Choreographed and performed by Montreal native Dorotea Saykaly, A.K.A. Dorosay, this is a gorgeous, 2-part dance piece. Part 1, Painted, takes place in one of my all-time favorite locations, an abandoned warehouse. (Why are abandoned buildings so compelling?) Part 2, Brief Candle, is performed in a field near a farm. Both videos were written and directed by Duncan McDowall.

“We were going for something that brought together dance and architecture. I’d always been fascinated with decaying buildings, and pairing this up with dance made it more exciting and better suited to a dynamic medium like film. So we netted out on this screen dance piece that aimed to illustrate how a building slowly melts away under the stress of time, vegetation and, most importantly, water. Dorotea Saykaly’s choreography and performance is the centerpiece of the story and the wasted architecture is its setting. Now we’re getting ready to shoot part two, Brief Candle, the reverse of Painted in more ways than one.”

– Duncan McDowall

The film was awarded Best Dance Film at the 2012 Fastnet Short Film Festival, and also nominated for Best of Festival and Best Original Music. 

You can learn more about Dorotea Saykaly on her Ballet BC bio page and you can follow her on Instagram. You can follow Duncan McDowall on YouTube and Instagram.