Talented young dancers light up borough in new film

We The Flame dancers in Mesnes Park. Photo by Owen Peters

We Are Flame has brought together 40 young dancers from across Wigan with professionals from Greater Manchester to perform at borough landmarks and well-known locations such as Mesnes Park, the Face of Wigan, the Museum of Wigan Life, Pennington Flash and the Lancashire Mining Museum at Astley Green.

The piece, which has been filmed and is released on Thursday, has been directed by Josh Hawkins of Hawk Dance Theatre and produced by Amy Burdon from WigLe Dance CIC.

Wigan poet Louise Fazackerley has also produced specially-commissioned words for We Are Flame, while the dancers step to music composed by Lee Affen.

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It is also about getting young talent out of their homes and showcasing their abilities after a year of stay-at-home instructions, lockdowns and other restrictions to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Amy said: “We wanted to make a film that brought the cultural manifesto to life and showed young dance talent from Wigan.

“Young people have been locked away but there is all this talent bubbling up within Wigan. We wanted to show that it is ready to go out into the world and bring creativity back.

“It’s going to look absolutely amazing and be a really good representation of young people in Wigan, who don’t always have the best reputation.

“Young people have had quite a lot of bad press recently but this shows their talents and presents the borough in a really good light.

“It also opens up access to the places where we filmed. Some of the participants had never been somewhere like the mining museum or the Museum of Wigan Life before.”

The novel coronavirus also posed challenges when creating the film as dancers had to rehearse in bubbles and social distancing guidelines had to be adhered to throughout the entire process.

We are Flame will be premiered on Thursday April 22 at 6.30pm on the Facebook and YouTube accounts for WigLe Dance or The Fire Within as well as on the dance company’s website at www.wigledance.co.uk

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