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For as long as there has been music, there has been dance. Before the invention of the written word, dance would be used alongside music to convey a specific feeling or idea, and even thousands of years after the development of humanity’s first civilizations, dance continues to be practiced around the world as one of the most popular kinds of art. Considering how diverse and wide-reaching humanity is, it’s no surprise that many different kinds of dance would develop in various different places and times across the globe. From Native American tribal dances to modern break dancing, there are far too many examples of unique and captivating dance to showcase at once. That being said, this doesn’t stop the subject of today’s film, “Dancers”, from going out of its way to show as many as it can.
The most recent film to receive North American distribution from World Wide Motion Pictures, this Spanish feature length documentary comes to us from filmmaker Juan Vicente Chuliá. With this film, Chuliá and his crew travel the world to learn how the art of dance is viewed by different cultures and societies and for what purposes. What they find is a variety of dancers each with their own backgrounds and reasons for dancing. Among the people across multiple continents highlighted in the documentary are the main dancer of the Helsinki Ballet in Helsinki, Finland; a company of dancers with Down syndrome from Madrid, Spain; urban dancers from the Dominican Republic, and so many more. With each newly introduced dancer, the film demonstrates how dance not only relates to the diversity of the people practicing it, but also its therapeutic, social, and educational applications.
Despite it only being a year old, “Dancers” has already found a remarkable amount of success in the international film festival circuit. It been included as part of the Official Selection of various festivals including the the Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; the Hague Global Cinema Film Festival in Hague, Netherlands; the Mostra de València Film Festival in Valencia, Spain, and the International Film Festival Jakarta in Jakarta, Indonesia. In addition, the film was awarded Best Feature Documentary at both the AliveDoc International Documentary Film Festival and at the Festival Cena Expandida in Goiania, Brazil; the Award for Outstanding Excellence at the Docs Without Borders Film Festival; and was a finalist for Best Feature Documentary at the Rome Independent Prisma Awards in Rome, Italy.
If documentary films have taught us anything, it’s that sometimes the real world can be just as capable of telling engaging narratives as fiction, and “Dancers” is certainly no exception. With its showcase of a diversity of dance around the world, the film is able to open one’s eyes and create a better understanding of how different, yet how alike, humanity can truly be. Starting June 15th, those interested can find the film on demand and see for themselves.
