South Yorkshire film maker Wayne Sables has taken dance into the Peak District for a new film project.
Alone, which was filmed at popular Derbyshire locations Fox House and Padley Gorge, is the first of a series of short works exploring the power of dance in natural open spaces.
It 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, Sables, Jubb and production manager Charlotte Armitage spent just one evening filming.
With the three-and-a-half minute film now ready for screening, there are plans to take it to several film festivals nationally, including the London Short Film Festival.
Doncaster-based Sables said: “The early stages of the project were in development just as the Coronavirus lockdown started and that really delayed things. But it became increasingly clear 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.
“It’s where South Yorkshire people go for days out, it’s where I went as a child with my parents and it’s where I take my own children now – and it’s not where you would expect to find the location for a piece of dance.
“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.
“I’d love to work with Mason again as he brought so much to the process. Derbyshire provided the ideal setting for this first piece but now I want to explore as many locations as possible.”
