One Day on Earth Premiere
UN in NYC
April 22, 2012

Choreographing since 1992 for dance, theater, stage and film . . .

Choreography for Film

Choreography for Stage


Concert Stage

Musical Theater

Theater

Artistic Director of Dance Company, Bitch Co.
Artistic Director, Choreographer and Costume Design
1995-2001

Bitch Co.: A progressive dance-theater company intent on exploring femininity through an abstract multi-influenced body language whom collaboratively construct performances based on the female perspective for the world's public.

Performed in Los Angeles & Las Vegas at venues such as Bergamot Station, Highways, The Brewery, The Henry Huang Theater, Cirque Du Soliel events (Santa Monica & Las Vegas), Cannibal Flower, The White Rabbit, UCLA, Track 16, The Democratic Convention Los Angeles, & The Hatch.

Click to Watch Bitch Co. Reel

*Complete list of works and performances by Bitch Co. available upon request.

Courses

Introduction to Video Production-Dance for Camera, WAC 180
co-taught with David Roussève
Spring 2013
World Arts & Cultures Department

Introduction to Video Production-Dance for Camera, WAC 180
Spring 2012
World Arts & Cultures Department

Social Media, WAC 78
Summer 2011
World Arts & Cultures Department

Dance for Camera, WAC 180
Spring 2011
World Arts & Cultures Department

Beginning Tap Dance, WAC 9
UCLA, Summer Session 2009
World Arts & Cultures Department

Introduction to Video Production-Dance for Camera, WAC 180
Spring 2009
World Arts & Cultures Department

Advanced Projects in Video: Dance for Camera
Installation & Experimental Documentary
Winter 2008, Spring 2009
World Arts & Cultures Department

Introduction to Video Production-Post Production as Choreography, WAC 180
Winter 2009
World Arts & Cultures Department

Classes in DANCE

Cari Ann is currently teaching the following dance classes weekly in Topanga Canyon...

Traditional West African & Caribbean Dance Practice
Thursday 8-9:30pm

Dancers learn traditional dances and drum rhythms from Guinea, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Haiti and St. Croix. All levels, teens and adults welcome. Featuring Master Drummer Henrik Jakobsson with additional drummers.

$20 Walk-in, Special: $100 for seven classes OR $65 for four classes (cash or check)

Yoga Desa
120 North Topanga Canyon Blvd
Pine tree Circle Center
www.yogadesa.com

Private Rhythm Tap

Available by appointment

Lectures and Workshops

Topanga Film Institute Presents:   A year long quarterly weekend workshop with award winning filmmaker, ODC Pilot Mentor, UCLA Professor & TFF's Dance Film Showcase Curator Cari Ann Shim Sham*

Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer: Pathway to creating a film Workshop

Fall: Pre Production: Oct 26, 27

SAT: taglines, synopsis, visual storytelling, storyboards, shortlists, set up lists & scripts.
SUN: fundraising, music rights, location scouting, permits, crew, cast & call sheets

Winter Production: Feb 22, 23

SAT: shooting, lighting, camera operation
SUN: directing, producting, set protocol, working indoors/outdoors

Spring Post Production: May 17, 18

SAT: organizing, watching & logging footage, workflow design, editing strategies, roughcast.
SUN: music & sound, working with composers, final cut, test screenings, picture lock, sound mix, color, finishing, exporting.

Summer: Screening & Distribution Aug 16, 17

SAT: Distribution, Submitting to Film Festivals
SUN: Screening films, discussion & reflection.

Students may enroll in 1, 2, 3, or all of the workshops. Students who enroll in all also receive a pass to the Topanga Film Festival.

Prices:
One day $100
Two days $180

All year $650 + pass to TFF

To reserve a space email cariannshimsham {at} gmail.com

Location Topanga Film Institute Studio, Topanga Canyon, CA

Choreographing Pre Production:   Thinking from the edit backwards

How to turn a final image into a film.
Cari Ann Shim Sham*, an award winning dance film specialist in cinema, video art and installation leads a workshop on how to approach your work from back to front in pre production to prepare for production. We will work backwards from concept/visual ideas to create a tagline for your film, craft your narrative arc, visualize your idea through storyboarding, shot lists, set up lists and framing devices for dance and choreography to help you plan for and execute your shoot. Her very own storyboarding, shot list, setups and journals will be shared along with excerpts of her film work.

Post Production as Choreography:   The ART of the EDIT:

Editorial Strategies when Cutting for the Dancing Camera
Cari Ann Shim Sham* leads a workshop on the art of strategizing the edit by discussing the directors attachment to footage, how to watch and what to look for in your footage, finding your rhythm in the edit, and finding a visual through line in your edit to help progress your narrative. Through examining her processes in the creation of some of her films, Are you for real?, SAND, Chicken Boy, Two Seconds After Laughter and her video installation for a live dancer on stage, Powder Cari Ann will end upon the consideration of how we as choreographers know "when to say when" in dance film making and how the camera and the edit can also be useful knowledge in making these decisions of what to keep and what to cut in making dance for the proscenium.

2010   One Day on Earth, Educational Toolkits

Lecturer
Live Online Event with Classroom 2.0

2009   The Art of the Edit: Cutting for the Dancing Camera, Editorial Strategies and Post Production as Choreography

Lecturer for the Chew on this Series, World Arts & Cultures Dept
UCLA

2008   Moving Bodies, Moving Cameras, Moving Minds: A History of Dance Film

Guest Lecturer for Arts Enlightenment , Professor Judy Mitoma
UCLA May

2008   Post Production As Choreography

Guest Lecturer for Dance For Camera, Professor Anna B. Scott
UC Riverside

2007   Dance for Camera, Gorilla Style

Guest Lecturer for Chi Pei Gan
University of Malaysia & ASWARA University of Malaysia

Two Seconds After Laughter wins Best Experimental Film Award at the Indie Grits Film Festival
Indie Grits
April 2013

Read more at http://www.indiegrits.com/film/film_festival_awards/

ODC's Pilot 62 first ever Dance For Camera with Mentor Cari Ann Shim Sham*
Mission Local
March 2013

Cari Ann Shim Sham* served as the Mentor for ODC's Pilot 62 program, overseeing six emerging San Francisco dance artists in bringing film to dance for the first time.

Read more at http://missionlocal.org/2013/03/odc-show-brings-film-to-dance-for-first-time/

Video Premiere: Kelli Scarr - "You Could Be So Great"
Paste Magazine
May 2012

Singer/songwriter Kelli Scarr is set to release her second album, Dangling Teeth, on June 5. After working and touring with Moby in 2009 and 2010, her pronounced country flair on this album establishes her as a solo artist. . . .

Read more at http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/05/video-premiere-kelli-scarr---you-could-be-so-great.html

One Day on Earth Press Kit

First offerings at the DocuWeeks documentary showcase
Los Angeles Times
August 2011

Over the next three weeks, 17 feature and seven documentary shorts will qualify for Academy Award consideration via the International Documentary Assn.'s 15th annual DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcase. . . .

Read more at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/08/first-week-documentary-films-movies-docuweeks-showcase-los-angeles.html

Update on short film SAND, which screened at AFF 2010
Austin Film Festival blog
August 2011

SAND is screening as part of Docuweeks in Los Angeles Aug 19-25, which qualifies it for Academy Award Nomination!

Read more at http://austinfilmfestival.blogspot.com/2011/08/update-on-short-film-sand-which.html

Short films showcased at DocuWeeks Film Festival Los Angeles
Examiner
August 2011

In show biz vernacular the term, "shorts" is a reference to a short film as opposed a feature length one. In the case of the 15th Annual DocuWeeks Los Angeles Film Festival, there are several short films being presented for your consideration and the underlying theme . . .

Read more at http://www.examiner.com/film-institute-in-los-angeles/short-films-showcased-at-docuweeks-film-festival-los-angeles-review

Cari Ann Shim Sham*'s Documentary About Tap-Dancing on Sand
LA Weekly Blogs
August 2011

That's L.A. tap dancer Kenji Igus, on the right, watching as his father, Darrow, releases a fistful of sand. Darrow is readying the stage for a "sand dance," . . .

Read more at http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/08/carrie_ann_shim_shams_sand_doc.php

84th Oscar Documentary Short Updates (2011-2012 Awards Season) (7/13/11)
Never Too Early Movie Predictions
July 2011

Here are today's rankings for the 84th Oscar Documentary Short race, with previous ranking shown in parenthesis after each entry.

Read more at http://nevertooearlymoviepredictions.blogspot.com/2011/07/84th-oscar-documentary-short-updates.html

Cannes 2011 - Short Film Corner Preview
IndieWIRE
July 2011

It would be fair to say that you could easily spend the whole duration of 2011 Cannes Film Festival in the Short Film Corner.

Read more at http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/archives/cannes_2011_-_short_film_corner_preview/

DocuWeeks will give 17 documentaries, 7 shorts a shot at Oscar
Los Angeles Times
July 2011

A batch of documentaries that have yet to secure theatrical distribution deals will be coming to a screen near you soon -- and will have the chance to score the ultimate filmmaking accolade: an Oscar.

Read more at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/07/docuweeks-theatrical-run-oscar-qualifying.html

FILM SAND TO HIT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL!
International Tap Association
May 2011

and will screen as a Finalist on Wednesday, May 18th at 10:30 - 12:30 in the American Pavilion Cannes Film Festival Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. . . .

Read more at https://www.tapdance.org/index.php?pid=178

SAND HEADS TO CANNES
Dance Camera West
May 2011

Local Los Angeles artist and filmmaker Cari Ann Shim Sham's short film SAND is going to Cannes! SAND was screened at Dance Camera West?s Dance Media Film Festival last year . . .

Read more at http://www.dancecamerawest.org/blog/2011/05/sand-heads-to-cannes/

OUR OWN CARI ANN SHIM SHAM* GOES TO CANNES
Topanga Film Festival
May 2011

Dance is transformative, it has the ability to change lives through bonds that are not easily altered, dance has heart. The short documentary Sand, recently selected as a Finalist in the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmakers Showcase at Cannes, tells the story . . .

Read more at http://www.topangafilmfestival.com/our-own-cari-ann-shim-sham-goes-to-cannes?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TopangaFilmFestival+%28Topanga+Film+Festival%29&utm_content=Twitter

DANCE ARTS BREAKING INTERNATIONAL NEWS: SAND to screen at Cannes
Afrologica
May 2011

Los Angeles screen dance and dance filmmakers should be absolutely beside themselves with joy at the announcement that Cari Ann Shim Sham* is headed to Cannes. Her moving short film, SAND, has been invited to screen in The American Pavillion on May 18th, 10:30 AM. What does it take to get into the final 16 at the Pavilion?

Read more at http://afrological.com/dance-arts-breaking-international-news-sand-t

Portrait of a Dinner Guest: Cari Ann Shim Sham*, One Day on Earth
Idea Project
February 2011

Cari Ann Shim Sham* serves as the coordinator and lead writer of the Educational Tool Kits for One Day on Earth. Over 400,000 students received this free kit which outlines methods for capturing images and editing film. The kits were created to . . .

Read more at http://la-ip.com/portrait-of-a-dinner-guest-cari-ann-shim-sham

deFineArtsLA Exclusive: So You Think You Can Dance With Elephants?
Fine Arts LA
May 2010

When I heard about choreographer Lionel Popkin's There's an Elephant in This Dance happening at the REDCAT this past weekend, complete with interpretive dance and elephant costumes, my imagination went wild. Dancing elephants! Sign me up!

Read more at http://www.fineartsla.com/tag/cari-ann-shim-sham

Dance Review: Lionel Popkin's 'There is An Elephant in This Dance' at REDCAT
Los Angeles Times
May 2010

Drunks allegedly see pink ones. The white ones of the species are hard to unload. Then there's the mascot of the Republican Party. We're talking elephants, those lovable beasts with steel-trap memories. . . .

Read more at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/05/dance-review-lionel-popkin-at-redcat.html

Bringing Sand to Light
February 2010

Cari Ann Shim Sham started an advanced youth tap group called the Tappa Tappa Tappas while chair of the Dance Dept. at the Culver City Academy of Visual & Performing Arts. In 2003, the academy and the group drew the attention of a young man by the name of Kenji Igus who's father "played the hambone and could sand dance" as she would later find out . . .

Read more at https://www.tapdance.org/index.php?pid=311

Artist's Bio

Cari Ann Shim Sham* is a Los Angeles based filmmaker, choreographer & video artist.

Born breech April 15, 1974, in Wilmington, Delaware, the nurse exclaimed while holding a wiggling baby Shim Sham* in her hands,

"This baby's got music in her bones!"

At the age of six, she was moved in a Tioga Motor home with a dog and two cats across the country to California with a strong memory of a large bird smashing into the windshield somewhere near the Grand Canyon. Her family briefly lived in San Francisco in a sky scraper, then in San Ramon for almost two years finally heading south to San Diego County in search of better school and weather systems.

Growing up in a house where music always played and dancing always happened, Cari Ann, with the help of her best friend Heather, began to put on elaborate home dance theater performances that included choreography, costumes and backdrops. She started piano lessons at 6 and french horn at 12 and began composing her own songs at 14. Shim Sham also discovered poetry at 12 and continues to this day to pursue the craft. She studied classical ballet, broadway tap and jazz dance at Valna Rue School of Dance from 1986 -1992 and began teaching dance at her studio and in the Poway Unified School District '90-92. She was in the marching band at Poway High School, performed lead french horn in the Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, danced in the school musicals, read poetry at the high school poetry readings as well as at the local cafe's poet slams and open mic's of Southern California while passionately embracing the wild fashion styles of the 80's and early 90's.

She came to UCLA in 1992 with a music scholarship for french horn. She started a popular poet's corner weekly reading group for the UCLA dormitories, quickly changed her major to dance in '93 and then left the country for a year to study music and dance in Ghana, West Africa, '94-95. Upon her return she continued studying West African dance with her master teacher Nzingha Camara and flamenco with Liliana de Leon- Torsiello. She performed for Carolina Mendizabal's Caribbean dance company, Bastard Company and David Rousseve's Los Angeles production of Love Songs beginning a long time collaboration. In 1997, she formed her own small dance company Bitch Co., an all female performance art/dance company which performed at underground art gallery openings, raves and Cirque du Soleil parties in Los Angeles & Las Vegas. She was also an emerging spoken word artist during this time and performed regularly at the Muse and other popular readings with the band BOG.

In the late 90's, Cari Ann began editing footage with Final Cut Pro 2 of her dance company and stumbled humbly into her film career. She made her first three films, Falling, Fly, and Riverflow in 2001, which were all screened by then fledgeling Dance Camera West. After seven years she retired her company and turned to arts education while continuing to make films and choreograph on the side. In the period of ten years she choreographed 3 plays, 4 operas and 14 musicals. During this time Cari Ann founded and chaired the Dance Department at the Culver City Academy of Visual & Performing Arts from 2000-2008, receiving the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship for her pedagogy, while also returning to UCLA in '06 to pursue an MFA.

During her three years of graduate school, Cari Ann produced nine films, and six video art installation projects. Her films began to screen internationally, winning awards, two of which became viral sensations, Are You for Real? and My 1st Big Break. During this time she studied Rhythm Tap under Lynn Dally and began a lifelong commitment to the archival of American Tap Dance.

After graduating in 2009, the International Journal of Screendance asked her to write a review of Karen Pearlman's Cutting Rhythms, for the 2010 journal. In the same year her film SAND, an experimental doc about the passing of sand dance from father to son, began its festival run which included Official Selection at the Austin Film Festival & Palm Springs Shorts Festival, Best Director at the First Glance Film Festival, Best Mini Doc at St. Louis International Film Festival, Best Short Documentary at Oxford Film Festival, finalist in the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival where it was picked up for distribution by Shorts International. SAND was selected for the prestigious Docuweeks program, which qualified the film for Academy Award Nomination.

At this time Cari Ann began work on One Day on Earth with founder and director of the project, Kyle Ruddick. Over a period of four years, Cari Ann served as Associate Producer, Additional Editor on the film and Lead Author of the Educational Toolkits that enabled students and teachers worldwide to participate in the creation of the first film made in every country of the world on 10.10.10. Editing this film involved working with over 3,000 hours of footage shot in over 50 different codecs. The film was recently released April 22, 2012, on Earth Day and screened in over 170 countries including a screening at the United Nations General Assembly; setting a world record award from Record Breakers for the largest film premiere/most screenings on the same day, and also won the coveted Vimeo Award for Social Change. www.onedayonearth.org

At the end of 2010 she traveled to Java, Indonesia, to shoot Two Seconds After Laughter, an experimental short dance film about Sri Susillowati directed by David Roussève. An original intersection of documentary, dance-for-camera, and dream-like fantasy, Two Seconds After Laughter creates a border-jumping dialogue on a universal irony: The heart longs most for the one place to which it can never fully return—home. The film has screened internationally at festivals winning Best Experimental Short at the New Orleans Film Festival and the Audience Award from San Francisco Dance Film Festival also receiving a nomination for the Jury Award by Dance on Camera Festival in NYC.

Cari Ann formerly served on the Dance Camera West screening committee for five years under Lynnette Kessler's Direction 2006-2011, and was a featured panelist speaker on "The Art of the Edit" at their 10th Anniversary conference in 2011. She is now in her fourth year of curating for the Topanga Film Festival Dance Film Showcase in Los Angeles.

Cari Ann is a passionate teacher and mentor having recently served as the first ever Dance Film Mentor for the SF ODC Pilot 62 Program. Her workshops on Dance Film have occurred in Malaysia, Java, UC Riverside and CalArts. She teaches Dance for Camera and Social Media at UCLA in the World Arts & Cultures Department, her alma mater.

Her live work has shown at the Joyce Soho, & Danspace in NYC, Dance Place: Wash DC, the Belagio: Las Vegas, Redcat, Highways Space, The Brewery, The Henry Huang Theater and Bergamot Station in Los Angeles, and film work namely at the Laemmle Sunset 7, Mann Chinese Theater, and the United Nations General Assembly as well as 60+ festivals internationally including Cannes, Seattle International Film Festival, Austin Film Festival & Docuweeks.

Cari Ann has worked closely with and been mentored by John Bishop, Roberta Shaw, Lynn Dally, Victoria Marks, Margaret Williams and David Roussève. She's currently developing video art projections for David Roussève's live dance theater work "Stardust" to premier in 2013/2014. Her video art is also touring with Lionel Popkin?s "Ruth Doesn't Live Here Anymore" through 2014. Shim Sham* is very excited about writing her first feature script, SHEETS with her writing partner Thomas Jordan which is now entering into pre-production. In her spare time she is an avid wild edible mushroom hunter, champagne drinker, poet, photographer, dreamer and doorknob collector.