PICKS 3

Sunday, September 21st @ 7:00PM | The Tomorrow Theater | Run Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

We end our 2025 festival moving in elemental currents. We open with Breathless (United Kingdom), a study in balance and power performed within an enclosed circular space, the dancers caught in an infinity loop of relationship. Santa Bárbara (Spain) follows with the stark beauty of snow, ash, a red hat, and one singular figure pressing into the landscape.
In A Mother’s Odyssey (Netherlands), the primal bond between mother and child plays out in gestures of routine and of two bodies reaching for something to hold, and in dust (USA/Oregon) the theme of caretaking continues on, refined by the coastal wilds of Oregon into a shifting landscape of legacy and the rhythm of ushering each other in and out of life.
The second half begins with Somber Tides (Canada), a duet of birdlike figures in an eco-dance of survival and bone deep chill. In Adam (United Kingdom), a dancer generously offers a solo very near the death of her father, a longtime collaborator of Pina Bausch in an intimate choreography of feathers and tears.
your love: “walking” beside me (USA) evokes tenderness through the grainy Super 8 film and is a gentle honoring of love past that somehow still walks beside us. We close the night and our 2025 festival with Directions to the Other Side of the World (Ireland), in which one woman traverses the far reaches of rural Ireland to make peace with the darker edges of her spirit.                

8 Films  |   Run Time with Intermission: 80 minutes

Get Picks 3 Tickets

Breathless

Scotland 

Director: Eve McConnachie @evemcchonnachie
Director of Photography: Steve Cardno @cardcore
Choreographers: Nicholas Shoesmith & Madeline Squire @nick.shoesmith @maddycsquire
Dancers: Harvey Littlefield & Evan Loudon @harveylittlefield @evanloudon

In 2023, Scottish Ballet did a call-out to its own company of dancers, asking them to pitch ideas for a short film that they would like to create and choreograph, with support from the production team and in-house film director Eve McConnachie. One of the films produced was Breathless. The dancers in Breathless are symbols of the themes that run through every relationship, such as balance, power, trust, and greed. The film is created as an infinite loop and shot in a fully enclosed circular space, reflecting the cyclical nature of life and relationships.

SANTA BÁRBARA

Spain

Director, Editor: @barbarafedez
Choreography: Diego Pazó y Bárbara Fdez.
Cast: @d_egopazo
Music Composer: @marin.moore.music
Cinematographer: @davidklas
1 AD: @fermintxo_ardoy
MUAH: @_javierserra
Wardrobe: @albertorbatres
Graphic Design: @ipnosix_studio
Hat by @boifeathered

In 2022, Navarre suffered devastating fires that were getting closer and closer to the city. More than 14,000 hectares were burned. In this documentary, a collective and anonymous voice reflects on the relationship we have as a society with nature.

A mother's odyssey

The Netherlands

Director: Anna Fransen – @annyafransen
Producer: Danscollectief Arnhemse Meisjes – @danscollectiefarnhemsemeisjes
Cinematography: Floris Verweij – @floris_verweij
Editing: Anna Fransen
Creative support: Jonne Covers – @jonnecovers
Cast: Fien Verweij, Anna Fransen

In A mother’s odyssey you see the dynamics between mother and child in their daily lives. In the safety of their own home, they both look for something to hold on to, using movements, sounds and their primal connection.

dust

United States, Oregon Artist

Director + Choreographer: Noelle Kayser @noellekayser 
Director of Photography + Editor: Matthew Tomac @matthewtomac
Dancer: Bree Kostelnik @bxkostelnik
Dancer: Audrey Wells @audreywells
Costume Designer: Amanda Gladu @amandagladu
Production Assistant: Sophia Mladineo @sophiamladineo
Producer: Open Space Dance @openspace.dance
Producer: Regional Arts & Culture Council @regionalarts

​​”dust” is a dance film that explores themes of legacy and mortality in the cycle of intergenerational caregiving. It pays tribute to the compassion, reciprocity, and unconditional love present as we guide one another into and out of this life. It depicts the experience of caring for my father as he died of cancer.

Somber Tides

Canada

**Nudity**

Director: Chantal Caron
Performers: Geneviève Robitaille, Léa Lavoie-Gauthier & Marie-Maude Michaud
Editor: Mirenda Ouellet
Choreographer: Chantal Caron in collaboration with the performers
Sound designer: Catherine Van Der Donckt
Mixer: Bruno Bélanger
Editor: Mirenda Ouellet
Original music: Arnaud Hug
Violinist: Stefan Krznaric
Director of photography: Richard Saint-Pierre
Cameramen and dronists: Jean-Philippe Cloutier and Jonathan Champagne
Camera assistants: Alexandre Bellemare and Cézar Valois
Technical director: Jean St-Pierre
Sound engineers: Dominique Garon and Anny Morin
Colorist: Sylvain Cossette

Somber Tides is a cry from the species, startled into survival against the elements. One last breath before being trampled by the Earth or maybe conversely a battle to wage against winds and tides clutching on before extinction.

Adam

Germany

Director: Samantha Shay
Producer: Ornella Salloum
Key Cast: Julie Anne Stanzak

Adam is a short dance film that emerges from rehearsals for the dance theater piece Life in this House is Over by director Samantha Shay. Exploring the social awkwardness of grief, and inspired by the writing of Anton Chekhov, the project gathers current and former artists of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, as well as the Grotowski Institute-based physical theater company Teatr ZAR, as a reflection on the lineages of Polish Jerzy Grotowski and German Pina Bausch, their relationship and how their work resonates today. This particular solo was shot very close to the death of dancer/choreographer, and longtime collaborator of Pina Bausch, Julie Anne Stanzak’s father, Adam Stanzak, the film is lovingly named and dedicated in his memory.

your love: ‘walking’ beside me

United States

Choreographer + Director: Ali Kenner Brodsky @akbandco
Director of Photography + Editor: Rich Ferri @therichferri
Composer: MorganEve Swain @swain.morganeve
Performed by Jessi Stegall @fraulein_stegall + Ilya Vidrin @ilya.vidrin

your love: ‘walking’ beside me is the first film in a triptych which captures the life cycle of love.

Directions To The Other Side Of The World

Ireland

Director: Derrick Belcham @derrickbelcham
Dancer/Choreography: Kiley Dolaway @kileydolaway

A woman explores the far reaches of rural Ireland in an attempt to make peace with the darker aspect of her spirit. Shot on location in County Kerry, Ireland in 2025, Directions to the Other Side of the World is a blessing, in the style of noted Irish poet John O’Donahue, for those of us visited by a depressed and desolate spirit, a sincere wish for friendship with the greyer aspects of self, and the darker times of day and season. Narrated and accompanied by the modern master of the Sean-nós tradition of singing, Iarla ó Lionáird, and scored by contemporary Irish composers Linda Buckley and Hannah Peel, the film attempts to bridge generations of place and ritual into poetic and practical film of belonging and peace.