Director & Creative Producer
aka. a writer who directs, a director who edits,
a producer who acts, a dancer who choreographs
Bio
Award-winning filmmaker Dana Sokolowski is known for bringing dance as a language to the cinematic screen. Her short film, Who Sits Beside Us in The Bath, was awarded Best Georgia Film by Atlanta Women’s Film Festival, Best Original Score by Georgia Shorts Festival, and premiered at Dance Camera West (LA) and Boreal Screendance Festival (Iceland).
Dana is also a keen producing partner, developing and pitching ambitious, executable projects grounded in purpose as well as production reality. She has produced over 100 episodes of unscripted television, Super Bowl commercials, and films seen across the world for Fortune 500 companies at a top creative agency. Her films have launched non-profits, procuring $2 million in funding and starting movements for social change.
Her choreography builds from improvisation and blends street and contemporary styles with global influences. Dana can be seen in Step Up: Highwater Season 2 and an upcoming feature, choreographed by Kat Burns. She’s trained with industry moguls Sean Bankhead, Chris Grant, Jamaica Craft, Dave Scott, Brian Friedman, Fullout Cortland, Kiki Ely and more as a company member with Xcel Studios, premiere talent agency of the southeast, and is currently co-captain for Thee Haus of London company under Lyrik London. Her performance studies have now taken her into acting, training in scene study intensives with Acts of Freedom in Atlanta under Malik Ali.
An award-winning writer and poet, Dana credits books as her first love. Her fiction and poetry is respected by Sir Salman Rushdie and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jericho Brown whom she worked with on her poetry collection “Ground.” Dana received her Bachelors in Creative Writing/English and Film Studies from Emory University in 2015, graduating Magna Cum Laude.
AWARDS
Best Georgia Film, Atlanta Women’s Film Festival
Best Original Score, Georgia Shorts Festival
Best Performances, Experimental Dance & Film Festival (LA)
Official Selection, Dance Camera West (LA)
Official Selection, Boreal Screendance Festival (Iceland)
Artistine Mann Award in Poetry
Annie Hall Writing Award
PRESS
Voyage ATL | Story and Lesson Highlights
ARTS ATL | Review: Dance Canvas showcase
Shoutout ATL | Meet Dana Sokolowski
Voyage ATL | ATL’s Most Inspiring Stories
For Bookings, contact: danasokolowski@gmail.com
I felt pursuing anything other than the deepest truth of our souls was a waste.
Why I create
When I was a child, I wanted to be an author and a Spice Girl (still true). I wrote stories before I knew how to read. I cartwheeled everywhere I went. I launched myself off of stages. My world was both a fantasy and an amphitheater.
Today, as it was then, my commitment to play is driven by my desire for connection and belonging among strangers. I trust that people have a desire to share themselves, be heard and seen, to play and be celebrated—and I encourage that.
My life is about creating hypnotic worlds of raw feeling. I want people to explore their imaginations and emotions, to break out of tired structures that don’t serve them and bring them joy. I want people who have been told their whole lives to look and act and feel one way, to get to choose who they want to be that day.
Inherent in diversity is a vast creativity and imagination, capable of producing what no one can fathom alone. To create dream worlds of safety and belonging means that every individual can find freedom to express themselves and empowerment in identity and community. That is my goal.
Contact dana to get creating.