Press Release

Mouvement Perpétuel Celebrates 25 Years of Innovation in Dance and Film with a Global Retrospective Tour

The acclaimed Montreal-based duo continue the tour this spring with two new events in Germany in may + a digital screening & conversation experience on international dance day, april 29th.

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.

On April 29th, global hub for dance & film kNOwBOX dance partners with Mouvement Perpétuel to launch a free special digital pop-up experience in celebration of International Dance Day. This limited-time program features a curated selection of dance films and an exclusive Behind the Screen conversation, offering global audiences across to innovative screendance and artistic insight.

Following in-person events in Hong Kong, Barcelona, and Montreal last winter, the collective is set to take the tour to Germany next month. Tanzrauschen’s On Move, Move On Festival, Wuppertal (May 6-9) presents a series of screenings with Millar & Szporer hosting the introduction to Mouvement Perpétuel’s approach to making dance films masterclass, and, in collaboration with steptext dance project, the Filmbüro Bremen and the German Dance Film Institute, I Wanted to be Moved by You Dance Film Week, Bremen (May 11-17), presents a curated selection from the Mouvement Perpétuel catalogue, where the duo will also give a Space & Movement, Camera, Editing, Technology seminar.

The tour opened 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—featured alongside early dance-for-camera works such as The Hunt and The Greater the Weight. Millar and Szporer also led a masterclass at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts – School of Dance, exploring collaboration and creative process. The program underscored the duo’s ongoing commitment to cross-cultural collaboration.

From Hong Kong, the retrospective travelled to Barcelona (Nov. 26–29, 2025) for the Choreoscope International Dance Film Festival, where Millar and Szporer received the inaugural Screendance Award. The festival presented a curated selection of their seminal works, and the duo offered two masterclasses on screendance for dance and choreography students at Institut del Teatre Barcelona and Institute of the Arts Barcelona.

The anniversary celebrations continued 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 featured 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.

And now, the Mouvement Perpétuel 25th anniversary world tour is set to continue its global journey with these newly-announced events, with more dates to be added. Further events will be revealed at mouvementperpetuel.net/screenings.

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 Canadian filmmaker, writer, and lecturer. He teaches at Concordia University and has contributed to the development of dance scholarship in Canada. In 2001, he co-founded the media arts production collective Mouvement Perpétuel with Marlene Millar. Together, they have co-directed and produced a celebrated body of documentaries, short dance films, and installation works. He also co-established dance+words in 2018, with Kathleen Smith, an initiative aimed at fostering dialogue and dissemination about dance and the movement arts. Szporer has received several accolades, including the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize in 2010, and a Distinguished Teaching Award from Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 2016. His films have been shown globally and his writing has appeared in numerous publications.

JUMPING FRAMES (HONG KONG NOV. 13-17, 2025)

CHOREOSCOPE BARCELONA DANCE FILM FESTIVAL (BARCELONA NOV. 26-29, 2025)

DAZIBAO GALLERY (MONTREAL JAN. 8, 2026) - Photos by félix bonnevie

TANZRAUSCHEN FESTIVAL (Wuppertal MAY 6-9, 2026)

In the media

VIVRE LA DANSE AUTREMENT : MOUVEMENT PERPÉTUEL VOUS INVITE À LA GALERIE DAZIBAO LE 8 JANVIER

https://bpartsmedia.ca/mouvement-perpetuel-galerie-dazibao/

25 ans de danse filmée à travers le monde - le Québec matin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV0K80IBoDI

SUR LES PAS DU SPECTATEUR

https://surlespasduspectateur.blogspot.com/

Mouvement Perpétuel Kicks off international dance day with digital pop-up

https://montreal.citynews.ca/2026/04/28/mouvement-perpetuel-international-dance-day/

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.

www.mouvementperpetuel.net/about-mp

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 | t alar@leisaleegroup.com