A West Kirby photographer has captured stunning dance performances which feature in a TV programme being broadcast on BBC Four this weekend.
Dance Passion Liverpool: Find the Feeling takes viewers on a day in the life of the city through exhilarating performances.
Dancers, choreographers and troupes, both professional and enthusiast, use pavements and landmarks as their stage to perform and showcase the city.
Filmed over five months, the project is a partnership between the BBC and Culture Liverpool, and David Edwards was chosen as the officials stills photographer.
It kicks off with a unique dawn commute, three dancers from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts dance their way to school from the Mersey ferry to the city centre.
The programme is the brainchild of Eddie Morgan, the owner of Northern Town TV, who is passionate about filming in the north.
David Edwards – known locally for his work with the RNLI – told West Kirby Today: “Stills photographers usually take a few promo shots for TV or film.
“However, Eddie has embraced and supported my method of documenting the filming and the artists involved. I therefore shadow the film crew throughout filming as it enables the film company to see what has happened during a day on set as my workflow allows me to process images and deliver them quickly. For the producers it is quicker reviewing stills than the film footage.
“The final images never show the long hours and sometimes cold and dark environments we have to work in – it is really far from glamorous but it is professionally rewarding.
“My time on any set starts way before I pick up a camera – I might know who the subject is weeks or sometimes only hours before filming, but I will always research them before I meet them. For performance based artists I have watched their performances and both know and understand how they move to capture that precise moment in time.
“I can’t dance but attend live performances of all genres when I can, it is the dedication and hard work that all dancers put in that I admire and love to capture in camera.”
The programme also includes:
- Matthew Ball, Liverpudlian and principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, returns to his hometown with fellow principal and dance partner Mayara Magri to perform a premiere of his own choreographed piece, (Re)Current, at the iconic St George’s Hall
- Local choreographer Alyx Steele takes a break from her tour with the Sugababes and brings her style of poppy commercial street-dance to the city’s River of Light festival
- Liverpool-born Jane Tiplov and her Ukrainian husband Anton step off the Riverdance stage to perform a high-speed traditional Ukrainian hopak dance on Liverpool’s famous Hope Street
- Birkenhead’s Hydraulic Tower becomes the stage for Sheetal Maru’s haunting blend of Indian and contemporary dance in a premiere of her dance film, Onus
- A group of male dancers aged 50 plus take over the bell tower of Liverpool Cathedral, telling the story of the men behind the building
- At the Vogue Ball, House of Suarez curate a night of high-energy fashion, dance and vogueing, received with wild enthusiasm by the crowd
- Jamaican-born contemporary dancer Akeim Toussaint Buck takes dance to the people of Liverpool, performing a specially choreographed piece set to original music and poetry written for the programme, from St Luke’s Bombed Out Church to St George’s Hall
- Liverpool’s own Afrodance Academy rev up the BPM with their exciting mix of dancehall and Afrofusion on the Pier Head
- Robert Carter of the legendary Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo – the world’s foremost all-male comic ballet company – dances the Dying Swan, a uniquely humorous and moving take on a ballet classic.
Eddie Morgan from Northern Town TV said: “I and my team at Northern Town TV think that David Edwards is one of the best photographers of arts and culture in the UK.
“In the moment images of before, during or post performance – he has something special to offer, whether that is one artist or a thousand volunteers.”
The programme is being broadcast on BBC Four at 8pm on Sunday 29 April and will be available to watch on the BBC iplayer shortly afterwards.