DANCE and LAND: A Programme of Short Films

• 105mins

DANCE and LAND: A Programme of Short Films

An evening curated by Jessica Lerner as part of her Knitting Fog project. The programme centres our interrelationship with land - and features sites ranging from the nearby Black Mountain in Bannau Brycheiniog to London’s Thamesmead, to distant Lapland in northern Finland and Sweden.

Daughters on the Mountain (2007, 14min)

Conceived and performed by Jessica Lerner in collaboration with Eleanora Allerdings

Filmed and edited by Tanya Syed

Following movement improvisation and contemplation on the Black Mountain, what awakened was a sense of the ancient, and an imaginary nomadic ritual. We spent a long time with the large rocks, grasses and directions of the sky and this produced a vitality and excitement in us, a sense of homecoming…as the mountains gently unveiled themselves and then disappeared. Jessica Lerner

Filmed at Y Mynydd Ddu, The Black Mountain, South West Wales.

Supported by Arts Council Wales

In Place - Thamesmead (2021, 1min)  

By Gaby Agis

Camera Derek Linzey

On Boxing Day 2021 during a Covid lockdown we drove to Thamesmead. During our walk through the area we came across this underpass. This dance was made instinctively in direct response to the environment. The colours, rhythm and spacing all arise from that moment in time/space/place, during this historical period. Gaby Agis

For Maynard (2016, 25min)

Choreography and performance Simon Whitehead.

A film by Tanya Syed

A cinematic rendition of Simon Whitehead’s live performance work Studies for Maynard. Ambiguous relationships to gravity, location and object are explored to poignant effect. Exploring ‘the always unfinished practices of making home and sheltering’, Whitehead’s relationship with a weathered school table moves us through a percussive and ever shifting orientation.

Home…more than a place, is a network of resonances, as fragile and changeable as the weather.

Commissioned for The Studies for Maynard project. Supported by Arts Council Wales and Pembrokeshire County Council

Live poetry by Nia Davies (10 mins)

International performance poet Nia Davies has been commissioned to write a creative response to the Knitting Fog performance this May. Davies experiments with performance, embodied practice, intermedia and hybrid writing. She is also a writer, researcher, performer and literary curator. Her second collection of poems, Votive Mess, was published by Bloodaxe in 2024.

Knitting Fog (extracts) (2025, 10min)

with Gaby Agis, Jessica Lerner, Amy Voris. Camera Tanya Syed.

Extracts filmed during the live performance in Herbert’s Quarry, Bannau Brycheiniog directed by Jessica Lerner and created and performed with dance artists Gaby Agis and Amy Voris.

Filmed in the former limestone quarry in Bannau Brycheiniog, three women respond to the land and each other through movement, witnessing and improvisation. Herbert’s Quarry is made of 300 million year old rock formations and has a sense and sound of ‘deep time’. This area of land close to Brynaman and Llangadog - Y Mynydd Du (Black Mountain) - is a high plateau formed from an ancient seabed.

Supported by Arts Council Wales

Matkalla (On The Journey) (2022, 17min)  

Co-created and performed by Andrea Olsen and Eeva-Maria Mutka

A film by Scotty Hardwig

Matkalla [On The Journey] is the first in the Mothers|Lands series, a collection of dance-for-camera works that document movement artists relating to the non-human world and cultural imaginations of their native landscapes, where both human and land are treated as subjects that speak as equals. Through an improvised hybridity of cinematic and embodied art, these works explore the felt expression of nativity, homeland, and language at the crossroads of ecology, geology and culture. Scotty Hardwig

Supported by the City of Tornio Cultural Office; Viippola International Artists Residency, Museum of Tornio Valley; The Center for European Union, Transatlantic, and Trans-European Space Studies at Virginia Tech; The Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment at Virginia Tech, Titta Court, Merja Stenberg, the Mutka family

With thanks to Tom Smith and Brynaman Public Hall and Cinema and to Nikki Tomlinson, Tanya Syed, Eleanora Allerdings, Simon Whitehead, Scotty Hardwig, Andrea Olsen, Eeva- Maria Mutka, Gaby Agis, Amy Voris, Nia Davies, Alan Bowring and Arts Council Wales Create fund

Photo credit: Tanya Syed from Daughters on the Mountain

DAWNS a THIR: Rhaglen o Ffilmiau Byrion

Noson wedi’i churadu gan Jessica Lerner fel rhan o’i phrosiect Knitting Fog. Mae’r rhaglen yn canolbwyntio ein rhyngberthynas â thir – ac mae’n cynnwys safleoedd sy’n amrywio o’r Mynydd Du gerllaw ym Bannau Brycheiniog i’r Thamesmead yn Llundain, i’r Lapdir pell yng ngogledd y Ffindir a Sweden.

Daughters on the Mountain (2007, 14 munud)

Lluniwyd a pherfformiwyd gan Jessica Lerner mewn cydweithrediad ag Eleanora Allerdings

Ddilmed a golygwyd gan Tanya Syed

Yn dilyn symudiadau byrfyfyr a myfyrdod ar y Mynydd Du, yr hyn a ddeffrodd oedd ymdeimlad o'r hynafol, a defod grwydrol ddychmygol. Treulion ni amser maith gyda chreigiau mawr, gweiriau a chyfeiriadau’r awyr a chynhyrchodd hyn fywiogrwydd a chyffro ynom, ymdeimlad o ddychwelyd adref…wrth i’r mynyddoedd ddadorchuddio eu hunain yn dyner ac yna diflannu. Jessica Lerner

Filmed at Y Mynydd Ddu, The Black Mountain, South West Wales.

Cefnogir gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru

In Place - Thamesmead (2021, 1 munud)  

Gan Gaby Agis

Camera Derek Linzey

Ar Ŵyl San Steffan 2021 yn ystod cyfnod cloi Covid gyrrasom i Thamesmead. Yn ystod ein taith gerdded drwy'r ardal daethom ar draws y danffordd hon. Gwnaethpwyd y ddawns hon yn reddfol mewn ymateb uniongyrchol i'r amgylchedd. Mae’r lliwiau, y rhythm a’r bylchau i gyd yn codi o’r foment honno mewn amser/gofod/lle, yn ystod y cyfnod hanesyddol hwn. Gaby Agis

For Maynard (2016, 25 munud)

Coreograffi a pherfformiad Simon Whitehead.

Ffilm gan Tanya Syed

Darlun sinematig o waith perfformio byw Simon Whitehead Studies for Maynard. Archwilir perthnasoedd amwys â disgyrchiant, lleoliad a gwrthrych i effaith ingol. Gan archwilio’r ‘arferion sydd bob amser yn anorffenedig o wneud cartref a chysgodi’, mae perthynas Whitehead â bwrdd ysgol hindreuliedig yn ein symud trwy gyfeiriadedd ergydiol a chyfnewidiol.

Mae cartref…mwy na lle, yn rhwydwaith o gyseiniannau, mor fregus a chyfnewidiol â’r tywydd.

Comisiynwyd ar gyfer prosiect The Studies for Maynard. Cefnogir gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru a Chyngor Sir Penfro

Barddoniaeth fyw gan Nia Davies (10 munud)

Mae’r bardd perfformio rhyngwladol Nia Davies wedi’i chomisiynu i ysgrifennu ymateb creadigol i berfformiad Gwau Niwl fis Mai eleni. Mae Davies yn arbrofi gyda pherfformio, ymarfer corfforedig, ysgrifennu canolradd a hybrid. Mae hi hefyd yn awdur, ymchwilydd, perfformiwr a churadur llenyddol. Cyhoeddwyd ei hail gasgliad o gerddi, Votive Mess, gan Bloodaxe yn 2024.

Knitting Fog (extracts) (2025, 10 munud)

gyda Gaby Agis, Jessica Lerner, Amy Voris. Camera Tanya Syed.

Darnau a ffilmiwyd yn ystod y perfformiad byw yn Chwarel Herbert, Bannau Brycheiniog wedi’i gyfarwyddo gan Jessica Lerner a’i greu a’i berfformio gyda’r artistiaid dawns Gaby Agis ac Amy Voris.

Wedi'i ffilmio yn yr hen chwarel galchfaen ym Bannau Brycheiniog, mae tair gwraig yn ymateb i'r tir a'i gilydd trwy symudiadau, tystiolaethu a byrfyfyr.

Mae Chwarel Herbert wedi’i gwneud o ffurfiannau craig 300 miliwn o flynyddoedd oed ac mae ganddi synnwyr a sain o ‘amser dwfn’. Mae'r darn hwn o dir sy'n agos at Frynaman a Llangadog - Y Mynydd Du - yn llwyfandir uchel a ffurfiwyd o wely'r môr hynafol.

Cefnogir gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Cymru

Matkalla (On The Journey) (2022, 17 munud)  

Cyd-greu a pherfformio gan Andrea Olsen ac Eeva-Maria Mutka

Ffilm gan Scotty Hardwig

yn Matkalla (On The Journey) yw’r gyntaf yn y gyfres Mothers|Llands, casgliad o weithiau dawns-ar-gamera sy’n dogfennu artistiaid symud sy’n ymwneud â’r byd nad yw’n ddynol a dychymyg diwylliannol eu tirweddau brodorol, lle mae dynol a thir yn cael eu trin fel pynciau sy’n siarad yn gyfartal. Trwy gymysgrywiaeth fyrfyfyr o gelf sinematig ac ymgorfforedig, mae'r gweithiau hyn yn archwilio mynegiant ffelt geni, mamwlad ac iaith ar groesffordd ecoleg, daeareg a diwylliant. Scotty Hardwig

Cefnogir gan Swyddfa Ddiwylliannol Dinas Tornio; Preswyliad Artistiaid Rhyngwladol Viippola, Amgueddfa Dyffryn Tornio; Canolfan Astudiaethau Gofod yr Undeb Ewropeaidd, Trawsiwerydd a Thraws-Ewropeaidd yn Virginia Tech; Sefydliad Cymdeithas, Diwylliant a'r Amgylchedd yn Virginia Tech, Titta Court, Merja Stenberg, y teulu Mutka

Gyda diolch i Tom Smith a Neuadd Gyhoeddus a Sinema Brynaman ac i Nikki Tomlinson, Tanya Syed, Eleanora Allerdings, Simon Whitehead, Scotty Hardwig, Andrea Olsen, Eeva- Maria Mutka, Gaby Agis, Amy Voris, Nia Davies, Alan Bowring a chronfa Creu Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru