Bull Rider

This experimental documentary short merges meditations on dance from choreographer Martha Graham with music by composer Philip Glass and video featuring Professional Bull Rider/Modern Dancer Ouncie Mitchell, at the 2022 Oakley Rodeo in Oakley, UT. The Graham technique of modern dance emphasizes contraction and release as well as turns, falls, and surges of the body. These are the exact same movements utilized by a successful Bull Rider. If dance is movement in the form of symbolic communication, then Bull Riding, merged with animals and rooted in the land, is a culture of dance with the arena as it's stage. (Cinequest Festival)