A number of recent collaborations with film artists and directors inspired Mary to combine her experience as a movement practitioner with her passion for art. To convey the psychological, emotional and elemental tensions present in both worlds she experiments with moving image and stills producing films that sit between art and dance. Reducing the sound and movement to a minimum produces a meditative quality to her film work and this is a consistent theme for Mary. 

PITCHFORK
Pitchfork is inspired by the 1930’s painting American Gothic. Although the original image is ambiguous and potentially fraught, I ignored this tension by adding elements of slapstick. Featuring Dan and Rachel Luckin.

BLACK & BLUE
As humans, there is an innate need for togetherness which is proven to be protective of mental and physical health. These images respond to the apparent disconnect shaped by modern society.

EDGES
Most of this footage was collected in the pandemic of 20-21. Placed together in this experimental film it became a meditation on time and space and the dreamy quality attempts to blur the line between body and landscape.

TOMORROW
A movement response to Shakespeare’s text from Macbeth this film considers the threshold between reality and the imagination and is set to a sound score of words and piano. A collaboration between Mary Davies and Jack Herlihy, performed by Maxwell Chartey and filmed by Sarah Vaughan-Jones

CONTAINER
Technological change, social tensions and the threat of environmental issues remind us of our fragility in the world. In Container (2022), MWDT reflect on our interdependent relationship to other species, each other and the planet as a whole. Filmed by artist Sarah Vaughan-Jones who beautifully captures minutiae detail set against a backdrop of the largest container port in the UK, Felixstowe port.

BIRDER-A metamorphosis
Dancer: Alexandra Carter
Camera operator and editor: Kira Mayes-Barwick
Music: Robin Rimbaud-Scanner
Concept and movement direction: Mary Davies