DETAILS:
- WHAT: The Cohort 2022: Screen – SFF+RS Jazz @ TCFF
- WHEN: October 23rd from 12:15-1:45pm
- WHERE: Minneapolis Showplace ICON Theater/ Twin Cities Film Fest!
- MORE INFO & TICKETS: HERE!
ABOUT:
Folks, we’re so excited to share SFF+RS Jazz @ TCFF with our audiences! What are all those acronyms, you say? RS is of course us, Rhythmically Speaking. SSF is Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (CO), one of the longest-running and most reputable of screendance organizations, and TCFF is the Twin Cities Film Fest (MN), our area’s premiere film screening organization! This year, we’ve worked with SSF to curate a collection of jazz and American social dance-inspired short films, which screened at the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop (CO) in July and will be screening here in MN in October (details above!).
This work makes up the new screen component of The Cohort 2022, our long-running and recently reimagined annual Summer program that supports and presents new work by local (MN) choreographers while providing opportunities for artists based outside of Minnesota to show their work here. 2022 marks our first year of offering both stage and screen components of this program. Two of our filmmakers – Rick Perry and Jody Oberfelder – will be in attendance at the screening: catch our Red Carpet interview at 11:45am before our screening, and stick around for our Q&A immediately following.We hope you can join us to view this delightful, thought-provoking and vibrant collection of films!
WHY SCREEN?
We added a screedance component to our program The Cohort to support the flood of new creation in dance film prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and incentivize jazz-inspired artists to create in this medium. We’re thrilled to be working with curating partner Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (CO) and presenting partners the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop (CO) and the Twin Cities Film Festival (MN) on this project.
Many thank yous to long-time supporter Dave Wallraff for sponsoring this screening: we can share this work with the public thanks to you!
THE WORK:
We are thrilled about the lineup of excellent jazz and jazz-adjacent screendances we selected with Sans Souci from an open call that pulled in films from all over the world! Find out more below.
Moses Supposes
2021 / United States / 4 min
Directed by Nic Petry
Produced by The American Dance Machine for 21st Century, Nikki Feirt Atkins
Choreography by Caleb Teicher
A diverse cast of New York City dancers reimagines tap in the city with this updated take on “Moses Supposes” from Singin’ in the Rain. Music used by permission.
Melanin Vibes
2021 / United States / 3 min
Directed by Fredrick Germany
Produced by Creative Discipline Studios
Choreography by Cyrian Reed
Dancing by Jeffrey Wilson-Boykin and KydSteez, Gabriella Bridgmon, Izabella Bridgmon, Desirre Brown, Shanivan Epps, Semya Ogeare: derFmania
Melanin Vibes is the discovery and conscious awareness of your skin and being proud of the layers of your existence. Recognizing and reframing the perception of how others view individual layers of talents. This piece also explores movement variations in connection to the fusion of various genres of dances that are solely driven by musical composition.
Play-Doh
2022 / United States / 2 min
Directed by Chris Bedan
Produced by Chris Bedan, Ricky Perry
Featuring Ricky Perry
Play-Doh, released in 2019, is an original Jazz album composed and arranged by Carmen Sandim. Ricky Perry wanted to experiment with dancing while having a musician perform by his side. Two different art forms coming together to create a performance that, maybe, isn’t seen on screen that often. This film expresses vulnerability and you get to see how the music creates the atmosphere for the dance for the audience to see.
Rube G.
2021 / United States / 6 min
Directed by Jody Oberfelder
Choreography by Jody Oberfelder
Featuring Jody Oberfelder Dance Projects
Music composed by Frank London
Animation by Eric Siegel
Rube G. brings to light how things (and people) connect. Inspired by Rube Goldberg, the object artist, and inventory, Oberfelder selected 100 clips of dancers and regular people who were given direct prompts: spin, pop up, drop down, leap, fall, etc. Oberfelder assembled these into a five-minute film, wherein one action bumps, slides, or unfolds into the next.
Surrender
2021 / Bulgaria / 15 min
Produced and Directed by Kosta Karakashyan
Choreography by Kosta Karakashyan
Featuring Studio Karakashyan
Surrender is a poetic documentary that highlights four of the most captivating Bulgarian male dancers (Krastyo Metodiev, Remi Toin, Nikola Hadjitanev & Svetoslav Seropyan) and lifts the curtain on who they are and why they dance. Combining their original performances with first-person documentary accounts, the film traces each man’s personal relationship with dance to understand how it interacts with the idea of masculinity in Bulgarian society.
If
2021 / United States / 5 min
Directed by Elizabeth Troxler, Tim Fuchs
Produced by Allongé Films
Choreography by Elizabeth Troxler
Woman awakes for midnight snack and is seduced by the food in her fridge that has come to life.
Blue Monday
2019 / Spain / 6 min
Directed by Andrew Margetson
Choreography and Dancing by Agnes Sales Martin and Hector Plaza Hernandez
Synopsis coming soon.
Yacht Club Swing
2019 / United Kingdom / 5 min
Produced and Directed by Silvia Cherneva
Choreography by Angela Andrew
Featuring Cookie’s Jam Productions
Yacht Club Swing is a pedestrian study of an all-too-poeticised question: the regeneration of cities and what happens to those who were there before.
Trax
2022 / Canada / 40 min
Directed by Lisa La Touche
Featuring Lisa La Touche, Mpoe Mogale, Cheryl Foggo
Cinematography by Joel Varjassy
Sound Design by Joel Varjassy
A Tap Dancer returns from Harlem to her home province of Alberta, Canada and discovers unknown Tap Dance ancestors which sends her on a journey exploring the borderless Black History unimaginable right underneath her feet.
Rhythmically Speaking 