Work in dance and movement in film can be extremely challenging. There are a host of details and elements that need to be considered at each stage of the process, in addition to the actual creation of the work. That is why Francesca Jaynes and Dale Mercer are coming to FEST - Training Ground. Because moving around in film, is not just moving around.

Francesca Jaynes’ ability to create the movements which exactly reflect the vision in a director’s mind and her skill at teaching even the most left-footed celebrity to move in character, has kept her busy.

Choreographer for over three decades, her work in feature film covers several genres, from science fiction like “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (Steven Spielberg, 2001) and “Gravity” (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013), to musical film such as “De-Lovely” (Irwin Winkler, 2004) and “Muppets Most Wanted” (James Bobin, 2014), to fantasy like “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (James Bobin, 2016). In addition to this wide-ranging experience, she works regularly in television drama and theatre musicals.

Working side by side with Jaynes for years, Dale Mercer has credits across a broad range of the entertainment industry including feature film, television, and stage.

Latest works include “Will”, drama series about the life of William Shakespeare, the Danish feature film "Darling" (Birgitte Stærmose, 2017), the Emmy-winning Netflix episode of “Black Mirror: San Junipero" (Owen Harris, 2016), as well as "Allied" (Robert Zemeckis, 2016). Previous credits as dancer include "Alice Through the Looking Glass" (James Bobin, 2016), “Muppets Most Wanted” (James Bobin 2014)​ and "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (Joss Whedon, 2015).

More recently, in 2015, both Dale and Francesca were part of Joss Whedon’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and, in 2016, the Robert Zemeckis’ “Allied” and “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children”, from Tim Burton. With who they are also working in “Dumbo”, to premiere in 2019.

And next June they’ll be at Espinho, showing training ground participants how important movement and dancing are in film (and in life).

Registrations for FEST - Training Ground are open until the 31st of May
Register now to book your place in one of World's biggest learning forums in film, with prices starting at 69.99€

To discover everything FEST - Training Ground has to offer, we suggest you keep track of how the experts panel is developing here and take a peek in the About page in our website for a more in-depth view.

To get a better picture of what the event looks like have a look at the FEST - Training Ground video here.