For Immediate Release: January 27, 2010

Dance Camera West
Announces Ninth Annual Dance Media Film Festival
Throughout Los Angeles – June 2010

LOS ANGELES, CA – Dance Camera West (DCW), recognized internationally for its month-long presentation and celebration of dance on screen, announces its Ninth Annual Dance Media Film Festival screening at venues throughout Southern California in June 2010. Dance on screen, or screendance, is a unique cinematic experience that focuses on the intersection of cinematography and choreography. The festival includes screendance as well as all forms of dance media. “The hybrid screendance medium is diverse, encompassing a broad range of cinematography styles, exhibition formats, and subject matter traversing global perspectives,” says Dance Camera West founder and director, Lynette Kessler, “The festival includes everything from experimental shorts to documentaries – ranging from surreal visual abstractions to strict narratives.” Once again DCW partners with the city’s most prominent venues in offering a host of screenings, installations, and panel discussions with visiting international artists. Please visit DCW’s website for continuous updates at www.dancecamerawest.org. See below for a preliminary schedule of events.

Dance Camera West’s Ninth Annual Dance Media Film Festival opens at the REDCAT Theater in downtown LA, with its celebrated opening night party on Friday, June 4, 2010. The opening weekend program, “ScreenDance: A New Visual Language,” will captivate audiences on Friday and Saturday night with three separate presentations of short films from around the world. The following weekend, DCW will present two days of programming at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theatre on Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, June 13 (program TBD). On the evening of June 19th, DCW showcases work from Los Angeles-based creators in its “Local Makers” program with an entertaining outdoor, community event at the Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. For the first time, DCW’s “Local Makers” program will include student work. Look also for events in collaboration with the Goethe Institute, Los Angeles Film Festival, and American Cinematheque.

Known as one of the world’s premiere presenters of dance media, Dance Camera West aspires to awaken and infuse the public mainstream with critical creative programming. DCW has expanded the audience for dance in Southern California with the presentation of more than 1,000 dance films from 43 countries since its inception in 2002.

“Dance media is pushing art in a new direction,” says Kessler, “as choreographers and directors continue to stretch our imagination and change the way we think about dance.”

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 festivals worldwide, Kessler has received numerous awards including a Lester Horton Dance Award, Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellowship, and an artist residency at Headlands Center for the Arts. She is a founding member of Media & Dance Network (MAD), has served on dance film review committees for EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), 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 she’s also on the Media Arts Advisory Committee to guide the new Media Arts initiative creating a fifth arts discipline for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

Dance Camera West is a nonprofit 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 aesthetics. 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 and 2009 festivals were featured in FOX News segments, 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 Dance Media Film Festival as one of the “Ten Best” dance events in Los Angeles for 2006 and 2007, and DCW was voted one of the “Top 25 Dance Organizations to Watch” by Dance Magazine in 2005 and 2006.

In addition to the planning of the upcoming June 2010 festival, Dance Camera West is also preparing a special 10-year anniversary event for 2011. In celebration of this milestone, the organization will host an international Dance Media Symposium in downtown Los Angeles, bringing together artists, dancers, educators, and film/television industry professionals. With a working title of Dance Media: The Active Spectrum, conference participants from the dance and media worlds will come together for a conversation on the exciting opportunities for expansive growth, creative expression, and innovation offered by new media. In addition to a full program of evening screenings, the 2011 anniversary event will also include a unique series of daytime panel presentations, guest speakers, and networking opportunities. A steering committee for the conference is being formed with notable artists and leaders from the international dance media community.

This year’s 2010 Dance Camera West festival is supported in part by Mortimer Levitt Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

See below for DCW’s June 2010 Festival Schedule as of 1/27/10:

➢ Fri. June 4 [8:00pm] and Sat. June 5 [6:00pm & 8:00pm] at REDCAT [downtown LA]
“Screendance: A New Visual Language” (contains adult content) – Opening Night Friday!
Opening night screening and party on Friday followed by two different screening programs on Saturday. In three unique screenings over two days, this collection of innovative dance films from around the world explores the intersection between movement and cinema.
– Fri. June 4 – 8:00pm – Screening and Opening Night Reception
– Sat. June 5 – 6:00pm screening & 8:00pm screening (all three screenings different)

REDCAT, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex)
631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213 237-2800; http://redcat.org)
– Tickets $15 opening night ($10 for CalArts or DCW members), $10 for other screenings ($7 for CalArts or DCW members)

➢ Sat. June 12 [7:00pm] and Sun. June 13 [2:00pm & 6:00pm] at the Hammer Museum [Westwood]
Programs TBD – Three Programs over Two Days at the Hammer

Hammer Museum – Billy Wilder Theater
10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024 (310-443-7000; www.hammer.ucla.edu)
– FREE admission, no reservations required; seating is first come first served

➢ Sat. June 19 [8:00 – 10:00pm] at Cheviot Hills Recreation Center [West LA]
“Local Makers – LA Choreographers and Directors” – Outdoor Screening
Dance Camera West presents an outdoor screening event whereby the park will be transformed into a cinematic cross-cultural display with four different screening areas. Student work will be included for the first time. K – 12 students from LAUSD have been invited to submit work (the Call for Entries ends April 15, 2010).
Even though all the films have one thing in common – they were all created by Los Angeles- based choreographers and directors – they’re as diverse as the Southern California landscape itself. The program presents everything under the sun (or moon in this case) during this family-friendly evening. Bring a flashlight, something to sit on, and join in the fun under the stars.

Cheviot Hills Recreation Center
2551 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90064 (310-837-4233)
– FREE admission, no reservations required

➢ Wed. June 30 [time TBA] at Goethe-Institute [mid-Wilshire]
A new documentary by Anne Linsel will screen as part of a special Pina Bausch Celebration at Goethe-Institute, the German cultural institution (more info TBA).

Goethe-Institute
5750 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323-525-3388; www.goethe.de/enindex.htm)
– price TBD

More June dates, venues and programs TBA for Dance Camera West’s Ninth Annual Dance Media Film Festival. Please visit DCW’s website for continuous updates – www.dancecamerawest.org.

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For more information, press passes, photos, or to interview DCW’s founder Lynette Kessler, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn [at] greengalactic.com.