Second Hand Dance Announces Interactive, Inclusive Films

How many ways can you wear a pair of socks? How many t-shirts can you put on? What's the bounciest, swirliest outfit you can wear?

Children aged 2-7 and their grown-ups are invited into a world of swirling skirts, sashaying socks, glitter ball jackets and tumbling t-shirts. The Getting Dressed films is a series of five short dance films (which can be watched one per weekday or altogether) that transform everyday clothes into celebrations of our individuality. Set to an 80s inspired soundtrack, with a dancing background and animations that move along to the music, adults will enjoy joining in the fun too.

The Getting Dressed Films are performed by five dancers including Maiya Leeke, finalist in BBC Young Dancer 2022, who appear alongside children and their families. Created by Second Hand Dance, pioneers in screen dance for young audiences, the films are based on the company's live show Getting Dressed (which toured from 2017-19) and were made using a child-centred process.

In keeping with Second Hand Dance's inclusive ethos, the Getting Dressed films can be watched in a range of formats to meet different access needs, including British Sign Language, a plain background version with no animation and softer colours, and audio described. For the audio described version, description is provided by a specially trained group of young audio describers aged 9-11 who worked with audio describer Jenny Stewart Cosgrove to develop their own methods of audio description for dance.

Second Hand Dance's Artistic Director Rosie Heafford said "Creating the Getting Dressed Films has been a turning point for us as a company in enabling us to work with children to create access tools and developing my practice in digital dance for young audiences. We've learnt so much from the process and had a lot of fun working at DanceEast's green screen studio."

Established in 2013, disabled-led Second Hand Dance create beautiful, sensory dance experiences (both live and digital) that are accessible and welcoming to all bodies, working locally, nationally and internationally from their base in Surrey. The company's way of working is centred on co-creation and collaboration with audiences and artists from many disciplines, with the vision of creating a world where dance, empathy, play and exploratory movement are central to the lives of children and adults.

"It is silly and playful, zany and colourful - a more progressive, subversive take on clothes than you might expect" Children's Theatre Reviews on Getting Dressed (live show)

Lineup:

19 November 2022 - 10am - 12 noon
South East Dance (Part of Brighton Screen Dance Festival)
The Dance Space
2 Market Square, Circus Street, Brighton, BN2 9AS
7 Adult 3 Child
https://southeastdance.org.uk/whats_on/screentime-dance-films-play-for-kids/

7 - 20 December 2022
13 February 2023 - 5 March (exc.18 & 19 Feb)
3-23 April 2023
DanceEast
Foyer, Jerwood DanceHouse, Foundry Ln, Ipswich IP4 1DW
Free: https://www.danceeast.co.uk/

13 - 23 February 2023 - online
University Musical Society, University of Michigan
Free with registration : https://ums.org/performance/getting-dressed/

Creative Team

Performed by: Ellen Yilma, Phil Hulford & Thor Hulford, FOLU ODIMAYO, Maiya Leeke

Families & Children: Ottilie Austin, Quinn Dowling, Zion Hulford, Taiki and Sachi Kimura-Lawson, Christina May and Maya Pattullo, Nell and Marc Stevenson, Juno and Laura Whittington

From Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children: Khalid Abdi, Dolu Hassan Halil Azevedo, Matteo Costi, Helen Doran, Lily Galluzzo, Kallesta Orr, Xanti Serra-Ward, Alexia Valivacheva

Special thanks to Olive Kane, Keir Patrick, Louise Wilks, Jo Ross and all the staff at Frank Barnes School.

Directed & Edited by: Rosie Heafford
Filmed & Editing Support by: Kate Flurrie
Deputy Director: Keir Patrick
Animations: Johnny Luu
Music: James Marples & Amir Shoenfeld
Costume: Cristiano Casimiro
Dramaturg: Lou Cope
Green Screen technician: Will Monks
Deaf Access Consultant: Deepa Shastri
Deaf Music Access Consultant: Ruth Montgomery
Audio Description: Jenny Stewart-Cosgrove in collaboration with Darragh Cassidy, Katie Forshaw, Lottie Kingham, James Marsden, Sam Martin, Amelia Vernicos, Eliza Webster
Executive Producer: Claire Summerfield at Tandem Works
Assistant Producer: Olive Kane, Sophie Hack & Heather Ralph
Access Support for Rosie Heafford: Lauryn Pinard
Access Support for Maiya Leeke on location: Jack Parry

Commissioned by StreamDANCE, Led by Tandem Works, produced in association with The Place and commissioned by DanceEast, South East Dance & Pavilion Dance South West supported by Lighthouse and using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England