Five Short dance films, responding to the Big Dance 2016 festival’s theme Dance Decades, by selected filmmakers and choreographers will explore dance on film in a number of ways, with subjects ranging from space to sofas and dance forms from social to contemporary.
- Falling/Flying draws a parallel between the experience of older people living in isolation and those living and working in space. Visual artist Edwin Mingard, Vicki Amedume of aerial dance company Upswing and Entelechy Arts in collaboration with Satellite Films will explore technology, ageing and our physical environment.
- We Shall Trip The Light Fantastic appropriates elements from nine decades of popular dance and collages them onto a single body in unexpected ways. A collaboration between artist and moving image maker Lucy Cash, choreographer and visual artist Florence Peake and director of photography Ole Birkeland.
- To The End Of The Finger Tips is a surreal tale that shadows two women as they slip through time on a quest for freedom and fulfilment. A collaboration between filmmaker Roswitha Chesher and choreographers/performers Sophie Arstall & Elizabeth Barker.
- Big Sofa is a bizarre tale of an extended family woken suddenly by the ear-splitting sound track of the film they are watching together. A collaboration between director/choreographer Deborah Tiso, director of photography Fillipo Maria and sound designer Tim Barker.
- The Spa People, to be filmed on location in Iceland, will portray elderly visitors in surreal dance against the stark backdrop of steaming thermal pools and vast frozen mountains. The first collaboration between filmmakers Oscar Oldershaw, Joe Campbell and renowned choreographer Wendy Houstoun.
Previously, 10 dance films have been made by the collaboration between Channel 4 and Big Dance which have been screened throughout the world. This year’s Big Dance Shorts is part of the final year of Big Dance, which was originally launched by the Mayor of London in 2006.
The films will go into production this spring and will be shown on Channel 4’s Random Acts strand before going on to screenings as part of Big Dance’s nationwide programme of events during Big Dance Week from 2 to 10 July 2016.