OhioDance Film: Ohio: A State of Dance will screen in-person on April 29, 4:30-5:30pm in Sullivant Hall Room 225. With performance capture and animations from ACCAD alumni Jessica Cavender (MFA, Dance 2016) and Taylor Olsen (MFA, DAIM 2020), the documentary presents a rhizomatic pattern of oral history interviews, dance footage, archival materials, and photos from the contributions of Ohio’s important dance figures from the twentieth century to the present. The documentary will also run for two years on all eleven Ohio PBS stations, and the Ohio Channel.

The OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection® is an extensive interactive website that documents, preserves and historicizes the achievements of people and institutions that have shaped the remarkable abundance and diversity of dance history within the state of Ohio. From twenty-nine selected dance developments that anchor the collection, the first ten have been rendered more vivid and more visceral through the lens of documentary film.

Created by women, the documentary springs from an analytical perspective on the social and political climate of its time, highlighting the ways that historical tides have influenced artistic expression, and observing how Ohio’s dance has intersected with the women’s movement, civil rights, and disability rights, among other trends. Sourcing from the significant breadth of work, the film manifests visual representations of the power dynamics within the historical account. Through oral history interviews, dance footage, archival materials and photos, a rhizomatic pattern of growth emerges among the contributions of Ohio’s important dance figures from the twentieth century to the present, offering context for how and why these individuals rose to historical significance as leaders and pioneers in a unique local, national and international cultural landscape.