THE MACHINERY

A workplace dance and endurance ritual, fascinating to anyone interested in the history of industrial music. Devised by women working in the Lancashire mills, the steps of this nineteenth-century ‘heel and toe’ clog dance directly mimic the repetitive sounds and movements of cotton mill machines. In the twentieth century, The Machinery survived as it was passed on by Pat Tracey and other dancers who had family associations with the mill. Here, Caroline Radcliffe and Sarah Angliss take it back to its industrial context, as they juxtapose it with found sounds and video fragments from a working cotton mill and a telephone call centre. With thanks to staff at Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, Cheshire.