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Two dancers perform outside in the dance film Sanctuary

Photo credit: Shelby Tay A photo of two dancers on a boardwalk outside a community centre on a bright cloudy day. Behind the dancers there is a large red metal structure supporting a triangular white “sail”. The community centre buildings and some highrises are in the background. The two dancers are one in front of the other. The manual wheelchair dancer in the back has one hand on the push rim of their wheel, and the other arm is stretched out to rest a hand on the other dancer’s shoulder. The standing dancer is walking and leaning heavily on their back foot, while supporting themself with one hand on the other dancers’ knee.

Sanctuary (dancefilm)

Created: 2019

Videographer/Editor: Martin Borden

Choreographer/Performers: Harmanie Rose and Rianne Švelnis

Originally created as a live, site-specific performance, Sanctuary is a dance re-imagined for the camera.

The film features two bodies searching for calm inside the sounds and sights of an urban landscape. Harmanie and Rianne ask the questions inside and outside their bodies: how can we create a sanctuary for an embodied experience in a public space? How does dance and embodiment change this public scene? And how are our bodies affected by the public gaze, and by one another?


Available with Closed Captions and audio description.

Screenings:

  • Heart of the City Festival, Carnegie Community Centre, Vancouver, BC, October 30, 2021

  • Discover Dance, Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver, BC, March 2022, 

  • SFU Arts Live, Surrey, March 2022

  • Bulkley Valley Concert Association, Film Screening, Smithers, BC, April 2022

  • Dance City Film Festival, Newcastle, UK, June 2022

  • F-O-R-M Festival, Vancouver, BC/Online, September 2020

  • Dance in Frame, University of British Columbia, online/ Vancouver, BC, October 2021

  • Access Festival, Online/Vancouver, BC, June 2021

  • Crimson Coast Dance Festival, online/ Nanaimo, BC, July 2021

  • Together! 2019 Dance Disability Film Festival, UK, December 2019,  

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