Dance should further people and relationships between people, therefore fueling the generative nature of ideas.
The Oklahoma DanceFilm Festival was a unique 10-year running film festival based in Tulsa, OK, that featured choreography for the camera, dance documentaries, and experimental short-films that emphasize movement.
From 2007-2019, curator, Jessica Vokoun at the OkDFF, has screened a wide variety of historic and acclaimed dance films by artists from around the world. Seeking fresh, innovative films and our programming reflects a global breadth of imagination, the purpose of the festival was to celebrate dance in the medium of film and video – favoring those works which demonstrate both artistic and technical excellence.
We have partnered with arts organizations, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, to expand our touring program - developing opportunities to share work, to network, to educate and cultivate new audiences. It may seem like a new birth with the pandemic in 2020, but Dance on Camera now has a long and rich history and it’s here to stay. Please celebrate the diversity and innovation of dance on film.
“As with many things in the Tulsa arts landscape, success has come for the OKDFF through persistence, patience, and willingness to adapt and reboot again and again. It’s no coincidence that Vokoun and Bell House director Rachel Bruce Johnson are both accomplished dance-film-makers themselves. When you love something, you find a way to keep it alive, in spite of indifference and obstacles and exhaustion; gradually, quietly, its aliveness becomes important to us all, a part of our communal vocabulary for engaging with and thinking and speaking about life. Bravo to all the partners and collaborators who have been part of the OKDFF’s surviving and thriving.”
