Take a look at this month’s amazing list of dance films to watch from the comfort of your living room. This month’s selection are a celebration of dancing in later life. If they inspire you to move, why not join our Dancing to the Music of Time classes or Performance Company (Adults).
Dance Documentary
1. Taken by the Hand
Photographer and Filmmaker Tom Sloan directs a heartwarming film with the beauty and wisdom of age and experience at its centre. Choreographed by Elizabeth Arifian, dance becomes the vehicle through which the ideas and feelings of the five individuals are explored. An unapologetic account of life and its journey, set to the background of Tottenham, London.
Dance On Screen
2. Longevity in Dance: Elixir on Digital Stage
In October, Sadler’s Wells released a collection of short films dedicated to challenging perceptions of dance and age.
Highlights include a feature-length documentary that follows Malou Airaudo (Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch) and Germaine Acogny (École des Sables, Senegal), both dancers in their 70s, as they prepare to perform their last performance of an epic tour. Plus a short film by Ana Gonzalez which takes a look at legendary Flamenco artist José Losada Santiago, AKA Carrete: The Gypsy Fred Astaire.
Take a look at the trailer and then watch the full collection.
In Case You Missed It
3. Damn Fine Dance - It's Only Ever Now
Inspired by Kae Tempest’s spoken word, this film by Damn Fine Dance won the Silver Award from Pavilion Dance South West’s Joie de Vivre Short Dance Film Competition in 2016.
Feature Length
4. EncoreEast - Focus
DanceEast’s over-50s performance company EncoreEast worked with Alethia Antonia and Edd Arnold from Russell Maliphant Dance Company to create Focus, a work inspired by the company’s production Silent Lines.
Created in Quarantine
5. Dance Six-0 - In Our Own Time
Lockdown might feel like a distant memory now but we are still uncovering gems of creativity that came out of that difficult time in all our lives. Dance Six-0 are a Salisbury based performance company who, like many, took their work online during the pandemic. Here they perform In Our Own Time, where company members experimented with different moves in different spaces in their homes.
