Midlands Made: Screendance Film Commissions
We are excited to announce the appointees of the Midlands Made Screendance Film Commission.
BIDF TV will feature a varied programme of dance on screen, including new commissions, workshops, masterclasses and panel discussions. Commissioned by DanceXchange, and produced by Motion Dance Collective, there will be two major screendance films and six shorts that will receive their world premieres at the festival.
Don’t Play with L(Kn)ives by Brooke Milliner
Brooke Milliner is best known as the choreographer and lead dancer of Plague, winner of two Hip Hop International World Championship titles; and as Co-Director of Fiya House – the UK’s leading Popping collective. His new film ‘Don’t Play with L(Kn)ives’ is an original Hip Hop Screendance piece that explores knife crime in the UK. Bringing together some of the UK’s finest Hip Hop dancers, a live violinist & a spoken word artist. ‘Don’t Play with L(Kn)ives’ will shine a light on this taboo aspect of British culture – sharing untold stories to deliver a poignant message to young people.
Watch Brooke’s latest choreographies
Brooke Milliner said:
“I’m very grateful and excited to be working on this project with DanceXchange and Motion Dance Collective, to see my vision come to life. I feel the message of the piece is very important and reflects what’s happening unseen in our communities. It’s a great opportunity to shed some light on this area and hopefully leave a lasting impact on those who watch it.”
Anywhere’s A Dance Floor by Jason Guest & Fatt Butcher
‘Anywhere’s A Dance Floor is a new collaboration between choreographer Jason Guest and drag artist & cultural producer Fatt Butcher.
Through celebrating the creativity, resilience, and fierce spirit of Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ nightlife community this new work is an invitation to the city to create their own dance floors anywhere and everywhere!
Fatt Butcher commented:
‘We are overjoyed to receive this commission and to create new dance film with celebrates the tenacity and spirit of Birmingham’s incredible LGBTQ+ nightlife community. After the pandemic shut down queer spaces overnight, we’re particularly proud to bring queer dance culture out into the open’.
The Motion Dance Collective
Award-winning Screendance production company, The Motion Dance Collective (The MDC), was founded in 2011 by director and choreographer, Omari ‘Motion’ Carter. The MDC has gained worldwide recognition as a production company that produces thought-provoking work combining dance and moving image, using the hybrid practice that is screendance to tell relevant stories with dance and the screen.
The MDC projects have been screened across the UK and internationally including Loikka Dance Film Festival (Helsinki, Finland), Cinedans Dance on Screen Festival (Amsterdam, Netherlands) British Urban Film Festival (London, UK), Lightmoves Festival of Screendance (Limerick, Ireland) and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival (U.S.A), to name a few.
The MDC’s short film ‘End of the Block’ won the UK Screendance Award at Perth Screendance Festival and the short body percussion film ‘Ease on Down’ was a finalist in the Best Soundtrack category of the My Røde Reel – Short Film Competition.
Omari Carter said:
What an undiluted pleasure to get the opportunity to commission two very exciting and varied projects for BIDF 2021. The art scene within the Midlands is so full with creative seeds ready to be brought to fruition, and it’s wonderful to know that there are organisations out there who are able and ready to provide the right support for works of such hybridity. I sincerely hope that this will be the first of many, as screendance becomes a practice that is supported just as much as it is created. Dopeness at its finest.
