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Constructed Sight Dance Film Festival 2023March 30-April 10 2023
Opening Night Event: March 30, 730pm, doors open at 6pm VISIT THE CONSTRUCTED SIGHT TAB FOR MORE INFORMATION ON FESTIVAL HAPPENINGS |
The Constructed Sight Dance Film Festival is coming into its second year of presenting International dance film artists from around the world. The ten day event will kick off with an in-person Opening Night Screening featuring works from Shana Simmons Dance company members blending Pittsburgh public works of art and dance film and "Panelist Picks" international guest artists creating an hour and a half long show. This Opening Night Event will be live streamed with live dance and music.
The Constructed Sight talk back in 2022 featured artists from New York City, Canada, and Boston. Over fifty films were presented online from over twenty countries in varying categories. This is the first ever dance film festival in Pittsburgh and will continue to build momentum annually.
Originally created as a direct response to Covid-19, Constructed Sight has featured new dance films through a series of entertaining online "shows" featuring guest artists and hosted by mystery guest personalities since Fall 2020. Created by Shana Simmons, Jamie Erin Murphy, and Brady Sanders, three seasoned choreographers collaborated on generating new films through site specific choreography inspired by public works of art around Pittsburgh. The trio has individually created 15 separate films to date. Constructed Sight was presented over the course of 2-3 weeks, with different online shows each weekend. The natural progression of this event was to progress to feature international films through an application process and host main events in Pittsburgh.
Originally created as a direct response to Covid-19, Constructed Sight has featured new dance films through a series of entertaining online "shows" featuring guest artists and hosted by mystery guest personalities since Fall 2020. Created by Shana Simmons, Jamie Erin Murphy, and Brady Sanders, three seasoned choreographers collaborated on generating new films through site specific choreography inspired by public works of art around Pittsburgh. The trio has individually created 15 separate films to date. Constructed Sight was presented over the course of 2-3 weeks, with different online shows each weekend. The natural progression of this event was to progress to feature international films through an application process and host main events in Pittsburgh.
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LIVING LANDSCAPESMay/June 2023, date TBD
LIVING LANDSCAPES is Shana Simmons Dance's two-year project working with environmental themes. Audiences will partake (if desired) in a river-front nature walk experiencing live dance along the trail and eventually congregate in the Southside Amphitheatre to watch the final iteration of the Living Landscapes dance film. Audiences will be brought into the natural Pittsburgh environment, being able to touch, smell, and sense nature.
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Local interviews from nonprofit organizations Grounded and Allegheny Cleanways help dictate and guide you through the film, expressing the needs of the local environment. The film connects specific issues that exist in Western Pa to what we can do to help protect our environment through voice, movement, and nature images. The amount of excess production we humans consume and discard is seriously affecting our lives. This film encourages action in audience, addressing the question, "what can I do?"
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Choreographer/Director: Shana Simmons
Composer: Andrew Griffin Editor: Julie Rooney Filmographer/Collaborator: Arvid Tomayko Filmographer: Cassie Dietrich Dancers: Adrienne Elion Auset Fullard Lexi Jordan Allegra Golembiewski Brady Sanders Shana Simmons This project is supported by The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and donors of Shana Simmons Dance. |
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Recent Past Events...
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IN/BEtween
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IN/BEtween is a first-time collaboration between Shana Simmons and Naina Roy Kathak manifesting in a 1-hr long show. The two dance artists will be exploring and comparing each other's art forms through research, discussion, and studio time together, highlighting similarities and differences between the styles, histories, and methods of teaching.
The production will feature both collaborators as well as Shana Simmons Dance company collaborators and Kathak dancers in a non-stop journey. Their creative vision will take the audience through experiences of rhythm, story, live music, and dance. Focusing on the in-between moments in Kathak traditional rhythmic patterns, the duo will expand this focus making connections to how dance is getting passed down generationally and how this might be changing into the future. What does it feel like to be in-between two art forms, two moments in time, the future and the past?
Audiences can expect to see driving live music, both traditional modern and Kathak dance works as well as a fusion of styles. IN/BEtween hopes to tap into the emotion of where we are in the dance timeline, hovering between the old traditions which are being lost to technology and the new generations of dancers’ creative ideas. This hour long journey is sure to be an ebb and flow of emotion, passion, technique, and artistry.
This production is supported by the Heinz Small Arts Initiative.
Audiences can expect to see driving live music, both traditional modern and Kathak dance works as well as a fusion of styles. IN/BEtween hopes to tap into the emotion of where we are in the dance timeline, hovering between the old traditions which are being lost to technology and the new generations of dancers’ creative ideas. This hour long journey is sure to be an ebb and flow of emotion, passion, technique, and artistry.
This production is supported by the Heinz Small Arts Initiative.