DOCUMENTING GRACE

a dance film series sharing the work of dance artists going beyond the stage

Regardless of where we are in the world, we should all dance and we all have reasons to do so.

Film director Andreas Strand Renberg

2024-2025

SEASPRAY - NOVEMBER 17th, 2024 (with open captions)

To deeply understand the importance of protecting environmental sustainability…

The ancient world in the intertidal zone of repeated waves belonged to the land for a while and returned to the ocean with the rhythm of the tide. Thanks to this beach where the sea and land blend together, the company sets out to appreciate its profound understanding of the intertwining of life between organisms and the environment. Wisdom reproduces and evolves endlessly between the high and low tides and is all-encompassing.

When art intervenes in reality to speak out for environmental sustainability, can we really bring about changes?

This documentary has been generously offered with the purpose of international cultural exchange from
Public Television Service (PTL) Taiwan.

Sunday November 17th @ 3:00, 2024
Firehouse Arts and Events Center

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DANCING IN A-YARD - DECEMBER 8th, 2024

In prisons ruled by toxic masculinity, dancing is an absolute taboo. But at Lancaster’s A-Yard, near Los Angeles, a group of young men, willing to take a chance to be mocked in the yard, start a dance class led by French choreographer Dimitri Chamblas. This class quickly becomes an intoxicating escape from their grim reality so they decide to create a dance show. In this exceptional context, the inmates engage with overwhelming sincerity, evoking their childhood, ganglife, the crimes, the prison, and their desire for transformation. Beyond damaged lives and a prison system on the edge of the abyss, DANCING IN A-YARD explores redemption and the capacity of human beings to reinvent themselves, when given a chance. And more importantly, how art and introspection can help see the light.

Sunday December 8th @ 3:00, 2024
Firehouse Arts and Events Center

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OBSESSED WITH LIGHT - JANUARY 5th, 2025

Obsessed with Light is a meditation on light and the enduring obsession to create. The film pulls back the curtain on Loïe Fuller, a wildly original performer who revolutionized the visual culture of the early 20th century. Creating a dialogue between the past and the present, the documentary delves into the astonishing influence Fuller's work has on contemporary artists including artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Taylor Swift, Bill T. Jones, Shakira and William Kentridge. In the process, the film uncovers commonalities that connect these creative luminaries to Fuller and to each other.  

"Obsessed with Light"  is sponsored by CASCADIA International Women's Film Festival

Sunday January 5th @ 3:00, 2025
Firehouse Arts and Events Center

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CRUTCH - JANUARY 12th, 2025 (with open captions)

CRUTCH documents Bill's extraordinary journey: the history of his medical odyssey and his struggles with chronic pain, the evolution of his crutch dancing and skating, his rise to become a world-renowned performance artist, and his transformation from an angry skate punk to an international hero.

CRUTCH also dives into Bill's provocative street performances, in which he exposes the hidden world of assumptions disabled people encounter in public, on a daily basis. While the film questions his early exploitation of strangers' good Samaritan impulses, it also marvels at Bill's ability to create solutions and empower others to navigate similar challenges.

Sunday January 12th @ 3:00, 2025
Firehouse Arts and Events Center

CRUTCH IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR CRITICAL DISABILITY STUDIES AT WWU. ALL CURRENT WWU STUDENTS RECEIVE FREE ADMISSION TO THE FILM. A TICKET IS STILL REQUIRED. AT THE TICKET LINK USE PROMOTIONAL CODE “VIKINGS” TO SECURE YOUR FREE TICKET. WWU ID REQUIRED AT THE DOOR.

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RE(BRILLIANCY) - FEBRUARY 2nd, 2025

The Art and Heart of Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente Nurse Scholars Program proudly present, (Re)Brilliancy: A Documentary on bringing joy to healthcare through dance and play.  This full length documentary unveils the impact and joy of caring for nurses as they care for others through the arts, dance, play, music, and poetry. Hear directly from front line nurses as they share the impact COVID -19 has had on their mental health and how the arts create courageous and safe spaces for their healing and joy.

Sunday February 2nd @ 3:00, 2025
Firehouse Arts and Events Center

*TARA WILL BE WITH US AT THIS SCREENING AND THERE WILL BE A Q&A WITH HER IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING GUIDED BY BREE JOHNSTON.

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This film series is generously supported by the following organizations:

2023-2024

Grateful for our season sponsor…

MOVING STORIES

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In this moving and inspiring documentary, six diverse dancers from the acclaimed Battery Dance company travel the world, working with young people who’ve experienced war, poverty, sexual violence and severe trauma as refugees. The goal: to teach them the tools of choreography so that they can tell their stories through dance. With just one week till performance, the film captures the struggle, frustration, determination, and transformation of students and teachers alike. 

a film by Rob Fruchtman, Cornelia Ravenal, Mikael Södersten and Wendy Sax

Sunday December 3rd, 2023
3:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsor:

CALENDAR GIRLS

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The love of dance and glitter bonds an unlikely group of 60-plus women in southwest Florida - The Calendar Girls. But under the veil of fake lashes and unicorn horns lurks the deeper truths of what aging women face within society. Sisterhood, love, loss - all come into play in this uplifting film about trying to age on your own terms and refusal to become invisible.

A feel good dance documentary directed and produced by Maria Loohufvud and Love Martinsen. 

Sunday January 7th, 2023
3:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsors:

to learn more please click a logo:

THE DANCING MAN - PEG LEG BATES

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“The Dancing Man-Peg Leg Bates” brings to the screen the remarkable story of the legendary tap dancer and entrepreneur, Clayton “Peg Leg” who broke down barriers for Black Americans and all people with disabilities. The arc of Bates’ epic career stretches from Southern minstrel shows to the golden age of television when he entered America’s living rooms as a regular on the Ed Sullivan Show. 

The enormous impact of Peg Leg Bates on Black culture, and by extension American culture, is summed up by Ruth Brown, “In those days, there were two great things for Black people. One was that Peg Leg Bates was going to be on television and the other was that Joe Louis was going to fight.”

A Film By Dave Davidson

Sunday February 11th, 2024
3:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsor:

AN EVENING OF SHORTS
ADUMU / DANCE FOR CHANGE / WHY I DANCE

ADUMU - An African Choreographer Fernando Anuang’A creates a dance show drawing on contemporary dance and Maasai tradition. In Adumu we watch him on a journey to realise his dream. The Maasai are willing to help but Kenyan society is slow to appreciate what he’s doing and then there is Covid.

DANCE FOR CHANGE - In Dzaleka refugee camp, Malawi, home to over 40,000 people across Africa, a dance scene is emerging. What started as one dance group has grown to inspire an entire generation at Dzaleka and beyond, leading to the emergence of multiple crews united through creativity. This movement has enabled young individuals to use dance as a tool to share their language and recultivate their identity. A vehicle for rehabilitation and change.

WHY I DANCE - Why I Dance (2021) is a dance documentary directed by Andreas Strand Renberg. The short film was produced and presented by Sånafest and has become an internationally recognized short film that has won several awards in Norway and abroad. In 2018, French choreographer Louis Clément da Costa worked with a group of young dancers in Kigali, Rwanda. The theme they explored was "freedom". Da Costa's choreography serves as the continuous thread throughout the film, and we see the dancers perform in various locations around Kigali. We get an insight into everyday life in Rwanda, and we witness the young dancers' passion and commitment to dance. The question asked: How to find freedom despite the limitations placed on you in your life and in the country you live in?

Sunday March 3rd, 2024
3:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsor:

2022-2023

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It seems like two separate realms. One is occupied by acclaimed dancers from Brooklyn’s world renowned Mark Morris Dance Group, the other by people with Parkinson’s disease. Capturing Grace is about what happens when those two worlds intersect. Filmed over the course of a year, Dave Iverson's remarkable documentary reveals the hopes, fears, and triumphs of this newly forged community as they work together to create a unique, life-changing performance. It’s a story filled with compelling moments and enduring characters who demonstrate the transformative power of art and the strength of the human spirit…and in so doing rediscover the meaning of grace.

OF SPECIAL NOTE - this film will have both OPEN CAPTIONS and AUDIO DESCRIPTION.

Sunday April 16th, 2023
4:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsors:

Invitation to Dance

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Invitation to Dance is an eye-opening insider's account of disability in 21st century America. Simi Linton's story forms the narrative backbone of the documentary. The film traces both her personal growth as a disabled woman, and the larger historically significant developments around her over the past 40 years. Simi serves as navigator and tour guide to a world largely unknown, generally isolated, and commonly dismissed. In 1971, Simi Linton was injured while hitchhiking to Washington to protest the war in Vietnam. Suddenly a young disabled college student, she confronted insidious forms of discrimination she couldn't have imagined before. Over time she joined forces with a vibrant disability community, and realized that political engagement, love, and dance could once again be central to her life. Rock n' Roll, dancing, and sexuality liberated Simi from the shame she felt as a young disabled woman. Invitation to Dance traces Simi's first reluctant foray onto the dance floor at a party to present day when dance has become a central theme in her social life, activism, and work. Ultimately, the film is a never-before-told coming out story of disabled people staking their claim to "equality, justice, and a place on the dance floor!"

Sunday November 13th, 2022
6:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsor:

Current WWU Students receive 1/2 off admission with promo code “wheels” at checkout. WWU ID required at theatre.

Breath Made Visible

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Over the past seven decades, Anna Halprin has redefined the meaning of modern dance. Breath made visible is the first feature-length documentary about her life and work. The film takes viewers from Anna Halprin's early childhood dance explorations to experimental performances on the dance stage beneath California redwood trees. This cinematic journey takes her through her spectacular performances in Europe, her retirement from the stage and her illness to her triumphant comeback at the age of 80. Previously unpublished archival footage expands the personal portrait into a gripping portrayal of what was at the heart of political and social art-making in North America. At the heart of the film is Anna Halprin's relationship with her husband, architect Lawrence Halprin (Roosewelt Memorial), making the film a universal story about survival and the arts - well beyond dance.

Sunday January 8th, 2022
4:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsor:

Piedra Libre - Women Dance Memories

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Six women perform ancestral dances. They move, weaving recollections of a dictatorship that is still folded into their biographies, their memory, their bodies. If horror is the limit of language, then the dance is there, like the underside of the fabric.

December 11th 4:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center AND
Streaming January 19 - 22 and January 26 - 30.

Revival

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In the spring of 2017, four older women and men started the monumental task of choreographing dances with a diverse group of New York seniors, most of whom had never danced on a stage before. Over a few intense months, these choreographers, including the first black artist to have won a Tony award for choreography and a 92-year old former dance partner of pioneer Martha Graham, brought to life their ideas and sparked immense joy in the senior dancers. The film documents this unlikely event and, in the process, reveals the heroic dedication and determination of the choreographers and dancers, for whom age does not impede but molds.

Sunday February 12th, 2023
4:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsors:
The Chuckanut Health Foundation
Aging Well Whatcom – proudly supported by the Chuckanut Health Foundation
and Whatcom Council on Aging

Siete Leguas (seven leagues)

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A piece of news halfway across the world leads a group of people from different backgrounds to put something that seemed impossible into practice: children with motor disabilities being protagonists on a theatre stage. For families who have been suffering many defeats for years, something as seemingly ordinary as taking their children to dance classes is a major change in their lives. The voices of all those who make up this small dance company share an inspiring experience.

Sunday March 12th, 2023
4:00 PM Firehouse Arts and Events Center
Film Sponsors:

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