Recent Work
November 2011
Footfalls: A brand new Art Film by Striking Attitudes to Celebrate the Older Professional Dancer
Artistic Director and Choreographer – Caroline Lamb
Cinematographer and Editor – Luke Jacobs (recent award-winner from the Creative Review and currently shortlisted for an MTV award)
“The young, lithe body will tell us one story, but the mature, experienced and ‘lived- in’ body will tell us another – a rich and profound tale, deep and full.” – Caroline Lamb.
Footfalls is a brand new dance/art film from Striking Attitudes. It celebrates the older dancer, involving both professional dancers (aged 46-63) and a ‘chorus’ of community dancers (aged 50 to 93) from various regional groups around Wales.
Footfalls is exciting because it’s about courage, it’s about uncertainty, it’s about daring. Every one of its dancers, both professional and community, has made the choice to keep dancing when many of their contemporaries have, by this stage, chosen to give up and take other paths.
Striking Attitude’s Artistic Director, Caroline Lamb describes working with older dancers: “As a choreographer it is a joy to work with the older performer, as they have a wealth of experience and physical knowledge to draw from and there is a depth to their performance that is generally not to be found in the younger performer. Each dancer offers a unique palette of skills and a developed and assured personality that gives their work a particular colour and flavour. It informs the choreography and gives each movement meaning and adds a further layer to it.
“The older dancer is not about being ’less’ of a performer but about being a ‘different’ performer - a performer with a depth of physical knowledge and life skills that can make for compelling and fascinating performances. Older dancers have more life experience, so more ‘stories’ to tell with their physicality,” continues Caroline. “Every movement an older dancer makes is underpinned with each individual’s own life story and experience. These experiences are etched into us as an emotional and physical memory and they inform each dancer’s performance in a unique way. Because of this life experience, older dancers often have a more potent physical energy despite having less actual stamina and flexibility. They also have more considered physicality that contains gravitas and emotional power.”
Footfalls tells of the paths we choose as we journey through life, of our struggle with the elemental forces of the natural world and with our own internal passions, of our fear of the dangers of this earth and our delight in its extraordinary beauty. We are mortal, earthly beings, fragile flesh challenged by the vastness of the universe and our insignificant place within it. As travellers through this world, our existence on earth is but a brief breath in the life of a planet that has survived for aeons. We travel into the unknown. Sometimes the path ahead is hard, the journey so treacherous we fail and fall along the way. Sometimes the road is smooth and full of delights and sometimes we must part at the crossroads.
Filming of Footfalls took a year - on and off - to capture all the seasons. Cinematographer Luke Jacobs and Caroline worked as a creative pair on the filming. “Luke was fantastic to work with as he has such a great eye for movement and is so imaginative,” says Caroline. “Despite our 30 years age gap we found we gelled incredibly well in what we both wanted out of the filming process. I learnt a lot from him about what works and what doesn’t work with regard to dance and the camera. Luke learnt from me in the edit about how important meaning and emotional resonance are – so that we didn’t just end up with a series of beautiful shots.”
Striking Attitudes filmed in cold, rain, sunshine, wind and snow. The professional dancers even worked in the sea. “The older dancers seem to be game for anything,” says Caroline. “Maybe a sense of time moving on means that they are up for the next ‘adventure’ before it’s all too late!”
As a choreographer, Caroline has worked with the Striking Attitudes professional dancers who all appear in Footfalls (Caroline Bunce, Brendan Charleson, June Campbell-Davies, Dylan Davies, Janet Fieldsend, Russell Gomer, Miranda Knight, Belinda Neave and Frank Rozelaar-Green) for over 30 years. “It’s a joy because we have worked together for so long there’s a kind of shorthand that we are able to draw on – they know what I want very quickly and I know they know! It makes for a very productive, relatively relaxed and quite speedy rehearsal process.”
As a Wales-wide project, Footfalls also features mature community dancers (aged 50 – 93) from a number of regional dance groups including Cofio in Rhondda Cynon Taff, Dawns i Bawb in Caernarfon, Tan Dance in Swansea, Rhuddem in Ceredigion and Striking Attitudes Community Dancers in Cardiff.
Footfalls is a 20 minute dance/art film and is available on DVD at a cost of £10 plus postage and packing by contacting Anne Keeling, Striking Attitudes Project Manager, at anne@annekeeling.co.uk or calling Striking Attitudes at 02920-712265
July 16th 2011 – ‘The Eerie Art of Taking Tea’
Striking Attitudes a dance group in Cardiff was invited to create a piece for Taliesin’s Dance Days at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. ‘The Eerie Art of Taking Tea’ was performed by 15 professional and community dancers and actors. Caroline Lamb, the Artistic Director of Striking Attitudes describes this piece: “Mysterious, pale, veiled and fantastical Edwardian ghostly dancers sway and turn. A jolly foxtrot is heard and the ghostly dancers let their hair down”.
“The Cardiff based outfit Striking Attitudes presented a dreamlike segment called The Eerie Art of Taking Tea, an ethereal and stately work which was nothing short of magical” - Graham Williams, The Reviewer’s Chair review of ‘The Eerie Art of Taking Tea'.
July 2nd 2011 – ‘What Might Have Been' Part 2
Striking Attitudes performed ‘What Might Have Been' Part 2 for Wales Dance Platform in Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. We created work based on material taken from the film Footfalls which is to be released in October 2011. Morag Deyes, the Artistic Director of Dance Base in Edinburgh described the performance as a “dark and moody Bergmanesque work”. ‘What Might Have Been' Part 2 was performed by professionals Brendan Charleson, Janet Fieldsend, Frank Rozelaar Green and Belinda Neave. Morag Deyes, the Artistic Director of Dance Base in Edinburgh described the performance as a “dark and moody Bergmanesque work”
May 2011 – ‘What Might Have Been' Part 1
Striking Attitudes was invited by Theatre Felinfach in West Wales to choreograph a piece of work as part of an evening shared with Rhuddum, celebrating the older dancers for the Gwanwyn Festival 2011. ‘What Might Have Been Part 1’ was performed by June Campbell-Davies, Geraldine Hurl, Belinda Neave and Shirley Stansfield.
“Your performance was so moving” – Rosie Hazell, Powys Dance.
‘The Art of Taking Tea’ or ‘Illicit Liaisons’: June 2009
The Art of Taking Tea: A 1930’s tea shop – five women wait in eager anticipation for illicit liaisons that never materialise. As their unfulfilled desire turns first to disappointment and then to angst, it seems only taking of tea followed by a large plate of the sweet stuff will appease the anger of these spurned women and satiate their appetite. Five rebellious waitresses compound the chaos that ensues as each makes her own desires and cravings felt.
Community Dancers: Waitresses – Jen Angharad, Linda Bullock, Olivia Jones, Liz Harris and Geraldine Hurl. Ladies who take tea – Carol Brown, Lynn Hoare, Jill Kirkpatrick, Karen LeBeau and Shirley Stansfield.
Original 1930’s recordings with live keyboard from Julian Martin and supported by the music of Miles Behind.
“You need to go on tour. Infectious performance” – Angharad James
“Fabulous! More please” – Sara Beer
“I don’t usually attend things like these because I never know when/where to look, but I can honestly say it was great! Very entertaining performance!” – Lewis
“Great fun. Enjoyed by both audience and performers (it seemed). Well done” – Julia Martin
“Mastery of etiquette descending into mayhem brilliantly crafted. Vital, characterful dance” – Julie Barclay
Remains To Be Seen – May 2008
Remains To Be Seen is a short film celebrating the particular skills and attributes of the more mature dancer, featuring compelling, moving and intimate images set by the sea, the weathered exteriors of Caerphilly Mountain and the atmosphere interiors of Cardiff’s Victorian architecture.
Imprinted in our bodies and creating an inner and outer landscape is the map of our life’s experience. This experience and the passage of time inform our being and tell of the person we have become. As older performers we draw on this inner landscape to offer something rich and unique – something very different from the athleticism and bravado of the younger dancer.
Striking Attitudes’ film ‘Remains To Be Seen’ tells of times past, times remembered and times to come. It evokes images of the journey from innocence to knowledge, our human frailty and an increasing awareness of our fragile mortality and contrasts these with our continuing quest to find ways and means to remain potent beings who still have a voice in our youth obsessed culture.
Facts about ‘Remains To Be Seen’
8 professional dancers and 10 community dancers, age 42 to 75 took part in the making of ‘Remains To Be Seen’. Alongside the highly experienced professional dancers were some dancers from the community who had never danced before in their lives.
The professional film crew Wyndham Price, Zoran Veljkovic, Chris Buxton, Luke Jacob and Oanis Rawbone had several community film – makers working alongside them, who helped film footage for the documentary about making of the film.
19 community film-makers took part in two film-making workshops with film director Wyndham Price.
‘Remains To Be Seen’ was filmed on location at the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay, in a Victorian house in Roath, Cardiff, in the rain on Caerphilly Mountain, the sun at Dyffryn Gardens and the snow at Southerndown beach in the Vale of Glamorgan.
‘Remains To Be Seen’ was created for the Gwanwyn Festival 2008 with the support of Arts Council of Wales, Film Agency for Wales, NIACE, Age Concern Wales, and Dyffryn Gardens.
‘Remains To Be Seen’ featured the professional ghost dancers Caroline Bruce, June Campbell- Davies, Dylan Davies, Janet Fieldsend (assistant choreographer and rehearsal director), Nigel Gilvier, Russell Gomer, Miranda Knight and Frank Rozelaar-Green. The women in floral dresses were community dancers Carol Brown, Linda Bullock, Liz Harris, Geraldine Hurl, Olivia Jones, Jill Kirkpatrick, Karen LeBeau, Dilys Price, Shirley Stansfield and Diane Stanton.
Copies of ‘Remains To Be Seen’
DVD copies of ‘Remains To Be Seen’ and the documentary of the making of ‘Remains To Be Seen’ can be purchased from Striking Attitudes for a cost of £15.00 including postage and packing (within the UK).
Copies of ‘Remains To Be Seen’ can be loaned for a cost of £10.00 including postage and packing (within the UK).
For more details please contact Striking Attitudes on 02920-712-265
‘Three Parts Iced Over’ – November 2005
‘Three Parts Iced Over’ was a large scale total theatre production conceived, choreographed, written and directed by Caroline Lamb and Wyndham Price using a 75 strong cast of professional and community dancers and actors aged 7 to 70.
‘Three Parts Iced Over’ was an atmospheric work at the heart of which was the birth to death journey of a twenty first century man, Rhys Williams tragically orphaned at an early age. As his life unfold, he becomes mysterious entwined with ‘Victorian’ Catherine Helstone who lives to dance.
This production by Striking Attitudes explored the frailty and frustration of the human condition, questioned the point of human endeavour and asked what happened to the ‘long since forgotten soul of man’ in an age dominated by material greed.
“It’s excellent- so simple, so complex, so wonderful. Go and see it please. The network of emotions that runs through it is marvellous. A wonderful marriage of movement and the spoken word. It was so gripping. Everyone must go and see it.” S4C TV review of ‘Three Parts Iced Over’.
