Shifting Tides

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Filmed in the Yorkshire village of Farsley at Sunny Bank Mills, Shifting Tides is Ascendance’s latest dance work. The mill – situated in the Artistic Director’s local community – has become a place of inspiration for a range of professional and community dance works for Ascendance, with choreography drawing on its rich industrial history and regeneration over time.

Shifting Tides evolved through a series of improvised sessions with dancers both during and after lockdown. In a time when we yearned for the sea and travel, when movement was limited and thoughts were scattered, we made connections with each other and with our immediate environments – from the soil in our gardens to the litter and rotten waste that was left behind. Reflecting on our human footprint, and our role within it, we shifted our vision to faraway lands, where we waited and watched the majestic icebergs crashing into the sea. We became more aware and suddenly so small.

The beautiful sounds of the Shanty music, composed by Laura Rossi, conjure up a sense of rapid motion, with rain and melting ice swirling around the land, engulfed by the raging elements at sea. The dancers shift from side to side and try to find a way to stay afloat.

Directed by Rachel Wesson and produced and filmed by Devon Armstrong with choreography from the Ascendance Dancer’s Izzy Brittain, Emma Clayton and Natalie Haslam.