16 films to rethink dance and archive
Part of Siobhan Davies Studios’ 20th Anniversary celebrations taking place across 2026.
Kicking off the 20th Anniversary of SDS is Artists Archive Film Night the latest iteration of our Artist Archive programme which continues to give visibility to dance artists and their work that is in danger of being dismissed, forgotten and lost.
How can we collectively change what archiving can be and who gets to have one?
How might archiving serve future generations to look back on and see themselves mirrored and encouraged by what is archived?
Join us to explore and experience a range of practices, approaches and movement qualities, to question what we must not forget and what we should remember. Expect the unexpected, a collection of thought and emotion-provoking films that invite us to rethink dance and archive through the lens of incredible artists, many of whom have never been presented at the studios before.
16 finished and unfinished films have been selected and will be screened multiple times across the building. Our curation works actively with and against the hierarchy of spaces – you can choose what you view and where, experiencing the works in different scales and relationships to each other over the course of the evening. The 16 works include, unfinished research, experiments, documentation of live performance and choreography made for film. Together the works offer insight into artists and practices often unseen or that should be seen more.
There will be breathing space for taking in the films and talking about them, sometimes with the artists themselves.
We have chosen from what was submitted – we didn’t expect so many of the films to be so recent, and there’s a compelling case for sharing and archiving stuff from right now. The oldest film is from the 1990’s, the newest are made in 2025. We want to acknowledge how much more is out there, that we can’t present here, and that should be seen and valued.
Thank you to all the artists who took time to submit their works.
The collection of films was selected by members of the SDS team Sophie Brassard, Kat Bridge, Lucia Fortune-Ely, Hattie Harding, Cecilia Huang, Annie Pui Ling Lok, Dominic Bruce-Radcliffe, Rosa Manzi Reid, Nikhil Vyas and PhD researcher Loren McK.
Around the building
Tickets
£10 / £15 / £20
Free tickets for Support Workers, Carers and PAs
TIMINGS: All the films will be screened in turn in our Roof Studio. Simultaneously screenings will take place throughout the building giving you a chance to watch a number of films. You may choose to come for the full evening or for a shorter time. We will release a full timetable a week before the event to help you plan your visit.
CONTENT ACCESS: A quiet space/ earplugs and headphones available. Written description of the films’ soundscapes will be provided. All speech will be captioned. To further plan your visit please refer to our Access and Amenities section at the bottom of the page.
trailer
Selected Films
Baggage
Nathan Sebastian Lafayette
Baggage is a love letter to the ones I’ve grieved and the family whom have felt the same wave of emotion.
Director/choreographer: Nathan Sebastian Lafayette
Videographer: Anthony Lloyd
Music: Amy Lawrence
Performers: Ervin Fiellateau, Prue Huddleston, Jason Wilkes, John Griffith
Supported by Hippodrome origins
in the middle
saba khatami
In the Middle is a short dance film shot in Tehran and London. This film invites audiences to notice the choreography of ordinary life, to consider how freedom and attention operate across cities, and to reflect on what it means to live between places.
Director/choreographer: Saba Khatami
Director of Photography: Kimia Fathali
Videographer: Kian Farahani
Displaced
Akeim Toussaint Buck & Ashley Karrell
A film by Toussaint To Move Co-directed by Akeim Toussaint Buck & Ashley Karrell, Displaced is the cinematic reimagining of ‘Windows of Displacement’. The film continues the exploration of themes such as: displacement, race, culture and imperialism. Visually captivating with striking imagery and virtuoso dance, ‘Displaced’ takes the viewer on a journey calling for reflection and global change.
Antakshari
Mrinalini and Ranjini
Antakshari, a popular song-based social game in India became a guiding metaphor. This idea of continuity in the game became a reminder that even as we moved through our separate lives, someone will always pick up our refrain and respond.
Creative Collaborators: Mrinalini and Ranjini
Edited by: Anuj Chopra
First commissioned for: THE QUARANTINE VIDEO PROJECT by Oddbird Theatre New Delhi (2020)
My Relentless March of Endurance
MAsumi Saito AND Guy Wigmore
Filmed over three spontaneous days in an unfamiliar city, this work challenges the conventions of dance film. Through fourteen scenes, a performer repeatedly crosses the frame, patterns form, dissolve, and re-emerge, testing rhythm, patience, and perception.
Movement artist: Masumi Saito
Directed by: Guy Wigmore
Music: Memotone
BREAKAWAY STATE
JOYCE TREASURE
Breakaway State is a performance art video made by Joyce in response to the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, commissioned by Parallel State and funded by Future Venture, 2020. It explores an evolving cultural landscape where points of conflict and disagreement create a “trap-door”, a means of escape and rescue that inspire new ways of thinking, new planetary spaces and seriously contemplates our connectivity with the rest of the world. Performer : Joyce Treasure
Filming and editing: Joyce Treasure
Music: “Blue Sky And Yellow Sunflower ” written and performed by Susumu Yokota Published by Lo Records, Hub 100 Publishing. “Power Boost” by Raphael Torres.
THE JOY AND SORROW OF TIME
SARA JORDAN
The future is a fragile terrain, a delicate choreography of possibilities where every choice, every gesture, and every fleeting moment shapes the landscapes ahead. In this film, time is not only measured but felt as a currency of life, as a weight we carry, and as a promise we hold.
Directed by: Sara Jordan
Starring: Supa Rich Kids
VOICING
Noa costello & Tomislav Latinovic
Filmed in Brompton Cemetery, VOICING explores gestures of queer intimacy and reclamation through movement and sound. Developed from workshops led by Tomislav Latinovic and Noa Costello, pairs of queer participants performed repeated actions of care within institutional spaces meaningful to them. These movements were later reinterpreted by dancer Gian Singh Sanghera-Warren into a choreography of self-intimacy.
PROJECT X
NIALL CULLEN
Project X is dance and theatre company PrefaceMorn’s re-entry to the UK dance scene after an eight-year hiatus. The performance is based on Creative Director Niall Cullen’s latest research into life as a disabled artist. Niall has a rare brain disease called Moyamoya syndrome and is registered blind, and has been exploring the disorienting sensations that shape his lived experience.
Co-Choreographer and Performer: Ella Posti
Producer, Audio Description, and Access Coordinator: Ella Holappa
Filming and Editing: Gonzalo Karmy
SALT – HALEN
SIMON WHITEHEAD
Winter, Llyn Peninsula, Wales. 1994.
A dancer attempts to collect the fragments of a washed up caravan in the teeth of an Atlantic storm…
U BURN ME
IZZY MCEVOY
U burn me is a choreographed performance on Zoom that aims to locate, describe, and share the undiagnosed chronic pain and/or health anxiety of each participant through movement and exchange. Each participant takes a turn directing/leading the others using simple props, materials, and movement, timing in and out as they please.
HONEY U ARE ART
FREESTYLERS
A film made by Freestylers live art collective. Together we try to describe ourselves and how the world is impacting our daily lives. We summon demons and find ways to meet them, we journey together. And with lightness in our hearts, we look for tools for survival to bring back to our audiences.
YOU ARE HERE
MAGDALENA HUTTER & GILLIE KLEIMAN
A short documentary dance film about what we think is good and beautiful and valuable, and what fat bodies and dance can really do. Filmed and edited by: Magdalena Hutter
Movement and words by: Gillie Kleiman
PRESENCE OF ABSENCE
BRANCA PEIXOTO
Presence of Absence is a dance film that explores “saudade,” the bittersweet Brazilian feeling of longing and nostalgia. Through a single performer embodying both the one who feels saudade and saudade itself, the film traces the emotional journey of memory, loss, and acceptance. Interwoven with interviews from the filmmaker’s family, it reflects on how saudade shapes the body, turning absence into a quiet, enduring presence in life.
inventory of my life
Rosa van HEnsbergen, Kae Ishimoto, Soosan Lolavar, Katherine Waters
Inventory of my life grew out of the idea of inventorying the things that the creators Rosa, Kae and Soosan knew would remain after they passed away; things they would never be able to dispose of however many times they moved houses or countries or contexts. Inherited kimonos, compositional notebooks, choreography learned from a teacher who had passed away: these became the source for the piece.
keys in the dark
阿科 Ake, 響 Xiang, 卓夢婷 Zhuo Mengting
The film captures an improvised encounter in Beijing between three women artists working across dance, poetry and sound. Filmed in the summer of 2025 in an underground art space that no longer exists, the session had no script and no plan for documentation. A filmmaker from Beijing’s grassroots scene happened to be present and recorded the 25-minute exchange in a single take.
ACCESS AND AMENITIES AT SDS
Siobhan Davies Studios is mostly accessible, with lifts to all floors. There are two accessible parking spaces available on site which can be booked in advance. Blue Badge parking is also available nearby on West Square and Garden Row (for a full map visit the Southwark Council website). Our main door is power assisted.
Amenities include:
- Changing facilities*
- Communal showers*
- Toilets / wheelchair accessible toilets
- Kitchen: tea and coffee making, fridge, and microwave
- Snack Bar: We have a small selection of bars, drinks and food available to buy from the front desk.
- Shops: The closest shop is Superway Supermarket on Garden Row (4 min walk), the closest supermarket is Sainsbury’s on New Kent Road (7 min walk). We also recommend the Art Cafe which serves sandwiches, jacket potatoes and meals (3 min walk).
* Our changing facilities and showers are not fully accessible. Our closest publicly available and fully accessible changing facility is at The Castle Centre, a leisure centre 0.3 miles away from the studios. You can find full details of their features here.