Who are we?
Kraken Still & Film is a contemporary dance company based in Phoenix, Arizona that explores the integration of concert dance and visual art.
We create projects of various scales through intimate collaborations between dancers and artists and our works can be seen in theater stages, dance film festivals, art galleries and public venues.
At Kraken Still & Film, we love to decontextualize concepts and ideas to generate new perspectives. Our mission is to create a space for dancers to integrate various movement disciplines, and offer a platform for interdisciplinary artists to play. We use contemporary dance to highlight our curiosities and bring voice to the unheard. We strive to elevate the status of dance in the art world while making it accessible to the public through our diverse avenues of presentation within our communities.
What have we done?
A quick recap begins with our first flagship project, “Cohort 707”, in 2018: this project explored the bond of sisterhood, brought together by the decay of modern civilization. In a manless world, how will they thrive and find strength - was the question we asked in preparing this project. The project was our first to tour dance film festivals and to receive national awards and recognition.
In 2019, our Kapsule project dove into environmental psychology, and the idea of reincarnation in Buddhism. In this project, we traveled to widespread locations such as Iceland, Canada, and the American Southwest to find unique landscapes to represent timelines within a life cycle. We premiered our live performance at the Nelson Fine Arts Center and Scottsdale Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. The film toured several national dance film festivals and made its way internationally to the GEO Passage Exhibition in Sydney, Australia. In this year, our company was also granted a solo gallery exhibition at the FOUNDRE/Contemporary in downtown Phoenix and displayed a public projection against the four story building!
In 2020, Kraken Still & Fill remained grounded in our hometown with Unbreakable, a project that reimagined the philosophy of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey in a dance format. We also incorporated the teachings of philosopher Carl Jung, which involve embracing one’s shadow. The project was cut short due to the effects of Covid 19. Fortunately, we were able to conclude filming and have the film premiered through local virtual performances. In January of 2021, Unbreakable finally received its spotlight in downtown Los Angeles where an excerpt of Act I was part of a public art installation on the SVLA screen by the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. The following Acts ll & lll will be featured throughout the year.
2020 also saw the launching of our monthly digital visual magazine in which we collaborate with dancers from around the community and focus on creating timeless fine-art dance photographs.
In 2021, we are focusing on producing and marketing our flagship project “Distant Worlds.” This creation was partially funded via a Vibrant City Grant from the city of Tempe and was made possible through a residency at nueBOX. We started our rehearsal in the Fall of 2020 and premiered the project with a live performance and a film showcase on 5/20/21 at the Tempe History Museum.
