Contemporary dance and dance cinema are often underrated in the broader art world, not receiving the same mainstream attention as film, music, or traditional visual arts.
For many, experience with dance might be limited to attending a few Christmastime Nutcracker performances, a year of tap and jazz in middle school, or learning TikTok dances with nephews during COVID.
At the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema — which kicks off its 21st season with a premiere party in Boulder this weekend — you can have two left feet and still enjoy the magic of movement.
The name of the festival, “Sans Souci,” has a double meaning: In the early 2000s, the festival’s inaugural event took place at the Sans Souci Mobile Home Park, southwest of Boulder, where attendees would watch local dance films that were projected onto the outside of a mobile home wall. In French, “Sans Souci” translates to “no worries” — an ethos that perfectly captures the festival’s welcoming and laid-back atmosphere.
“We kind of consider ourselves a ‘no worries’ festival,” said Michelle Bernier, the executive and co-artistic director of the festival. “We’re no frills, and we’re pretty low-key — there’s no dress code, the ticket prices aren’t exorbitant, so it’s a great environment to come and be a newbie without any judgment. We kind of expect a lot of people to be beginners because dance cinema is niche, but that’s very exciting for us. It’s a great place for people to get to know about it, ask questions, and interact with the medium.”
Bernier added: “People are still learning what dance cinema is, and people will continue to learn about it for some time. That’s exciting to me — it’s not so much a challenge as it is a wide-open field of opportunity.”
This weekend’s premiere celebration includes various entry points for understanding and appreciating dance that moves beyond what one might find at a traditional dance show. Guests can weave and wend their way through a maze of live performances, smaller video installations, virtual reality experiences and a rooftop film screening, allowing for multiple exciting and engaging ways to experience dance.
Bernier said that one of the most exciting new aspects of this year’s festival is the inclusion of two different virtual reality films.
“The virtual reality headsets allow guests to become immersed in the films, and, if they want to, dance along with the dancers, which is a really cool aspect of VR,” Bernier said. “Our audience is a super interactive, dance-hungry and dance-curious group of people, so this is a perfect way to engage viewers and take that experience to the next level.”
Attendees can slap on a headset and get an up-close-and-personal view of these films before the festival’s main screening, during intermission and after the screening. In one film, “We Flew Like Birds, We Flew Like Clouds,” viewers are swept into the world of a professional speed racer and dancer. In “Mira,” viewers can dance alongside the São Paulo dance company.
The festival’s pre-screening festivities include several film installations made by local and international artists, scattered on screens throughout the museum.
Keith Haynes — who got his master’s degree from the University of Colorado Boulder’s dance program — added to the variety this year with his debut film, “Home/Room.” The five-minute short will be screened on the second floor of the Museum of Boulder, in the Boulder Experience Gallery.
“Home/Room” delves into the anxiety and psychological strain that arises when one’s living space and workspace merge into one hom*ogeneous blob — something that many people, including Haynes, experienced during the pandemic.
“The idea sparked after realizing that — because I work remotely from home — I spend a lot of time in my room and workspace, and so this film was inspired by the monotony and redundancy of living that way,” Haynes said. “But furthermore, in terms of my lived experience, there are a lot of really crazy, tragic things going on, and everything kind of felt like the same mundane thing. I’d wake up, I’d do work, I’d get on social media, and I’d see these horrible, tragic events, and every day felt like a copy and paste.”
Haynes, the co-artistic director of Boulder-born Viskosity Dance Collective, wanted to push his boundaries and explore more profound ways to dance and choreograph — so pivoting from stage direction and choreography to film direction and choreography was a welcome challenge.
“Most times, people think that when it comes to dance film, it’s just a recording of someone dancing, but that’s not the case at all,” Haynes said. “Editing the film is something I consider to be choreography. I’m used to choreographing for a stage, but to do it for a camera introduces this whole new world of possibilities because you can play with space and manipulate time. Dances can take on entirely different meanings.”
Haynes was one of two directors who received funding from the Boulder Arts Commission for a community dance project that supports longtime dancers and choreographers becoming first-time filmmakers. The initiative sought to remove barriers, such as access to expensive cameras, editing equipment, and festivals, making it easier for newcomers to break into filmmaking — a priority for the festival.
“It was important for us to democratize the opportunity for these extremely talented individuals to create works of art,” Bernier said. “And (to) support them along the way so that directors can create a genuine artistic expression, and not have that rough-draft feeling all the way through, but instead, get them closer to the fully alive work that they want to create.”
While the festival is centered around film, there is still an emphasis on live dance. This year, four stirring, emotional and cutting-edge performances will be presented throughout the museum. “What Now…?” is a collection of performances directed by Tanja London, with collaborators Nicholas Travers and Damian Leuthold. It examines the moral dilemma faced by white people as they confront issues such as white supremacy, environmental exploitation and generational trauma.
London — a German-born dancer, choreographer, visual artist and filmmaker — moved to Boulder in 2023 and attending the Sans Souci festival was one of her first activities as a new resident. This year, London said she’s excited to return to the festival as a featured performer.
London said the Black Lives Matter movement and the Museum of Boulder’s exhibit “Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History” helped to inspire her performance pieces. Since the dances will take place at the museum, she sought to respond constructively to the exhibit.
“A lot of times we felt the desire from people of color is that white people own up to their own trauma and do the work that they need to do so that that trauma doesn’t get passed on to the next generation,” London said. “These performances were a way of expressing us working through those traumas and other complicated feelings, like guilt and shame.”
The performances range from performance art to movement-based exploration, but each one deals with a different source of trauma for each dancer.
In “Tail of the Knight,” London delves into her past life memories as a knight, reflecting on the cruelty of the Middle Ages and its connection to European colonialism. “Inner/Outer Map…?” has Travers questioning the logic of personal boundaries through a somatic journey, interacting with randomly placed yoga blocks as a metaphor for transformation. “Foot Steps,” performed by Leuthold, involves audience participation as they rearrange tiles with engraved footprints throughout the museum, inviting contemplation on direction and connection. “Untangle,” by London, confronts her Nazi family history, offering a direct and introspective exploration of legacy.
London said she hopes exploring her past traumas can inspire others to dive into their histories similarly.
“There is guilt and very deep sadness that I always had with me, but I never knew why,” London said. “Once I started digging into it, I realized that it wasn’t all mine — that some of it was passed on from my family and those who came before me. But when we give our emotions expression —whether through dance, art, film, music, or other things — those feelings are lessened.”
“There’s science that proves that when an audience sits and watches dance and movement, their brain is stimulated similarly to the dancer’s brain, simply through observing movement, London said. “In this way, live performance creates a shared emotional experience, allowing both the performer and the audience to connect, heal and process emotions together.”
Viewers can catch the “What Now…?” performances before the opening night screening, during intermission, and after the screening, providing an immersive and reflective experience for all attendees.
Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema runs Friday through Sunday. At 6:45 p.m. each night, attendees can walk the red carpet, enjoy wine, food from T/aco and explore the various dance installations and performances throughout the museum.
At 7:30 p.m., the festival’s featured screenings will begin. According to Bernier, this year, the festival received more than 250 submissions from filmmakers, choreographers and dancers from around the globe. Guests can catch the final selection of 10 films curated by Sans Souci’s panel of professional dance filmmakers in an event on the museum’s rooftop. Tickets start at $35 and can be found at sanssoucifestival.org.
Following the premiere weekend, audiences can look forward to additional dance film screenings at the Dairy Arts Center in September and October, as well as various online streaming options.
For more information, and for a full list of films and upcoming events, visit sanssoucifestival.org.
