Filmed in Senegal in early 2022, Dance Is is a collaboration between British photographer and filmmaker Hatty Frances Bell and Colombian writer Laura Steiner. The short film is a conversation between movement and words; whilst the image presents a simple notion of dance, the words are an abstract reflection on movement. Together they celebrate dance in all forms.
Hatty Frances Bell trained in visual anthropology at Goldsmiths University, London UK. She is a freelance self-shooting PD, camera operator, photographer and video editor making documentary films and photographs that tell authentic, emotional, human stories. Hatty combines her artistic background with an inquisitive anthropological training and works with an intimate, cinematic approach covering stories across the arts, research and not-for-profit sectors.
Laura Steiner is a writer, performer and improviser originally from Colombia. She writes regularly for DRIFT magazine and Revista Volcánicas. Her work is a constant exploration of body and movement and it is deeply rooted in her dance practice. She is a professor of physical narrative at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá. Her latest prose was made into a short film titled “The Doors”, a collaboration with South African director Caroline Mackintosh, which premiered last year on Directors Notes and was an official selection of the Prague International Indie Film Festival.