THURSDAY 14 OCTOBER 2021
19:00 – 20:00 BST Programme launch as part of DanceLive
Livestream worldwide online and in-person direct from Anatomy Rooms (Lecture Theatre), Aberdeen
20:00 – 20:30 BST Live Q&A as part of DanceLive
Livestream worldwide online and in-person direct from Anatomy Rooms (Lecture Theatre), Aberdeen with Katrina McPherson facilitated by Hayley Durward, Roisin O’Brien and Iliyana Nedkova with BSL (British Sign Language) interpretation by Lesley Crerar
Following this festival launch, the programme There is a Place and the recorded Q&A continue to stream in-person and online as part of DanceLive:
15 – 16 OCTOBER 2021 Daily 1pm – 5pm The Anatomy Rooms (Lecture Theatre) in-person
17 OCTOBER 2021 12 noon – 4pm The Anatomy Rooms (Lecture Theatre) in-person
15-30 OCTOBER 2021 at all times on demand worldwide online
BOOK YOUR DANCELIVE ONLINE PASS HERE & USE THE CODE DLLTO21 TO CLAIM 25% OFF
There is a Place is one of the four curated programmes of Scottish short dance films selected to be presented at DanceLive 2021 Festival. This programme is a celebration of the cultural legacy of Simon Fildes (1962-2021) featuring eight short screen dance works which he directed, co-directed, co-produced or edited. It takes its title from Simon’s all time favourite, ‘breakthrough’ screen dance work There is a Place (2010), which is showing alongside Pace, Moment, The Time it Takes, Six Solos, Trio for a Quartet, Uath Lochans, Coire Ruadh. Join us for the post-screening live conversation with director Katrina McPherson with whom Simon worked for 20 years.
Iilyana Nedkova Curator
PROGRAMME
Pace 1996 4.37 min Scotland Katrina McPherson, Director and Simon Fildes, Editor
Fast-paced rhythm. A dancer moves, breathes, sweats, falls, stops, starts again. Her intense gaze draws us in with every turn of her head. Relentless speed is punctuated with moments of tension-filled calm.
Pace was first broadcast on BBC2 in 1996 as part of the BBC/Arts Council of Great Britain’s ‘Dance for the Camera’ series and was screened widely internationally since.
Choreographer/Dancer: Marisa Zanotti Music: Philip Jeck Director of Photography: Jerry Kelly Production Managers: Philippa Atterton and Angie Daniell Online editor: Jim Alisson Production Trainee: Sue Cox Gaffers: Michael Carr and Donny Campbell Executive Producers: Rodney Wilson and Bob Lockyer Producers: Anne Beresford and Margaret Williams
Moment 1998 7.28 min Scotland Katrina McPherson, Director and Simon Fildes, Editor
Two women in a space. Dancing. Their relationship moves through different moods and states revealing their characters through fragments of action. The significance of the moment, whether solitary or between them, is explored as time is slowed down, stretched, speeded up, repeated and stopped.
In the memory of the young dancer and filmmaker Michele Fox (1967-1997) who died at the age of 30 from cancer. The film was commissioned by her family and is a tribute to her passion for making innovative dance for the screen.
Dancers: Anna Young and Jennifer Patterson Movement director: Paula Hampson Camera: Neville Kidd Soundtrack: John Cobban
There is a Place 2010 7.26 min Scotland/China Katrina McPherson, Director, Co-producer and Camera Simon Fildes, Editor and Co-producer
Filmed on location in Glenferness and Dava, the Highlands of Scotland in May 2010, this video dance resonates with the emotional lyrics of I Just Wanted to Know from Philip Jecks’ album Surf and represents the first successful transition from interior to exterior for the creative duo Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes.
Dancer: Sang Ji Jia Music: Philip Jeck Dubbing Mixer: John Cobban Co-producer: Raymond Wong
The Time it Takes 2012 11 min Scotland Katrina McPherson, Co-director, Co-producer and Camera Simon Fildes, Co-director, Co-producer and Editor
Shot on location on the Isle of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, this screen dance work embodies ‘the time it takes to arrive, to live, to make a land, to find, to fall, to settle in, to work, to build, to seize the day, to journey, to be happy, to make a story, to dance, to pick up the pieces, to laugh, to sing a song, to love, to grow, to bury the dead, to lose, to uncover the past, to walk, to imagine the future, to leave and to return’.
Dance artists: Rosalind Masson, Simon Ellis and Dai Jian Music: David Lintern and James Weaver 1st Assistant Director and digital workflow: Sabine Klaus Production Assistants: Ben Estabrook and Tanja London Production Runner: Mairi Thomson Seamstress: Ciorstaidh Monk Colour grade and mastering: Jim Allison Dubbing mixer: John Cobban
Music tracks: Firehills and Mont E by warriorsquares.co.uk
Uath Lochans 2014 7.15 min Scotland Katrina McPherson, Co-director and Camera Simon Fildes, Co-director and Editor
Shot on location at Uath Lochans, Glen Feshie, Invernessshire in Scotland, it features a solo dancer who embodies the landscape by performing a physical and visceral dissection of the place.
Dancer and Co-director: Marc Brew Music: David Lintern and James Weaver Producer: Peter Royston Access: Melanie Wilson
Coire Ruadh 2015 10 min Scotland Katrina McPherson, Co-director, Co-producer and Camera Simon Fildes, Co-director, Co-producer and Editor
How can we define wilderness on the map? How can we articulate the borders, zones and differing perceptions of wild land through cartography, choreography and cinematograhy?
Shot at three different times of the year on location in The Cairngorms near Glen Feshie in Scotland, a trio of dancers demarcate the mapped border between ‘wild land’ and ‘not wild land’. A path to Sgorr Goaith winds up through beautiful mature Scots Pine on the Invereshie National Nature Reserve next to the Allt Ruadh and soon opens out in the borderland of Coire Ruadh.
“Like any psychological or physical transition, these borders between wild and not wild for most people are all about a feeling. The very personal response is the most important thing. The stepping over an invisible threshold where the shoulders relax and you smell the pine in the air, catch a glimpse of a red squirrel, watch wood ants wrestling on sun warmed rock, step over the raptor torn remains of a Ptarmigan, and lie down in the heather and stare at the clouds for a while thinking about nothing in particular. Designating lines on the map are the necessary part of defending that moment for all of us.” Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes
Dancers: Ruth Jansen, Robbie Synge and Frank McConnell Advisors: Rob McMorran and Martin Price
Six Solos 2015 6.30 min Scotland/China Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes, concept Simon Fildes Director and Editor
Individual performances or communal expression? Six dancers perform carefully choreographed solos which gradually blend into an ensemble. The music builds and the choreography develops as they interact and the film cuts between their solos to a unison performance finale.
Performers: Huen Tin-yeung, Li Yong Jing, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Wu Cheng Fang, Gigi Yang, and Yang Hao Choreographer: Sang Jijia Composer: Dickson Dee Cinematographer: Lai Wing-cheong Set Design: Leecat Ho Production: Miranda Li Producer: Raymond Wong
Trio for a Quartet 2017 3 min Scotland Simon Fildes, Director, Camera and Editor
A dance trio for a quartet of ‘natural voices’ and a double bass in response to the ‘natural movement’ dance system developed by Margaret Morris (1891-1980) using the body’s natural opposition points. The music composition The Incredible Brightness of Being leads the choreography into a frenzy of natural movements and voices.
Dancers: Laura Simmons, Kasumi Momoda and Jifeng Zhu Choreography by Vincent Hantam and Wendy Timmons Music composition: Debra Salem Voice artists: Karen Dietz, Debra Salem, Rachel Lightbody and Irene Railley Double Bass: Tam Hardy Sound design: Patrick Dalgety Restaging for camera: Wyn Pottraz Camera Assistant: Chin Peng Lucas Kao Co-producers/Co-curators: Iliyana Nedkova and Wendy Timmons
DID YOU KNOW
Simon Fildes final project Do you mind can I ask you…(what happened to your legs)? which is supported by Creative Scotland, Eyebolls, Cagoule, Goat Media and a community of 139 backers is being completed later this year. It is a semi-narrative moving image work that reflects on what it’s like to experience having a progressive degenerative condition.
For further details about Do you mind can I ask you…(what happened to your legs)? please contact Wyn Pottratz at Goat Media info (at) go-at.co.uk.
