U.Dance on Screen

Choreographed by: Youth Steering Group

Directed by: Youth Steering Group

Filmmaker: Fionntán Dempsey

DU Dance (NI)’s Youth Steering Group is made up of twelve young people aged 14-24 years. They meet every few months to discuss and advise on the company’s programme and attend a yearly residential to work creatively together.

The film ‘What If I Told You’ is a response to the environment crisis and DU Dance Youth Steering Groups wish to call for action. It is the result of three planning sessions and a two day film shoot at Crawfordsburn Scout Centre.

Choreographed by Pippa Fisher-Coldwell and Louise Kelsey in collaboration with the dancers.

Director: Louise Kelsey

Videographer: Christopher Spencer

Bucks Youth Dance Company is performance company that offers exceptional training opportunities and champions collaborative dance making for young dancers in and around Buckinghamshire. The company was established in 2022 in association with Bucks New University and are proud partners with Young Creative Bucks and Pips Dance Academy.

V.S. is inspired by the trailblazing activities who form the VS Collective. The film explores societal perceptions of women, the importance of advocacy, and positive change. Fuelled by Camille Rainville’s iconic poem and 80s teen-punk spirit, the dancers boldly communicate what swapping Angels for Activists means to them.

Choreographed by Hakeem Onibudo. 

Impact Dance is an award-winning art-for-social-change organisation that specialises in Hip-Hop Theatre, Street Dance and Youth Development. Founded by Artistic Director Hakeem Onibudo in 1995, Impact Dance empowers young people aged 11-19 years through dance training, mentoring, and national and international performances. The organisation’s work aims to address the inequality of opportunity to access and participate in dance, particularly by those facing long-term structural and systemic inequalities. We engage young people of diverse backgrounds – particularly those considered ‘hard-to-reach’ and ‘underprivileged’.

Voices fuses Hip-Hop, Contemporary and Spoken Word to powerful affect, exploring issues of Mental Health and Wellbeing. The piece creates a window into the private thoughts and feelings of a group of young dancers as they battle the pressures of school and home while emerging from Covid lockdowns: allowing the audience to reflect on their own Mental Health journey and to recognise that they are not alone. 

Choreographed by: Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company Dancers 

Directed by: Kennedy Muntanga and Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company Dancers

Director of Production and Editor: Becca Hunt

Composer/Musician: Bobby Demers

Produced by: Trinity Laban

Trinity Laban Youth Dance Company (TLYDC) is an auditioned group of creative, committed 12-18 year olds. TLYDC work with professional choreographers to create new work for performance.

TLYDC dancers worked collectively to devise choreography and a narrative which resonated with their own selected themes of memory, family and dementia. Working closely with the filmmaker, composer and TLYDC Artistic Director, this dance piece for film has been the creative realisation of our talented young dancers.

Choreographed by: Stewart Arnold 

Directed by: Alison Moore

Other creatives: Lily Normington

Maillot Rose School of Theatre & Dance are a small pre vocational theatre school in Leeds. This was created in the senior jazz class under the stewardship of the amazing Stewart Arnold.

George Bernard Shaw writes about the meeting of Cardinal, Bishops and Priests to congratulate Joan of Arc. After she has been elevated to Sainthood. 30 minutes to burn her, 400 years to recognise her as a Saint. And when the time comes she looks and them and says ‘Can you unburden me?’

Choreographed by: Magpie Dance

Directed by: Magpie Dance

Editor: Annie Walsh

Magpie Dance are the UK's leading dance charity working with people with learning disabilities aged 3+. Through dance, our participants gain life, social and communication skills with added health and wellbeing benefits.

Magpie Dance Adult, Youth and Junior dancers collaborated with artists from Akram Khan Company. Inspired by Jungle Book Reimagined and Animal Kingdom, they explored the movements of animals from across the globe in multiple habitats. We begin in the sea, move on to land and finish flying mid-air. “Absolutely wonderful and moving! A really beautiful encounter.” Akram Khan MBE, Artistic Director, AKC

Choreographed by: Kim Oakley-Duffill and Kayleigh Rose

Directed by: Kim Oakley-Duffill

Other Creatives: Wayne Sables

Street Beat are an urban dance group based in a rural village in North Lincolnshire. They are aged between 9-18years and are diverse in age, culture and nationality. Two of the members are part of our Young Creatives Scheme, developing their creative practice to progress into the professional industry. They have recently worked with channel 4 on a new dance TV show, out later this year.

Funded by Arts Council England, the group decided that they wanted to explore local culture. After consultation with a local historian, Robert Fish, they decided to focus on John Wesley and the ghost story surrounding his family home; The Old Rectory. With support of the management of The Rectory Museum we were able to access his diaries and base our piece around the events he noted. We were also permitted to film onsite, which really gave the young people an insight into the history of the building.

Choreographed by: Jemma Mae

Directed by: Jemma Mae

Assistant choreographers: Danni Chell, Samuel Underwood Doherty. Performed by: Elizabeth Patterson.

Film and edit by: Rhys Fagan

Representing Sheffield for this project, we are a Contemporary youth dance company inspired by a range of dance styles and our surroundings.

‘Crumble’ explores the theme of mental health, and how our own restrictions on ourselves can make us feel like we are trapped inside our heads. The dancer explores this constricted feeling through the piece, with the overwhelming feeling of wanting to break free and be at peace with herself.

Choreographed by: Guilia Bastianel and Lilly Denton

Directed by: Ellie Strain

This screen piece was made as part of a first year module on the BA (Hons) Dance degree, all three collaborators conceived, created, directed and produced the work as part of their learning.

Filmed on the De Montfort University campus, the film explores the internal and external presence of the mind seen through the eyes of one individual.