(BRANCHBURG, NJ) -- Terpsichore's Sacrilegium, a dance film by Raritan Valley Community College Professor of Dance Loretta Di Bianca Fois of Branchburg, has been named a finalist in the Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival of Athens, Greece. The piece, which was filmed outside the RVCC Arts Building, features RVCC Adjunct Associate Professor of Dance Lauren Beirne of Brooklyn, NY.
The international festival honors films monthly, and Terpsichore's Sacrilegium was a recent finalist in the “Best Music/Dance/Art Film” category. The year’s 12 finalists will compete for the annual award of “Best Movie of the Year” in November 2021.
Describing Terpsichore's Sacrilegium, Fois explains: "In a matter of a few months, the creating and presenting of arts has undergone rapid changes. This piece looks at how our present condition has exposed the extreme precarity of the arts, and explores what happens when the performances pause, seasons are suspended, and stages go dark. From politics to a pandemic, art as a sanctuary, a balm to a fevered collective consciousness, seems like it has been abandoned by American society."
Director of RVCC’s Dance program and the Raritan Valley Dance Ensemble, Fois served on the Executive Board of Dance NJ for over 25 years. She also was a teaching artist for NJ Department of Education and Founding Director of New Jersey Dance Studio. As the Artistic Director of The Espressione Corporea Project, she leads intermodal Expressive Arts classes and workshops for adults and children. She received a 2017 and 2011 Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Choreography from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Beirne is Artistic Director and founder of Lauren Beirne Dance Works. A graduate of RVCC, Beirne received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and a Master of Fine Arts from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, both in Dance Performance with a concentration in choreography and pedagogy.
PHOTO: Lauren Beirne performs in Terpsichore's Sacrilegium, a dance film by Raritan Valley Community College Professor of Dance Loretta Di Bianca Fois. The film has been named a finalist in the Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival of Athens, Greece.
