Press Release
Mouvement Perpétuel Celebrates 25 Years of Innovation in Dance and Film with a Global Retrospective Tour
The acclaimed Montreal-based duo brings their award-winning screendance works to audiences worldwide in 2025–2026 to celebrate landmark anniversary
Montreal, QC — October 16, 2025 — Mouvement Perpétuel, the renowned dance filmmaking collective led by Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer, proudly marks its 25th anniversary with a world tour and retrospective celebrating a quarter-century of visionary screendance creation. The anniversary program features a curated selection of films, installations, workshops, and talks exploring the group’s signature blend of movement, landscape, and human connection.
The tour opens in Hong Kong (Nov. 13–17, 2025) at the Jumping Frames International Dance Video Festival, where the award-winning Bhairava—in which Shantala Shivalingappa channels the presence and qualities of the Hindu deity Bhairava with technical mastery and refined expressivity—will be featured alongside early dance-for-camera works such as The Hunt and The Greater the Weight. Millar and Szporer will also lead a masterclass at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts – School of Dance, exploring collaboration and creative process. The program underscores the duo’s ongoing commitment to cross-cultural collaboration.
From Hong Kong, the retrospective travels to Barcelona (Nov. 26–29, 2025) for the Choreoscope International Dance Film Festival, where Millar and Szporer will receive the inaugural Screendance Award. The festival will present a curated selection of their seminal works, and the duo will offer two masterclasses on screendance for dance and choreography students at Institut del Teatre Barcelona and Institute of the Arts Barcelona.
The anniversary celebrations continue in Montreal (Jan. 8, 2026) with a special screening and conversation at Dazibao Gallery, presented in partnership with Vidéographe, the artist-run centre that has long championed their work. The event will feature seminal works alongside projects by three next-generation dance-film collaborators, followed by a public dialogue reflecting on 25 years of creation at the intersection of dance, film, and community.
Following the hometown date in Montreal, the Mouvement Perpétuel 25th anniversary world tour is set to continue its global journey, with more dates due to be announced. Further events will be revealed here.
“For us, this 25th anniversary is a moment of reflection and renewal,” say Millar and Szporer. “We’ve always been drawn to how movement translates through the lens — how gesture, place, and emotion intertwine to tell stories that words can’t. This tour celebrates those encounters.”
Top & bottom: behind the scenes filming Lost Action: Trace (2011), left centre: Bhairava (2018) poster, right centre: Mercy (2025) poster
Recognized internationally for its artistry and innovation, Mouvement Perpétuel has grown into a trailblazing force in dance and film, creating over 25 dance films, documentaries, and installations for galleries, museums, and performance venues. Their work has been presented in more than 30 countries, featured in leading international festivals, and recognized with numerous awards and world premieres. Over the years, Millar and Szporer have collaborated with renowned artists including Shantala Shivalingappa, Crystal Pite, Byron Chief-Moon, and Dana Michel, consistently pushing the boundaries of what dance on screen can achieve.
The 25th Anniversary Tour invites audiences, artists, and scholars alike to engage with a body of work that has influenced generations of dance filmmakers and continues to expand the boundaries of movement and media.
For more details on Mouvement Perpétuel’s productions and 25th anniversary tour, visit www.mouvementperpetuel.net
The Team
MARLENE MILLAR
Filmmaker Marlene Millar has created dance, documentary, and experimental media works since 1989, recently showcased in her solo exhibition of 30 works at Threshold Artspace, UK. Co-founder of Mouvement Perpétuel with Philip Szporer, they have directed and produced acclaimed dance films, installations, and documentaries since 2000. The award-winning Migration Dance Film Project series, directed by Millar, coproduced with choreographer Sandy Silva, has garnered over thirty awards at festivals including Aesthetica (UK), San Francisco Dance Film Festival (US), Cinematica (Italy), and Cinedans (Netherlands). Dedicated to independent filmmaking, Millar has mentored artists and led workshops worldwide since 1995. Her career reflects a sustained dedication to collaboration, innovation, and the exploration of dance through the moving image.
PHILIP SZPORER
Philip Szporer is a Montreal-based filmmaker, writer, and lecturer who has been immersed in the Canadian dance world for more than forty years. He currently teaches at Concordia University’s Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability.
In 2001, Philip co-founded Mouvement Perpétuel with Marlene Millar, an award-winning Montreal media arts production collective. Together, they have co-directed and produced a celebrated body of documentaries, short dance films, and installation works.
He is also the co-founder of dance+words, alongside Kathleen Smith, an initiative dedicated to disseminating ideas and fostering conversations around dance and movement arts.
Philip served as Scholar-in-Residence at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts from 2000 to 2016. He was awarded a Pew Fellowship (National Dance/Media Project) at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1999, and received the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2010. In 2016, he was recognized with a Distinguished Teaching Award from Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts.
In the media
“A Day in the Life” with: Montréal Artist Marlene Millar
https://montrealguardian.com/montreal-artist-marlene-millar/
Mouvement Perpétuel at 25: Dancing with the Camera
https://stagelync.com/news/mouvement-perpetuel-at-25-dancing-with-the-camera/amp
Videographe: Mouvement Perpétuel - 25 ans de création en mouvement
https://www.videographe.org/programmations/2025-2026/dv_vd-mouvement-perpetuel
DAZIBAO: Mouvement Perpétuel : 25 ans de création en mouvement
https://dazibao.art/evenement-dvvd-mouvement-perpetuel
Mouvement Perpétuel : 25 ans de ciné-danse
https://www.alloladanse.com/articles/mouvement-perpetuel-25-ans-de-cine-danse
About
MOUVEMENT PERPÉTUEL
Mouvement Perpétuel is an award-winning Montreal-based independent film, video, and new media production collective specializing in arts programming. Co-directors Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer create impressionistic dance-media films, arts documentaries and multi-channel video installations, feature expansive choreographies and portraits of some of Canada/Quebec’s leading contemporary dancers and choreographers and from across cultures within the Americas, Europe and Asia. Viewers are invited into a deeply intimate tracing of the curvatures of rich human experience.
Marlene Millar and Philip Szporer met in 1986 dancing in the work of New York choreographer Charles Dennis. Subsequently a friendship developed and their professional talents merged once more ten years later when they embarked on the first sketch of what was later to become the video series Moments in Motion/Au fil du mouvement. They shared a Fellowship for the Dance/Media Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, developing new ideas, and producing work in the United States. Their return to Canada saw the creation of Mouvement Perpétuel in 2001.
Philip Szporer, Marlene Millar and Mouvement Perpétuel collaborators are available for interviews
Media contacts:
Danny Payne | 514-621-8657 | danny@raisondetremedia.ca
Alex Nitsiou | 514-443-3731 |alex@raisondetremedia.ca
Leisa Lee | 514-946-2010 | leisa@leisaleegroup.com
Talar Adam | 514-833-0274 | talar@leisaleegroup.com