Richmond Myths Festival Opening Ceremony
Capturing Dance, Community and Performance.
The Concept
When Richmond became the stage for Richmond Myths Festival, the town transformed into a living storybook. Across one extraordinary weekend, streets, riversides, historic buildings and public spaces were filled with performances inspired by ancient myths, legendary heroes and timeless storytelling.
For the festival’s spectacular Opening Ceremony on Richmond Riverside, Combination Dance Companycollaborated with Orange Tree Theatre and local community performers to create a large-scale outdoor dance production inspired by The Aetos Dios. The performance brought together professional dancers, community groups, music and theatre to launch a weekend celebrating creativity across the borough.
TODDCS was commissioned to document the opening ceremony, producing content that would showcase the dance performance while promoting both the festival and Combination Dance’s ongoing work.
The Execution
Capturing a live outdoor performance of this scale required a documentary approach that balanced spectacle with storytelling.
Throughout the evening, TODDCS filmed the event from multiple perspectives, recording the choreography, live performances, audience reactions and the unique atmosphere created as Richmond Riverside became an open-air theatre. Alongside the video production, a photographic archive documented both the large-scale visual moments and the smaller interactions that contributed to its emotional impact.
Particular emphasis was placed on showcasing:
The collaboration between professional dancers and community performers.
The choreography created by Matt Walker and Lizzie Woodford.
The interaction between performance, architecture and Richmond’s riverside setting.
Audience engagement and the shared experience of a free public arts event.
The scale and ambition of the festival’s opening celebration.
The resulting highlight film was carefully edited to capture the rhythm, movement and energy of the performance while reflecting the festival’s wider themes of imagination, mythology and community. The photography provides a versatile content library suitable for press coverage, funding applications, social media campaigns, future festival promotion and long-term organisational archives.
The Impact
The highlights film gives Combination Dance and Richmond Myths Festival a dynamic promotional asset that communicates the scale, quality and atmosphere of the event far more effectively than words alone. It helps future audiences, partners and funders experience the production, even if they were unable to attend in person.
The photography now forms part of a visual archive showcasing the collaboration between professional artists and community performers, reinforcing Combination Dance’s commitment to inclusive participation and high-quality public performance.
Creating cinematic content that extends the life of a performance, strengthens future marketing campaigns and helps arts organisations tell compelling stories that continue to engage audiences well beyond the event itself.
