Shovel Dance Collective

The music of the Shovel Dance Collective is about the hardship, the beauty and the dignity of the simple life. Some of these songs are more than 400 years old – the nine-strong ensemble digs deep into the history of English, Scottish, and Irish folk music. And yet, the collective’s interpretations bring to light the modernity of these traditional dances and songs. They seek out the buried stories of workers, farmers, and peasants, tell tales of the worms that dwell in corpses, but also sing songs of salvation and strength. There is no centre and no leader in this collective; for the Shovel Dance folks, collective self-organisation is a lesson from the past and a political utopia.

Visuals: Dasha Zvezdin