Northern Souls (Percussive Customer Projects; Photo - Javier Camañas)

Northern Souls (Percussive Customer Projects; Photo – Javier Camañas)

Percussive Customer Projects (2013 – 2014)

Working with choreographer and dancer Christopher Owen and newly formed Percussive Customer Projects (a Manchester-based dance, live music and visual arts company), I developed a touring model for NORTHERN SOULS – a new work incorporating documentary, video projection, dance and live performance on the subject of Northern Soul culture.

The work explores the Northern Soul culture of today and investigates what it means to be a part of the Northern Soul community in 2014. It is a documentation and exploration of people’s relationship with the culture, touching on themes of human obsession, class, technology, age and physicality. At its heart, NORTHERN SOULS fuses social dance with a contemporary performance context, exposing both dancers and audiences to experiences and movement they might not ordinarily be aware of. It highlights the passion and soul for social dancing, revealing the humanity behind a shared belief and contextualising its place in contemporary culture.