麻豆约拍

The miner鈥檚 strike of 1984 was one of the longest disputes between government and a workforce in British industrial history.

Pit closures in Yorkshire led to clashes between the miners and police. The year long battle left communities affected by the violence, hardship and bitterness that resulted from the strike.

Gary Clarke, a dancer and choreographer from Barnsley, was a young lad growing up in the Dearne Valley mining community of Grimethorpe. The village had two pits and was at the heart of the strike action.

鈥淚t was the one thing that broke the village and broke many families.鈥� said Gary.

鈥淭he whole of the village where I lived at the time was really affected by the closure of the pits in the 1980鈥檚.鈥�

鈥淭here were cars on fire in the street. There were people鈥檚 houses being looted. People were being banned from the village because they went back to work.鈥�

Gary Clarke

Now 25 years on from the strike, the dancer is recalling those dark times in a unique piece of physical dance theatre called Coal, which he says is a tribute to the many people who had devoted their lives to an industry that is now slowly disappearing.

鈥淚鈥檝e tried to look at the results of the strike. What happened to the villagers, how it made them feel, the sadness it brought on to people.鈥� said Gary.

鈥淭here鈥檚 still a lot of anger there I think towards the government about what happened.鈥�

鈥淚 invited some ex-miners, their families and people from Grimethorpe to come and see the work. When they saw it they got very emotional.鈥�

Combining traditional brass band music with the discordant sounds of mining machinery, the dance piece examines a day in the life of a miner.

鈥淭he movements that we are using [in the dance piece] are the actual movements that they used in the pit.

鈥淲e look at what happened to miners after the pits were closed and the depression that hit amongst the many communities.

鈥淲henever I go home you can still feel the weight of the depression across the village. During the 90鈥檚, once the pit had closed down and been demolished, there was no trade in the village, no jobs available and soon after there was drug abuse and alcoholism.

鈥淓ven now there are still people who are quite nostalgic about it, they still look back and remember. So in a way that鈥檚 what I intend Coal to be.鈥� added Gary.

Coal will be showing at the Ferens Live Art Space on Tuesday 2nd June at 8pm.