'No worries' with the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema

Video dance showcased at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art

Video installations, film and live dance filled the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) Saturday night for the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema.

Returning for its fourth year, Sans Souci brought out fans of dance cinema to the two-night festival. Different videos were showcased each night, although some were shown both Friday and Saturday. In addition to the films, the festival also included live dance performances and video installations.

Sans Souci, which means “no worries” in French, was created four years ago by Michelle Ellsworth and friend Brandi Mathis as they sat on the porch of a mobile home in the Sans Souci Trailer Park in South Boulder. Ellsworth, a dance teacher at CU, initially thought that Sans Souci would be a night when people gathered at the trailer park to see what everyone was making. The idea started off small, but with the help of Mathis who was working at BMoCA and Ellsworth at CU, as well as artists Ana Baer and Hamel Bloom, Sans Souci became much larger than originally planned.

Showing 11 films each night, the festival incorporated films of every type, most of which were of the more avant-garde style. The night started off with the film “Bleu” by Cari Ann Shim Sham which was so well received the first night that it was added to Saturday night’s show.

The four-minute-long film started with a nude figure in black and white jerkily moving her body. Bright blue post-it notes slowly started accumulating on her, producing a scaly effect. As described in the program, “‘Bleu’ explores the politics of a working class woman through surrealistic imagery and organic movement.”

Next was “City Crumbs,” by Sans Souci Artistic Co-Director Ana Baer. Baer, who currently lives in Los Angeles, filmed the movie in both Denver and D