Sarah Elizabeth’s new film is a love letter to her Indian roots, and the connection between dance and the natural environment
Images courtesy of Sarah Elizabeth.
Words by Sarah Elizabeth, edited by Dalia Al-Dujaili.
I visited this beach for the first time years ago on a camping trip. I breathed in its beauty and was immersed in its wilderness, but never imagined it would become such a place of inspiration and realisation - then I found myself walking the same route along the beach numerous times throughout last year and it became a kind of sentimental path. In its vast stillness and serenity, I developed an awareness of its many intricate movements.
Taking in the wide view of the long, still horizon, I saw the motion in each wave, the patterns across the surface of the water, a displacement of the clouds in the sky, tiny grains of sand sweeping the beach in the wind and the trees in the pine forests and long grass on the dunes, dancing to their own rhythm. These movements are chaotic individually, but each forms a small part of this boundless beach, so still and peaceful in its full-frame.
The concept for this project was initially focused on nature's movement and its significance to us. Immersing here helped to clear my mind, the antidote to hectic city life. I thought about our movement on this planet, on humanity's footprint and how we can move with nature yet also move against it, and a feeling of everything doing its own thing at the same time. Then the idea became more introspective, and recognising the movements on this beach helped me to see my own.
I think a combination of alignments in my own life, alongside the contained environment we found ourselves in, at times last year made those walks along this beach so contemplative, and in that space, I began to see my own obstacles. It’s a story of heart-searching and learning. The beach showed me myself and I found clarity on my next steps.
The concept for this film evolved in the same way, into a depiction of a journey through mind states and a gradually dawning realisation. When you see the connections and you know yourself better than ever before. Maybe Saturn returns.
This journey is dependent on its peaks and valleys. My path led me through self-inquiry, an overcoming of challenges and decisions, and many ebbs and flows before I saw the serenity. The symbiosis of life clicked for me on this beach. I learnt how the light needs the dark, the positive needs the negative, the yin and the yang of process. The serene beach needs many chaotic movements.
The film follows a dancer in three sections of the beach. Her choreography is a visual representation of the juxtaposition of calm and chaos, shown through movement and landscape. The wide lens leans into the vast landscape, her movements flow through the piece as the music builds into a hectic beat.
As an artist, I had found my own creativity a little stifled for a while and had been searching for new mediums. Lens-based work is actually a really new format for me: my art form was mainly painting and print-making. I only really picked up a camera more regularly after I worked as an assistant for Lianne La Havas: I took a few behind the scenes photos in the studio and at shows, and during lockdown with the restrictions on shoots I took some portraits one of which was used by Vogue. It revealed a passion in me that I hadn’t yet fully discovered. I also watched Jenn Nkiru’s ‘Rebirth Is Necessary’ early last year and came away so inspired by the art you can create on-screen. Then I started working with Rachel, an incredibly talented creative at the production company I work at and with some mentoring she nudged me towards my own film based experimentations.
I think analogue formats are particularly special, and the sun and natural light have a huge importance in my work, so it had to be shot entirely on 16mm film, at sunrise – 5 am!
I also instantly knew dance and movement was the way in which I wanted to show this narrative. There’s such a fascinating history of the connection between dance, our movement, and nature, our environment. These have always been, and remain, integral to the lives of individuals and communities around the world, and part of the cultural identity of all traditional societies.
But this was also a personal process for me, so I wanted to show this sentiment in the aesthetic, in the dancers' styling, using my late mum's jewellery as a way of communing with my Indian roots. The identity had its own peaks and valleys as I grew up: I’m mixed race, half Indian and half English, and have swayed between my connection with each. These waves fed into many other aspects of life in their subtle ways, and I wanted to show that in this film – the shifting sands of environments, identities and definitions are, for me, definitely some of the chaos and the calm.
I’m so incredibly grateful for the team who worked on this with me. Each of them fully stepped into my world and realised my creative vision. That process has been inspirational and deeply special for me, like taking in the view at the top of the mountain you spent most of your life so far climbing.
The dancer, Salomé, I saw perform in a piece for Ronan McKenzie and was captivated by her movement. She flows through stunning postures in such a natural way and in the film I really felt that she encapsulated those motions of journeying. She’s also such a dream to work with. We left London at 3 am to catch the sunrise and she was totally down with that, then she got in the icy cold sea at 6 am! Salomé and Mh’ya and my attention-obsessed dog, Otis (a girl), got pretty snug in the back of the car all the way there.
Mh’ya styled the film for me: we wanted to merge a fashion/art film aesthetic with the neutral, earthy tones of the setting and incorporate the subtle gestures that hinted at my heritage. I handed her a box filled with tangled Indian jewellery and she picked the most perfect combinations.
Henry is really more than you can ask for in a DOP: we chatted through references and I showed him about 50 different mood boards in the lead up to the shoot. We shot this on just one roll of 16mm, and when it came back I felt like it could have been the film in itself without even editing it! His creative eye felt so aligned with my own vision. He also didn’t get annoyed when Otis ran into the frame a few times, I might give her her own moment in a BTS dog reel…
Siegfried: one of the most talented musicians I've met! I saw him perform at Giles Peterson’s Future Bubblers night and we spoke about the project after that. He really captured the chaos I kept banging on about and created a beat reflective of the wood in the pine forests. We even went field recording which included recording clips of him playing the saxophone next to the sea!
To me, Symbioses feels like a release of energy, and I'm so excited to follow that energy into new projects to come. This feels like the beginning.