Guerilla Dance
As part of their continued coverage of the year-long activities in this, the European Capital of Culture, BBC2’s The Culture Show staged a series of their own secret, candid camera dance events on the streets of Liverpool. The results of these lo-fi guerrilla performances included a shopping-mall mass waltz in the Met Quarter, hip hop street sweepers in Williamson Square, suited commuters dancing in Lime Street Station and a rival urban crew dance-off to the astonishment of shoppers upon Church Street.
The highlight for the Big Screen involved local competitive dancers Jamie McLachlan and Philippa Amer, who took to Clayton Square to perform a gravity-defying quickstep on four occasions during the afternoon shoot. I used the screen camera to broadcast the action live, with footage subsequently cut into the final edit alongside material from cameras at street level. Startled Fiorentina football fans, visiting the city to attend their UEFA Cup match against Everton, became caught up in this display of fancy footwork of an entirely different kind, breaking into applause for each graceful glide upon the tarmac.
