XSection: A Dance and Science Film Festival sparking interdisciplinary collaboration between dance - science - film.
The methodologies of scientific research and dance creation are abstract. Films can document visual forms and create a tangible record of these concepts. The vision of XSFF is to archive the expression of current scientific findings and instigate with dancemakers on topical scientific issues - space exploration - medical advancements- fundamental principles. The platform is open to interpretation as long as artists are collaborating across disciplines of science and dance.
A night of interdisciplinary mingling.
MEET THE TEAM
Colin Minigan 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.
Margaret Wiss 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 will be attending NYU in the fall to obtain an MFA in Dance.
Dayita Nereyeth is a dancer and editor based in Bangalore, India. She is fascinated by the intangible aspects of dance, particularly thought, and imagery. Dayita has danced professionally with the Yana Lewis Dance Company and Les Ballets Nomades et Sonores. She has performed in work by Merce Cunningham, Omar Carrum and Claudia Lavista, Diya Naidu, Tong Wang, Ellen Oliver, and several others. Since 2017, Dayita has been collaborating with Poorna Swami on a duet, Long time no see, and with Ellen Oliver on a solo, Pants Becoming Kites, both of which premiered as part of their current touring show, Citations: Three Dances. Dayita holds a BA in Dance and Psychology from Mount Holyoke College (USA).
Alexandra Rigobon 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.
SCHEDULE
6:30pm \ Photography Pop Up + Dance Performance
7:00pm \ Film Fest
8:00pm \ Mingle
PHOTOGRAPHY POP UP + DANCE \ 6:30 PM
Julisa Campbell is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Studio Art, and a minor in Film Studies. While at Mount Holyoke College, Campbell’s interests have led her to pursue her passions at the intersection of art, music, film, and dance. Inspired heavily by movement and the human body, Campbell primarily focused her artwork on capturing the movements of bodies as they exist in space. From experimenting with exposures and shutter speeds to freeze a moment in time to fragmenting the body in an attempt to reinvent a space that is often seen as a symbol of potential perfection, Campbell is fascinated with portraying her observations and representations of the human figure.
Alliyah Wheaton graduated from the School of Visual Arts, in New York City, with an Honors Bachelor of Fine Art Photography and Video degree, and has attended École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Alliyah enjoys traveling and exploring new places around the world. In each place, she captures the very essence of a space with every image she takes. For instance, as people walk by she does not just see a body. She sees every crevice, shadow, and angle. Each detail tells a story, and everything she sees represents a different layer. It’s up to the artist to notice and reveal each layer visually. One picture – one story – can change the way people see the world.
Talia Rothstein, a Boston native, recently returned from a year freelancing in Melbourne Australia and participating in workshops with Chunky Moves Dance Company. She has performed works by Jill Johnson, Brian Brooks, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and Karole Armitage. Choreographically she is interested in the intersection of political and aesthetic discourses in the creation and practice of art. A recent project focused on the movement and poetry on the experience of border crossing and immigration.
FILM FESTIVAL \ 7 PM
Aynahue | Clàudia Reig Martín
Remembear | Marva Yates
Pas de deux - after McLaren | Edward Ramsay-Morin
Spinneret | Natasha Cantwell
THE BOUDOIR | David Latreille
Thubalethu | Suzanne Kim
Baile de Los Tunkis | Nathaniel Krauss
Siren | Bar Davidi
White Wednesdays| Oscar Hagberg
Movement 1 | Guillermo Villarreal
Anechoic | Charles Billot
Thoughts in march | Adrian Carlo Bibiano Wollpmarch
Fragile Formation | Nitzan Lederman
Aynahue
Maywa in voice and music and Clàudia Reig in dance present Aynahue a creation result of a sonic exploration and movement inspired by the kingdom of plants and video produced by Pol Montserrat in collaboration with the mythym project. Plants teach us to heal, sing, clean, calm, and balance the emotions. They awake memories, give us harmony, joy, love, air to breathe, give us food and satiate thirst. The Plants talk and whisper wisdom through the ancestors. They deserve to be Praised.
Credits: Clàudia Reig Martín, Director | Pol Montserrat, Producer | Maywa, Music
Remembear
What are our memories? Where are they, and what are they made of? Research in the cognitive neurosciences has identified memories with hippocampal place cells, in the wiring and firing of neuronal networks, or as computational processes. It feels strange to us that our most vivid memories, our affection, pain, and grief, could be a thing, like nerve activity, and some philosophers have challenged whether meanings can be entirely in our heads at all. And yet, from the very start of our lives, our memories are held in objects in the world.
Credits: Marva Yates, Director | Corey Dixon, Music | Peter Levin, Film
Pas de deux - after McLaren
An exploration of form, energy, and space. A rotoscoped animation using footage from Norman McLarens' Pas de deux. Created by students in the Department of Art at Sam Houston State University, under the direction of Associate Professor Edward Morin.
Credits: Edward Ramsay-Morin, Director
Spinneret
Spinneret is part of a series of film works that lift the veneer of civilized humanity and social conventions, to reflect on the animal instincts we pretend we can control. In particular, this piece looks at displays of bravado and intimidation.
Credits: Natasha Cantwell, Director | Trudi Ranik, Key Cast | Dean Robinson, Key Cast | Youth Worship, Music
THE BOUDOIR
A two-minute short film about a young woman experiencing music through a psychotic phase.
Credits: David Latreille, Director & Editor | DLP®, Producer | Emilie Dumas (Specs Models Montreal), Key Cast | Apex Martin, Music | Nicolas Venne, Camera
Thubalethu
Performance artist Thubalethu explores the somatic experience of dance, cultivating an improvisational spirit of exploration and influence on the remote, vast salt pan of Lake Gairdner, located in the deep outback of South Australia.
Credits: Suzanne Kim, Director | Thubalethu Ndibali, Key Cast | Campbell Brown, Cinematographer | Daniel Anderson, 1st AC | Amy Zhang, Movement Coach | Leila Gaabi, Editor | Tim Wreyford, Colourist | The Editors, Post Production | Mohi, Music
Baile de Los Tunkis
The line between human and bird is blurred in this exciting glimpse at the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, the national bird of Peru and one of nature's wildest dancers.
Credits: Nathaniel Krauss, Director, Producer & Writer | Jake Krauss, Writer & Producer | Animal Chuki, Music | Katy Rosa Ayme Rojas, Cast | Sheila Gianli Palomino Salas, Cast | Katy Cabezas Perez, Cast | Zeta Chavez Perez, Cast | Amado Burgos Ojeda, Cast | Felipe Rodriguez Gallegos, Cast
Siren
In the depths of darkness does the siren glow. The film explores the possible connection of the manufactured non-biological (i.e electrical, mechanical, etc) with the biological body.
Credits: Bar Davidi, Director, Editor & Writer | Michal Kawon, Choreography & Dance | Eldad Markus, Cinematographer | James Pants, Original Composition
White Wednesdays
A movie that takes inspiration from the White Wednesdays movement in Iran. The idea for the short film comes from My Stealthy Freedom آزادی یواشکی زنان در ایران which is an online social movement where Iranian women share photos of themselves without wearing the hijab.
Credits: Atoosa Farahmand & Oscar Hagberg
Movement 1
Exploring the human body and abandoned urban spaces to find beauty in pollution and decay.
Credits: Victor Ponce, Director & Writer | Guillermo Villarreal, Producer | Modus Operandi, Key Cast
Anechoic
Credits: Charles Billot, Director
Thoughts in march
Change is constant, in all time we find ourselves in march, our train of thoughts is affected by passenger emotions, those indelible of the own perspective, like its in the case of the young Carlo, who once again will have to accept and confront his anxiety, stress, and depression from his day to day, scrutinizing en between thoughts to achieve a state of fullness.
Credits: Adrian Carlo Bibiano (a.k.a. Carlo Necro), Director & Choreographer/Performer | Karolina Latvyte, Director & Producer
Fragile Formation
Fragile Formation is both a durational performance and a live granular-material experiment that explores the phenomenon of spontaneous self-assembly and the transition between order and disorder.
In a Petri dish enlarged to the dimensions of a human body, human movement replaces laboratory mechanical mixing and generates dynamic ordering in 600 glass spheres. The intimate interaction between the human body and the objects creates a multilayered composition and a continually changing sculpture. As the performance progresses, the spheres rearrange between a gas-like state and a close-packed solid crystal. Given the high energy dissipation due to friction, the particular structures that are formed, strongly correlate with the details of the dynamics, so that the traces of human movement are embedded within the arrangement of the spheres, leaving a physical "memory" imprint of the performance.
Credits: Sharona Florsheim, Choreography | Tal Yizrael, Installation Art | Nitzan Lederman, Dance | Dr. Jennifer Galanis & Prof. Daniel Harries, Science | Daniel Pakes, Camera | Yaara Nirel, Video Editing | Jul Davidovich, Costume Design