Lights, Dance, Action
Lights Dance Festival brings together the vibrant dance and film communities of Canada to celebrate the beauty of expression through movement.
Lights Dance aspires to bridge the gap between creators and lovers of dance, and between dance and cinema. Its mission is to spread awareness of dance media, celebrate diversity and all types of dance forms, and make great art more accessible to all.
2019 submissions for films and dance performances are currently open.
2019
Submissions are now open.
Film Deadline: February 15th, 2019
Performers Deadline: April 1st, 2019
000 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds
The Derive
“The Dérive” is made as part of a multi-media project by Iranian dance artist Tanin Torabi. Tanin brings her multi-award winning dance film “The Dérive” which has been shot in Tehran, Iran to her live performance in an interactive environment with the audience. Tanin questions identity, culture and place. She invites the audience to travel with her to an honest image of her own country, come back home again and face the reality of the moment, exploring social and cultural issues. “Best Artist Film 2017” of Southampton film festival, shows Tanin dancing among people in an old bazaar in Tehran capturing the responses and reactions. Dance is prohibited in Iran.
Figure
Figure is an experimental dance film about boys growing up without fathers. It explores how early detachment from a father figure affects emotional growth and engagement with the world.
Through a dynamic fusion of physical theatre and hip-hop dance, the film follows two young men as they search for answers both outside and inside themselves.
Momentum Dance Toronto
Momentum Dance Toronto (MDT) encourages creative dance exploration while promoting accessibility, integrity, professionalism and fun. MDT is a place where dedicated, talented, and trained adult professional and non-professional dancers and artists are free to explore new territory and contribute to our collective, whether through classes, teaching, choreography and/or performance. We strive to be more inclusive, rather than exclusive. We look to introduce artists from diverse communities and dance backgrounds to each other, with hopes of being inspired by our similarities and differences – ultimately enabling a sense of community and camaraderie through dance.
Aki Studio
Lights Dance Festival 2018 was graciously hosted by our partner Aki Studio located in the Daniels Spectrum building.
Aki Studio is a black box theatre, set up as a proscenium stage. In the house configuration the staging area is 21’ deep and 30’ wide. The entire stage floor is built as a semi-sprung floor. The grid stands at 13’3” high at its lowest point.
You can book it here.
Our 2018 Partners & Sponsors
We thank these lovely people for contributing to our preliminary crowdfunding campaign earlier this year!
Sian Melton, Jared Fath, Esther Lee, Bonnie Cheung, Vicki Kim, Sylvia van Helden, Heather Renzella, Robyn Boere, Jak Li, Cedric Tai, Luisa Cheng, Jacques Boulet, Yiqun Zhu, Kevin Ho
Partners: Aki Studio, Momentum Dance Toronto, Bird & Rhino
