As part of a five-part series, renowned West End choreographer Steve Elias set out to get ordinary people dancing in the streets of Yorkshire’s most interesting towns and cities, including York, Skipton, Huddersfield, and Barnsley.
Using ordinary people, from retired miners to Police men and women, Elias gathered the masses and had them dancing through their town in the style of a flash mob – using local icons and cultural themes from each town.
In the final two episodes of the series, filmed in York, residents performed alongside people from all the other towns to create a “final bigger and bolder spectacle.”
The series was broadcast in January and February 2017 on BBC2.
We got involved in the series when we were approached by one of our regular clients, Twenty Twenty TV, makers of First Dates, Benefits Britain 1949, The Hoarder Next Door, and The Naked Choir.
At the time the company was in the pre-production phase of the show and enquired whether it was possible to shoot a six to ten minute continuous, un-edited shot as each performance progressed through the towns involved.
This would involve tracking and flying equipment around and over 400 dancers, buildings, street corners, landmarks, and hills.
Once we had sketched out a plan and worked out which of our specialised equipment we needed to utilise we got to work and created a rig unlike any other we had done before.
It comprised of our Glidecam GLX30V, easy rig with FLOWCINE serene, S900 airframe with Ronin MX Panasonic GH4 with follow focus, and eight monitors.