Film

The dance-poetry film, Heartlands: Earth & Bonesis a collaboration between Clare Reynolds (Restoke), Paul Rogerson (Restoke), Patsy Browne-Hope, Junction15, and Ceri Morgan. Reynolds and Rogerson were invited to participate in a community trial of the project audio-walk in Magog, Québec, in October 2023. Reynolds was commissioned to draw on this walk to create a dance solo. The solo brings together the former textiles town of Magog with the postindustrial landscapes of Reynolds’s home city of Stoke-on-Trent. It was originally envisaged by Morgan as offering an embodied response to l’Estrie and the Eastern Townships that was not linked to a specific written or spoken language, such as French or English, and therefore could be understood by all viewers. A live performance danced by Patsy Browne-Hope to original music composed by Rogerson launched the end-of-project sharing event at Keele Hall in April 2024. To ensure wider access to the artwork, a film of the dance was made by Junction15 (Darren Teale and Suzanne James). At Teale’s suggestion, the film features a reading of a poem written by Morgan following a collective undertaking of the project audio-walk around a lake on Keele University campus. There is an English- and a French-language version. Heartlands: Earth & Bones has won several awards, and been screened at film festivals in the UK, Europe, North America, and South America 

Earth & Bones

Restoke / Junction15 / ceri morgan

Film stills

This work is supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellowship [grant number: AH/T006250/1]. Ethics approval number: 0341

Arts and Humanities Research Council