Wilder Project

Critically acclaimed filmmaking duo Holly and Duncan Wilder are New York City-based Wilder Project. Named by Dance Magazine as one of “nine screendance artists you should know about”, they are siblings that set the body and camera into motion to explore the relationship between our inner and outer landscapes. They create art that highlights our deep connection to each other and our earth. By bringing dance back into the spaces where we live our lives, they tell stories that reach through the screen with a visceral inclusiveness. Critics say their “raw, narrative movement vocabulary hits close to the heart.”

Wilder Project’s 20 films have screened at over 50 film festivals on 5 continents, including the acclaimed Dance Camera West, San Francisco Dance Film Festival and American Dance Festival’s Movies By Movers and venues like the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Their films have received First Place at Verve Dance Film Festival and Richmond Dance Festival, Best Narrative Short at Rethink Dance Film Festival, Best Short Dance Film at NewGrounds Dance Film Collection, Best Mini at Portland Dance Film Festival, Best Experimental at the Santiago Film Awards, Best Director and Best Cinematography at Utah Dance Film Festival, Best Choreography for a Lens at Phoenix Dance Film Festival, Audience Favorite at Opine Dance Film Festival and Philadelphia Screendance Festival, and the Downeast Award at Acadia Dance Festival. Their most screened film, “The Field”, is a selection of 26 film festivals.

Wilder Project has received music video commissions from artists like Jennah Bell, Jean Rohe, Stephanie Allen, and Bolivian pop star Luis Gamarra, as well as a film commission from Berklee School of Music. The company has also performed live at Battery Dance Festival, CURRENT SESSIONS, the Boston Conservatory, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and INSITU Site Specific Dance Festival. They were 2020 Artists In Residence at the Balance Arts Center in Manhattan, and they have been featured in Dance Magazine, The Boston Globe, Arts Atlanta, Curve Magazine, The Dance Journal, and Cultural Weekly.

CO-FOUNDERS

HOLLY WILDER

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR / CHOREOGRAPHER

Holly is a Brooklyn based choreographer, filmmaker, and performing artist. Beginning her formal dance training at the age of 3 in Westport, Connecticut, she went on to be mentored by Alicia Graf at the Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis, Missouri, later receiving their Distinguished Alumni Award. She holds a BFA in Contemporary Dance with an emphasis in choreography from The Boston Conservatory, and is a recipient of the Jan Veen and Julie Ince Thompson scholarships and the Alumni Award for Academic Achievement.

Alongside her dance film and choreography work with her company Wilder Project, Holly performs professionally. Some of her recent credits include the national tour of Debbie Allen’s musical Brothers Of The Knight, A Chorus Line with Compass Rose Theater, West Side Story with SummerStage at Leonia, Beauty and the Beast with Broadway Palm, and Grease with Royal Caribbean International. Throughout her career she has also performed work by Anthony Tudor, Robert Battle, Paul Taylor, Trey McIntyre, Chet Walker, Camille Brown, and Karole Armitage, among others.

Holly spent two years on the jury of the LA Dance Film Festival. She is 1,000 hours into her training as an Alexander Technique teacher under the direction of Ann Rodiger. She is also a leader in her local peer counseling community. Holly centers her life around healing, connection, and the fight for human liberation, whether it be through her art making, listening, awareness-based bodywork, or other forms of creative action. hollywilder.com

DUNCAN WILDER

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Duncan lives in St. Louis where he works at his alma mater, Principia College, as the athletic department's Sports Information Director (head of sports media). He has a diverse background in filmmaking that includes wedding videography, music videos, documentaries, commercial work, and script supervising. His film projects have been selected to numerous international film festivals.

DANCE ARTISTS