Feb 02 2021: Peak District lockdown dance film to be screened at major film festival

SOUTH Yorkshire film maker and multi media specialist Wayne Sables has had his lockdown dance film Alone selected for screening at the North Europe International Film Festival London Edition.

Alone was filmed at popular Derbyshire locations Fox House and Padley Gorge at the height of the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

Running at just 3.5 minutes, the film features Leeds-based dancer Mason Jubb, a graduate of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and a company dancer with Black Box Dance Company in Denmark.

With just a camera and two strip lights for equipment, Wayne and Mason - along with production manager Charlotte Armitage - spent just one evening filming the piece that Mason had choreographed himself, capturing his movement on film as the summer darkness fell.

The film will now be screened at the North Europe International Film Festival London Edition, which runs from March 20 to 27, one of the four festivals presented annually by Fusion International Film Festivals.

“The early stages of this project were in development just as the Coronavirus lockdown started so it really was born out of the pandemic and made use of the limitations we all faced and continue to face,” said Wayne.

“It became increasingly clear to me that a single dancer filmed in a remote location in the evening was the perfect project for these times as the whole process was entirely COVID-safe.

“I am really interested in the idea of placing a single body in an unusual location, working with the location and with nature to create a piece that is both emotionally and visually challenging.

“Derbyshire is right on the doorstep and it’s a great dramatic spaces within 15 minutes of Sheffield city centre so it made the ideal choice for Alone.

“We did it with just one camera, two strip lights and one more light which on paper shouldn’t sound possible but we proved it is.

“To now have the work recognised on the festival circuit far exceeds anything we imagined could be achieved when we headed into the Peak District to start filming.”

Alone is the first of what Wayne intends to become a series of short works exploring the power of dance in natural open spaces.