IN GENERAL

WHAT IS DANCE + SOCIAL JUSTICE?

A global field involving the use of dance to engender social change and accelerate movements toward social justice.

WHY DANCE?

Gesturing, emoting physically, and communicating with the body are built into our DNA as humans. What’s more, every culture has one or many dance forms that have historical importance and inform current pop culture.

Movement then, when used sensitively, is an accessible and scalable approach to expression and healing. Artists and social entrepreneurs around the world tap into this expressive form to help under-resourced communities resist unjust policies and structures, make mental health care accessible to more people, accelerate educational outcomes, and amplify unheard voices.

ABOUT THE FILM

KOLKATA SANVED

Since 2004, the grassroots nonprofit organization, Kolkata Sanved has been innovating in the space of mental healthcare, psychosocial rehabilitation, and dance therapy to empower vulnerable youth. The organization’s Dance Therapy for Change model has given thousands of violence survivors across India and South Asia access to mental and emotional health care which is widely overlooked in the social development context.

Kolkata Sanved’s dance therapy practitioners, many of whom have experienced trafficking and violence themselves, regularly speak and share their methodology at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. They are healers, change makers, and role models in their communities who have overcome considerable obstacles to realize their passions for movement and making the world a better place.

In FROM THERE TO HERE, we hear their stories, and watch their movement interpretations of how women’s bodies continue to be restricted in Indian society.

THE FILM CREATION PROCESS

FROM THERE TO HERE is a participatory project with content created by the dance movement therapy practitioners of the nonprofit, Kolkata Sanved. Over the course of nine months, FREE BODY PROJECT Founder, Sydney Skov held brainstorming sessions and intensive movement workshops in collaboration with 10 dance therapy practitioners. With assistance from fellow dancer, Matthew Bade, the team collaboratively developed movement for the film.

All of the movement you will see is based on nine images of how the dance therapy practitioners perceive women’s bodies to be viewed and restricted in Indian society. The practitioners experimented with choreography and improvisational tasks, finding ways to reveal and reject each restriction through authentic movement based in the their dance and therapy foundation. It was this participatory, creative process that generated the group choreography and unique improvisational movement for the film.

Our team extends gratitude to the Fulbright Program and Dance Films Association which supported the creation of this film. We also thank all of the artists, friends, and supporters who have helped bring this project to life.

THE FILMMAKERS

Sydney Skov, Janique Robillard, and Paulius Kontijevas met and joined artistic forces on their first dance film in Portland, Oregon in 2012.

Sydney Skov

Co-Director + Co-Producer

is an international development practitioner and dancer. As a Boren Fellow and Fulbright Scholar, Sydney spent 3 years working with Kolkata Sanved, a pioneer in dance therapy for social change in India. Sydney holds an MA in Sustainable International Development, has launched high-impact social ventures around the world with D-Prize, and is the Founder of FREE BODY PROJECT, dedicated to building a global field for dance + social justice work.

Janique Robillard

Co-Director + Co-Producer

is a freelance film director and producer. Her work spans live action and animated promotional content, broadcast commercials, educational series, narrative films, and music videos - but her passion is experimental documentary filmmaking. She holds an MFA in film and is inspired by capturing unique portraits of powerful women.

Paulius Kontijevas - Cinematographer

is is a full-time freelance cinematographer. Moving from Lithuania to the United States in 2002, he has worked on a wide variety of digital video production: from music videos to feature films, from web videos to broadcast commercials.

Maxime Robillard - Composer

is a producer and composer from Vermont, currently residing in New York City. Music for him is but one part of our ecosystem, and this guiding principle informs his productions ranging from ambient soundscapes for installations to dance music releases under his moniker LOVE LETTERS. He’s drawn to projects involving dance and physically interactive works.

Milo McBride - Composer

melds organic instrumentation with analogic textures to create a sound of past and future. Drawing on his passion for outernational musical styles, he was recently a resident artist at THREAD, a cross-cultural residency program in rural Senegal run by the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation. He is currently pursuing his Master’s at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in Environmental Science and Public Policy.

Katja Flükiger - Graphics

is a designer, human ecologist, and hobby artist. She was born and raised in Switzerland as the daughter of cheese-makers. She let this wind carry her around the world—discovering graphic design as the perfect tool to bring together all her random talents. Currently, she is pursuing her passion for design in Brooklyn, NY.