About
The eighteen 2010 DANCEonFILM works were curated from the New York Dance Films Association’s extensive collection and from DANCEonFILM’s own worldwide open call for independent submissions. All three shows at SDSU, Tijuana Cultural Center and CSUSM are slightly different.
Produced and Curated by: 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, California State University San Marcos
Special Thanks/Agradecimientos especiales: Deirdre Towers, Patricia Sandback, Teresa Vicencio, George Willis, Karen Schaffman, Marilyn, Huerta, Justin Morrison, Gina Von Der Kret, Hayde Lachino, Mariana Arteaga, Kathryn Irey, Stage 7 School of Dance, Bart Ziegler, Festival internacional de danza y medios electrónicos, Juan Cedeno, Joseph Alter, Melanie Dellas, Minerva Tapia Dance Group (Idolina Armendariz, Claudia Valdés, Melissa Loza y Gustavo Nava)
Producer’s Note: In June of 2007, 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 choose 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 second 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
Curator Bios:
LARRY ASAKAWA, CO-CURATOR
Larry Asakawa is an Emmy Award-winning, documentary filmmaker and a Co-Director of the San Diego/Tijuana DANCEonFILM Festival. His unique professional experience as a former modern dancer in Southern California and as a marine ecologist (Scripps Institute of Oceanography, San Diego State University Foundation and Lockheed Oceanographic Division) eventually led to documentary filmmaking, an integrative universe that synergizes arts, science and technology rather than separates them.
Asakawa received formal industry training through Sony Digital Filmmaking, Kodak Master Class Series and the PBS Producers Academy at WGBH in Boston. His work has been supported by grants and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts/COMBO, PBS, San Diego Community Foundation, San Diego Port Commission, City of San Diego, City of Yokohama, Center for World Music and numerous other government agencies and foundations.
His documentary works range from Brothers in the Wind, an early exploration of Southern California Harley-Davidson biker culture, to nature documentaries such as Whales of the North Pacific and River Stories. Asakawa also collaborates with dance companies, choreographers, musicians, visual artists and writers, and his work has taken him around the world from Tbilisi Georgia and Russia, to Brazil, Japan and China.
Most recently Asakawa has been collaborating with ethnomusicologist and UCSD neuroscience researcher, Alex Khalil, working on how to best utilize digital filmmaking techniques for communicating the complex harmonics and ancient spiritual traditions of Byzantine chanting. They are also analyzing ways to use digital filmmaking to experientially transmit three thousand years of non-physical subtle energy embodied in classical Chinese guqin music and performance.
KARA MILLER, CO-CURATOR
Kara Miller is a dance educator and filmmaker. A graduate of The Juilliard School in dance, she served as the Artistic Director of the Omega Dance Company at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine from 1995 – 2002 presenting performances and commissioned dances across the country including Cathedral events for live broadcast on PBS, ABC, NBC, and CBS television.
Kara currently resides in San Diego where she has taught as a lecturer at The University of California Irvine, Cal State San Marcos, and Mira Costa College. She instructs courses in a wide range of topics including Digital Technology for Dancers, Video Choreography, Dance Cultures and History, Dance and Visual Media, Modern, and Choreography.
Her current research focus is Dance Film and she collaborates with dancers around the world creating experimental performances and installations. Her video dance works have been presented at the DANCE CAMERA ISTANBUL FESTIVAL in Turkey, the INTERNACIONAL DE DANZA CONTEMPORANEA CUERPOS EN TRANSITO in Mexico, and with Vindhya Warakagoda and the CHANNA UPALI DANCERS in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Miller created the video projections for new works directed and choreographed by Donald McKayle including the ballet LONG LONESOME WAY for the Huntington’s Disease Foundation, the musical ROLLER DERBY (New York Musical Theater Festival) presented at the Alvin Ailey Theater in New York, and RETURN (Festival of New American Musicals) at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Los Angeles. Recently she collaborated with Loretta Livingston to create the video for SURFACE at the Istanbul Sumer Bank. She has worked professionally in broadcast television and film on E!’s CLEAN HOUSE and the feature STEPMOM. Kara is a Jacob K. Javits Fellow.
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.
