THE late international award-winning Scottish filmmaker, producer and curator Simon Fildes is to be honoured at the RISE Dance North Scotland Festival next month.
The day of dance, film, food and celebration will take place on June 11 on the stunning Moray coastline, with the focus of the festival on community and landscape.
It will feature three special events, including Dancing On The Inside: Honouring The Legacy Of Simon Fildes. An artist with close links to Dance North, he was well known in the international dance film community through his prolific canon of work, as well as his leadership roles such as director of Screen.dance, Scotland’s festival of dance on screen.
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As well as his deep roots in the arts, Fildes had a passion for the environment. In recent years he graduated with a Masters in managing sustainable development from the University of Highlands and Islands, and was an active elected committee member of his local branch of the Scottish Green Party. He died after a brief illness last year, aged 59.
The Fildes tribute will showcase the work of Scottish and international artists, as well as his newly released final film, Do You Mind Can I Ask What Happened (To Your Legs)?, which won Best Inspirational Film at the Tokyo Film Awards this year. Along with the other events it will be staged in Findhorn.
Also on the programme is Threaded Fine, which will see choreographer Rosemary Lee bring together a cast of dancers from across Scotland, ranging in age from nine to 70 plus years, to create a new site-specific version of her Threaded Fine project. One after the other, 24 dancers will perform the same short solo, accompanied by a continually looping song composed by Isaac Lee-Kronick and performed live by Jamie McCarthy.
In LOStheULTRAMAR, Mexican dance company Foco alAire will take to the streets, inviting onlookers to join their procession as they pass through parks and public spaces. This interactive public performance is intended to represent tribal connectedness, both at odds with and enabled by globalised society.
Dance North Scotland was founded by dance artists Karl and Deborah Jay-Lewin in 2003 in order to create space for risk-taking contemporary dance and engage with local communities as well as people from across the globe.
The festival will run from 12pm-12am on June 11 in Findhorn, Moray.
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