Beijing Dance Screen, the first Chinese film festival featuring dance films, kicked off on April 16 as part of the 16th Beijing Student Film Festival and lasted three days.

On the afternoon of April 16, the festival presented a screening of four selected works from "Moving North," a collection of dance films from Scandinavia, followed by a seminar on the relationship between film and dance.

A screening of 10 local dance films was held the next day, including those by noted Chinese dancers and choreographers, such as Liu Chun and Feng Shuangbai.

Dance and film lovers took part in a workshop on Saturday and experimented with shooting short films on dancing.

The festival will have a follow-up dance film competition. All university students from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao can take part in the contest by shooting a short film on dance.

Students and teachers of Beijing Normal University initiated the Beijing Student Film Festival in 1993.

(China Daily April 21, 2009)