Dance film featuring TL students gains award nomination and receives UK premiere
Tue 20 October 2020Meeting of Cultures has been nominated for a Chicago Indie Film Award 2020.
Each year second-year undergraduate students undertake Trinity Laban’s Historical Project, a module which offers the opportunity to integrate theory and practise exposing students to significant dance works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Students discover the artistic, historical and cultural contexts in which works were originally created and performed, immersing themselves in important artistic legacies.
In 2018, guided by Tanusree Shankar and Protima Chatterjee, students explored the iconic 1923 partnership between Prima Ballerina Anna Pavlova and the then-unknown Indian painter turned dancer Uday Shankar. Shankar went on to become an international star and pioneer of modern Indian dance.
The process of discovery was captured on film by Abundant Art for Meeting of Cultures, a documentary which interweaves the student experience with rare archive footage and interviews to investigate a historic cross-cultural collaboration which remains an inspiration to the diverse cultural scene in the UK.
Among the academics, dance practitioners, historians and artists interviewed for the film are TL’s programme leader Colin Bourne-Collins and former Director of Dance Mirella Bartrip.
The film is a part of a heritage project supported by the National Heritage Lottery, Trinity Laban, Sampad Arts and Heritage and Roehampton University.
Meeting of Cultures has recently earned a nomination for a Chicago Indie Film Award. The body’s annual festival celebrates Independent films of all genres.
The UK premiere will be screened at SOAS Festival of Ideas on 22 October 2020. For more info, and to register, visit the event page.