2025 Virtual Filmmaking Masterclass | 2025 SFDFF

This intensive two-day virtual workshop will explore Adi’s unique working methods and approach to dance films, focusing on intention and intuition. Through viewing different genres of dance films (music videos, documentaries, experimental films, or commercials), we will examine the tools of filmmaking and their use in creating captivating visual dance films, which tell unique stories and lead the audience through the magnificent world of dance films.

Saturday-Sunday, November 15-16, 2025 
9 AM–12:30 PM Pacific Standard Time
(includes 15 min break between sections)
Online via Zoom
Fee: $200

Descriptions of the Individual Sections:

A Filmic Approach to Directing Dance — An Introduction
Through presenting her work, Adi will discuss her personal journey into dance films – how did it all begin? How did dance change the way she thinks about directing? How does she work with location, improvised and planned choreography? How does the type of project change the approach to dance? When does she make a strict plan and how does she use intuition to lead her work?

Define Your Idea
What’s a dance film? What defines it as a dance film? Which types of dance films exist? What distinguishes a dance film from a dance performance? What’s the difference between a dance film and filming dance? Through observing different genres of dance films, we will learn to focus on our idea and distill our intentions when writing a dance film script.

Why Are They Dancing?
Once we put a dancer in front of a camera, they become a character in a film. So many dance films are hard to read because they try to translate staged choreography into film. How do we define a character? How do we communicate our dancing characters with our audience? Why is it so hard to create coherency in dance films?

Cinematic Tools for Directing Dance
A presentation of cinematic tools for creating dance films: camera movement, camera angles, defragmentation of bodies, casting, location choice, editing, colour palette etc – all these elements are clear choices to be made when thinking of filming dance, and each and every one of them defines which type of film we create.

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Instructor Bio:

Adi Halfin is an award-winning dance and commercial director whose work moves between fiction, documentary, and the language of dance on screen. Her films — celebrated for their emotional depth and striking visual style — have screened and won awards at major festivals including Cannes, Berlinale, and many others worldwide.

Guided by a belief that movement is a form of storytelling, Adi’s work transforms choreography into cinematic experience. Her viral dance film Home Alone for Batsheva Dance Company earned ten international awards, while her Toyota short featuring Dergin Tokmak was named Best Documentary at The One Club for Creativity and shortlisted for a Cannes Lion.

Alongside her directing career, Adi teaches dance film workshops internationally in collaboration with leading festivals such as SFDFF, POOL, and Dance On Screen. She also lectures in multimedia, directing, and film language at universities in Berlin, where she encourages students to explore the intersection of life, movement, and cinema — and to find their own voice as filmmakers.

Instagram: @adihalfin_official / website: www.adihalfin.com

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