Internationally award-winning dance company Corey Baker Dance is releasing a multi-media programme of work to help promote environmental responsibility around COP 26, the pivotal summit on climate change to be held in Glasgow.
The 25th October sees their 3 minute original dance film BLOWN premiere on BBC iPlayer and on BBC Scotland. The film, that is choreographed and directed by Corey Baker, is a duet for two male dancers. It was filmed in the Highlands, and marries the beauty and majesty of the dancers with the landscape and the engineering marvels of a wind farm.
Corey Baker Dance will also premiere a special live dance piece titled Renewable Moves for the COP26 Green Zone performed by four dancers and Glasgow-born beatboxer Bigg Taj. The company has been selected to perform this as the only dance event in the programme for the COP26 Green Zone at Glasgow Science Centre. Renewable Moves harnesses the urgency of the moves required collectively to create renewable energy. Embodied by world-class dancers, the message behind Renewable Moves is an accessible event for audiences of all ages.
The company has also created a4 minute original dance film, Leaders of a New Regime, featuring nine dancers performing beneath, around and on top of 120m high wind turbines at the Millennium Wind Farm in the Highlands. The film is soundtracked by a song, with a near same title, by Corey’s fellow New Zealand artist Lorde from her acclaimed new album Solar Power.
The film, that was created in partnership with Falck Renewables, a global leader in the field of renewable energies, will be screened at COP26 on the 4th November and at the Global Leadership Foundation/United Nations Environment Programme film festival at COP26 on Wednesday 10 November, followed by a Q&A with Corey.
New Zealand born Corey Baker, the former ballet dancer turned choreographer and filmmaker behind the eponymous company based in Birmingham said “We are very excited to be releasing all this new work to help people engage with the themes of COP26. There’s a critical role for art of play in the climate conversation, and our films and shows celebrate the positive moves we need to make – individually and collectively – to save our planet.”
The company, that is behind the 2020 smash Swan Lake Bath Ballet, has recently toured as part of Scotland’s Renewable Energy Roadshow. The pop-up performances at those events in Dumfries and Pitlochry were accompanied by an education programme of dance workshops in schools.
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 