Link to Maya Bullock’s Viability Study Presentation
Project Viability Study Presentation Year 3 Maya Bullock.pptx
1. Introduction and Proposed Project
Proposed Project
My project is called Roots and it will be a contemporary dance video examining nature’s call back to its origins, through the focus of birds. The collaboration will be between a dancer, videographer/director and myself, centering about three pieces of folktronica music. The songs are going to use foley recordings of bird calls and nature as the instrumentation takes elements from electronica and hip hop, coming together to explore the rhythms of bird song and flight.
Wav File of first piece ‘A Swallow’s Dive’ – Bullock
Goals
The goal for this project is to create a body of work that all of us as collaborators can use to further our portfolios and to help secure work in the future. For me personally, I can utilise it to show examples of my work as a composer, producer, mix and master engineer. Whilst Genevieve, the dancer, can display her ability to choreograph and perform to a brief and finally Edward, the videographer, can grow his portfolio from his usual adverts and music videos to live performances.
Personnel – Direct/Indirect
As a music producer I have been creating for over five years now, specialising in electronic and dance music. I am skilled in Cubase and Protools. In March I released my first single under the artist name Bullock, which had some success on BBC Radio 1 Dance and BBC Introducing. Originally I got into music by getting school drum lessons at eleven and went on to train in jazz drumming for 7 years and even got West African Djembe lessons. The foundation of a multigenre rhythmic education has enormously informed the way I make music today and hopefully this will be demonstrated in ‘Roots’.
My main collaborator for Roots is Genevieve Wright, who is a dancer currently studying an MA at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Last year I was introduced to her at a dinner party and have been eager to work with her since. Her identity as a performer has been sculpted by choreographers like Johannes Wieland, Botis Seva and Steve Paxton, thus gaining an extensive taste in movement and music. All of which made her stand out to me as the perfect collaborator for the project.
The other collaborator I’m working with is Edward Clover, a filmmaker, videographer and recent alumni from the Northern Film School. I met Edward when he reached out to me on social media asking if he could make me a music video for a song of mine, explaining that as he was taking on unpaid work to grow his portfolio. When I secured Genevieve as the performer for the project I messaged Edward, with a pitch deck, to inquire if he would be interested in filming. Although usually a filmmaker, gaining recognition such as Best Student Production at the Ottawa Film Award (2024), he resonated with the concept of ‘Roots’ and accepted it as videographer.
Appendix 1 Maya Bullock – myself
Appendix 2 – Genevieve Wright
Appendix 3 – Edward Clover
Appendix 4 – Email to Edward
Appendix 5 – Instagram message to Genevieve
2. Methodology and Rationale
Methodology and Rationale
Since nature is at the heart of the project, I have been field recording sounds. So far I have collected different birdsongs and calls, which have been used in the first piece already. For the second two I will capture more sounds such as water and branches snapping. Instrumentally I was drawn to the idea of using orchestral instruments such as strings and wind to illustrate the flight of the birds and also the timelessness of them. Birds have seen the first humans drape animal skin over wood to make a drum, all the way to the invention of the DAW’s, and all of the instruments in between. Finally the project will include world rhythms according to which bird is being spotlighted, for example piece one features African rhythms in the drumming and delays because the piece focuses on Swallows which migrate to Africa in winter. This migration is what inspired the name of the project as when I learned about their migration I thought, are they attempting to return to life’s beginning in Africa? Or as Joni Mitchell puts it in her song Woodstock, are we all just trying to ‘get ourselves back to the garden’? (1970)
As I have already made the first piece, Genevieve has begun choreographing her parts to it. When I told her that these African rhythms would be included in the pieces she wrote back to tell me that she worked with Alesandra Seutin for two years, who was the director of Ecole De Sable in Senegal, and that ‘her way of moving still lives inside my body’. I revelled in this awareness and told her to channel it into her performance.
My next goal is to compose the other two pieces over the Christmas holidays. Then this will allow her to create all of the choreography and then I can follow by confirming a filming date with Edward. To illustrate the timeline I have included a Gantt chart. See below.
Appendix 6 – Gantt chart of project timeline
3. Market Analysis
Market Analysis
When researching the market I found several contemporary dance performances inspired by birds. My favourites were Merce Cunningham’s Beach Birds for Camera (1993) and Hannah Martin’s contemporary dance solo to Arrival of the Birds (The Cinematic Orchestra, 2008) (2020). This performance is extremely culturally poignant at the moment with the state of the climate emergency. I believe that when people can see how nature inspires art that it encourages people to care. I decided to post the video online for free when a teacher I know told me that in teacher training university they are taught that children care about nature when they can take ownership of it, for example owning a potplant. It made me think that children and adults are the same in that way. So this video will do just that as it will be accessible and downloadable for free to own on their personal phones and computers, hopefully making people care about British wildlife more and allow them a way to question the significance of their own roots.
Appendix 7 – Merce Cunningham’s Beach Birds
Appendix 8 – Hannah Martin’s Arrival of the Birds
Appendix 9 – Genevieve Wright Collaborator
Your Market/Target Audience
Our target audience will be people on social media as the video will be posted on all main platforms. We will mainly focus on people aged from 18-35 but not exclusive to others as ‘Half of all users are under 35, though older demographics are well represented.’ (Haigen, 2025). We will bring in audience through all of us reposting the video on our accounts aswell as hashtags like #contemporarydance’. Dance videos are extremely popular currently due to the platform TikTok, as ‘dance challenges became a mainstream phenomenon during the pandemic.’ (The New York Times, 2023).
4. Costs and Budgeting
Hypothetical Budget
All collaborators will work for free to grow their portfolios but hypothetical costs from examples include:
Composer cost – £56-500 per minute (Musicians Union, 2022)
Dancer cost – £850 is the average price in 2025 (Alive Network, 2025)
Videographer – £400-500/day (Restless Stories, 2025)
Potential Funding
I will apply for:
Leeds council – Cultural Inspire £500 – £2000 for small one off projects (Leeds City Council, 2025)
Help Musicians – Fusion Fund up to £5,000 for collaboration between myself and a non-music artist
Help Musicians- Do It Differently Fund up to £3000 to help record and release music
(Leeds Conservatoire, 2025)
Furthermore I am going to reach out to several wildlife conservation groups such as Cumbria Wildlife Trust to see if they would like to display the music and/or dance of Roots.
5. Inspiration and Influences
Inspiration and Influences
The moment of inspiration for the project happened when I was home over summer, in the Cumbrian countryside. In the garden we have some farm buildings, where swallows nest, and I spent the majority of my time watching them. They dive in and out at such specific precision that it feels like magic. I wanted to recreate their flight and spirit with strings and their roots and soul with drum rhythms.
Musically, I believe this was not inspired by anything as I usually listen to EDM, which is why this project is so significant to me. However when I was a child my dad used to play the album Second Light by Dreadzone (1991) as he believed it encapsulated the magic of Britain. I particularly remember A Canterbury Tale (Roberts, 1991) as it had recordings of birds for a few seconds at the start and as a child with no understanding of music but plenty of nature, that connected me to it. After making dance music for the past 5 years, I’m using ‘Roots’ to start creating this ‘natural music’ that moved something in me when I was a child.
6. Contingency/Risk Assessment
Contingency/Risk Assessment
Originally I wanted to film it outside in front of the street art near Leeds train station, however because of the risk of passerby harassment to Genieve and Edward. I’ve decided to film in a studio at Genieve’s university.
Risks and how to prevent them
- Injury to Genevieve – Get someone to learn her parts
- Videographer cancelling: Hire a camera and film it myself
- Losing files: Create backups and physical copies on drives
- Running out of time: Doing things early so we have extra time
- Unable to film at studio: Film at original location
- Unable to do dance project : my father will write and perform his poetry to the music and I’ll film it
7. Potential for Development
Potential for Development
In the future, I would like to secure funding to turn Roots into a series of dance performances based on different animals with proper costume. Furthermore, I would like to perform it live in front of an audience, in exhibitions and finally I would aim to get the project supported by nature conservation groups.
8. Evaluation Viability
Evaluation Viability
Roots is viable due to the commitment of all collaborators who all have professional experience from university. Furthermore, one piece is already complete with choreography in progress and a planned timeline. It also will not require any costs allowing for no financial issues to come up as all collaborators are working to grow their portfolios. The location is available as Geneieve is a student at the university. In conclusion the project is achievable within the time constraints.
9. Bibliography
Bibliography
Mitchell, J. 1970. Woodstock. Joni Mitchell. Ladies of the Canyon. [CD]. Los Angeles: Reprise Records.
The cinematic orchestra. (2020). Arrival of the Birds. The Cinematic Orchestra. The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos. [CD]. California: Walt Disney Records.
Dreadzone. 1991. Second Light [CD]. London: Virgin Records.
Roberts, G. 1991. A Canterbury Tale. Dreadzone. Second light. [CD]. London: Virgin Records.
Cunningham, M. 1993. Beach Birds for Camera [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IH_rrpj0CU [Accessed 25th November 2025]
Martin, H. 2008. Arrival of the Birds – Contemporary Dance Solo [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YghkIkLZXIg [Accessed 25th November 2025]
Haigen, W. 2025. Understanding social media demographics in the UK: age, gender & behaviour [Online] Available at https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-demographics-uk/ [Accessed 29th November]
The New York Times. 2023. TikTok Is Dead (Maybe). Long Live TikTok Dance. [Online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/arts/dance/tiktok-dance-evolution.html [Accsessed 29th November 2025]
Musicians Union. 2022. Media Commissions [Online] Available at: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/working-performing/composing-and-songwriting/commissioned-work/media-commissions [Accsessed 1st November]
Alive Network. 2025. Leeds Dancers [Online] Available at: https://www.alivenetwork.com/dancers/leeds [Accessed 1st November]
Restless Stories. 2025. Rates for filming, editing & animation [Online] Available at: https://www.restlessstories.com/agency/videographer [Accessed 1st November]
Leeds city council. 2025. Apply to the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme [Online] Available at: https://leedscultureprogrammes.org.uk/apply-for-funding [Accessed 1st November]
Leeds Conservatoire. 2025. Funding and Creative Development Opportunities [Online] Available at: https://www.leedsconservatoire.ac.uk/student-life/students-at-home-hub/funding-and-creative-development-opportunities/Home [Accsessed 1st November]
