I ended the summer on a high last Friday, wrapping up the final day of leading a 2-week dance film project at the prestigious Roundhouse.

The project targeted young people aged 14-19 years old with experience or an interest in music, film, movement or spoken word/poetry, focusing on skills development in their art form, collaboration and creation of a dance film (two to be precise!).

Our process was driven by ideas taken from the mesmerising immersive installation +/- Human by Wayne McGregor and Random International, which we visited on the first day. Supported by a brilliant team of artist tutor’s, the group started building creative responses based on key themes such as:

Conformity / Interaction / Routine / Control / Perfection / Alien

It was an intense and exciting two weeks leading the young people, as they challenged themselves to understand the nature of experimental film production and as they got to grips with modes of collaboration to create work which truly embodies a synthesis of art forms.

The group got to share their experiences and final films The Real Aliens Are Us & Spectrum with a jam-packed audience in the Summer Show, which also acted as a celebration of the two weeks and a farewell to the incredible young people and artist team. Whilst the final product of this project was not our focus, the films the young people produced exceeded my expectations – they are incredibly avant-garde, creative and considered pieces of work that capture both innocence and skill in dance filmmaking.

It was an honour to have worked at a venue such as the Roundhouse, particularly to share my love for dance film and eagerness to engage young people further in it’s creation!