Wildwood Dance Project Hosts Film Screening at Smiley

The Wildwood Dance Project is hosting a free film screening at the Smiley Building on Friday, April 12th at 7:00 PM in the Move studio. The original films showcase the company's philosophy of engaging new audiences with dance through collaborative multimedia projects. You are watching the Local News Network, brought to you by Tafoya Barrett and Associates and Sky Ute Casino Resort. I'm Zach Markwa.

Wildwood Dance Project is a collective of dancers, dance artists, performing artists, filmmakers. We come together to practice our dance technique to perform, make dance typically for adults. And typically with dance film, though sometimes we'll work in the live performance sphere as well.

The genesis of Wildwood was in 2017. There were a few dancers in town who came together and we wanted to create a company, but we wanted to think outside the box. We wanted to get away from the proscenium kind of stage dancing and think about how we could take dance to the digital natives, the next generations globally, outside the theater, make it more egalitarian, more accessible to all ages, all cultures. So that helped us kind of shift our thinking to becoming a multimedia project-based dance company that uses social media and dance film to tell our stories.

Wildwood film projects are created, choreographed, and produced by core company members, Mary-Catherine McAlvany, Cassandra Owen, and Kasey Hall, often in collaboration with other local artists and filmmakers.

So it really is a treat to see the evolution of our dance, film, art, and skill, and the technology that we've acquired. Where we are going with dance film as a practice is really exciting. All three of us together, it kind of came out of a time of COVID, when it was necessary to have something that was not live in person, and it became something that actually we're really into and all about. So the projects that we take on, it's honestly as the inspiration emerges, and according to whatever is inspiring, one certain person, we rally behind that. I'm so proud of just the grassroots effort and the self-education. From start to finish, we are able to make a complete dance film.

Wildwood looks forward to expanding its collaboration with other dancers and artists in the Four Corners area.

We're still in our visionary processing of what this is becoming, but I know one thing we would all really love to do is collaborate with other artists, whether they're musicians or poets or you have other talents in the artistic realm. That's really, I think, where we're going in the future, is more community collaboration.

Our company classes have always been welcome to all levels on a drop-in basis, or to come as often as you want to improve your technique. We are always inviting dancers to be a part of our dance films as dancers, as choreographers, as videographers. We always want collaboration, and at the same time, we would love to grow the foundation of our company. How many people are involved week in, week out, who share the responsibility of teaching our company class that we offer to the public for being present on just about every dance project, every dance film that we create

Open auditions for Wildwood Dance Project will be held on Saturday, April 20th from 1:00 to 2:30 at the Smiley building.

We're so passionate about adults growing their dance technique. It's never too late to start dancing. It's never too late to pick up where you left off with dancing, be that way back in your childhood. We find that it's just so helpful for keeping the body conditioned, for keeping the mind moving through hard places or being present and celebrating with what's good and happy and easy in your life these days.

For more information on Wildwood and how to get involved or to watch the films online, visit wildwooddanceproject.com. For more information about this and other stories, visit durangolocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I'm Zach Markwa.