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SUNNY DAYS & NIGHT TREE

Produced by Second Hand Dance

From Surrey, England

Resources
About the Company

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT ONLY

This digital engagement includes 3 week unlimited access to a password-protected prerecorded video link hosted on Vimeo.

A seasonal selection of dance films for young people featuring three performances, Sunny Days, Insect Hands, and Night Tree, all filmed in the great outdoors. These performances will inspire you to look a little more closely at the world around you, get moving and go outside.  

 

With Sunny Days and Insect Hands, explore the ground and all its wriggling inhabitants.  Both films celebrate the magic of the natural world in the spring/summer- rolling in long grass and feeling the warm sun on your face. 

 

Night Tree is a two-part film based on Eve Bunting’s book of the same name. Come on a  journey through the beautiful wintery forest to find a very special tree…Squelch through mud, sip hot chocolate, dance and play amongst the pines as you listen for birds and watch for animals! 

 

The collection was created with audience accessibility in mind and is available with or without audio description. A series of additional sensory films and at-home guided activities offer a sensory friendly way to explore and engage with the films.

Best for Grades: PreK-2nd

(Ages 3- 7 years)

Request Information

Sunny Days & Insect Hands Trailer

(under previous Grass Films collection title)

Night Tree Trailer 

Contact us to preview the full length performances, audio description videos, and sensory films.

Curriculum

Curriculum Connections

  • Fine Arts: Dance and Movement, Color, Texture, Patterns, Variation

  • Language Arts: recommended reading Night Tree by Eve Bunting

  • Science: Nature & the natural environment, Seasons, Grass, Insects, Birds, Deer

  • Emotional/Social Development: Creativity, Identity, Self-Awareness, Self-Expression, Social Awareness

Remote Outreach & Workshops

Please contact us if additional remote outreach or workshops is something you'd like to explore. A member of the creative team may be available to deliver pre or post show workshops or a live Q&A for participating audiences. Please connect with us about outreach activities that best engage your teachers and schools. 

Workshops
Digital Tech Specs

Digital Tech Specs

This performance is available as a prerecorded link hosted on password protected Vimeo site  managed by HAA.
Each site will be made specific to the presenting venue with the following possible models.
 

A Standard Educational Engagement includes:

  • 3 weeks of Unlimited Educational Access for Schools (within 60 miles of Venue). 

  • A custom password protected link with full pre-recorded high quality video, hosted on Vimeo

  • Ability to add your venue’s logo and custom welcome greeting

  • Ability to add a presenter-recorded Curtain Speech video

  • A sample study guide (pdf)

  • Additional activities such as live online workshops, masterclasses, etc... available for separate fee with scheduling TBD mutually

 

For some shows, an Extended Educational Digital Engagement may also be available. This provides the same access and basic resources as a standard engagement but with 5 videos of 15-20ish minutes. The performance video is split into "chapters" PLUS additional resources created by the company. Perfect for viewing over multiple days or sessions and expanding the context or curriculum connections around the show.

 

A Public Family Engagement includes:

  • 1 weekend of Access for Public Audiences (within 60 miles of Venue)

  • A custom password protected link with full pre-recorded high quality video, hosted on Vimeo

  • Ability to add your venue’s logo to Vimeo Page

  • Customized Greeting from Company on Vimeo Page

  • Ability to add a presenter-recorded Curtain Speech video to Vimeo Page

  • A sample study guide (pdf)

  • Additional activities such as live online workshops, masterclasses, etc... available for separate fee with scheduling TBD mutually
     

Please talk to us if you are looking to serve both school and family audiences with this digital presentation and we can combine models for the appropriate access.

Artistic Team

Artistic Team

Sunny Days & Insect Hands

Director & Choreographer: Rosie Heafford

Performers: Imogen Alvarez and Takeshi Matsumoto

Filmmaker: Alice Underwood

Rehearsal Director: Keir Patrick

Music by: James Marples, David Andrew & Amir Shoenfeld

Sensory Engagement Advisor for Sensory Films: Joanna Grace

Costume: Rosie Heafford

Animations by Will Powers and Joseph Eckworth

Audio Description Creation: Rationale Method

Audio Describer: Tashinga Matewe 

Executive Producer: Claire Summerfield at Tandem Works

Assistant & Access Producer: Olive Kane

Participation Producer: Sonya Mould

Night Tree

Director & Choreographer: Rosie Heafford 

Nina: Amarnah Amuludun 

Kit: Keir Patrick 

Deer: Mariana Camiloti 

Owl: Takeshi Matsumoto 

Filmmaker: Kate Flurrie 

Deputy Director: Andy Manley 

Music and Lyrics: Amir Shoenfeld 

Costume and Props Design: Ben Pacey 

Costume Maker: Rebecca Gunstone 

Hair & Makeup: Rachel Porter 

Deputy Hair & Makeup: Lois Morrow 

Location Manager: Froud

Drone Operator: Fabian Pop 

Audio Description: Willie Elliott 

Creative Captions: Johnny Luu 

Illustrations: Karin Eklund 

Executive Producer: Claire Summerfield at Tandem Works 

Producer: Olive Kane  

Participation Producer: Sonya Mould 

Access Worker for Rosie Heafford: Lauryn Pinard 

Photography: Foteini Christofilopoulou 

A special thank you to Mark Austin – location finder! 

Critical Acclaim

Critical Acclaim

"Flitting butterflies, slithering snails and leaping grasshoppers take centre stage alongside the fabulously talented performer Takeshi Matsumoto in this stunning short dance film produced by Second Hand Dance....It is absolutely a dance film and the camera joins in the fun, with shots at worm-eye view as Matsumoto wriggles across the lawn and light, floating shots from above, the camera itself a butterfly."- Disability Arts Online

"There is a sense of magic in the air across these short films as they meet first a curious, graceful deer, then a haughty, imperious owl. The wonders of the forest through sound and movement are shown in a delightful way." - Lou Reviews

"The duo are infectiously excited to be among the trees, and clever camerawork highlights aspects of the experience to draw viewers into a world of squelching mud, crunching leaves, warm hot chocolate and glancing torchlight after dark." -The Upcoming

"A beautiful film exploring the life of a woodland, Night Tree has a captivating musical score, which sets the scene perfectly with brilliant audio description and captions. It will be filling everyone with wonder." - The Shouting Mute

About the Company

About the Company

Established in 2013, Second Hand Dance make highly visual dance performances in collaboration with dancers, visual artists and the public. The company produces and performs joyful, inspirational and engaging shows for both children and adults alike, all of which are centred on the audience experience. Our creative purpose is to develop high-quality work that is socially engaged, subtly participatory and innovative, allowing us to adapt our performance formats for presentations in theatres, galleries, libraries and outdoor spaces.

 

Artistic Director, Rosie Heafford, is a performance maker and choreographer, who graduated from Trinity Laban, London. She is interested in the celebratory aspect of performance. In 2016, Rosie was shortlisted for the Arts Foundation Award for Children’s Theatre. Second Hand Dance is a Dream Artist with Pavillion Dance South West and tours extensively throughout Europe and internationally.

Previous projects include “Grass”, originally produced in association with the Unicorn Theatre, which has toured to 45 venues and done 118 performances to 6,263 audience members including the Lincoln Center in spring 2018; “Dad Dancing” a collaboration with Alexandrina Hemsley and Helena Webb (and their fathers) co-produced with Battersea Arts Centre; choreography for “16 Singers”, a show for babies under 18 months and their adults, and "Getting Dressed" which showcased at IPAY in January 2020.

 

Check out  more about the company and their work on their website here.

Past Productions

past productions
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