Sea Change: Movement, Water And Filming The Body
– A one-day lab with Emma Critchley & Maya Carroll
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What can we learn from the sea about movement, camera and performance?
In this practical one-day lab, artist-filmmaker Emma Critchley and dance artist Maya Carroll invite dancers, filmmakers and creative practitioners to explore their shared practice of film and movement in relation to water.
The lab draws on Emma and Maya’s recent collaboration on HOLD, a Sadler’s Wells Dance Digital commissioned short film supported through Screen South’s Showcase Artist programme. Filmed underwater, HOLD follows two strangers navigating a submerged landscape and sharing a remnant from a world lost.
While this workshop will not involve underwater filming, it will open up ideas around our relationship with water in its many forms, through the mediums of movement and film. It will explore how the body might move in relation to new sensory information, and how a camera can move in dialogue with this exploration.
Through guided improvisation, embodied research, imaginative tasks and hands-on filming, participants will explore water-inspired movement themes and translate them into practical screendance material.
For dancers and performers, the lab offers a chance to explore how movement changes when made for the camera. For filmmakers, it offers practical tools for approaching bodies in motion: how to frame, follow, direct and respond to movement; how to collaborate with performers; and how to think choreographically through the lens.
Taking Folkestone’s coastal setting as a point of departure, Sea Change is an invitation to experiment with movement, filming and the imagination of the sea. Participants will create short video material during the day, offering a practical starting point for future development, collaboration or experimentation.
No previous screendance experience is required. Just dive in.
How to apply
Given the physical nature of this work, registry is essential. We will review participants’ applications to ensure suitability. Please register your interest via the application link above, or by emailing info@screensouth.org.
We will notify selected participants no later than 18 June (but likely much sooner, depending on the date of application). All selected participants will be required to bring picture ID to participate in the workshop.
Please get in touch using the email address above if you have queries or access needs.
Screening
The workshop will be followed by a special public screening of six short screendance films newly commissioned by Sadlers Wells, followed by a public Q&A with Emma Critchley & Maya Carroll. Tickets are £5 but free to workshop participants.
For further info and the full line-up, click here
FAQs
This lab is for:
· Dancers and movement artists interested in working with camera
· Filmmakers, directors and camera operators interested in filming bodies in motion
· Artists working with performance, moving image, sound, installation or place
· Creative practitioners interested in water, coastal environments, ecology, embodiment or screendance
· Anyone curious about how movement and camera can work together
You do not need to be a professional dancer or an experienced filmmaker. Participants should be open to light movement-based tasks, collaborative exercises and practical filming.
Filmmakers are especially encouraged to attend. The workshop is designed to help moving image makers gain confidence in working with performers, choreographic ideas and embodied approaches to camera.
Across the day, participants will:
· Take part in guided movement and improvisation tasks
· Explore water-inspired physical ideas
· Learn from Emma and Maya’s experience of developing HOLD as an underwater dance film
· consider practical approaches to choreographing, performing and filming in relation to water
· Work collaboratively across dance and filmmaking practice
· Experiment with framing, rhythm, proximity, movement and camera response
· Create short video material from the day’s exercises
The workshop will take place on dry land. It will not involve underwater filming, swimming or sea-based activity.
By the end of the lab, participants will have:
· A practical introduction to screendance processes
· Insight into how water can shape choreography, performance and direction
· New approaches to filming movement and working with performers
· Short video material generated during the session
· Ideas for developing future dance, film or interdisciplinary work
Please wear comfortable clothes you can move in.
Participants are encouraged to bring a phone, camera or lightweight filming device if they have one, though this is not essential. Further information about what to bring will be sent to participants in advance.
Please let us know about any access needs when booking.
About The Artists
Emma Critchley
is an artist working across photography, film, sound and installation. Her practice explores the human relationship with the underwater environment as a political, philosophical and environmental space.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including with organisations such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, National Maritime Museum, British Council, Jerwood Foundation and others. She is a Royal College of Art alumna and has co-produced and presented programmes for BBC Radio 4.
Emma’s recent work includes Soundings, a three-screen film installation exploring deep-sea mining, ocean governance and our relationship with the deep ocean. The project combines film, sound, dance, deep-sea imagery and public engagement, and has toured with solo presentations including John Hansard Gallery, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts as part of Brighton Festival, Tate St Ives and Quay Arts.
Her Sadler’s Wells Dance Digital commissioned film HOLD, made with Maya Carroll and Liam Francis, continues her long-standing exploration of underwater environments, movement and the body on screen.
Maya Carroll is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer and performer.
Maya graduated from Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2019, gaining a first-class BPA (Hons) degree and a distinction for her MA with the postgraduate performance company VERVE.
Maya’s work spans performing, choreography, teaching, rehearsal direction, and movement direction. She has collaborated with a wide range of artists and companies including Lost Dog Dance, Extended Play Dance, Matthew Robinson and Liam Francis. In 2023 and 2024, Maya was a guest dancer with National Dance Company Wales, performing work my Marcos Morau and SAY Dance. Maya has been developing her work as a movement director with director and writer Andrea Heaton, and for the past two years she has worked in close collaboration with artist Emma Critchley on her project, Soundings, with the choreographic support of Siobhan Davies.
Her practice brings together performance, improvisation, choreographic research and imaginative approaches to movement, with a particular interest in how bodies respond to environment, image and sensation.
