Dance in Film · 2004
The Cost of Living (2004)
DV8's 35-minute dance film follows two out-of-work seaside performers through encounters where dialogue, physical theatre, disability-led floorwork, and hoop choreography turn social exclusion into movement.
The Cost of Living is a 2004 dance film centred on Flow & Fire Arts, Para DanceSport. For dancers, it's a chance to see these styles performed on screen — the phrasing, partnering, and musicality that the same dances carry onto a real floor.
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Dance styles featured
Where to watch: Free on DV8 Physical Theatre's official YouTube channel (verified 2026-08-11).
The dance sequences in The Cost of Living
6 sequences — what is danced, by whom, and where to find it.
'Believe' routine
Danced by DV8 ensemble · Choreography Lloyd Newson
The seaside ensemble suddenly exploding into Cher's 'Believe.'
The familiar pop pulse gives the performers a deceptively buoyant frame for sharply characterized movement. The number makes collective pleasure feel both genuine and precarious within the film's harsher social world.
Watch this sequence · The full film is on YouTube; the link opens at this sequence.
David Toole-led swaying fantasy ensemble
Integrated Dance (Mixed-Ability Dance)Danced by David Toole; DV8 ensemble · Choreography Lloyd Newson
The surrounding bodies taking up David Toole's movement language.
Toole's weight shifts and arm-driven phrasing become the compositional center rather than a variation on an able-bodied norm. The ensemble echoes his swaying movement, allowing the camera to turn a hostile encounter into a shared kinetic world.
Watch this sequence · The full film is on YouTube; the link opens at this sequence.
David's dance-studio floor duet
Integrated Dance (Mixed-Ability Dance)Danced by David Toole · Choreography Lloyd Newson
David Toole entering the ballet studio and answering its leg lines from the floor.
The duet rejects the studio's vertical ballet ideal and reorganizes partnering around floor contact, momentum, and Toole's upper-body power. The contrast is not presented as compensation; it exposes how narrow conventions decide which bodies look 'correct' in dance.
Watch this sequence · The full film is on YouTube; the link opens at this sequence.
Eddie and David's composite-body beach finale
Integrated Dance (Mixed-Ability Dance)Danced by Eddie Kay; David Toole · Choreography Lloyd Newson
Eddie's body appearing to supply David with walking legs on the beach.
Eddie's quadrupedal base and Toole's torso fuse into a single impossible silhouette, making partnership visible as structural invention. The image is comic, tender, and politically pointed without reducing either performer to a symbol.
Watch this sequence · The full film is on YouTube; the link opens at this sequence.
Rowan and Kareena's silent hoop courtship
Hoop Dance (Modern Flow)Danced by Rowan Thorpe; Kareena Oates · Choreography Lloyd Newson
Rowan repeatedly negotiating the moving circle to reach Kareena.
The hoop functions as obstacle, invitation, and moving boundary while the performers build a relationship without dialogue. Repetition makes Rowan's attempts increasingly vulnerable, and Kareena's control of the circle keeps the duet playful without losing tension.
Watch this sequence · The full film is on YouTube; the link opens at this sequence.
Six-clown routine and Eddie's disruption
Danced by Eddie Kay; DV8 ensemble · Choreography Lloyd Newson
Eddie breaking the symmetry of six matching clowns.
The synchronized clowning establishes a polished surface before Eddie interrupts its order. That fracture converts comic timing into a critique of who is permitted to belong inside a disciplined ensemble.
Watch this sequence · The full film is on YouTube; the link opens at this sequence.
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