Three talented and experienced professionals have been selected to form the one minute screendance commission panel that will be chaired by Director/Producer Simon Fildes.
Andy Wood is a videographer who makes dance-films, public projections and documentaries. His work has been screened at international film festivals, in galleries, shopping malls and prisons, on public buildings and television.
Andy trained as a fine artist, was an established musician and producer for many years and currently runs an independent media company who deliver creative and documentary video projects for the arts. He has curated dance film screenings of international artists work and facilitated screendance workshops, both in the UK and abroad.
He is currently a programmer for Leeds International Film Festival and runs the screendance competition for Short Film City. He teaches screendance and experimental film at Northern Film School, Leeds Beckett University.
Gitta Wigro is a freelance dance film programmer based in London, UK. She is a programmer for the Screendance Competition at Leeds International Film Festival. She has worked as guest programmer, speaker and jury member for, among others, Dance Umbrella (UK), Festival Quartiers Danses (CA), Big Dance Shorts (UK), BFI FLARE (UK), and Light Moves (Ireland).
She leads one of the core modules of the MA Screendance at London Contemporary Dance School at The Place, London.
She is also co-director of Independent Dance, an artist-led organisation providing a responsive, stimulating space for artists in their ongoing development as professionals.
Heike Salzer is a German dance artist fluidly operating in performance, choreography, screendance and teaching/research. Under the name of Salts she collaborates with international artists and her work has been invited to numerous festivals. In 2014, together with Ana Baer (US/MX) Heike founded WECreate Productions producing collaboratively site-specific screendances, multi-media performances, and installations.
Heike is the secretary of the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (US) and co-directed Tees Dance Film Fest (UK) in 2015/16 including tours to Mexico and the United States.
Heike has been teaching in vocational and Higher Education for almost 20 years, in the Netherlands, Iceland and the United Kingdom. She is a Senior Lecturer in Dance Professional Practice at the University of Roehampton..
