HUNTER born dancer Roseanna Anderson has pursued her passion for creativity to the other side of the world and back again, bringing her first short feature film, based on a pacifist satire, to the Regal Cinema.
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Ms Anderson, 28, and her partner Joshua Ben-Tovim are co-directors of Bristol-based dance company Impermanence, which has brought to the big screen their version of Vernon Lee's The Ballet of the Nations: A Present-Day Morality, which was written in 1915 as a response to the outbreak of war.
The 50 minute film is narrated by Titanic actor Billy Zane, presents war as a dance choreographed by Satan and Ballet Master Death and combines original dialogue inspired by Lee's text with stylised dance pieces.
Ms Anderson said the work's themes rendered it timeless.
"It was written in 1915 and is so prophetic," she said.
"Vernon Lee argues if you're going to inflict violence and start a war that that's going to incite more and more violence and it will be locked into this endless cycle.
"Near the end of the film we list the wars over the past century and it's something like 200.
"It's something you don't really engage with, but you realise there is conflict going on everywhere.
"How do we stop ignoring that and try to move away from this cycle?"
The couple directed, produced and performed in the film; wrote the screenplay and were choreographers alongside the other dancers.
She said using the medium of film instead of live performance to tell the story made it more accessible and removed limitations in terms of set design, sequencing, special effects and scale.
They shot in six different locations, including Sandham Memorial Chapel.
"With film you can really direct the focus - you can zoom in and you can get details or if it's really about the stamping you ramp up the sound and the jagged movement of the camera."
Ms Anderson said she was "very excited" to bring what she hopes will be the first of many films to her hometown.
"I feel like I got so much out of my training and experience growing up here that it's nice to come back and share how all of that has gone into what I've ended up doing."
Ms Anderson attended Marie Walton-Mahon Dance Academy - now known as National College of Dance - at Lambton between the ages of two and 15, before moving to the Palucca Schule in Dresden in 2006.
She attended the English National Ballet School in London for a year and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance for two years.
She completed her post graduate studies at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds before establishing Impermanence in 2011.
Details: 7.30pm, May 8, https://www.facebook.com/IDT2011.
For bookings, call 0431 114 212.
Helen Gregory
Helen Gregory joined the Newcastle Herald in 2010. She is the masthead’s education reporter and has written for the H2 and Weekender sections, as well as across a range of issues. Helen is a Walkley Award winning journalist and was also part of the Newcastle Herald team that won the United Nations World Environment Day Media Award for Environmental Reporting.
Helen Gregory joined the Newcastle Herald in 2010. She is the masthead’s education reporter and has written for the H2 and Weekender sections, as well as across a range of issues. Helen is a Walkley Award winning journalist and was also part of the Newcastle Herald team that won the United Nations World Environment Day Media Award for Environmental Reporting.
