Dance Digital is a weekend celebrating dance on screen; the first dance film festival from Sadler's Wells Digital Stage and Studio. I elected to attend the afternoon session on Saturday, 6 June, a mix of short films, documentaries, VR experiences, and films made for social media, with a feature film closing the session.
Entry is via a wristband that grants you access to the theatre; the VR experiences are booked separately via a QR code or by signing up at a manned stand. The afternoon can be organised as you wish. For me, that meant starting with the five short films in the Land, Light and Lineage collection, made up of works from Australia, the USA, the UK and Canada.
The highlight of this set was the premiere of Quiet Revolutions – New Adventures, a narrative piece celebrating ten years of the company's Overtures programme, working with community dance artists. Choreographers Cathy Waller and Nicole Spring have each created a film that highlights the personal. Motherhood, by Spring, touches on the conflict between becoming responsible for a baby and maintaining an independent life; You are also Us, by Waller, is part of a triptych of works (live show, film, exhibition) about invisibility.
All three films use movement as reaction, surrender, strength and resignation. Quiet Revolutions’s dance teacher approaches difficult moments in her life through engagement with the body, both her own actions and those of the people around her. Volunteers contribute through collective creativity. In Motherhood, the young mother finds a corner in which to explore herself beyond the labels attached to being an extension of her child. Waller uses many National Trust locations to emphasise themes of pain, power and perseverance.
The films by Garry Stewart for Australian Dance Theatre (The Circadian Cycle) and by Marcus Eriksson, Medhi Walerski and Ballet BC (Vestiges) are more abstract, exploratory and unusual. Vestiges is about connection; The Circadian Cycle is concerned with myth and community. Both tackle stories and themes that bring people together, and a kind of muscle memory that draws the dancers into a shared form.
The Social First films are played on a screen in the main café space, where two people can listen with static headphones at a time. Placing them in a social setting makes the viewing process much more informal. I caught a few of the films — it is not clear how many there are — and was particularly impressed by Hey, Siri by UnEarths Dance Company, which uses AI responses to dictate the dance moves. These films are under three minutes long and were created for smartphone screens and the rapid pace of social networking.
For the Documentary Triple Bill, a trio of very different films was assembled. Super-centenarian Eileen Kramer, who is the subject of Dance to the End by Sue Healey, died at 110. The film reflects on her work with the Bodenwieser Ballet in the 1940s and her own choreography in the 2010s. It is an absorbing portrait of a dancer who endured and continued to make art even as her body aged and failed.
In Grappling Grace, by Alexander Kiehl and Misha Novak, Iranian-British wrestler Saeed Esmaeli is the focus as he offers a route into dance for those broken and marginalised by society. The film takes a light touch with a fascinating story. In the Nigerian film AFROBUCK, Adeleye Joseph Adeniyi explores the dance style known as krump, a form rooted in battle and endurance.
The short film collection Bold by Design focuses on the individual in its first two pieces. Spain’s Carmen, by Andrew Margetson, puts young flamenco dancer Carmen Aviles in the spotlight with her vivid red tap shoes, while Finland’s KIELO takes a close look at the rhythm and attitude of Kielo Kivinen by reimagining Janina Rajakangas’ 2023 stage work Dancer in a school setting.
Until It Ran Into Me, from India, is a hypnotic and humorous film starring several pairs of feet — we never see the people attached to them — as they navigate the repeated rhythms of life and seek something more individual.
Finally, I took the opportunity to dance myself as part of the virtual reality experience Collective Body, where six people wear headsets and respond to a series of prompts (Touch, Step, Echo, Social) to build their avatar and engage with a world of stars, lights, landscapes and community. At first, you move within your own personal space, which grows as your movement defines your world, before you are encouraged to mirror others and eventually metamorphose with them.
This was a well-organised and vibrant afternoon which inspired as well as entertained. Across the films, I recall body movements, facial reactions, engagement with the world, staccato phrasing, and painting the stars. Whether you are a dance practitioner or dance curious, there is something here for you.
Dance Digital was at Sadler's Wells from 5-7 June
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