Documenting Grace film series opens dance possibilities for all

WWU Dance is partnering with Kuntz and Company to present "Documenting Grace: a Film Series," beginning Sunday, November 13. The series of six films was selected to portray dance in its power to give voice to people through movement. The films will be shown at the Firehouse Arts and Events Center, 1314 Harris Avenue, in Fairhaven. Films will roll out one per month, November through April.

The kickoff film is “Invitation to Dance” on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. It's a never-before-told coming out story of disabled people staking their claim to “equality, justice, and a place on the dance floor.” Details about the films in the series, tickets, and showtimes are available on the Kuntz and Company website.

Pam Kuntz, member of the Dance faculty at Western, and principal of Kuntz and Company, has been keeping dance on people’s minds for decades. “Dance is sometimes placed in the category of just concert dance, or only for those with training,” she says. “I’d like to see it ‘in’ our lives instead of a separate thing we watch from the seats. Dancing has an amazing ability to keep us in the present, to keep us in our world. It opens possibilities to move, to stimulate, and to express.”

Kuntz founded Kuntz and Company in 2005 to give expression to a passion for working with diverse communities to tell their stories through the arts. Those communities include the young, the old, prisoners, parents, families, moms, the dying, those with stories to tell about their bodies, those with disorders, the chronically ill—in summary, everyone who has run into life’s challenges.

In collecting the series, Kuntz was inspired by the idea that “film might have a different potential for awakening people. We are very receptive to film as a medium, and we tend to let it into our minds without being shut down by our subconscious limitations.” Most films will have the opportunity for conversation before or after the screening.

Support comes from a wide array of community partners including Institute for Critical Disability Studies at Western,  the Pickford Film Center, Cascadia International Women's Film Festival, Bellingham Repertory Dance, and many others listed at the Kuntz and Company website.