📆 Saturday, August 5th • Starts at 9 pm
📍 Seattle Center’s Mural Amphitheatre: 305 Harrison St, Seattle
📞 (206) 684-7200
🎟️ Free
Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Dance Film Festival started in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most live performances. You can go to the ballet IRL now—but if you’re still avoiding indoor events, this outdoor mini-festival at the Mural Amphitheater in Seattle Center can catch you up on local artists and choreographers both locally and nationally. If you are venturing inside occasionally, the short films still add extra dimension to the form with the same cozy-casual vibe of the traditional outdoor movie (also available at the amphitheater). Plus, you can drop in and leave whenever you want, typically considered gauche in a live venue setting.
A dozen short films, ranging from 3 minutes to 15 minutes long, feature in this year’s festival. The jury has already spoken, so we already know which film earned the festival’s grand prize: I Don’t Need a Reason, a profile of San Francisco-based ballet dancer Rex Wheeler, better-known as drag performer Lady Camden from Season 14 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. For a more local highlight, One Last Ride, inspired by the teardown of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, is “a cinematic dialogue between concrete and flesh,” and Vanishing Act, set to the Lou Reed song of the same name, is inspired by PNB principal dancer Dylan Wald’s nearly career-ending injury.
The full lineup, via PNB:
A Liminal Space
Henry Wurtz, Seattle Dance Collective
Running time: 14:45
I Don’t Need a Reason
Luke Willis, Attic Box Productions
Running time: 3:03
Dear Roots; An Interview
Darian Kane, Artists Climate Collective
Running time: 12:01
The Pointe
Morgan Dukes
Running time: 9:01
Vanishing Act
Seattle Dance Collective
Running time: 11:15
One Last Ride
Anastasia Babenko
Running time: 7:35
The Choreography of CRISPR
Gabrielle Lamb, Pigeonwing Dance
Running time: 12:45
Office
Sonhador Filmes
Running time: 9:11
With Time We Go
Emma Rubinowitz
Running time: 15:13
Authentically Me
Gabriel Speiller, The University of Arizona
Running time: 2:39
The Conversation
Hayden Rivas
Running time: 3:15
An Open Window
Mairead Averill, Spectrum Dance Theater
Running time: 3:19
