Bedford dancer swaps stage for the big screen

A Bedford dance graduate will be swapping the stage for the big screen to debut her short film this weekend.

Maisie Aveston, 21, has been chosen by independent cinema FACT to showcase her dance film In Habit at Liverpool’s newest independent film festival.

She said: “I wanted the film to explore the transactional relationship between ourselves and our environment. By transactional, I mean that we influence our surroundings as much as they influence us.

“The name In Habit comes from the idea of inhabiting a space, but it also has a double meaning of the habitual routines in our day-to-day lives. Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the repetition of everyday life and I think when you’re in that headspace, you can forget to appreciate and take in your surroundings.”

Maisie choreographed, filmed and edited In Habit on her iPhone as part of her university dissertation project, which explores the relationship between people and their surroundings.

Maisie graduated from Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, Lancashire, with a First Class Honours in Dance last month. She credits her passion for dance down to her experiences as a gymnast as a child, a talent which saw her travel around the world to compete on the international stage for more than 16 years.

The film will be shown at at Liverpool's Cinema in the City Film Festival on Saturday (August 21).