Dance Camera West Announces Festival and Series of Events

Dance Camera West, marking its continued passion for bringing together diverse communities, cultures, and environments to experience dance through the intimate medium of film, along with Jacob Jonas The Company, are thrilled to present the 17th Annual Dance Camera West Film Festival and To The Sea: Dance Concerts on the Pier from April 12 - 15, 2018 with Opening Night festivities taking place at UCLA's Fowler Museum in Westwood, Film Screenings at the Laemmle Film Center in Santa Monica and the Free Sunset To The Sea: Dance Concerts on the Pier taking place on the west-end of the Santa Monica Pier.

This year's DCW Film Festival will showcase an incredible array of dance from modern, post-modern, world, tap, dance theater, ballet, hip-hop, and practically all dance that has been captured on film in a way that is of quality and essential value. See our 2018 Festival Trailer at: https://vimeo.com/259783406.

Highlights of the 2018 Festival includes the return of DCW's partnership with Jacob Jonas The Company with the exciting and unique To the Sea: Dance Concerts on the Pier, where individual choreographers and dance companies ranging in all dance forms and genres perform live on the west-end of the Santa Monica Pier during sunset for three nights. Both audiences and performers are surrounded by the natural space of the Pacific Ocean and the Pier and are free and open to the public. This year's lineup includes performances from Pilobolus, Rubberlegz, Jacob Jonas The Company, Emily Kikta of New York City Ballet, Megan Lawson, Erica Sobol, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Seaweed Sisters, and more. Please visit the Festival website for schedule updates.

Opening Night, Thursday, April 12: festivities commence with International Shorts, hosted reception, and post-screening Q&A taking place at the Fowler Museum; 8:00 p.m.

Friday, April 13: the Festival continues with two evening events; 6:30 p.m. - Program A @ To The Sea: Dance Concerts on the Pier featuring Pilobolus, the acclaimed modern dance company known for unique methods of collective creative performance, amongst other companies to be announced; 8:00 p.m. - West Coast Premiere screening of La Chana, by Lucija Stoievic. The documentary film brings the audience under the skin and into the mind of La Chana, a talented Gypsy flamenco dancer as she returns to the stage to give a final seated performance after a 30-year break and reveals the secret behind her disappearance when she was at the peak of her career. Iceland/USA 2016 (85:00)

Saturday, April 14: 12:00 p.m. - West Coast Premiere screening of The Sacrosanct Accompanist, by Terese Capucilli. A musical journey through Martha Graham's Technique. Reed Hansen was the pianist in residence for all of Martha Graham's Technique at The Julliard School from 1958 until present. This film follows his enduring relationship with Martha Graham and takes a look inside her technique soely form the perspective of the accompanist. USA 2018 (115:00), and the short SONDER by Anamaria Antoci. A visual abstract poetry of the human being confronted with nature, the machine and himself. Romania 2016 (12:20); 3:00 p.m. - Ingmar Bergman Through the Choreographer's Eye by Fredrik Stattin, the renowned Swedish Choreographers Alexander Ekman, Pär Isberg, Pontus Lidberg and Joakim Stephenson, with principal dancers from the Royal Swedish Ballet, interpret Ingmar Bergman through four unique dance performances reflecting human relationships and the unspoken word transformed into movements. Sweden 2016 (50:00), and 22:22 by Charlotte Ginsborg UK 2017 (30:00); 6:30 p.m. - Program B @ To The Sea (check Festival website for schedule updates).

Sunday, April 15: 12:00 p.m. - The Choreographer Mat Ek by Andreas Söderberg and Björn Eriksson. How is the perfect sequence of steps formed? An intimate documentary about the internationally highly esteemed choreographer Mats EK. Sweden. 2014 (58:00); 1:30 p.m. - TBA; 3:00 p.m. ­- United States Premiere screening of Atomos by Wayne McGregor and Ravi Deepres, where bodies, movement, film, sound and light are atomised into miniature shards of intense sensation. Taking creative points of departure from atomised film, music and biometric data, Wayne McGregor's choreography is woven into an intense film, performed by the incredible dancers of Company Wayne McGregor in his distinctive style - sculptural, rigorous, jarring and hauntingly beautiful. UK 2017 (70:00), and Black Stains byTiffany Rhynard USA 2017(13:27); 6:30 p.m. - Program B @ To The Sea (check Festival website for schedule updates).

The 17th Annual Dance Film Festival is funded in part by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, and Los Angeles County Arts Commission. To the Sea is supported in part by Santa Monica Pier and made possible in part by a grant from the City of Santa Monica and Santa Monica Cultural Affairs.

Aspiring to awaken and infuse the public mainstream with a desire for critical creative programming through dance and cinema, Dance Camera West ascribes to present the visual language of dance on screen in a way that stretches the imagination and changes the way we think about dance. A non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and developing the vibrant art of dance media bringing hundreds of challenging and provocative films and live performances to Los Angeles from around the globe, effectively bridging the gap between the uniquely influential Los Angeles film community and the significant local dance populace. Even more importantly, DCW utilizes the accessible nature of dance as a non-verbal art form to reach across cultural, geographic, and socio-economic divides by making a special effort to engage a wide range of Los Angeles audiences of varying ethnicities and interests, offering everyone a chance to experience the thought-provoking thrill of dance media. Globally speaking, DCW is one of only a handful of organizations that presents dance media, and the only one of its kind on the West Coast. Given that distinction, DCW has been fortunate to partner with some of the most prominent venues and organizations throughout the Los Angeles area.

Jacob Jonas The Company has a mission to create content and community through dance to make the art form more visible. The Los Angeles based company has toured North America since its birth in 2014, bringing its mix of contemporary ballet, breakdance, and acrobatic movement to stops including The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (Beverly Hills, CA), The Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Ford Amphitheatre presented by The Music Center (Los Angeles, CA), and Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Dance Festival. Also known for its film and photography work and its robust social media presence, the company has hosted #CamerasandDancers photography meet-ups with social influencers and cultural institutions including Metropolitan Museum of Art, The J. Paul Getty Center, Seattle Public Library, Whitney Museum, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Pilobolus, and countless others, gaining millions of impressions online.

Tickets for Festival screenings and programs range from Free to $25, and are available online at www.dancecamerawest.org, or by calling DCW at 323-620-3495. Tickets can also be purchased starting one hour prior to each event at its venue, based on availability. Venues include UCLA's Fowler Museum located at 308 Charles E. Young Drive North, Westwood; Laemmle Film Center, 1332 2nd Street, Santa Monica; Western-most end on the Santa Monica Pier.