Dance (Lens)
Dance (Lens) Festival is Australia’s premier platform for advancing screendance. Hosted biennially by Dancehouse, the festival is a national advocate for this hybrid medium, fostering its development and expanding its reach. Since the pandemic, this festival is an integral part of Dancehouse’s program illumnating the form and the Australian screendance artists.
Dance (Lens) is co-curated by screendance artists and curators. Participating curators have included: Siobhan Murphy (Victoria | 2021, 2023); Feras Shaheen (NSW | 2023); Gitta Wigro (UK | 2023); Melissa Ramos (NSW | 2021); and André Shannon (NSW | 2021).
Traditionally, in the non-festival year, Dance (Lens) hosts a taster program. This year’s mini program for 2024 offers workshops, masterclasses, and smaller screenings announced 6 November 2024.
The next Dance (Lens) Festival is in Winter 2025.
Dance (Lens)
Dance (Lens) is Australia’s premier platform for advancing screendance.
Hosted biennially by Dancehouse, Dance (Lens) Festival is a national advocate for this hybrid medium, fostering its development and expanding its reach. Since the COVID Lockdowns of 2020, Dance (Lens) has been integral to Dancehouse’s program, illuminating the form, and the works and practices of both Australian and international screendance artists.
Dance (Lens) is co-curated by screendance artists and curators. Participating curators have included: Siobhan Murphy (Victoria | 2021, 2023); Feras Shaheen (NSW | 2023); Gitta Wigro (UK | 2023); Melissa Ramos (NSW | 2021); and André Shannon (NSW | 2021).
Traditionally, Dance (Lens) hosts a taster program in the non-festival year. This year’s Dance (Lens) Mini 2024 program offers workshops, masterclasses, a scratch night, talks and screenings with the full program to be announced 6 November 2024.
The next Dance (Lens) Festival will be in Winter, July 2025.
Dance (Lens) Mini 2024
A taster screendance program ahead of Dance (Lens) Festival 2025
Join Dancehouse for an exciting taster of screendance installations, talks, workshops and a Scratch Night as part of Dance (Lens) Mini 2024 and as the lead-in to the biennial Dance (Lens) Festival in July 2025.
Whilst the full Dance (Lens) Mini program is under wraps until 6 November, we are announcing two exciting opportunities for screendance artists: the inaugural Dance (Lens) Scratch Night, and three spectacular Dance (Lens) Workshops with Sue Healey, Siobhan Murphy, and Cobie Orger.
Dance (Lens) Mini 2024 will also include talks, screenings and screendance installation … more news to come. Along with details about the 2025 Dance (Lens) Festival and how to submit your screendance work for Official Selection.
The full DANCE (LENS) MINI 2024 program will be announced on Wednesday 6 November 2024
Dance (Lens) Festival 2023
Dancehouse’s biennial festival of dance on screen returned in 2023 from 13-31 from July with 37 screendance works screened at Dancehouse and digitally on demand. The festival also includes live and online talks, and four workshops for screendance makers.
The 2023 Dance (Lens) Festival was curated by three screendance artists and curators: Siobhan Murphy (Vic), Feras Shaheen (NSW) and international renowned guest curator Gitta Wigro (UK). The curators programmed the festival from a National callout, including the ‘Official Selection’ program of recent local Australian screendance works made in the last two years.
Dance (Lens) Official Selection featured a variety of screendance works including a home-grown spaghetti western, an exploration of cataclysm from expert Bharatnatyam performer Anandavalli, an interspecies collage of dancing human-worm chimeras, a surreal and whimsical animation about parklife during COVID lockdowns, and an extended music-video clip celebrating Jamaican dancehall.
Dance (Lens) Festival in 2023 was supported by the Besen Family foundation.
!['Composite Acts' (2019), David Rosetzky [still].](https://www.dancehouse.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/STILL-—-Composite-Acts-by-David-Rosetzky-1000x530.jpg)
Dance (Lens) Mini 2022
Ahead of the 2023 Dance (Lens) Festival, Dancehouse hosted a weekend taster from 26—27 November 2022 including screendance workshops for all experience levels, with Siobhan Murphy and Cobie Orger, and a special IN FOCUS screening with David Rosetsky.
Dance (Lens) Festival 2021
The Dance (Lens) Festival showcased over 30 outstanding international and national screendance works curated by André Shannon, Melissa Ramos and Siobhan Murphy.
Dance (Lens) ran On Demand from 29 July—29 August 2021 during COVID lockdowns in Melbourne. The Festival also hosted a repeat in-person screening live at Dancehouse over one weekend (19—21 November). Live movie marathon program >>
Dance (Lens) 2020
In 2020, during the long days of the COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne, Dancehouse initiated Dance (Lens) a digital broadcast series highlighted outstanding screendance works from Australia and overseas alongside artist Q&As with makers and curators.
At a time when dancing together was impossible, Dance (Lens) explored the embodiment and disembodiment of dance, speculative stages, screening history, and the communal experience of watching dance on the other side of the screen.