boston University and the dance company, Evolve Dynamicz have worked collaboratively to create a film based on Straub's new textbook "Mathematical Methods for Molecular Science" and Supplement on Kinetic Models of Infectious Disease. The work explores how to make concepts of abstract mathematics comprehendible and visually digest-able. It attempts to take the pandemic curve that everyone sees in the media and breaks it down into its discrete mathematical parts. The hope is that it can show the importance of social distancing and minimizing contact through wearing a mask, without being outright political about it.

Credits: Nicole Zizzi, Producer/Editor | Narrator/Collaborator, John Straub | Jessie Hogestyn & Alaina Sawyer, Choreographers | Scilla Bennett & Hayley Forrest & Jessie Hogestyn & Lisa Giancola & Stephanie Piscione & Alaina Sawyer & Ava Untermyer & Nicole Zizzi & Kaylee Mahan, Dancers | Kaylee Mahan, Sound Recorder

https://www.evolvedynamicz.com/ // @evolve_dynamicz

PHYSICS

We are all on the same bus

We are all on the same bus, but some of us are more awake than others. This movie explores the “Arrow of Time” concept coined by Sir Arthur Eddington in 1927. The idea states that time flows only in one direction with increasing entropy, in contrast to the rest of spacetime that has no preferred orientation. “The objective world simply is, it does not happen. Only to the gaze of my consciousness, crawling upward along the life line of my body, does a section of this world come to life as a fleeting image in space which continuously changes in time.

Credits: Nuno Serrão, Director/Cinematography/Color Grading/Editing | urbanistas & Andreia Azevedo & Nuno Barcelos, Producers | Luis Daio, Dancer/Choreographer | Lonnie Holley, Music | Cristina Bartleby & Helder Guimarães & Maira João Lobo & Paulo da Silva Lobo & Martim Lobo & Maria Lobo & Mafalda Lobo & Nuno Serrão, Cast

https://www.nunoserrao.com // @nunoserrao

The Path She Walks (excerpt)

In this video work, ten Bhömer investigates female movement and gait in cinema to understand traditional Japanese footwear and the kinematics of gait. Walking and gait in relation to shoes and garments is imbued with permissions/restrictions, the wearer’s idiosyncratic movements, but more importantly with learned movements. Moving beyond mere gait techniques ten Bhömer then expanded her research to include female gait in cinema and influences Kabuki and Noh theatre /dance on film. Not only because gait in cinema embodies cultural and socio-political elements too, but also in an attempt to understand how cinema plays a role in mimicking movement. In analysing the films, ten Bhömer found that a focus on a woman’s gait in Japanese and non-Japanese cinema alike often denoted a cinematic metaphor: the female protagonist is or has just undergone a change in the direction of her life. In Kenji Mizoguchi’s "The Life of Oharu"(1952), for example, the titular character, played by Kinuyo Tanaka, undergoes many dramatic social changes in her life, which are symbolically represented by the sheer volume of walking throughout the film. Methodologically, ten Bhömer researched women-centred films to produce a taxonomy of moments in which a focus on a female protagonists’ gait is used as a cinematic metaphor denoting a change in direction in the protagonists’ live. Ten Bhömer then devised an embodied method of research, a new muscle training technique, in order to re-enact a selection of such gait moments/identity performances and analysed the captured motion via kinematic performance software. Producing a video work which sits between dance film, fashion film, performance art and scientific analysis, the footage having been examined with high performance motion software. "The Path She Walks" reveals the relationship between gait, footwear, clothing, dance, movement, character development and performing identity.

Credits: Marloes ten Bhömer, Director | Remco de Jong, Sound | Tomohiro Inoue井上智博, Visual Effects/Motion Analysis | Tomohiro Tanaka 田中友丈, Cinematography | Professor Julia Cassim ジュリア・カセム 特任教授, Project Direction | Associate Professor Noriyuki Kida来田宣幸 准教授, Motion Analysis Supervision | Shin Yamashita山下真 & Assistant Professor Yasushi Ichikawa市川靖史 助教, Studio Supervision | ［KYOTO Design Lab Digital Factory デジタルファクトリー] | ［KYOTO Design Lab Wood Factoryウッドファクトリー］

http://marloestenbhomer.squarespace.com

ZOOLOGY

Swarm Raid

The music and dance video "Swarm Raid" is a surreal trip to the grocery store inspired by an army ant swarm raid. "Swarm Raid" is featured in The Colony, an art-science performance about sisterhood and the evolution of communication in two of the most social creatures on earth: humans and ants. The performance is inspired by the world-class Carl W. and Marian E. Rettenmeyer Army Ant Guest Collection housed at the University of Connecticut. www.thecolony.show

Credits: Anna Lindemann & Ryan Glista, Directors | Anna Lindemann, Producer/ Music| Felice Lesser, Consulting Choreographer | Emma Komlos-Hrobsky, Lyrics | Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Music Performed By | Alex Rouleau, Cinematography | Charlie Gorski & Evan Olson, Assistant Cinematographers | Ryan Glista, Editing | Brittny Mahan, Costumes/Makeup | Lucy Fitz Gibbon & Emma Komlos-Hrobsky, Set Design

Cast: Anna Lindemann, Mona | Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Hennie/Ant Queen | Elizabeth Barbeau & Felicia Famularo & Maddie Gidman & Lenore Grunko & Allie Leonard & Rachel Surridge & Stephan Vazquez & Paige Woods, Featured Dancers | Cat Boyce & Lydia Briones & Janine Caira & Karin Ching & Josh Chirip & Evan Dennison & Jack Dillon & Heather Elliott-Famularo & Eric Ellison & Ben Gladstone & Ryan Glista & Bernard Goffinet & Charlie Gorski & Robyn Guyette & Ann Harper & Herbert Jenkins & Thomas Jensen & Stephen E. Johnson & Krissy Johnson & Sierra Kane & Emma Komlos-Hrobsky & Mike Krywinski & Meredith LaMalva & Edwin Lewis & Lisa Weixel Lippert & Eleanor Magnuson & Josh Matthias & Dwayne Mullings & Julia Oppenheimer & Jane O’Donnell & Sandi Petersen & Ena Pottinger & Eric Quinter & Jasmine Rajavadee & Emma Santasiere & Alex Semendinger & Sarah Shattuck & Kelly Zimmermann, Dancers

www.annalindemann.com // @anna.k.lindemann

www.ryanglista.com // @ryanglista

REVIVE

“REVIVE” is a story of preservation and renewal. The film is inspired by amber, a fossilized tree resin valued for the creatures and plants trapped in its sap. Two lovers encased in a seal of time, only to be reunited years down the line. They emerge from amber freshly renewed into life and reunite and re-learn each other - from inspection driven by curiosity to eager exploration and finally to rekindled devotion. Sadoff strives to highlight the resiliency of humans and their relationships.

Credits: Samantha Sadoff, Director/Producer | Samantha Sadoff & Trevor Daw, Choreographers | Cole Bicani, Director of Photography | Benjamin Baard, Assistant Director | Claire Gostin, Assistant Camera | Felipe Vargas, Gaffer | Aris Chang/ Jackie Lee, Makeup | Westen Blair & Nick Lopez & Chris Vidano, Grips | Chris Vidano, Composer

http://www.samanthasadoff.com // @sadoffstudios

Polar Bear Dirge

Budnik’s film is a call to action. “Polar Bear Dirge” aims to create a visceral connection to the plight of polar bears and human existence. If the polar bears go we won't be far behind. How are you minimizing your climate impact today?

Credits: Klementina Budnik, Director | femme.collective, Choreographer/Dancers | Troll 2, Music | Thea Bechshoft, Research

http://kxbstudio.com // @kxbstudio

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VOTING PROCEDURCES

1. Watch all films
2. Please only vote for your favorite one!
3. Save the date - Nov 1 @ 9PM - we will announce Audience & Judge's Choice Awards
4. Thanks!