Plymouth’s Barbican Theatre is one of just eight companies commissioned by BBC Arts and One Dance UK to create a new dance film as part of Dance Passion 2022.
Barbican Theatre proposed a groundbreaking new dance film that built upon their hugely successful Petrol Headz Project, which reached over 4,000 people in the summer.
Neon Romance is a love story about engineering, imagination, hybrids and rebels. After dark, when the LED headlamps light the way and the rules want to be broken people slip into another place and dance on cars!.
This film has one message: Passion, imagination and creativity is the recipe for love, not judgement. Across Plymouth’s modified car, street sports and dance scene: when the music starts and the night begins – everyone’s soul is equal.
The piece brings five individuals together for a night on top of show cars – sharing grooves, headlights, and love. Afrobeat, Breaking, Chicago footwork, Contemporary and Parkour. Celebrating the neon lights, shimmering car-shells, whirring engines, and spinning bodies before pulling the audience into a slippery blurry world of light and sound.
The film will be available world-wide on BBC iPlayer and will showcase the exceptional creativity and talent in Plymouth, brought together by Laura Kriefman and the Barbican Theatre in 2021. Including Drew Shears (Chicago Footwork), MaddyV (MC), Jack Dodds (Parkour), Beryl Tebug (Afrobeat), Charlotte Eaton (Contemporary), Perry Johnson (Hip Hop and Breaking) and leading local modified car company Dip Demon. It will be filmed by Dan Martin, and choreographed by Laura Kriefman.
Along with leading names and exciting new talent, Dance Passion will feature across television, radio and online on BBC networks, stations and platforms in 2022.
Laura Kriefman, Barbican Theatre’s chief executive said:
“We’re so excited to be featuring Plymouth’s world-class talent as part of Dance Passion’s alongside so many brilliant companies in the UK. But mostly I am so excited to be able to bring our extraordinarily creative team back together to make Neon Romance and continue our collaboration with the modified car scene in the Peninsula.”
Dance Passion is a collaboration between BBC Arts and One Dance UK and is supported by funding from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme. BBC Arts and One Dance UK, along with BBC Connected Studio, are proud to be working with a network of dance companies, independent artists and technical providers to showcase dance talent from the UK. It is aimed at those who love dance and those who don’t yet know they love dance.
Lara Coffey, Head of Marketing & Communications for One Dance UK said:
“The eight films we have commissioned are an excellent collection of visual storytelling that is exciting and memorable that are up to a maximum of five minutes. These films demonstrate the breadth of possibility offered by film, through stylistic innovation, experimentation with sound, image, structure, narrative and storytelling, animation, performance, scripted drama, music or other means. Above all, each film showcases what’s best about dance created in the UK.”
As part of this celebration, BBC Arts and One Dance UK invited dance companies, independent artists, choreographers and associated technical partners to apply for funding for short form films and interactive projects which will delight existing dance lovers and bring new audiences to the art form.
With funding provided by BBC Arts and Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants programme, Dance Passion will showcase dance talent from the UK with five short films (no longer than 5 minutes each, featuring live performance, behind the scenes insights or animation) and five interactive projects using tools in BBC Connected Studio’s MakerBox suite. This opportunity was open to dance companies, independent artists, dancers and choreographers based in the UK from both the professional and non-professional sectors, along with those based in dance education and dance medicine.
