Ohio: A State of Dance (2021)
Broadcast Documentary 26:24 trt

Statewide documentary tracing Ohio’s diverse dance ecosystems, companies, and historical legacies.

Premiere screening, OhioDance Festival 2021

Statewide PBS broadcast, 3 year contract run: WPTD, WOSU, WCET, WVIZ

Nominated for an Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Award in Arts & Entertainment Content

Ohio: A State of Dance is based on The OhioDance Virtual Dance Collection’s first ten selected dance developments that anchor the collection. Created by women, the documentary springs from an analytical perspective on the social and political climate of the times it features, highlighting the ways that historical tides have influenced artistic expression, observing how Ohio’s dance has intersected with the women’s movement, civil rights, and disability rights, among other trends. Sourcing from the significant breadth of work generated, the film manifests visual representations of the power dynamics within the historical account. A strong narrative of women’s leadership emerges, exposing a recursive and organic trajectory through which women in the dance field have built influence and purpose on their own terms, in concert with the grassroots support of other stakeholders. Through oral history interviews, dance footage, archival materials and photos, a rhizomatic pattern of growth emerges among the contributions of Ohio’s important dance figures from the twentieth century to the present, offering context for how and why these individuals rose to historical significance as leaders and pioneers in a unique local, national and international cultural landscape.

We dedicate this film to the memory of Lucy Dent Venable.

Research Framing

Ohio: A State of Dance (2021) is a broadcast documentary that investigates how documentary form can function as movement-adjacent public scholarship, translating embodied dance knowledge into accessible, historically grounded media for broad audiences. The core research inquiry asks: How can documentary storytelling operate as a scholarly method for preserving, interpreting, and disseminating dance history in ways that honor embodiment, community context, and cultural lineage?

The project approaches documentary not as a neutral record but as an interpretive research practice. Dance history is constructed through narrative framing, editorial structure, and the careful selection of voices, materials, and temporal rhythms. Rather than prioritizing spectacle or performance capture alone, the documentary foregrounds oral history, archival context, and reflective commentary, positioning movement as culturally situated knowledge that extends beyond the stage.

Methodologically, the research combines oral history interviewing, archival research, and narrative media production. Interviews with artists, educators, and cultural leaders function as primary research sources, capturing embodied memory and experiential knowledge that often remains absent from traditional archives. These interviews are contextualized through curated archival materials—photographs, footage, and historical documentation—woven into a narrative structure that balances scholarly rigor with public accessibility. Editorial decisions regarding pacing, juxtaposition, and voice-over narration operate as analytical tools, shaping how movement history is understood and remembered.

The outcomes of the project demonstrate documentary’s capacity to function as scholarly dissemination. Ohio: A State of Dance was distributed through public television broadcast across multiple PBS-affiliated stations, reaching statewide and regional audiences. The documentary received an Ohio Valley Regional Emmy nomination for Arts & Entertainment, signaling peer recognition within professional media contexts. Beyond broadcast, the film has been used in educational settings and public programming as a resource for teaching dance history, cultural context, and media literacy.

This research matters to dance and media education because it models documentary as a rigorous, ethical, and scalable research methodology. It demonstrates how movement-based knowledge can be preserved and communicated through narrative media without reducing dance to visual artifact alone. By situating documentary practice within scholarly inquiry, the project expands how dance research can circulate beyond academic institutions while maintaining methodological integrity.

Methods

This documentary research employs a practice-based methodology that integrates historical inquiry, oral history, and narrative media production to translate embodied dance knowledge into accessible public scholarship.

  • Oral History Interviewing
    The project centers first-person interviews with artists, educators, and cultural leaders as primary research sources. Interview protocols emphasize embodied memory, lived experience, and reflective narration, capturing knowledge that often remains undocumented within institutional archives.

  • Archival Research and Curation
    Historical photographs, performance documentation, and archival records were researched, selected, and contextualized to situate individual narratives within broader cultural and historical frameworks. Archival materials function as analytical evidence rather than illustration, supporting historiographic interpretation.

  • Narrative Structure as Analysis
    Editorial sequencing, pacing, and thematic organization were treated as analytical tools. Narrative construction was used to synthesize multiple voices and historical moments, shaping how movement history is interpreted and understood by public audiences.

  • Movement-Adjacent Representation
    Rather than relying solely on performance footage, the documentary employs movement-adjacent strategies—such as voice, gesture, spatial context, and reflective commentary—to convey embodied knowledge and cultural continuity.

  • Public Broadcast Dissemination
    The documentary was developed for public television distribution, using broadcast standards and audience accessibility as part of the research methodology. Broadcast circulation functions as a mode of scholarly dissemination and public engagement.

  • Peer Recognition and Review Contexts
    Festival and broadcast review processes, including regional Emmy nomination, served as external evaluative contexts, contributing feedback and professional validation to the research cycle.

Production Team Ohio: A State of Dance trt 26:24

Oral Historian, Writer
M. Candace Feck, Ph.D.

Executive Producer
Jane D’Angelo

Editor, Videography, Archival Media Management, Motion Capture performance
Jessica Cavender

Narrator
Rodney Veal

Videography
Megan Davis-Bushway

Animation
Taylor Olsen

Audio Mixing
Pat Ward

Motion Capture Specialist
Vita Berezina-Blackburn