Another excellent video of the crane dance, from masscranedance.org
Tag Archives: dance
Crane Dance/Heritage Weekend Photos and Videos
What a nice weekend! The weather was good and the crowds turned out to both the Docks Heritage Weekend, and on Saturday evening, the Crane Dance. The dance, featuring live music and choreographed lighting and movement, was devised by Laura Kriefman and was a collaboration between:
M Shed, Underfall Yard, RSVP Bhangra, The Balmoral, Bristol Pilot Gig Club, Bristol Channel Social Rowers, Watershed, Studio 360.
Here’s a few clips:
Jamie Corbin put together this timelapse of the crane dance:
In the daytime, there were dockside loading and unloading demonstrations, actors from the Show of Strength Theatre Company, mosaics, the steam crane in operation, rides on the tug John King, and the chance to drive Judy for £10, and more…
Here’s an example of one of the mosaics made by Mosaic Madness
The steam crane had quite an unusual load…
Henbury was on display in the yard. She is in need of 149 new boiler tubes for her overhaul and any and all donations towards this are very welcome!
This delightful Bristol bus was busy ferrying people between M Shed and Underfall Yard.
Docks Heritage Weekend and Crane Dance
This coming weekend is the excellent Docks Heritage Weekend. Here’s a couple of pics and videos from last years event in case you missed it.
Here’s what the Official M Shed Website has to say about the event:
A weekend of activities across two sites exploring the history and working life of the old City Docks.
Stroll around the fantastic Underfall Yard as its restoration programme gets into full swing and take part in activities at M Shed including boat trips, crane visits, have a go experiences and performances.
Events at M Shed
- Mosaic Madness will be helping visitors create mosaics inspired by Bristol’s working docks and the river Avon
- Screenings of historic films about the port
- Dramatic interludes from Show of Strength Theatre Company exploring characters from the dock’s past Saturday and Sunday at 11am, 11.30am, 2pm and 2.30pm
- Visit an electric crane (charges apply)
- Cargo handling demonstrations
- Trips on the tug John King (charges apply)
- Visits to Balmoral, once part of the P & A Campbell fleet
- Visit the Fairbairn steam crane
- Drive a steam locomotive (charges apply)
Events at Underfall Yard
- Demonstrations of traditional skills
- Pop on a hard hat and take a look behind the scenes of the restoration works
- Visit the viewing platform for spectacular harbour views
- Family activities
- Dramatic interludes from Show of Strength Theatre Company exploring stories from the yard’s past, Saturday and Sunday at 12.30pm and 3.30pm
- Guided walks to Brunel’s Other Bridge, Sunday 1pm and 3pm
- Explore reuse and recycling stories from Bristol’s boating communities and make your own floaty boaty (run in partnership with Bristol Green Capital), Sunday 2-4pm
A special event will also be taking place on Saturday evening. This is the Crane Dance performance, devised by Laura Kriefman. Starting at 8pm, this will combine lights, boats, choirs, live bhangra band music, and choreographed synchronised cranes!
This event is completely free and best viewed from the Arnolfini or Lloyds Amphitheatre.
Exciting stuff!





