Blakh Love is an arts company that provides artistic presentations focused on self-realization and the power of unity. The message of Blakh Love is knowledge and love of self through the vessel of knowing your history and who you can become. A collaboration of Dance, Music, Flow Arts, and Storytelling. "Living with Demons" explores the mental state of black men and women in current times, showing how we deal with demons on a daily basis and artistically channel their energy to bring internal balance.

Song: “Quiet the Monster” by Liberation Era @liberationera

Isabella Vergara is a dancer and filmmaker from Westfield, New Jersey. Vergara graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.F.A. in dance from Mason Gross School of The Arts at Rutgers University. Throughout her career, Vergara has performed nationally at the Kennedy Center, Jacob’s Pillow, and The Joyce Theater, as well as internationally in the Philippines, China, and Taiwan. She is currently a company member with Calpulli Mexican Dance Company and Oca Dance.

Diana Kupreyshvili is a graduate of the Kazan state Institute of culture. Since 2009, Diana is a soloist of the Kazan dance theater "Road from the city", winner of all-Russian and international festivals and competitions. In addition to performing, since 2017 Diana has been a choreographer and teacher of the "Road from the city" dance theater (Kazan). Participant of the special program of the annual international festival "Context. Diana Vishneva" (2019). In 2019, as part of the creative group, she presented the famous ballet The Nutcracker on the stage of the Grand national theater of Senegal in West Africa. Diana is also a participant of such festivals as « А week of modern dance» in Samara, Participant of the XX International festival of modern dance " Open look».

I am Adryan Natha from Bali, indonesia. I really like Balinese traditional arts as well as modern art. I am interested in dance because it can convey messages with the body's media. The body can talk. The body can convey feelings. Love your body, love your world.

Chloe Walker is a recent graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. With a passion for art, she has choreographed 7 dance works throughout her years in High School. She intends to major in Dance & choreography at Virginia Commonwealth University. In her downtime when she’s not dancing, she is working build her freelance digital art platform. In the future, she plans to build an art and dance studio to further her career.

My name is Emma Anne Wedemeyer and I am a Spring 2020 graduate from The University of Florida receiving my BFA in Dance. I strive in blending the boundaries between audience and performer, dance and theatre, and reality and surreal. My current choreographic interests lie in the surveillance of enclosed places that act as spaces for private expression. as well as finding ways of Incorporating text and technology. In the past few weeks I’ve switched my focus from taking zoom classes to attending zoom meetings with dancers who are organizing for action. I have been creating space for equity and inclusion by organizing with other alumni of my university and I myself have committed to anti-racist work.

Credits:
Dancer: Emma Anne Wedemeyer
Choreography: Emma Anne Wedemeyer
Film: Lauren Crandall
Video Editor: Emma Anne Wedemeyer
Music: “The Night We Met”—Lord Huron
www.emmaannewedemeyer.com

Stephanie Perez was born and raised in the Cuban capital of America, Miami FL. Later, she moved to Pittsburgh to pursue her B.F.A. in Dance from Point Park University, which she received in the spring of 2020. Latina representation at the forefront of her work, Stephanie uses dance, photography, videography, and performance art to explore all facets of this peculiar world. She is very grateful to be a part of MDFF for a second year premiering her dance film, Semihundido.

Hello! My name is Sonya Slinchenko. I live in Russia! The matter to which my soul is devoted is the art of dance and everything connected with it! I studied this professionally at the Kazan State Institute of Culture and for 4 years of study, my range of dance, choreographic, stage and pedagogical skills has increased markedly. All exams, projects, festivals and competitions revealed my creativity and dance technique. It was a little easier with the technique, since physically I was better prepared than my classmates, this was facilitated by 10 years of classes in rhythmic gymnastics, during which I completed the Masters of Sports of Russia. I respect all types and styles of dance art, but the direction of contemporary choreography (contemporary dance) in which I develop touches me more than others and it led me to the concept of "kinotanets" and helps to learn more and more information about this young art form.

vk.com/s_slinchenko

Eduardo Hernandez (Montebello, CA) was born in Mexico but migrated to the United States when he was 10 years old. At the age of 19, Eduardo decided to pursue a career in dance and joined The Let’s Dance Company at East Los Angeles College where he had the privilege to learn from master classes by Alvin Ailey, Gaga, Jacob Jonas, Diavolo, and Versa Style dance companies. In 2019, Eduardo transferred to CSU Long Beach where he is currently double majoring for his BFA and Science degree in dance.

Instagram: @edu_tair

Ayumi Toyabe was born in Tokyo (1993). After graduating from the Ballet Academy in Germany, went to Art Factory International in Italy. Her solo piece Augmented Spaces directed by Gyula Berger was performed in Japan, Korea, Romania, Estonia and Hungary. Her first dance film SATO was featured on Dance Cinema (2019). The solo piece with the drone called ABOVE directed by Nina Kov was performed at European Institute of innovation and technology (2020). Currently she is leading the international dance collective UGOIQ based in Hungary, teaching Ballet and Contemporary dance in ZeroPlus Dance program and working as an assistant director of Tokyo Space Dance.

Carsyn Gekas is an aspiring dancer and artist from Dallas, Texas. She is a recent graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She trained at Dance Industry Performing Arts Center and was a member of the Pre-Professional Company through the Thriving Artist Project. Aside from creating movement and establishing her personal artistry, Carsyn has become fascinated by the connection between dance and film. This fall, Carsyn is headed to New York to pursue a BFA in Dance at SUNY Purchase. She is honored to present her film Does it make SENSE? performed by Christian Burse.

Jenny Tortorello Walker has performed with CorbinDances, Marta Renzi & The Project Co., and the Metropolitan Opera among others, and served as guest choreographer for Rat King Theatre on productions Point of Origin and Ants Go Marching. She currently works in Business Development and Operations for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts focusing on programs that address issues of access, equity and inclusion through arts education in the school system and cultural participation in local and international communities.

Leah Barsky was born in Germany and grew up in NY. She has been dancing since the age of five. Ms. Barsky is a cross-disciplined performer, and is highly proficient in classical ballet, contemporary dance and Argentine tango. She trained at The Julliard School, New York State Summer School of The Arts, American Dance Festival and California Institute of the Arts. Her professional career started at the age of 17 with the Nai Ni Chen Dance Company in NYC where she performed internationally in some of the most prestigious contemporary dance festivals including the Silesian Dance Festival in Poland and the Chang Mu Int Arts Festival in Seoul, Korea. Then she went on to work with NYC based companies Armitage Gone!, Doug Varone, Westchester Ballet Theater, Tango y Mas in Mexico City and Tango 1st Century in Quebec Canada just to name a few. She has vast experience as a tango dancer including the New Generation Dance Company between 2004-07 in productions including El Rey del Tango, Black and White Tango, and Aires de Tango. Also she performed on Broadway with the Romulo Larrea Tango Ensembles production Tangos from Gardel to Piazzolla. She has performed throughout the U.S, Asia, Canada, Europe, Chile and Argentina. In 2014 she danced in The Mark Morris Production of “L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” at Lincoln Center in NYC. Ms. Barsky has also appeared as a principal dancer in several productions with The Chicago Lyric Opera and The Metropolitan Opera including, Les Troyens, La Sonnambula, Rigoletto, Iphigenia en Tauride, The Damnation of Faust, Show Boat and The Merry Widow. She was also an original cast member in NYC’s Malbec in the first “casa de tango” to open in the US. She has been living and working with her partner Cristian Correa in Buenos Aires for the past four years and today is one of the best outstanding tango performers of the new generation. Together they have danced in the most renowned tango shows, including Esquina Carlos Gardel, Tango Porteño, El Querandi Tango and Hotel Faena’s Rojo Tango. She has performed in some of the most historic milongas in Buenos Aires including, La Baldosa, Salon Canning, El Gricel and La Viruta. In addition, for the past five years Barsky has danced as one of the top finalists in the Mundial Tango Championships in Buenos Aires. In 2018 she took first place in stage tango in the Danza tu Danza International Championships in Cordoba, Argentina. Most recently she as a featured dancer in New York City Center Encores production of Evita. As a cross-cultural person and multidiscipline dancer, Ms. Barsky is a unique performer and insightful teacher. The New York Times raved that Ms. Barsky is “sensual and direct and... the most compelling” performer.

Since 2005, Marta Renzi has directed over 2 dozen short films, completing her debut feature film in 2017. She has received 7 NEA Choreographic Fellowships, and a New York Dance & Performance Award (a "Bessie"), and funding from Metropolitan Life, the Jerome Foundation and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Awarded by Dancing in the Streets as a "fearless explorer" in 1995, her Project Co. took every opportunity to perform outdoors for free including yearly appearances at venues like Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Summerstage, Renzi was a resident choreographer twice at The Yard, and at Jacob's Pillow, where she helped inaugurate its Inside/Out program. Marta is a 2013 Bogliasco Fellow, a RAW supported artist, and in 2019 was the only filmmaker selected for the inaugural Mabel residency at the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Rhode Island. Twice in the 80's Renzi was commissioned to direct half-hour videodances which were broadcast on PBS. Most recently, she premiered Skybridge at Hunter College, her 6th commissioned dance film for a university dance company. She has collaborated in theater (Andre Gregory), circus (Cecil MacKinnon) and film (John Sayles), and danced with David Gordon, Douglas Dunn, Kei Takei and with Twyla Tharp in Hair.

Kit and Addi McDaniel are artists and life-long collaborators based in NYC. Dancer and singer, these sisters have collectively performed internationally and nationally including local venues: National Sawdust, The Apollo, The Joyce Theater, Joe’s Pub, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, BAM, and Madison Square Garden. kitmcdaniel.com | addimcdaniel.com.

“Bad Dream” is a conversational exploration in how our family could stay connected in a time that demands physical distance. Kit and Addi give special thanks to their dad and collaborator, Philip McDaniel, who helped write this song. “Bad Dream” was featured on The Greene Space’s “(Still) Live from NYC” series in May 2020.

(DanielRose Projects) Sarah Rose and Ross Daniel have been making interdisciplinary performance works together since 2017. They were selected for MANCC (Maggie Allessee National Center for Choreography) inaugural Forward Dialogues program for emerging artists in 2017 where they researched a merging of their distinct choreographic practices. The pair investigate place through movement improvisation and responsive sculpture building. They have created and performed original place-based dance works in Tallahassee (FL), NYC (NY), Brooklyn (NY), Jersey City (NJ), Warren (VT), and Milford (PA). They have been selected for residencies at The Iron Factory (Philadelphia, PA) and The Phantom Theater (Warren, VT).

Milie Nelson is a dancer, choreographer, and photographer who recently graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a BFA in Dance. As a critical artist based in NYC, Milie produces works that aim to challenge presumptions surrounding what we consider to be “dance.” Through quirky concepts and playful movements, a humorous and engaging environment is unexpectedly created. Milie has been dancing since the age of 2 and working with film for the past 6 years. You can see some of their work @milienelsonphotography and @milienelson.

PERDURABO - Davide Arneodo is an Italian electronic musician and 5th member of Marlene Kuntz, one of the most influential Italian rock bands. Davide moved to Berlin to develop a solo project under his stage name "Perdurabo" collaborating with Apparat's drummer Jörg Wähner and Roman Rappak, Miro Shot's frontman. Perdurabo is a Latin word meaning "I will endure to the end" - a message about resilience in a broken world. Among the most relevant collaborations are artists such as Skin, Howie B, and musicians from bands as Apparat, Massive Attack, Placebo, and Einstürzende Neubauten.

COLLABORATORS - Coreography and dance: XiaoYi Liu // Drums: Jörg Wähner // Mobile intro shot: Ana Bravo.

Maxfield Haynes (B.F.A. NYU Tisch) is a dancer and teacher originally from Louisville Kentucky. They received their ballet training from the San Francisco Ballet School where they trained on scholarship. Upon leaving San Francisco, they pursued their undergraduate degree at NYU where they majored in Dance, with a focus on Social and Cultural Analysis and Dance Pedagogy. Maxfield is currently a soloist with Complexions Contemporary Ballet. This film was made possible through the connection and unity of some of the beautiful black men in the concert dance world. Thank you to the friends who lent their time and talent.

Laura Ardner is from York, Pennsylvania, and she is a senior BFA Dance major and Writing minor at Slippery Rock University. Her choreographic work has recently been featured in the Koresh Artist Showcase and the Slippery Rock University Dance Theatre Fall Concert. Laura is thrilled to be making her film festival debut for her short film Working Hard or Hardly Working? that was crafted in a Dance Technology course at Slippery Rock University.

Liz Curtis is a dance educator, performer and choreographer from Long Beach, CA. She currently teaches at Chapman University and California State University, Long Beach where she received her M.F.A. in Dance. She has experience teaching, performing and choreographing in both the commercial and concert dance worlds. Her performance experience includes concert works by Doug Varone (staged by Eddie Taketa), Gerald Casel, John Pennington, Susan McLain, Cyrus Parker-Jeannette and Rebecca Bryant, and commercial work in film, television, music videos, international tours and Las Vegas shows. Her choreography has been presented on stage, television, screendance and in site-specific works.

COLLABORATOR INFORMATION:
Music: Original composition by Brian Wood
Performers/Choreographers: Dance Majors and Minors from Chapman University in Orange, California

Diego Funes is the founder/artistic director of de funes dance and is the Director of the Peridance Youth Ensemble. He studied at the School of American Ballet, and danced with Cincinnati Ballet, New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Baletto del Sud. His credits include Broadway, touring and international productions of Cats, Hello, Dolly!, Riverdance, Anything Goes, A Chorus Line and The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. He danced on MTV and alongside Liza Minnelli, Whitney Houston and Will Smith. His award-winning short film, Rendez-vous, has been screened at film festivals all over the world.

Valentina Cayota divides her life between art, business and education. She studied dance techniques and Art Management at Raça Cia de Dança and Escola São Paulo, in Brasil; E.A.A in Uruguay and Companhia Olga Roriz in Portugal. For which she was recognized by M.E.C and I.N.A.E as a contribution to uruguayan culture. Valentina deepens her studies at ORT University, where she studies a degree in Business Administration. She danced professionally in Dance North Company, and she has taught dance in Portugal, Brazil and Uruguay. Now she directs 6 7 8 DANZA, a platform for content creation, which guides and supports the personal and artistic growth of our dancers: Aldana Hermida, Antonella Riolfo, Nicole Borejsztein, Sofía Etchegaray, Shalom Castañeda, Clara Rouvier, Clara Strauch, Anakaí Dall´Orso, Serrana Mon, Asia Balut.

Australian dancer Alexander Campbell is a Principal of The Royal Ballet. He trained at The Royal Ballet School and on graduation joined Birmingham Royal Ballet. He joined The Royal Ballet as a Soloist in 2011, promoted to Principal in 2016. Campbell was born in Sydney and trained at Academy Ballet, before joining The Royal Ballet School. In 2003 he won silver medal at the Genée International Ballet Competition and was a Prix de Lausanne finalist. He joined Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) in 2005, promoted to first soloist in 2009. He continues to make regular guest appearances with Australian Ballet and BRB.

Anthoula Syndica-Drummond is a filmmaker based in London. Over the last decade, she has worked on a range of projects; from directing and producing a variety of indie shorts and features to working on productions such as Channel 4’s A Moment of Horror, and the award-winning film Suffragette. Having trained in theatre, Anthoula’s love for the arts has seen her work both behind and in front of the camera, culminating in a rising career in directing focusing on Arts and Dance. For the last five years, she has worked at The Royal Opera House, making content as part of the in-house Film and Broadcast team. With her micro-docs broadcast to cinemas across the globe, and her digital content amassing millions of views, her love for telling stories and drawing true emotions from a piece -whether through dance or words - is always at the forefront of her work.

Charly is an award-winning choreographer, who has presented work in her native Germany, as well as at many venues in and around New York. Charly won awards for her dance films Global Tides, Licht and Schein, which have been shown at film festivals worldwide. Charly performed with Naganuma Dance, Keila Cordova Dances, Regina Nejman & Company, Earl Mosley, Bodystories, LolaLola Dance Theater, Soul Movement among others in NYC. She is currently a company member of Third Rail Projects. Charly was the Associate Artistic Director of Naganuma Dance and she worked as the Rehearsal Director for Bodystories.

www.charly-wenzel.com

Vashti Goracke, a professional ballerina and choreographer, has had a deep admiration for film from an early age. Her passion for merging dance on film ignited in college as she put together her first film company, YACO Productions. With YACO she directed three dance films: The Inmost Being, Bear Ice, and Angelic Rush. Although this company was short lived, it became the launching pad for what is now, Rozmova Films. Vashti's dream is for Rozmova Films to bring dance to a wider audience through the art of film and smartphone technologies.