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Navajo President's office to co-host Navajo ballet dancer film premier PDF Print E-mail
Aug 16, 2007 at 12:08 AM
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Photo by Gwendolen Cates
Office of the Navajo President/Vice President co-hosts film premier recognizing life work of Navajo ballet dancer

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – The Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President will co-host the local screening of Water Flowing Together, a documentary film about Navajo/Puerto Rican ballet dancer Jock Soto.

The screening will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16, at the Navajo Nation Museum auditorium.

“It is great that this film is going to premiere on Navajoland, and it is with a good notion that Navajo people have a role model like Jock,” Vice President Shelly said. “I am going to be there because I support his efforts to inspire this generation with a different culture outside the Nation, while continuing to maintain our own Navajo tradition.”

Jock Soto is a star of the New York City ballet who retired after a 25-year career with the company. The film traces the course of Mr. Soto's career, and reveals the personal story of this American artist.

Themes of family, identity, and transition are explored within the context of the story of Mr. Soto's life as a dancer. Previews of the film are at www.waterflowingtogether.com.

In June, the film premiered at AFI/Discovery Channel Silverdocs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland, the top documentary festival in the country. According to filmmaker Gwedolen Cates, the film will be aired nationally on the Public Broadcasting Service as part of the Independent Lens program.

“We are really excited to share this film with the Navajo Nation,” she said. “It was important to both Jock and I that the Navajo people have a chance to see the film and celebrate this time with Jock and his family.”

Both Ms. Cate and Mr. Soto will attend the film’s opening in Santa Fe, N.M., on Friday, Aug.17, when it is featured in the Native Cinema Showcase. Their being in the Southwest allowed them time to have a Navajo Nation screening of the film.

Other articles on Jock Soto:

http://nativeout.com/content/view/199/55/
http://nativeout.com/content/view/42/55/

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