Dance students are bringing Luke Jerram’s Gaia to Warrington Cultural Quarter

University of Salford Dance students are taking part in an ACE funded project which is being led by Culture Warrington in March. They will be bringing Luke Jerram’s Gaia to Warrington Cultural Quarter.

Luke’s, Gaia, represents the Earth’s surface as it would be seen from space using NASA imagery. The artist was commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council, the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres and Jodrell Bank’s Bluedot festival to portray the fragility and to help reinforce how much we need to project our planet.

Undergraduate Dance student, Amelia Humphreys, said: “When I first heard about this project I was really interested about the theme. Looking at the environmental topics such as pollution, deforestation and our carbon footprint during the creative process has really helped to understand and widen our knowledge about what we can do to help the planet. I was excited to work with our dancers and other dancers in exploring how we can show the effect people are having on the planet.”

The students have been rehearsing twice a week as part of their Interdisciplinary Dance module with tutor Elisa Macauley in preparation for this project. During rehearsals they have looked at information behind the Gaia and learnt about their own carbon footprints and how they individually impact the environment.

Dance lecturer, Deborah Milner, said: “It's wonderful for Salford students to have been invited to work on 'Stronger Together'.  The project allows students to consider an interdisciplinary way of creating dance and performance for a public audience sharing the bill with community dance artists and professional dancers.

“Several of the professional dancers are graduates from The University of Salford and it's wonderful that we get to see them flourish in this professional sphere.  We work closely with industry on our courses, and it has been a real joy to work alongside Artistic Director, Stacey Goodall, and the team at Culture Warrington to develop this large-scale sited work.”

The floating three-dimensional artwork, Gaia, by Luke Jerram will be Parr Hall, Warrington at the start of March between the 6th and 10th.