Stepping Out on Screen

Q&A Peter Pucci with Chisa Hidaka, Miki Orihara, and Mike Kirsch

Various. 90 m. Various. Rated NR.

Series

An evening of short films curated by choreographer Peter Pucci offers a look at dance on screen from the creator’s perspective. We’ll consider the diverse and distinctive relationships dancers have with the camera, their physical environment, the choreographer, and one another. The films range from an intertwining duet between mother and child to an aquatic ballet with dolphins, and a humorous interplay of hand-holding on New York City streets to a display of virtuoso camerawork that amplifies the power of the body in motion.

After the screening, Peter Pucci will moderate a discussion with fellow dancers and filmmakers, including Chisa Hidaka, Miki Orihara, and Mike Kirsch.

PAST EVENTS

Q&A Peter Pucci with panelists Chisa Hidaka and Miki Orihara and Mike Kirsch

Monday, Oct. 24 2016, 7:30

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Peter Pucci is a Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk award winner. He codirected and choreographed Swag n’ Bach, which we showed in 2014, and last year’s short In the Garden. He has appeared numerous times onscreen as a professional dancer. Pucci is currently teaching at the Joffrey Ballet School in NYC and has hosted or been a guest speaker for Dance on Film programs since 2009.

Chisa Hidaka, who conceived, shot, and performs in Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins, directs the Dolphin Dance Project, bringing together wild dolphins and trained humans to create underwater dances in the open ocean. The project produces films and performances that leverage the power of dance and cinematography to elicit kinesthetic empathy, as if viewers were meeting wild dolphins as creative equals. Audiences are invited to reconsider preconceptions about what separates humans from the rest of nature and to recognize how much we have in common.

Miki Orihara, who appears in THE SHORT FILM Hamadryad, is best known for her work as a principal dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company, for which she earned a Bessie Award in 2010. She has performed on Broadway; with Elisa Monte, SITI Company, PierGroupDance, Lotuslotus; and in productions by Twyla Tharp and Robert Wilson. Orihara has presented her works internationally and nationally. She is a sought-after teacher and coach, working with the Kirov Ballet, Japan’s New National Theater Ballet School, the Ailey School, New York University, and The Hartt School. She is dance director for Mishmash*Miki Orihara.

As the founder and creative director of Unique New York Productions, Mike Kirsch has written, directed, and choreographed video productions seen by millions across the globe. His work has been featured on The Today Show, and in the New York Times and the Huffington Post, and he has recently directed and choreographed productions for Bloomingdale’s, L’Oréal, SeaWorld, Sabra Hummus, and for Shellac during New York Fashion Week. Mike has many theater performing and director/choreography credits as well, and he is the founder and artistic director for Broadway Donation, a company that provides donation-based classes and workshops geared for the professional musical theater performer.