About
Produced by/Producido por: Larry Asakawa, Kara Miller, Minerva Tapia
In partnership with/En asociación con: the Dance Films Association of New York,
San Diego State University School of Music and Dance, Centro Cultural Tijuana
Special Thanks/Agradecimientos especiales: Deirdre Towers, Teresa Vicencio, George Willis, Justin Morrison, Gina Von Der Kret, Hayde Lachino, Mariana Arteaga, Stage 7 School of Dance, Festival internacional de danza y medios electrónicos
Producer’s Note: Last June, over a cup of tea on a hot sunny day, Larry, Minerva and I conceived the San Diego/Tijuana DANCEonFILM FESTIVAL. We are a group of independent choreographers and filmmakers based in Southern California who are passionate about the experimentation that is happening in the genre of Dance for the Camera. We have chosen a selection of short films from around the world to represent a diversity of dance styles and creative approaches. We are excited to present our first DANCEonFILM FESTIVAL and hope you enjoy the show! - Kara Miller
Links:
DANCE FILMS ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK
SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DANCE
THE TIJUANA CULTURAL CENTER
MINERVA TAPIA DANCE GROUP
JUSTIN MORRISON
Curator Bios:
LARRY ASAKAWA, CO-CURATOR
An Emmy Award-winning, independent filmmaker, Asakawa has traveled throughout the world creating commissioned arts and nature projects for a wide variety of groups ranging from the City of Yokohama to KPBS. Locally, he has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts/COMBO, San Diego Community Foundation, The San Diego Port Commission, and many other agencies to create video projects highlighting stories in San Diego.
In education and public art, Asakawa has been a consultant and video artist with: San Diego Unified School District, San Diego County Office of Education, KidzArtz Festival, Fern Street Circus, San Diego International Children’s Festival, and the San Diego Museum of Art. He has served as a member of San Diego County’s Public Arts Advisory Council, and the San Diego County Cable Television Review Commission. Working with the Mayor’s Office, he helped design and produce the multimedia education kit of San Diego’s Soviet Arts Festival and was commissioned to create a video program and still photography of children for Yokohama’s YES ‘89 International Exposition. He as also taught video and digital production for professional development workshops at SDSU, for both documentary professionals and High School students through the Media Arts Center and as a guest lecturer at the University of California at Irvine.
Asakawa makes good use of his earlier professional experience as a marine biologist at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. His nature documentary credits include ENCOUNTERS WITH WHALES OF THE PACIFIC for the San Diego Natural History Museum, FISHEYES showing Sweetwater Estuary’s underwater environments for the Sweetwater Nature Center and RIVER STORIES, a documentary on the San Diego River.
Asakawa served as an Associate Producer in the national PBS series CALIFORNIA AND THE AMERICAN DREAM, and was subsequently selected to attend the prestigous PBS Producer’s Academy at WGBH, Boston. He recently completed a short assignment as the live, onstage cameraperson for the Off Broadway musical, ROLLER DERBY, and is now completing special features for the RIVER STORIES DVD.
KARA MILLER, CO-CURATOR
Miller is an educator, choreographer, and digital media artist based in Southern California. She began her career as a dancer and graduated from The Juilliard School in New York City performing the works of Anna Sokolow, Paul Taylor, Benjamin Harkarvy, Doris Humphrey, Martha Graham, and Jose Limon. While in NYC, Kara was the Artistic Director of the Omega Dance Company where she presented performances and commissioned works nationally as well as choreographing for events filmed for PBS, ABC, and CBS television.
She currently collaborates with dancers around the world creating video projection designs and performances installations. Her recent dance films have been presented by the DANCE CAMERA ISTANBUL FESTIVAL in Turkey, the INTERNACIONAL DE DANZA CONTEMPORANEA CUERPOS EN TRÁNSITO in Mexico, and created on location in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Miller created the video projections for new works directed by Donald McKayle including the ballet LONG LONESOME WAY for the Huntington’s Disease Foundation and the musical ROLLER DERBY presented at the Alvin Ailey Theater in New York. She has worked professionally in broadcast television and film on E!’s CLEAN HOUSE and the feature STEPMOM. She serves on the dance faculty of The University of California Irvine, Mira Costa College, and Cal State San Marcos.
MINERVA TAPIA, CO-CURATOR
Tapia is a choreographer and teacher who has studied in México, New York, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, and for over seven years in Cuba. Tapia founded Grupo de Danza Minerva Tapia in Tijuana, Mexico, with dancers from both sides of the Mexico/US border. Tapia has been instrumental in opening up cross-border opportunities for dancers and choreographers in Latin American and the U.S. In 1996, she co-founded with George Willis of San Diego State University the Binational Dance Showcase which features choreographers and dancers from San Diego and Tijuana.
In 1999, she was awarded a grant from the US/Mexico Fund for Culture which is supported by Bancomer and The Rockefeller Foundation. Mrs. Tapia received the grant Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes in Mexico in the year 2000.Her work has been performed in Spain, Panama, Mexico, and the United States. Tapiareceived her MFA in Dance from the University of California, Irvine with an emphasis in choreography, at UCI Tapia studied video-dance.