Lowlands

A major new project celebrating the culmination of Dan Canham’s artist residency Fenland Creatives.

In April 2026, we were pleased to announce that internationally celebrated choreographer and filmmaker Dan Canham had secured Arts Council England funding to embark on a major new commission, culminating his three-year artist residency with Norfolk & Norwich Festival out in Fenland. The project, Lowlands, has brought new and existing partners from his residency together to explore the land of The Fens, identity, and an ever changing landscape through dance and movement.

Youth dancers from 4D Dance, 20Twenty Productions, Abbey College Ramsey, Teapots Dance Company, and DanceEast’s CAT Programme were recruited through a series of creative workshops with Dan and associate choreographer Sara Ford, before undertaking a month of rehearsals and movement development throughout July.

At the end of July, the 45 youth dancers travelled to New Decoy Farm, a Wildlife Trust BCN site in the heart of The Fens, to dance their final dance together and create a striking and tender film, capturing the dancers evolving relationship to place and to one another over three sunset evenings.

Dan is now in the process of editing and finalising the Lowlands film, and we are thrilled to be premiering it as part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2027.

We would like to thank the creative production team behind the creation of Lowlands:

• Lead Artist – Dan Canham
• Associate Choreographer – Sara Ford
• Project Producer – Daniel Randall-Dawson
• Senior Producer (Festival) – Alex Anslow
• Production Manager – James Burgess
• Project Administrator – Alice Gifford
• Wildlife Trust BCN – Alison and Rebekah
• Costume Supervisor – Cordelia Gulbekian Faram
• Dramaturg – Laura Dannequin
• B-Camera / Drone Operator – Ed Bray
• Composer – Benji Bower
• Runner – Matt Bostock
• Chaperones – Katie, Jessica, Danica, Cerys, and Abbie
• Communications (Festival) – Lily Monsey and Tom Maingay

Learn more about Dan Canham – read our interview

‘It was an amazing experience that made me appreciate the beauty of The Fens’ (Participant)

‘Magical, uplifting, what an opportunity!’ (Participant)

‘The filming evenings were amazing, meeting new people and making new friends, the most fun I’ve had in a long time’ (Participant)

Artist

Dan Canham

Location

Fenland, Cambridgeshire – March, Ely, Ramsey, and New Decoy

Participants

45 youth dancers from in and round Fenland

Partners

20Twenty Productions
4D Dance
Abbey College Ramsey
DanceEast
Sadler’s Wells
Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs & Northants