ANYONE visiting Palace Electric in NewActon over the next three weeks is likely to see work on screen by Canberra performing arts group, the Australian Dance Party.

Part of the second iteration of its program “Move to Zero”, the films, according to party leader Alison Plevey, are designed to introduce an element of playfulness and parody into the otherwise very serious subject of climate change, critical to the ACT’s interim target of a 50-60 per cent overall emissions reduction by 2025.

“Move to Zero” got going in 2018 with three short films promoting zero emissions behaviours and the idea of involving the community by the public’s awareness of climate change issues around us, in the gentlest way, but conveyed through social media and cinema advertising.

Their imaginative “Dive into a Car Pool” shows the car as a swimming pool into which synchronised swimmers dive, got 100,000 hits worldwide.

Parody is to the fore in the ADP’s version of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, where Goldilocks educates the bears on how to use their air-conditioner, called “Make Your Home Just Right”.

Now, armed with a $24,952 Community Zero Emissions Grant from the ACT government, $45,000 of in-kind support and help from QL2 Dance, the Electric Vehicle Association, Screencraft Media, and Palace, with some canny advice from new climate change expert Will Steffen, Plevey and her team of dancers have collaborated with the public through a series of community workshops. They’ve come up with three new “ad” style videos, themed around using electric and active transport to get us from A to B.

The idea, she says, is to persuade “in a fun way”, using music and dance or physical action in parallel with the core messages.

First screened this year is “Strut Your Stuff”, the ADP’s joyous proposal of a novel form of transport – walking. That’s a subject that lends itself to movement and dance, as the film shows.

While mostly non-verbal, Plevey says, the films incorporate original music by Joe Oppenheimer of Upcycle Entertainment.

As for the following two films, which will be released over coming months, she won’t say much yet, except that one of them is called “Feel Wheely Good”, about cycling, skateboards and rollerblades and the other, “Get Electrified”, is about electric cars.

Plevey says, “We are in a fortunate position here in the ACT to seize opportunity for change. Through the challenge of COVID-19, many Canberrans have embraced physical activity as a means to support our physical and mental health, these films challenge us to project this into a way of caring for our planet.”

“Strut Your Stuff” can be seen at Palace Electric Cinemas for the next three weeks and here.