Barbara Copithorne began filming the dancers at Burncoat High School in the spring of 2009. Her camera followed their schooldays for five years and then beyond graduation into their young adult lives.
Her visual storytelling started after a twenty-year career as a book and magazine editor in New York City, San Francisco, and Boston. When her first child was born in 1989, she picked up a 16-mm camcorder and began a second career as videographer and documentarian.
While attending Boston University’s Center for Digital Imaging Arts (Waltham, MA), she began professional work ranging from filming school performances and weddings to producing corporate web spots, nonprofit advocacy videos, video montages and documentaries. Combining a trained editor’s eye and keen attention to detail, she is passionate about bringing all kinds of stories to life.
In that spirit, she embarked on telling the story of the Burncoat public-school dance program created by former Rockette Joan Sheary. This program is a shining example of arts education at work, and Barbara has felt that, if she could capture its magic on the big screen, other schools in the country could adopt or adapt it for their own students.
