Past Festivals
Our Mission
The Lights Dance Festival aspires to celebrate dance storytelling in its diversity and endless possibilities through the cinematic medium and live performance. With a vision of making dance more accessible to all, we strive to provide excellent programming of international and local screendance and live dance each year.
As a not-for-profit which values and celebrates independent art and interdisciplinary collaborations, Lights Dance is committed to building sustainable relationships and infrastructures through which we can support artists of all backgrounds. Lights Dance wants to make dance more accessible to all.
Our vision is to create a safe space for those who want to learn and encounter dance in a fresh way whilst providing a platform on which underrepresented artists can collaborate and showcase their work. With the belief that dance is a connecting force, capable of forging new relationships and hope, we strive for ways to evolve and increase our community engagement. We are a Seattle-based not-for-profit community initiative looking to build connections and make space for vibrant dance cultures.
If you would like to work with us, please send us an email.
History
Lights Dance Festival began with its inaugural event held at the Drake Hotel in Toronto on June 18th, 2017. A collaboration with Momentum Dance Toronto, we opened to a full house and offered a hybrid program that interweaved cinematic and live-dance components. After three vibrant years in Toronto, Lights Dance relocated to Seattle in September 2020. The Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) has been its main collaborator since 2021.
2026 Staff
Sarah Choi
Executive Director
Sarah Choi is an independent Korean-Canadian filmmaker born in Seoul, currently based in Seattle. Growing up in various cities in Korea, America, and Canada, Sarah developed a nomadic sense of identity and a passion for diversity, art, and justice. After graduating from university with a degree in Biology, she made a leap of faith by moving to New York City to study documentary filmmaking. Sarah won the Best Director Award at the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival in 2012 and Best Documentary Film at the 2020 Davis Feminist Film Festival. She recently produced Shanawdithit VR in collaboration with Tapestry Opera and directed Bird, Man, Water (2021).
Neve Lin
Festival Coordinator
Neve is a Cinema and Media Studies student at the University of Washington, who dabbles a bit in visual content creation and performative arts. She strongly believes in the power of community and is an active member of the local film and dance scene. Additionally, she enjoys advocating for the intersectionality between arts and sciences, which she plans on continuously exploring postgraduate.
Bella Sandwith
Development
Bella is a senior at the University of Washington studying Communication with a minor in Business. With an interest in marketing, community engagement, and relationship building, she enjoys finding creative ways to connect people with meaningful experiences. She is excited to be part of the 10th Annual Lights Dance Festival and help support its mission of celebrating independent artists and making dance more accessible to the community.
Ceci Ayres
Design
Ceci is a Junior at the University of Washington, pursuing a double degree in Visual Communication Design (VCD) and Communications, as well as a minor in Business. As a designer, she is familiar with the power of visual media and has enjoyed learning about screendance through the Lights Dance Festival. In her free time you can find her at the thrift, gaming at home, or designing for The Daily and The Basement, two UW student organizations.
2026 Festival Sponsors
