The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) is pleased to present the digital premiere of Cielo Elena, a new dance film by Omar Román De Jesús, created in part during a residency at BAC this March. The program also features De Jesús’s 2021 film Los Perros del Barrio Colosal. The online presentation is free and available to watch on demand from Monday, April 25, at 5pm ET, until Monday, May 9, at 5pm, at bacnyc.org.

Created by choreographer Omar Román De Jesús with cinematographer Xhon Dang, sound designer Jesse Scheinin, and lighting designer Christopher Chambers, Cielo Elena is a performance film that takes viewers through six movements celebrating individual and interpersonal relationships to the human body. It splays intimacy open, posing questions about ecstasy, kink, queerness, vulnerability, and risk while participating in an ongoing effort to liberate concert dance from moral rigidity, here through the durable medium of film. Performers: Michael Arellano,Rafael Cañals, Lake Escobosa, Spencer Everett, Bailey Jo Harbaugh, Margaret Jones, Rachel Secrest, and Ian Spring. Running time: 15 minutes.

Los Perros del Barrio Colosal takes us on a wild romp through the challenges of creative decision-making. Diving dramatically into the adventure of an imagination yet to be physicalized, it asks us to consider the far side of the moments when our ideas threaten, with disjointed urgency, to swallow us whole. Choreographed by Omar Román De Jesús. Cinematography by Drew L. Brown. Performers: Rafael Cañals, Carlos Sánchez Falú, Rachel Secrest, Ian Spring, Christian Warner, and Spencer Weidie. Running time: 12 minutes.