Director's Works
Andrew Winghart is an American director & choreographer with a love for working across mediums. Andrew’s work balances scale, intricate movement and patterns, high-energy compositions, and palpable intimacy to leave an indelible mark on audiences. Commercially he has collaborated with Dancing with the Stars for their newest season of ads and his work has been recognized by the Criterion Collection, Sundance Film Festival, and SXSW among others. As a choreographer his impressive body of work spans live performances for The Academy Awards, Cirque du Soleil, The Philadelphia Ballet, and numerous global pop tours, collaborating with artists like Lorde, Solange, Billie Eilish, Muse, and Khalid. Andrew continues to push the boundaries of movement through his large-scale, self-produced films.
STEP INTO THE LIGHT originated as a live theatrical performance featuring the immensely talented pre-professional dancers of Columbia Performing Arts Center in Columbia, Missouri.
I wrote the song Step Into the Light over the same period as I choreographed the stage piece. Having worked with many of these dancers for close to a decade, they seemed different this year. Tougher and slightly more guarded, alert to the lost time of the last few unforgiving years. The vocals heard in the song are from the same performers seen in the piece, recorded after one of the rehearsal days huddled around a microphone in the corner of the studio. Out of the haze of distorted synths and brash drums, I had a choir of young voices, and instantly the world came into focus.
In adapting the piece from the stage to film, I wanted to live among this tension that had become so apparent. The softness and timidity of their voices belying their hardened, brash presentation. I reined in some of the more obvious performance elements that played to a static audience perspective, instead allowing the camera to wander and immerse the viewer into the world we had created–not just to see but to feel. Shooting in 35mm we were able to capture these details as authentically as possible.
STEP INTO THE LIGHT is at times loud, frantic–even aggressive–but my favorite moments in the piece continue to be small and organic: a vulnerable glint in the eye of featured dancer Brianna Keingatti, a slight billow in the fabric ushering in a colorful new world, a confident and controlled leap as we track the herd of performers. I hope others watching can find their own connections and, in a time of need, their own light.
