Atlanta will be well represented this summer at the American Dance Festival. Now celebrating its 90th anniversary season, the legendary festival takes place at Duke University and other venues in Durham, North Carolina, from June 8 through July 22. The festival also has an online presence.
Staibdance, founded by Emory University professor and choreographer George Staib, will present his critically acclaimed work fence on July 1 and 2 at the Rubenstein Arts Center’s von der Heyden Studio Theater. Staib was on the Festival faculty last year, and attended as a student in 1994.
Three dance films created by Atlanta-based choreographers will be presented in the festival’s Movies by Movers screen dance fest: home, by Core Dance founding artistic director Sue Schroeder in collaboration with filmmaker Adam Larsen; growing roots through concrete by choreographer, dancer and director Danielle Swatzie, who was the lead choreographer for the Alliance Theatre’s production of The Incredible Book Eating Boy; and Moving Parts by Autumn Eckman, assistant professor of dance at Kennesaw State University.
Home premiered this week and is available to view in the festival’s Online Showcase through August 15. It features artists from Colombia, France, Germany, Israel, Poland and the United States. Shot primarily in nature, the film connects home, the body and nature, seeing them as inextricably linked.
Swatzie’s growing roots through concrete will premiere in the Online Showcase on June 17. The film received an honorable mention at the Jacksonville Dance-Film Festival in 2021. The same year, Swatzie’s short film META received the BronzeLens Film Festival Award for Best Music and Dance Film.
Eckman’s short Moving Parts will be screened at the von der Heyden Studio Theater on July 15. Among her other commissions, Eckman created 11 works for Giordano Dance Chicago, where she served as assistant artistic director. Her work JOLT for that company was named one of Dance Magazine’s Top 10 Choreographic Works for 2012.
Another Atlantan, Jennifer Scully-Thurston, is the director and curator of Movies by Movers. The choreographer, educator and filmmaker founded FilmFest by Rogue Dancer and has many credits in the world of screen dance, among them as curator and adjudicator of EnCore: Dance on Film for Core Dance. Her own films have been featured in Core Dance’s REEL ART.
The Movies by Movers adjudicators this year are Steve Butler, best known as a dancer and choreographer for Transformers 2 and The Latin Grammys, and Atlanta-based Onur Topal-Sümer, who has extensive experience in dance and digital technology.
Topal-Sümer was one of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Arts Leaders of Metro Atlanta in 2022 and, among her many credits, danced with and choreographed for Full Radius Dance from 2008 through 2015.
