FOOTWORK FILMS & MANILLA PRODUCTIONS

Directors
Michael Nunn & William Trevitt

OUR STORY

Michael and Billy met when they were students training at the Royal Ballet School. After graduating into The Royal Ballet company, for 12 years they performed many major roles and worked with some of the most important choreographers of the age. During this time a shared interest in photography and film found them creating BalletBoyz, a documentary film series for Channel Four. Their fascination with stage and screen has continued up to the present day.

They left The Royal Ballet in 1999 to pursue greater creative freedom, launching their own contemporary dance company in order to create and perform newly commissioned work.

During this period, they created numerous arts and dance films including Rise and Fall – a film featuring the work of Russell Maliphant and a digital corps de ballet for Christopher Wheeldon’s work for The Royal Ballet, Electric Counterpoint. They won the prestigious Rose D’Or and an International Emmy for their film Strictly Bolshoi. This was followed by The Royal Ballet in Cuba and The Rite of Spring for the BBC which won the Grand Jury prize at the Prague International Television festival.

Next, Michael and Billy created The Next Generation, Kama Sutra, along with more than 40 short films for Channel Four. In 2014 they made Young Men with composer Keaton Henson and choreographer Iván Pérez. Telling the story of war, it became the foundation for their first movie, a unique combination of film-making and story-telling through dance. Young Men won awards at the Rose D’Or and Prague International Television festivals.

They are Associate Artists at Sadler’s Wells, Ambassadors for various charities and in 2012 were made OBEs.