Pictures On Wax

Pictures On Wax is a music video using the song of the same name by Barney Strachan.

I had a vague sense of unease as I looked at the accompanying notes before its premiere at Edinburgh’s Dance:Film Festival. It had been co-commissioned by Dance:Film and Dance Base, the dance centre holding workshops twinned with films at the festival. The tendency of Festivals to promote ‘local talent’ can be embarrassing as it often turns out to be not particularly talented.

Fortunately I needn’t have worried. Pictures On Wax is first class. I enjoyed every minute of it. The young adults in the film are dancers from the Wester Hailes Education Centre in Edinburgh, and the work also uses young filmmakers. The dancers have a grasp that is no longer than their reach, so whatever gets onto camera is done well. It might be a collection of ‘best bits,’ but more importantly, it works.

Available locations are used imaginatively, partitioning the screen as dancers move in the vertical oblongs of doorways, or other geometrically convenient areas, of what is most probably the Education Centre itself. Lighting and editing is spot on, always presenting the dance movements and beat to maximum effect. It’s a good song and they make the most of it.

But the main joy of Pictures On Wax is the enthusiasm on the faces of the dancers. Enthusiasm alone may not be enough but, given that they’ve got all the technical aspects correct, it’s the magic that makes it more than just an exercise.

To get the end result right, you have to make what’s inside right as well. One affects the other and it’s easy to see when dancer isn’t enjoying themself. There have been so many endlessly successful experiments in this, it defies belief that governments do not pour more money into the right sort of dance education for all young people. Youngsters who are part of Duncan Dance groups, for instance, exude a healthy, rounded responsible attitude that anyone would take pride in. The American venture, documented in Mad Hot Ballroom, showed adolescents who enjoy dance so much that it impacts every aspect of their life positively, including school reports.

The dancers in Pictures On Wax radiate a joy in what they are doing. They don’t come from the most well-off areas of the city. But it’s my guess they are finding a self-fulfilment through enterprises like this that should be the envy of any education authority in the UK.

A loud cheer went up at the end of the screening and I suspect that some of them were in the auditorium. Enjoy your day of glory. You’ve earned it. And I hope you will surprise us in five, and 10, years time. As you did today.