TOPOS is a year-long artistic collaboration between Cumbria Youth Dance Company and Wired Aerial Theatre, which has resulted in a suite of new work on the theme of Mountains. CYDC has created three pieces of choreography alongside Wired, which will be performed on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, May 26/27 on the shores of Coniston Water at Brantwood as part of John Ruskin’s bicentenary celebrations.

Wired Aerial Theatre is a professional company based in Liverpool, which tours its aerial theatre and bungee-assisted dance productions worldwide. And the CYDC dance performance features a purpose built structure designed and constructed by the company's technical director, Jamie Ogilvie, based on the climbing route of Napes Needle on Scafell. The 15 dancers will weave their way in and out of the structure, hang off it, perform breathtaking falls and test their strength to the limit.

Cumbria YDC co-ordinator Lynn Barnes said they had noticed for several years how their young Cumbrian dancers had a unique quality about them: "It’s something we can’t quite put our finger on but it’s especially noticeable when we take them out of Cumbria to work with other young dancers. We started to think that it may have something to do with the awe-inspiring environment that they are all fortunate enough to grow up in. Our landscape somehow makes them the people they are, influencing their movement quality, creativity, expression and attitude. This project was hatched as an opportunity to explore this idea in more detail."

Performances of Topos take place each day at noon, 1.30pm and 3pm.