East London Dance worked with Westfield Stratford City to create an arts project entitled ‘City Landscapes – Dancing Portraits’ aiming to capture iconic dance images of the changing landscape in Stratford, east London.
Dancing Landscapes (2010)
The first stage of the project was Dancing Landscapes, a photographic exhibition featuring locations in and around Stratford, including the Westfield Stratford City site, the roof of Stratford Shopping Centre car park, View Tube and the Greenway. These images captured dancers of all ages from our groups including Limitless Youth Dance, Adult Contemporary Dance and Leap of Faith. The iconic images were captured by celebrated arts and theatre photographer, Hugo Glendinning, and exhibited at East Thames Gallery and Stratford Circus.
Dancing Voices (2011)
Dancing Voices is a short dance film that creatively showcases the multitude of dance styles and languages across east London. Dancing Voices captures cultural diversity through dance, taking us from Bellydance to Bollywood, across the African Diaspora and all the way around the world. The participants were drawn from a selection of dance groups from across East London that include adult dance classes, community groups, youth dance groups and professional artists. Over 100 dancers were filmed in a number of local east London locations including the new DLR, Westfield Stratford City, Stratford Old Town Hall, View Tube, Eastbury Manor House, and Star Primary School.
Check out the photos and film below
“It has been a great opportunity to have access to the Westfield Stratford City site and to animate the urban landscapes with the wonderful local dance talent. The pictures capture the story of the current changing landscapes in Stratford, but it is the energy, enthusiasm and commitment of the dancers that shines through. They make me optimistic about the new Stratford and excited about the Games in 2012.”
Hugo Glendinning, Photographer
“The City Landscapes – Dancing Portraits project is one of a series of local community programmes in which we are involved to support the fantastic creative talent in East London. By choosing iconic locations in Stratford for the project it has encouraged the dancers to consider their present environment, and by also enabling them to dance on our site, it has given them a vision of Stratford’s future. The series of portraits is an innovative way to record our involvement with the local community and our relationship with them as we move towards our opening in 2011.”
John Burton, Director, Westfield Stratford City
