Created in Birmingham

Stravinksy, it seems, is like buses, though the other Igor-related performance this weekend is not as, shall we say, formal as the BRB one. You’ve probably seen the posters for Michael Clark’s Mmm… Stravinsky Project with the amusing “contains some nudity” warning in small type under it. You think?

(By the way, if you turn this upside down it looks really freaky.)

At first I was ready to write this off as the oh so shocking darling event that doesn’t live up to the hype but over the weeks I’ve become more and more intrigued. Firstly there’s the legacy of Michael Clarke himself - a “post-punk ballet dancer” who worked with The Fall on the I Am Kurious Oranj ballet and was a friend of the great Leigh Bowery. When it comes to contemporary performance he’s up there as a major figure.

Then there’s the Stravinsky element, with the piece being an interpretation of his Rite of Spring, a ballet that when first performed in 1913 caused riots. From the Wikipedia entry:

The Ballets Russes staged the first performance. The intensely rhythmic score and primitive scenario - a setting of scenes from pagan Russia - shocked audiences more accustomed to the demure conventions of classical ballet. Vaslav Nijinsky’s choreography was a radical departure from classical ballet. Different from the long and graceful lines of traditional ballet, arms and legs were sharply bent, the dancers danced more from their pelvis than their feet.

The complex music and violent dance steps depicting fertility rites first drew catcalls and whistles from the crowd, and there were loud arguments in the audience between supporters and opponents of the work. These were soon followed by shouts and fistfights in the aisles. The unrest in the audience eventually degenerated into a riot. The Paris police arrived by intermission, but they restored only limited order. Chaos reigned for the remainder of the performance, and Stravinsky himself was so upset on account of its reception that he fled the theater in mid-scene, reportedly crying.

If you’re equally intrigued there are performances at the REP on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7.30pm and tickets range from £11 - £18.50. I’m thinking of going on Friday.

If after seeing Ballet on the Buses you resolved to see more ballet in a slightly more formal environment you could do worse that start with a showcase of young talent from the Birmingham Royal Ballet in Dynamic Dance: New choreography from BRB dancers at the Hippodrome this Saturday and Sunday.

A programme of new works currently being created by members of Birmingham Royal Ballet. Contributing to these performances are BRB First Soloist Kosuke Yamamoto, and Artists Samara Downs, Kit Holder, Aonghus Hoole, Jenny Murphy, Glyn Scott and Nathanael Skelton.

With all pieces being choreographed to music by Igor Stravinsky, these performances make up part of the Company’s ongoing celebration of the renowned composer.

The Stravinsky pieces are Much A-dance about Nothing, The End of Winter, Avec Moi ce Soir, All for a Kiss, Small Worlds, Ebony Concerto, Unravelled and Danses Concertantes. Tickets are £10 with performances at 2.30 and 7.30pm Sat and 2.30pm Sun.

There’s to be an Arts and Designer Crafts Festival in the Jewellery Quarter on Saturday 14th July (10.30 am - 4.00 pm) where there’ll be markets in St Paul’s Square and by the Jewellery Quarter Clock, Jazz bands, gallery events and open workshops.

Stalls are available for those interested in selling or demonstrating arts and designer crafts at £10 each. Which is quite cheap really.

More details from Anna Gibson on 0121 464 1191 or 07966 981 695 and anna.m.gibson@birmingham.gov.uk.

The Birmingham Rep is putting on a play on a canal boat this summer.

Taking the audience on a journey around the waterways of Birmingham, Sarah Woods‘ brand new play will be an unpredictable, exciting and unmissable experience for all the family. Hop onboard a canal boat to follow the adventures of a young girl and find out exactly what is in the mysterious box.

The shows run from Sat 16th - Sun 24th June and while tickets are £15 they’re doing a special family deal at £12 for 2 adults and 2 kids.

The Modified Toy Orchestra performing at the Zemos98 festival in Seville, March 2007.

via RussL

The next Creative Networks event is tomorrow at the TIC in Millennium Point, Birmingham. The topic is “Making Business Personal” and it starts at 6.00pm.

Prior to this, also at the TIC, is the monthly Music Network meeting at 4pm should you want to kill two birds with one bus/train/parking ticket.

Both of these happen on the last Thursday of every month.

While trying to find out what “Making Business Personal” means (no luck) I discovered the minutes of the previous 14 Creative Networks meetings are archived on the site though not very obviously, so here are the links in the hope that Google will index them as there’s a lot of useful information and contacts in there. I like the handy mugshots placed next to each speaker so you can recognise them.

From Photo-Gedden

Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.

Tamsin Mae and Sue Rowe are Birmingham based artists who sell their work through the website designerart.co.uk. Here are a couple of their pieces.

Tamsin Mae

Sue Rowe

Floating Cities, Hidden Architecture is one of the events that forms Architecture Week. The email I got said “Call for Participants” but the attached Doc is rather vague as to whether this means they’re still looking for artists to work this. If you’re interested I’d assume Yes and get in touch.

Taking the structures and buildings of the canal side from Coventry to Birmingham Basins as inspiration, to create individual structures which can be floated out onto the canal. Canal architecture is often hidden and overlooked when once it was an important part of a cities industry and transport network. In both urban and rural settings we will be looking at beautiful and interesting modern and historic buildings lining the sides of the water, aqueducts, tunnels and bridges making up the fabric of the Canal.

This project hopes to use the canal to inspire creativity, reinvestigate these buildings and look at contemporary uses of the canal.

Aimed at young people from 7 different areas of the canal aged between 12-18 to encourage planning and building skills. Young people invited from local groups, including home education and excluded children’s groups, to work with Artists to take part in a walk looking at the architecture in the area, making sketches and taking photographs of inspiring buildings to use later to create their own models using paper. The models will be colourful and ethereal being lit from the inside with tea lights and then later floated on the water at Coventry Canal basin Sunday 24th June at 7.30 pm

Anyone interested contact Shiam Wilcox on 07733 206 641 or email shiam@junkart.biz

Shiam Wilcox has a website.

The Main Event is a mini-festival taking place this Saturday at the Custard Factory from 11am - 5pm. Orgaised by musician Shimm1 with his creative organisation ‘Zygo Battalion’ it features performances by Moorish Delta 7 and Taharka from Birmingham, The Ripps from Coventry and Midas from Stourbridge along with Shimm1 himself.

More info on Birminghamusic.com.

• Creative Alliance Alumni is a Facebook group for people who’ve “taken part in, taught on, worked with or want to get involved in a Creative Alliance programme”.
• Stand up for the maestro. The CBSO’s conductor Sakari Oramo writes an impassioned defense of Elgar as an international figure in the Guardian in advance of their performance of The Dream of Gerontius on Friday June 1st.
• Nearly missed it: An art exhibition at Vivid has been running for the past week or so and finishes on June 2nd. Juneau Projects, Kate Pemberton and Harminder Singh Judge are names that I’ve seen around a lot recently. More info at those links and the exhibition is open Wed to Sat, 12 - 5.30pm here.
• The Wolverhampton Uni’s School of Art and Design Degree Show runs from Monday 11th to Thursday 14th June.
• The next Out of Hours networking event at Light House, Wolverhampton will be on Photography with photographers Gaelle Roche and Anthony William Bye in attendance. It’s on Monday 4th June 5.30 – 8pm and is free. More info.

Another queer-centric art exhibition in Birmingham cleverly timed around the Pride celebrations is aRTpRIDE07 which has work on show at three venues, the Fox Bar on Lower Essex St and Prowler on Stephenson St from now until June 26th with the Custard Factory from June 4th - 11th. No indication of what’s on where but here’s the big list of artists:

Kathryn Braithwaite
Paddy Broughton
Sue Cambell
Gina G
Vivienne Harrison
Lise Heeley
Karen Keenan
Alex Rawlins
Maxine Richards
Helen Ricketts
Cathy Roberts
Sophie Rush
Jean Smith
Becky Tebbett
Alexandra Unger
Simone Warmington

(The private view was on 25th May. My mistake - the flyer got lost on my desk. I need a flyer strategy…)

As well as the headline and, dare I say it, traditional events in the Fierce diary there are a number of ancillary projects floating around the edges of the festival. One of these, Noise Forecast, starts tomorrow.

Based on research involving interviews with local residents, ambient sound recordings and the measurement of environmental sound levels Birgit Binder and Duncan Speakman are creating an online audio show which aims to help you find the ideal time and location to experience either a few moments of tranquility or to immerse yourself in the aural rush of urban activity.

The forecast is being delivered as a podcast (here’s the RSS feed) though you can of course get the mp3 through a variety of ways including direct from the site. To introduce the project the artists have uploaded a brief first episode which you can hear here:

[mp3]

Duncan Speakman also has a blog.

Tying in with Pride weekend is Out of the Shadows, a “queer arts event” that has its official launch today and runs until mid June. It also introduces me to a new venue in ABplus on Lower Essex Street where the private view takes place tonight from 6pm for drinks and chats with the artists. There are also pieces on show at the BBC, the REP, the Prowler shop and Selfridges.

There are eighteen artists involved in the event working across a range of mediums. Here’s a clicky list.

Matthew Alton (photography)
Dan Auluk (painting / photography)
Jamie Cox (photography) [MySpace / Flickr]
Remi Fadare (fine art) [MySpace]
Rob Gibb (photography) [website]
John Hall (fine art / photography)
Haroonie (fine art)
Neil Hughes (costume / body painting / photography) [portfolio]
Ken Hurd (screenprints) [website / shop]
Alice Kell & Rosie Perry (photography)
Paul Langford (painter)
Lisa Metherell (installation) [website]
Sally Payne (photography) [Flickr]
Henry Rogers (fine art)
Sophie Rush (photography, painting, video, installation)
Anil Teli (painting)
Twiggy (costume) [MySpace]
David Viney (digital photography) [website]

The vast majority (maybe all but I can’t be sure) of these artists are from or based in Birmingham so I’ll be investigating this list further over time. Based on my quick survey it all looks to be top quality stuff.

From suselstahl

Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.

Photos from Ballet on the Buses are starting to appear. Here are mine (including the above), these are Matt Murtagh’s and Candice Smith has a few. There were loads of cameras out there (including, I noticed, a rather nice Leica, but I digress) so if you have any shots or even video online leave a link in the comments.

If you missed the last two shows because they were during the working day and happen to have woken up early on Saturday morning you’re in luck because there’s another unpublicised performance at Victoria Square (outside the Council offices) at 11am. Please go. You won’t regret it.

On Friday I went to see The Pandora Effect / Frozen Sea at the REP and without getting into a review I was completely blown away by it. Not being a drama aficionado I’ve been burnt a few times at the theatre (most recently at Stratford for the RSC’s Tempest which was terrible) but this was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in any medium, from Gary Carter’s script (dense and complex on one level while still being accessible and flowing) to the actors who really acted with the subtlest of emotional shifts.

Blinding stuff, and if that doesn’t convince you then how about free tickets for the final performance on Saturday evening at 7.45pm?

I probably shouldn’t do this but what the hell. If you ring the box office on 0121 236 4455 and quote FANTASTIC FIERCE OFFER you can book up to six tickets for free. If they ask where your heard say you’re an “Audiences Central Subscriber” but there shouldn’t be any problems.

If there are problems then it’s £10 and well worth every penny.

The Solihull College Fine Art Degree show for 2007 runs from June 9th to 21st from 10am - 4pm (noon on Saturdays) with a Private View on the 8th at 6-8pm. The Fine Art degree at Solihull has something of a reputation apparently with many graduates going on to professional arts careers so this should be worth checking out at the Blossomfield Campus (map). Phone 0121 678 7001/2 for more details.

Any other degree shows happening in the area (other than New Generation Arts which I’ve got covered) do let me know.

I was just making a note to go photograph the Birmingham Gay Pride Parade on Sunday when it occurred to me it easily fits under the umbrella of the performing arts, which makes it fodder for this blog. So here’s the route.

They’ll start gathering at Victoria Square at noon with the parade running from 2pm to 3pm.

Here’s some nice photos from last year.

• Roger Shannon will be giving a talk at the Emma Jesse Phipps Lecture Hall, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, UCE, Gosta Green, Birmingham on Thursday 7th June, 6.30-8.30, the subject being “The Place of British Film”. If you’re going please RSVP to paul.long@uce.ac.uk
• I should have mentioned this last week but completely forgot. Billy Fallows of New Folder has added all the Fierce Festival events to Google Calendar so you can see what’s going on on a daily basis and, if you’re using Google Calendar yourself, copy those your interested in over with ease. More here.
• Richard Foot has an exhibition as part of Architecture Week at the Custard Factory entitled Architectural Images with Impact running from 15th - 24th June including “images from across the world, presenting both iconic and lesser known buildings in a new light.” The private view is on 21st June at 5pm. RSVP to richard@footprintphotography.co.uk if you’re attending.
• The Plus Design Festival is looking for Undergraduate Speakers. “The Moving Type Conference is a fantastic networking opportunity, and will provide students with a platform to meet designers and industry professionals from all over the world. Students don’t often get the opportunity to take a leading role in such established and high profile events, and the successful applicants will be able to present their work on the same stage as the professionals.”
• I don’t know how influential Music Week magazine is in the music industry these days but they just ran a 4 page profile of Birminghamusic.com which, since the former inexplicably don’t put all their articles on the internet, the latter have scanned and uploaded for our reading pleasure. There’s a lot of hype and nonsense but if you wade through there’s also some interesting info about how Birminghamusic.com came about and what it’s aims are.