With professional dancers filmed in London and dance students from Unlimited Dance Company filmed on Woolacombe Beach, Burnout juxtaposes the urban city and the stunning rural North Devon coast, blending together physical movement from three professional adult dancers and eighteen youth dancers.
The film, made in collaboration with up-and-coming hip-hop artist Joshua ‘Vendetta’ Nash and Devon-based filmmaker Gemma Pons, showcases the need for people to connect with our natural environment to improve wellbeing within our communities and recharge.
Burnout uses Krump, a dance style popularised on the streets of Los Angeles in the 2000s and characterised by free, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement to aid the expression of raw emotion. Articulating the frustration of isolation, felt by many over the last year, this raw, strong and emotional dance-film highlights the importance of space, time and reflection as tools to better support our young people’s wellbeing and mental health.
It seems his fire isn’t burning any longer, it’s extinguished. A young man. Stalked by his inner demons, burdened by a lost imagination for the future and alienated by the isolation of the current world. Before it’s too late, he seeks an escape to a time when he was younger, more playful…uncaged. Through the raw, self-expression of dance, he is transported to a place to reconnect with the freedom, peace and simplicity of his youth. A place that allows for ultimate self-expression and release, with limited restrictions or obstacles. A place to think clearly.
The Devon dancers learnt the choreography remotely over Zoom, with London based Nash, during lockdown 3.0. Together they performed it for the very first time as a combined group on the expansive beach at Woolacombe, when it was filmed on 6 June 2021.
Joshua ‘Vendetta’ Nash said, “Krump is an art form which is still quite new within the hip-hop dance world, so having the opportunity to share it with young people who live in Devon and might not have done anything like this before has been really special. As well as tackling the subject of mental health, which is more relevant now than ever, this film is a real celebration of people coming back together, difference and how we can all start to look ahead after a difficult year.”
Joshua ‘Vendetta’ Nash is a freelance hip hop theatre artist whose movement language is focusing on Hip Hop, Krump and House. He is reputable as a core member of Botis Seva’s company Far From The Norm, with performance credits including Channel 4 Random Acts, BBC Performance Live with Studio Wayne McGregor and Sadler’s Wells 20th anniversary triple bill Reckonings. He was due to perform a rural tour with RTDI in 2020,
North Devon professional freelance film maker Gemma Pons, a keen dancer herself, has already filmed and edited five adult community dance routines during the Covid-19 lockdown year on location within the North Devon Biosphere – including Braunton Burrows, Ilfracombe Harbour and Barnstaple. The first ballet piece, performed by dancers of mixed abilities, received over 100,000 views globally. Gemma is Spanish-born and based in Croyde, North Devon.
Burnout is launched on Facebook at Noon on 7th July. More details can be found here.
