The Orchard

Ascendance has been working with it's community dance company to create a new site specific dance piece. The group has drawn inspiration from fungi communities and the interconnecting relationships we have built up in our group over the past year. The film edit combines 360 recaptured imagery and footage taken on a summer's day, filmed by our work place student Mae.

There are also references to the TikTok Dance "Running up That Hill'! This work is made by the group and reflects all the amazing character's that attend every week. Choreography: Participants Directed by Emma Clayton / Rachel Wesson Film Edit: Rachel Wesson The group meet every week at St Chad's in Headingley.

360° FILM PROJECT 

Ascendance were funded by Arts Council England to work in 360 film with our Dance with Parkinson's groups.

The project took a diferent path when the orginally conceived Virtual Reality project and inclusion in the live Saltaire Arts Trail was sadly halted in March 2020 as the Pandemic took hold.

The first film Portal by Lucy Barker is a celebration of the remarkable dedication of a community of dancers who still dance together on Zoom and now back in person. The reimagined film captures the rehearsal process of Ascendance's 'Dance with Parkinson's' class prelockdown, featuring experimental 360° footage taken across Saltaire World heritage locations.

The closing film Orchard is taken at St Chad's Orchard in Headingley and brings together a new company of Parkinson's dancers, who have become a community of dancers eager to develop their creativity and share a participant led process exploring the environment and ground beneath them. 

Virtual reality technology has offered us new ways to create different sensory environments & interactive experiences. By allowing the film images to become 3D, it amplified the viewers’ attention & transported them to a different kind of embodiment & interaction.

We now use the medium to film a range of participatory projects and performances.