Professional emerging artists from all over Devon are joining forces this summer to create a new UK ecological dance film & multi-media performance piece.

Professional emerging artists from all over Devon are joining forces this summer to create a new UK ecological dance film & multi-media performance piece.

The piece, named Elemental (The Reigns), is a part-live part screen-based collaboration between choreographer Joanna Cartwright (Plymouth), dance artists Clair Beckett (Paignton), Oliver Hornsby-Sayer (Kingsteignton) and Jane Castree (Plymouth), Digital Media Artists and Filmmakers Stuart Mitchell (Exeter) and Carl Shanahan (Exeter), and electronic music artist duo Drunk With Joy (Exeter). All artists collaborate under the name of the Joy Collective, a new Arts Council England funded live cross-artform production and platform initiative, based in the South West (www.joycollective.com).

The idea for Elemental (The Reigns) was inspired by the publication of Sir Michael Pitt's report on the 2007 UK floods, which forced the government to treat this natural hazard as the second highest national security risk. Joy Collective Artistic Directors Mila Oshin and Kris Jager (a.k.a. artist duo Drunk With Joy) say: "Elemental (The Reigns) will be an artistic response to the element of water in the context of climate change and, in particular, the challenges ahead for our region due to a continuing increase in rainfall and resulting floods. It will be a highly relevant yet thoroughly involving and innovative new film/performance work, which will truly engage audiences in the climate change debate through the arts."

The screen-based part of Elemental (The Reigns) is set entirely in the river Exe and its floodplains. In addition to the Joy Collective artists mentioned above, it features 19 extraordinary young dancers aged 13-16 from Theatre Royal Young Company (Plymouth).

Elemental (The Reigns) will be premiered at Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW) in Haldon Forest Park, Exeter, on Saturday 12th September 2009. It will be part of a major live open air launch event to mark the start of the South West leg of the Joy Collective's tour, which - in addition to Elemental (The Reigns) - will incorporate fifteen bodies of work in contemporary dance, sculpture, photography, film, painting, poetry, animation, drawing, digital media, printmaking and mixed media by some of the most exceptional artists in the region, on a live music soundtrack. Tickets for the event are on sale now from CCANW's box office on

01392 832 277. They are �12/�10 (conc) each and include a glass of wine on arrival.

Other South West venues that will host the Joy Collective showcase this autumn are: Bridport Arts Centre (Fri 2 Oct), Dartington (Fri 23 Oct), The Acorn (Sat 7 Nov), The Barbican (date TBC) and Exeter Phoenix (Sun 15 Nov).

Current Joy Collective artists are Clair Beckett, Eleanor Carr, Beth Carter, Joanna Cartwright, Jane Castree, Darren Harvey-Regan, Curt Hennells, Oliver Hornsby-Sayer, Alice Leach, Roger Lewis, Stuart Mitchell, Emma Molony, Ione Rucquoi, Carl Shanahan, Helen Snell and Drunk With Joy.