Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, SansSouciFest.org

Sans Souci at Dairy Arts Center 2025
Boedecker Cinema at Dairy Arts Center
Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema is one of Boulder’s longstanding favorite arts organizations, and we’re so happy to return to one of our most beloved venues, the Boedecker Cinema at Dairy Arts Center for three separate programs this season.


Colorado-based films and artists pepper this lineup, representing the diverse dancers of the Front Range and beyond, of various ages, abilities, and styles. Directly after the screening, you’ll have a chance to connect with attending filmmakers in a Q&A and interactive discussion.


Dancing on the Planet is a curated dance film screening featuring shorts from Ireland, South Korea, France, Belgium, Germany, the US, and the UK, and it will remind you just how small you are, and how big this world can be. This collection of art shorts repositions the viewer in relationship to the Earth and connects our bodies to the places we call home, near and far. Through a multitude of approaches including site-specific screendance, experimental, and documentary, this screening illustrates that the range of humanity’s expression is as vast as the range of environments on the planet.


Dancing as Ourselves features shorts from Canada, China, Finland, France, Iran, and the US, and will remind you how similar we all are as humans across the globe, yet how different we can be. This collection explores the various aspects of being human as reflected by the body and movement. Through a multitude of film styles including narrative, experimental, animation, and screendance, this program illustrates that the range of humanity’s expression is as vast as the range of bodies we inhabit.


I: Locals Only - Sep 21 at 1pm & Sep 24 at 7pm

TerraMontes, 2024, United States, 6 min

Directed by Ana Baer, Heike Salzer
Produced by WECreate Productions
Choreography by Michelle Nance, Kim Olson, Heike Salzer
Featuring WECreate Productions
"TerraMontes" is a meditative site-specific screendance which explores an embodied sense of healing with the environment. As with the two previous works from the WECreate Productions’ Terra series, (HinterTerra and UrbáTerra), the dancers and camera explore the poetics of place through improvisation. In a matter of hours, The Lower North Fork Fire blazed through more than four thousand acres of pristine forest. Thousands were displaced, the fire destroyed almost thirty homes and resulted in three fatalities. The fire began on March 26, 2012 when firefighters lost control of a planned burn in Foxton, Colorado. Some of the fire was classified as high intensity, making the recovery of the land a very long process or impossible in some cases.

Ice of Breen, 2024, United States, 4 min

Directed by Alexandra Lockhart
Produced by Move To Protect
Choreography by Alexandra Lockhart
Featuring Move To Protect
A movement exploration of the audible interaction of calved glacial ice, sea, and air, "Ice of Breen" embodies the nuanced popping, crackling and complex composition of the ice and sea. Themes of erratic and randomness within a continuous flow are embodied and expressed through the movement and editing. The music composition is comprised of sound picked up from the camera during the filming process, overlayed with a simple composed score.

Jongo Abroad: Traditions in Transit, 2024, Brazil / USA, 11 min

In September 2023, Dr. Alessandra Ribeiro Martins, Bianca Lucia Martins Lopes, and Flávia Tamiris Soares Silva, members of Comunidade Jongo Dito Ribeiro, from Campinas, Brazil were invited by Rosely Conz, Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS), to spend a week sharing their traditions in Colorado, USA. Using archival footage filmed at Fazenda Roseira, Comunidade Jongo Dito Ribeiro headquarters, and UCCS, this documentary plays with the concept of transit - geographical, cultural, and social of Jongo. It includes points of view of the members of Comunidade Jongo Dito Ribeiro and UCCS students to highlighting dance education and race issues.

The Tender Gravity of Kindness, 2024, United States, 6 min

Directed by Rachel Oliver Young, Michelle Bills
Produced by Michelle Bills
Choreography by Rachel Oliver Young
Featuring Denver School of the Arts Students
Students ranging from 6th grade to 12th grade shyly relate to each other, finding their human connection. We ask ourselves how can we spread more compassion, more understanding, and most of all patience, to each other? How can we encourage each other to do our best, and believe, deep in our bones, that others are truly trying to do their best as well? That is the sentiment behind the creation of this piece, and how fitting to find Trevor Hall and East Forest’s song A Reminder" with lyrics that state, “everything’s changing, all re-arranging....My love it’s just a reminder, find your center,” while we resonate with the “Tender Gravity of Kindness,” a line from Naomi Shihab Nye’s beautiful poem, Kindness.

Hambone Griot, 2024, United States, 13 min

Produced and Directed by Erika Randall
Dancing by Rennie Harris
Written by Erika Randall
Shot in part at 10,000 ft at Gross Reservoir in Colorado over a span of 12 years, this short film, featuring the indomitable Rennie Harris, shares a dreamscape glimpse into the vernacular dance form, hambone, or “Patin’ Juba.” This work positions the powerful resilience of the Black male body in the face of white surveillance and the survival and evolution of the dance/music form of hambone within and beyond the histories of enslavement.

the desire of a body toward the center of the earth, 2025, United States, 6 min

Directed by Tara Knight, Rebecca Salzer
Choreography and Dancing by Liz Burritt and Liam Clancy
Music Composed by Ronan Kelleher
Lighting Design by Christopher Petillo
Color Grading by Emett Casey
Two dancers move toward connection while navigating the fundamental disorientation of being human.

II: Dancing on the Planet - Oct 12 at 1pm & Oct 15 at 7pm

Directions to the Other Side of the World, 2025, Ireland, 12 min

Directed by Derrick Belcham
Choreography and Dancing by Kiley Dolaway
Music Composed by Linda Buckley, Hannah Peel
Narration by Iarla ó lionáird
A woman explores the far reaches of rural Ireland in an attempt to make peace with the darker aspect of her spirit. Shot on location in County Kerry, Ireland in 2025, "Directions to the Other Side of the World" is a blessing, in the style of noted Irish poet John O’Donahue, for those of us visited by a depressed and desolate spirit, a sincere wish for friendship with the greyer aspects of self, and the darker times of day and season. Narrated and accompanied by the modern master of the Sean-nós tradition of singing, Iarla ó Lionáird, and scored by contemporary Irish composers Linda Buckley and Hannah Peel, the film attempts to bridge generations of place and ritual into poetic and practical film of belonging and peace.

London Vignettes, 2025, United Kingdom, 5 min

Directed by Ana Baer, Heike Salzer
Produced by WECreate Productions
Choreography by Ana Baer, Heike Salzer and dancers
Featuring WECreate Productions
An embodied site exploration, engaging with the dynamic flow and the urban textures of the city. Filmed on locations across London.

Drain, 2024, United States, 5 min

Directed by Shannon Morzov
Produced by Shannon Morzov, Jessie Ryan
Choreography by Jesse Ryan
Dancing by Robyn O'Dell, Jesse Ryan
A meditation in movement on the strained limitations of the California landscape.

Delicate Balance, 2024, Scotland, 4 min

Directed by Jennifer Keller
Choreography by Jennifer Keller with Frances Drewery and Freya Jeffs
Two dancers gently perch on a fragile landscape of craggy slate and weathered wildflowers, teetering on the edge of balance within their fragile ecosystem.

Never Lost (결코 잃지 않았다), 2025, United States, South Korea, 12 min

Produced and Directed by Li Chiao-Ping
Choreography by Li Chiao-Ping
Dancing by Elisabeth Anne (O'Keefe) Roskopf 이지영
Music Composed by Bora Yoon, Kim So Ra, Axletree
Filmmaker: Christal Wagner
Directed and choreographed by Li Chiao-Ping, “Never Lost” is an 11-minute dance film shot en route to and on location in South Korea, during dancer and adoptee Elisabeth (O’Keefe) Roskopf’s first trip to her birthplace since adoption took her away out of her home country. Featuring personal unscripted narration, choreography, and poetic landscapes, “Never Lost” witnesses and captures the body in between, in search, and in the moment of facing the challenges of reclaiming self and identity, as well as familial and cultural histories. With cinematography and editing by Christal Wagner, this is Li and Wagner’s third screendance project together and their second with Elisabeth Roskopf.

Seasons of Dance, 2025, Belgium, France, Germany, 44 min

Directed by Tommy Pascal
Produced by Boris Berger, Bénédicte Buffière, Pierre-François Decouflé
Choreography by Peeping Tom, Bobbi Jene Smith & Or Schraiber, Imre & Marne van Opstal, Emilie Leriche
A sensitive exchange between choreography, music, nature, and a camera. "Seasons of Dance" brings together four internationally acclaimed choreographers and four dance duos to depict four phases of love, set to the music of Max Richter’s The New Four Seasons. In this groundbreaking composition, Richter combines Vivaldi’s iconic The Four Seasons with modern electronic elements, creating a fresh and emotionally layered soundscape that respects the original work while adding a contemporary dimension. Each of the four choreographers brings a unique vision to one phase of love, while the four dance couples bring these emotions to life through powerful and expressive movement.

III: Dancing as Ourselves - Nov 16 at 1pm & Nov 19 at 7pm

Bolero.S, 2025, France, 16 min

Directed by Mehdi Kerkouche
Produced by Bénédicte Buffière
Choreography by Mehdi Kerkouche
Featuring CCN de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne I EMKA
Ravel's Bolero, thanks to its universalitý and contagious energy, transcends generations and cultures. Conceived for dance, it continues to inspire artists. Mehdi Kerkouche brings us his version of "Bolero.S" choreographed in keeping with his inclusive and visual universe, recounting the life of a youth in different scenes in Créteil.

Corralling of Circles, 2024, China, 4 min

Directed by Siye Tao
Produced by Siye Tao, Qingwen Yan
Choreography by Siye Tao, Theo Qu
Music Composed by Kevin MacLeod
Cinematography by Qingwen Yan
This short film is a far cry of the impulses to escape from a suffocating but all-too-familiar setting, which erodes our souls. The circular shapes, repetitive tasks, swirling movements seem to carry the lady into a sinking hole. Can she finally break free and find her way out?

Dust, 2025, United States, 10 min

Directed by Noelle Kayser
Produced by Open Space, Portland Regional Arts & Culture Council
Choreography by Noelle Kayser
Featuring Open Space
Dancing by Audrey Wells, Bree Kostelnik
Music Composed by Andrew Bird, Julianna Barwick
Filmmaker: Matthew Tomac
Costume Design by Amanda Gladu
"Dust" is a dance film that explores themes of legacy and mortality in the cycle of intergenerational caregiving. It pays tribute to the compassion, reciprocity, and unconditional love present as we guide one another into and out of this life. It depicts the experience of caring for my father as he died of cancer.

Ballerina, 2024, Iran, 11 min

Directed by Soheil Babaei, Farima Khalili
Produced by Morteza Mazloumi, Raw Company
Dancing by Rosha SamadZadeh
Written by Soheil Babaei
Ballerina is the story of an 8-year-old girl who is about to have a dance performance but due to the Iranian rules, her father and other men are prohibited to watch the ballet… it is vital for Mana, the ballerina, to have her father watch her cause she has lost her mother… the ballet starts and children bloke on the stage but they see no men between spectators… Mana refuses to start the dance and unites with other children to go outside to perform for her father… it is a portrayal of a united civil protest.

Kielo, 2025, Finland, 5 min

Directed by Sinem Kayacan, Janina Rajakangas
Produced by Zodiak Visions
Choreography by Janina Rajakangas
Featuring n/a
Kielo finds it hard to sit still in class. She takes a break venturing into the corridors of her imagination. The film "Kielo" touches on the subject of love and support as well as contempt between young people in the school environment, with a focus on the convergence of neurodivergence and sisterhood/peer-hood. We use these terms (sisterhood/peer-hood) simultaneously due to non-binary performers in the working group.

Wormwood, 2025, United States, 4 min

Directed by Kate Fleming
Choreography by Kate Fleming
Dancing by Jordan Prough
"Wormwood" explores themes of depression and the inner dialogue of someone navigating suicidal ideation.

Your Love: 'Walking' Beside Me , 2025, United States, 4 min

Directed by Ali Kenner Brodsky
Choreography by Ali Kenner Brodsky
Featuring ali kenner brodsky & co.
Dancing by Jessi Stegall, Ilya Vidrin
Music Composed by MorganEve Swain
Cinematography by Rich Ferri
"Your Love: 'Walking' Beside Me" explores the dichotomy of love being in our past and supporting our steps forward. This new film work series is based on Brodsky's live duet 'walking' and challenges the stigma around grief by giving audiences a moment to be present with their personal experiences of loss.

Anything With a Switch, 2024, United States, 5 min

Produced and Directed by Charli Brissey
Dancing by Charli Brissey
Written by Charli Brissey
A short movement study on sapphic longing and obsession

From Jazz to Jackboots, 2025, Canada, 15 min

Directed by Justin Stephenson
Produced by Andrew Burashko
Choreography by Guillaume Côté
"…They loathe art, the product of a yearning for life, because that, too, evades control." Josef Skvorecky "From Jazz to Jackboots" is an experimental animated dance film exploring the Nazi regime's methodical restriction of jazz through their "10 Rules for Dance Bands." The film reimagines itself through progressively censored variations of jazz standard, "Minnie the Moocher," transitioning from freeform expressionist painting and collage to statuesque perfection. Through sophisticated animation techniques and meticulous visual design, the work unfolds as simultaneously joyful, lyrical, ethereal, surgical, horrific and funereal—a timely reminder that the battle between artistic expression and authoritarian control remains urgently relevant today.