I have recently returned from gorgeous Bournemouth and my residency with Pavilion Dance South West’s COAST youth dance company.
I was approached by PDSW after their resident youth company expressed an interest in exploring video dance during one of their guest artist residencies and had collectively requested an experience whereby they were given more ownership and creative voice in the making of work.
After my brilliant time leading a dance film project for young people at the Roundhouse in 2017, I was desperate to work with a youth dance company interested in screendance practice, so this was a well-timed opportunity for all of us! Making up COAST are a group of talented young women aged between 14-19.
What was clear from the offset of working with them was their open-mindedness, creativity and eagerness to learn. What I didn’t expect was not only the quality of work they would produce during my time with them, but also their engaged insights and responses to the various existing screendance works I showed them throughout the week. Their perspective and inquisitiveness about even the most experimental of works was enriching for me, serving as a reminder as to why I love this practice so much.
With only 3 days to work with COAST and considering their desire to make their own work, the focus of my residency was to expand their knowledge and experience of the making of video dance and not to produce one completed film. We done a heap of moving, dancing, choreographing, shooting, watching and discussing and its’s fair to say we all left exhausted at the end of each day! The company embraced every task with and without cameras, indoors and outdoors and seemed to have very little inhibition working in public spaces, choosing the Bournemouth beach and promenade as the location for our collective improvisation (yasss!). The group articulated the challenges and new experiences they faced in working with dance and the camera and took away a fresh understanding of how their ideas for dance may be explored through video collaboration.
I had really interesting conversations with the girls and staff at PDSW about the ability video dance practice has in empowering people, particularly young women in such a digitally-engaged culture. It’s something I want to think and do more about…
Big thank you to everyone at PDSW for having me and especially to COAST for being a total pleasure to work with. I’m excited to see what the girls do next. Watch this space for further collaborations!
