Coalfield memories are fading fast. You would have to be in your twenties even to have been alive when the last North East deep mine (Ellington) closed in 2005.
The industry which helped to shape a region and its culture has become part of history, the preserve of museums like Woodhorn where the paintings of the Ashington Group are a major attraction.
These were the Ashington men who, inspired by a 1930s art appreciation course, gathered regularly to paint pictures of their village and way of life.
Not all were miners but they were immortalised as the Pitmen Painters in a 1980s book by art critic Bill Feaver and then in a hit play by Lee Hall.
But it’s the pictures that come to life in Pitman, a piece premiered 10 years ago by Eliot Smith Dance (ESD) and to be performed in Alnwick, in its most ambitious version yet, ahead of a planned national tour in 2028.
“It’s all really exciting,” says North East choreographer Eliot Smith who founded his company in 2011, making this a double anniversary year – a decade of Pitman and 15 years of ESD.
“We were successful in a bid to Arts Council England to revive Pitman, so for the first time were able to bring in a lighting designer (Josh Tomalin) and a costume designer (Lucy Minta Reeves).
“The dancers (six of them) are amazing and we’ve also worked with a photographer, John Lyons, who’s based in Durham, on a Pitman exhibition.”
This, he declares, is “the epitome of Pitman”.
For his best known dance creation, Eliot choreographed scenes immortalised in the Ashington Group paintings.
When the piece was first performed, in 2016 at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, there were six painting-inspired scenes.
It has been tweaked and expanded over the years but now, as well as Josh’s snazzy lighting and Lucy’s brightly upcycled costumes (in line with ESD’s policy of sustainability), it is ready to go before an audience with 10.
And to celebrate the show and the anniversaries, John Lyons photographed the dancers enacting the scenes in suitable locations.
The results, vivid, action-packed and often humorous, can be seen at Alnwick Playhouse where there are to be three performances of Pitman in the coming days, including one for schoolchildren.
One of the photos captures a moment from the scene inspired by Fish and Chips, a painting by Ashington Group member Fred Laidler.
Another has dancers honouring George Blessed’s painting Whippets, clutching wooden replicas of the dogs as they appear to race across the grass.
This particular painting was chosen for the ESD treatment after a public vote. Who can resist a whippet?
Three of the dancers due to appear in this most ambitious version so far of Pitman have performed it with the company before. They are Harry Wilson, Olivia Kirk and Yamit Salazar, who alone among them lined up for the premiere a decade ago.
They are joined by newcomers Jasmine Daniels, Florence Jones and apprentice dancer James Mawson, from Gateshead, a recent graduate of the prestigious Rambert School.
That’s three male and three female dancers. The Ashington Group painters were all men but Eliot says: “Women were the backbone of these communities, supporting their families and helping other families if someone was injured or fell sick.
“I deliberately put the women in because even if they don’t appear in many of the paintings they were vitally involved in these communities.
“Pitman isn’t just about the work underground. It’s about pit communities and the way of life.”
Eliot took his dancers to Beamish Museum where they visited the mine to get a flavour of what that working environment would have been like. The pit cottages would have provided yet more clues.
As well as the look of a pit community, Pitman will recall the sounds of the era with a score embracing folk, jazz, swing, classical and brass band music.
One of the jolliest scenes, reflecting the painting Jazz Band Parade by J.F. Harrison will have the dancers sporting bright yellow blazers styled by Lucy Minta Reeves.
Eliot hopes the piece will help to keep coalfield culture alive but also inspire some of the young people who see it to become interested in dance and perhaps even a creative career.
“Humans need performances, they need connections,” he says.
“When you hear all this stuff about AI, you think something like dance, which stirs real human emotions, has never been more important.”
There are to be two performances of Pitman at Alnwick Playhouse on Wednesday, November 11 (1.30pm and 7.30pm) and a schools performance the following day (11.30am).
But no time after that for Eliot to relax.
On December 3 at Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre, he will make his anniversary stage comeback as a dancer in Eliot Smith: Return.
He will perform three solo works, reviving a piece called Interrupted Souls, created for him in 2016 by Lorenzo Pagano, of the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York, and premiering two new works.
The first is his own Hunter, inspired by the Wallsend shipyards and with a soundtrack composed by Adam Johnson, and the second is An Evening With by North East choreographer Nicole Vivien Watson.
Details of all performances can be found on the ESD website.