HOPES AND FEARS by Limitless Dance

Hopes and Fears, was the first film created by Limitless Dance. The group originally met at Rambert over 8 years ago where I taught the older adult performance group (between 2013-2020). Although this was our first film, we have a long history of making and performing live work together. The pandemic forced us to unexpectedly become an independent group which met online. Initially this seemed a misfortune, however overtime we realised it strengthened the group’s commitment and indirectly led to the conception and creation of the film. We have around 15-20 members with over half having been core members for over 5 years and everyone is welcome. The only criteria for joining is an enthusiasm and openness to explore movement, and a sense of humour!

The film was created between January-June 2021 during the second lockdown, when the novelty of living behind closed doors had definitely worn off. The project was conceived, created and self-funded by the group, without any external support which showed the level of commitment to the project the dancers had. Our initial aim for the film was to capture what it was truly like to live during the pandemic. We wanted to create a piece of contemporary dance which would form a positive memory. Most of the dancers were living alone in London and the weekly classes provided a significant level of emotional support. For many, the weekly zooms were people’s only connection with friends.

The original movement material was taught through online classes and developed creatively by the dancers in their own homes. This creative process was challenging as everyone was moving in different spaces, limited by size and flooring and the zoom technology was temperamental to say the least. As the material grew, the dancers filmed extracts of their movement independently on phones and laptops overcoming a huge learning curve. Many did not have hi-spec phones and independently mastering the technicalities of zoom and filming was demanding.

The gesture section was stimulated through a discussion I had with a fellow Dance Artist Deborah Galloway who was living in Singapore during the pandemic. We discussed how some communities and the authorities had tried to control the pandemic and people’s lives meticulously, to combat the effects of the virus. With this idea of obsession and control in mind, we explored how our daily movements had changed, how our movement like our lives had become more insular and repetitive.

In contrast, the words and poetry were gathered from informal weekly discussions held at the start of class, where people tended to off-load their emotional hopes and fears about the pandemic. Once the phrases were gathered together, it seemed obvious that they should form the soundscape to the movement. The final film was edited together by a relative of one of the dancers, Laura Evans. When we started to edit the material together, we realised we had only one camera angle to play with, 23 different settings (mainly people’s kitchens and lounges) and an array of different costumes and lighting to collaborate. As the piece grew, this myriad of contrasting elements became a feature of the work rather than a distraction and the beauty of the work began to emerge. The repetitive movement, the heartfelt poetry and the collection of images captured in small limiting spaces represented exactly how we were living. For us the film demonstrates the power dance has in providing a shared community where people can create together in a supported way. The project unquestionably gave the group something to live for in a time when they felt lonely, isolated and often depressed. Although creating the work presented challenges, it achieved exactly what it set out to do, celebrate how we had managed to share the experience of lockdown life creatively and socially through the art of dance.

Jane Woolley