Created in Birmingham

The International Dance Festival Birmingham started today and continues until Sunday 25 May at venues all over the city. Pete mentioned this back in January and pointed out how truly international the line-up is, with performers from Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, Cuba and Russia, as well as “rising star” Rosie Kay from Birmingham.

The full line-up for this week (and indeed the other weeks) can be seen on their events page.

Pulling out highlights would be a fool’s errand but for those looking to sample the impressive wares without parting with their hard-earned, there are a few free events to catch:

• Performances in shop windows around the city centre are taking place daily from midday all this week - head for Oasis, the Puma Store, Bathstore and Chamberlain Square. More details here.
• In Victoria Square on Friday night, 9pm and on Saturday at 4pm and 9pm you can see Watch This Space which I have very high hopes for indeed.

Lastly, the festival has a blog, although I see this hasn’t been updated in the past week. I’m hoping they use it to collect together all the photos, videos and reviews that will be spun out by visitors to the events, similar to the Collective Memories that Pete did here (and that I’ll be continuing to do).

Photo by Brian Slater.

The Flamenco Birmingham site now has details of the performances and workshops that are part of the first International Dance Festival Birmingham. Performances include The TG Collective on Saturday 3rd May and En Sus 13 on Tuesday 6th May, both at Town Hall.

The site also confirms that there will be another Emoción Flamenco Festival later this year, following the success of the first festival last November. The line up and artists for this festival will be announced over the coming weeks. The site has an RSS feed (yay) so it will be easy to keep up with the news, however (note to their webmaster) I was unable to link to specific pages of interest as the site uses URL masking.

Continuing our trip down memory lane, and potentially starting a new series (”Nostalgia Thursday”?) here’s a video from 1985 just posted on the Surely? blog by Mark Murphy who’s not afraid to show his age.

I used to spend my Sunday afternoons in the dance studios at Birmingham’s (soon to be refurbished) mac. Hip Hop had landed and breakdancing with it. […] Originally shot for use in sequences in a film about International Youth Year (1985), I have treasured this now fairly gnarly gem, a glimpse into the urban history of this city I call home.

There’s another clip of early beatboxing in that post and Mark promises more to come.

Meanwhile, here’s an amusing graphic found on the Wikipedia page for beatboxing (where I was checking it was actually called that. I make no pretentions here, though I am surprisingly good at it…) so you can have a go at home.

Any other historical gems, feel free to send them my way!

Punch Records are running a competition for desginers to create an advert for this year’s BASS Festival “highlighting this year’s theme of The Four Elements of Hip Hop - BBoying, DJing, graffiti, and MCing.”

There will be a cash prize of £500 and the winning design will receive huge exposure by appearing for six weeks on billboards in a central Birmingham location. The artist will also get one month’s exhibition space in a key Birmingham venue, as well as a launch event and PR support. Finally the lucky winner will get two full pages dedicated to their work, the project and their profile in the BASS festival brochure – of which there are 50,000 distributed nationally and internationally.

Full details are in The Punch Records newsletter and the deadline is Feb 28th.

It’s always a good thing to come across a contrary view when the prevailing opinion seems pretty unanimous, especially when that view is well thought out and comes from the grass roots.

Paul Burns reckons many of the funding decisions made by the Arts Council might be correct and explains at length. Go read the whole thing but in summary:

• It’s been managed really badly. This episode illustrates some serious problems with the way the Arts Council operates. “Many of these decisions may be right, but the process and its lack of transparency is obscuring this.”
• “Cutting funding per-se is not bad. No arts organisations should receive funding ad infinitum, and no-one working in the arts should expect the government to pay their wage.”
• “The Arts Council is responsible for arts development in England, which suggests change, renewal, growth and transition - not the maintenance of the status quo.”
• “Statements about “no confidence” in Arts Council England, or the organisation being “no longer fit for purpose” do not help the arts in any way. What do we replace it with?”

I could go on but I’ll just be reprinting the whole post.

Paul, trading as Wechtie, works in “contemporary dance, music and visual arts” and is currently with DanceXchange. His weblog mostly covers contemporary dance.

Note: when writing to me about this Paul said he’d not mentioned his blog before “as it’s rather niche”. This is the wrong attitude! I’ve been waiting for someone to start a dance-related blog all year! Niche is good!

Here’s a short video from the BASS Festival that took place in Birmingham in June.

More about the British Art and Street Sounds shindig on the Punch Records site.

[Update: The website has been updated so most of the links below are broken.]

The big press release of the day appears to be for the International Dance Festival Birmingham coming out of DanceXchange and the Hippodrome with events happening at the Rep, Town Hall, Ikon and the Mailbox from 28th April to 24th May.

Here’s the press release and programme highlights (PDFs).

Quote from the festival co-directors:

David Massingham, Artistic Director of DanceXchange: “In great cities all around the world, I see arts festivals creating passion and energy, adding spirit and excitement, galvanising local communities, celebrating identities. Birmingham’s new International Dance Festival is about bringing one of the most human and accessible artforms into our everyday lives.”

Stuart Griffiths, Chief Executive of Birmingham Hippodrome: “This truly will be a festival with an international reach. We’ve managed to secure the involvement of some of the world’s most prominent dance companies and the programme looks set to help establish Birmingham as a major cultural player within the UK, and across the world.”

When they say international they’re not kidding and it’s great to see a Birmingham festival that lives up to that tagline with dancers from Taiwan, Cuba, China, South Africa, Russia, India, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, USA, Portugal and more. But there’s also local talent involved. Quickly scanning through the PDFs I spotted the phrase “Birmingham-based rising star Rosie Kay” and did some digging. Here’s her pretty well stocked website which has plenty to dig through along with a link to her Flickr stream containing a mix of press shots and informal behind the scenes photos. Nice. Here’s one from her company’s production of The Wild Party:

Rosie appears to have had a pretty good 2007. This interview goes through some of the highlights and covers the Birmingham connection.

What bought you back to the UK - and Birmingham, where you’re based?
I’d almost given up dancing - I knew I wanted to be a choreographer, but I couldn’t be abroad, I needed my own language, and I’d have to start again. I saw the Dance Artist in Residence post at DanceXchange in Birmingham. I’d taught a huge amount but this kind of gave me my choreographic stripes. It was great experience working with a massive range of people - and it just got me back into the UK scene.

I had a good look at the funding system and around then (2003) it was becoming more regional. I thought if I could survive in Birmingham - with beautiful studios and real support, I could really invent my own world here. And I’ve had dancers from Korea, Hawaaii, Brazil, people come and work with me. I don’t feel the pressure of a big scene - and I don’t feel lonely, because there’s DanceXchange.

[Later: I just discovered her company did the wonderful Ballet on the Buses one of the highlights of last year’s Fierce Festival.]

Expect more coverage of this event over the forthcoming months…

via Audiences Central

Over on Leon Trimble’s Chromatouch blog (which I didn’t know he was running until now - bad Leon) he’s posted a couple of videos related to the Written on the Body work he and Lisa Wetton did for the Thinktank’s Planetarium last year. First up is a documentary made by Julia Griffin:

There’s also a short sample of the work, though bear in mind it’s supposed to be projected onto a massive dome rather than in a 425 pixel square.

Lots more in Leon’s blog related to his work and interests - one to keep tabs on methinks.

Grimley of The Post reports on a good year for the Birmingham Hippodrome which sees them with money in the bank to spend - apparently a rare thing in the theatre business. Their future strategy is also outlined and seems to be heavy on the dance bringing in more international companies to complement the BRB and DanceXchange.

Read the full article.

Audiences Central has a big press release for a new International Dance Festival taking place in Birmingham between 28 April and 24 May 2008.

It will bring outstanding dance from across the globe, showcasing the work of world-renowned dance companies including Kirov Ballet and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, alongside specially choreographed commissions and large-scale participatory and site-specific performances. Akram Khan MBE presents his new collaboration with National Ballet of China, bahok, as one of the Festival highlights.

Featuring some of the world’s greatest choreographers, International Dance Festival Birmingham promises to engage established audiences and newcomers alike through the sheer diversity of its programme.

With host venues scattered across the city centre from The Birmingham REP and Town Hall, to Birmingham Hippodrome and IKON Gallery’s Eastside venue, there will be lots of opportunities to see and participate in dance activities. The Festival will also take over outdoor locations in the City Centre and shop windows in the stylish retail heart of the City, really bringing dance to the people!

The Emocion Flamenco festival starts tonight with “three nights of world-class flamenco at Birmingham Town Hall”. Organised by Rich Hadley and Ana Garcia who have been pushing the flamenco agenda in this city with great passion.

The highlight, as I understand it, is the Saturday performance by Los Arrieritos of 13 Rosas, a much celebrated piece that’s seeing it’s UK premier in Birmingham.

An unforgettable experience and an artistic highlight of 2007, 13 Rosas is a thrilling flamenco dance performance portraying the lives of thirteen women fighting for freedom, fighting for their lives.

Spain’s respected El Mundo newspaper said: “The way they have distilled with such simplicity both the reality of the situation and the emotional state is extraordinary.”

With Birmingham their only UK date, 13 Rosas is a compelling dance and music drama which touches the heart and fires the imagination, an inspiring story from the tragic Spanish Civil War.

Los Arrieritos features a company of flamenco and contemporary dance soloists, musicians and top production team – a combination that has just won two prestigious “Max” awards (the Spanish equivalent of the Olivier Awards) for best choreography and best dance performance of the year.

Audiences and critics throughout Spain have been raving about Los Arrieritos and this, their most powerful show to date. Unmissable.

Rich phoned me recently to really hammer home what a big deal getting them over here is and I reckon I believe him, so if you fancy something that’ll set your pants and brains on fire this Saturday you’d be advised to be at the Town Hall.

Ticket details here.

Congrats to the Birmingham Royal Ballet who won the Outstanding Achievement In Dance Award from the Theartical Management Association for their Stravinksy! season earlier in the year. More info and quotes at The Stirrer.

Rich Batsford blogs about the Written on the Body preview last night of Leon Trimble and Lisa Wetton’s Planetarium-specific art film.

It was a quite wonderful thing, playing both with the format and the technology. I was particularly impressed with Leon’s array of six CCTV cameras (five around, one up) which the dancers performed over, stiched together into a moving combination of David Hockney’s Joiners and the Sistine Chapel. It was also notable that this is, aparently, only the second non-space film to be made specifically for a planetarium, thanks to developments in digital technology, and that Leon and Lisa’s research will prove invaluable in the development of the medium.

While looking up and trying to see the whole thing it occurred to me that one of the barriers to this becoming an accepted art form is the predilection arty-types have for narrow spectacles. You really need massive Deirdre Barlow-style ones to take it all in.

Bit late notice this, but if you’re in the vicinity of Millennium Point this evening at 7pm do pop into the ThinkTank’s Planetarium for a preview screening of film maker Leon Trimble and dancer Lisa Wetton’s work in progress screen dance film Written on the Body. (There are talks at 7.00 and the film starts at 7.30)

There’s a nice article on BBC Birmingham from which I shall excerpt.

Screen dance is an art form that joins multimedia artists together with dancers and choreographers - and it’s capturing the attention of artists worldwide. […] “Lisa and Leon have gone one step further and taken it to a planetarium, and this is the first ever occasion when artists have been commissioned to make work for a planetarium”

[…]

The film, titled Written on the Body, is a combination of choreography and dance and 360 degree filming technology. The dancers leap and move freely across 360 degrees, it’s impossible to see everything at once as the action happens all around your head.

[…]

“There are international contests to encourage people to create more. The danger with ‘full dome’ is that we don’t want it to go the same way as Imax which stuck to films about fish and hang gliding and now they’re struggling to get an audience.”

The piece is one of 7 new dance and moving image commissions from Fracture. Leon trades as Chromatouch for his VJing work. Again, this isn’t the finished work - I’ll keep you posted on when that’s released.

Emoción is a Flamenco festival taking place at the Town Hall in November.

The searing emotion of living Spanish culture is showcased in one of the UK’s finest cultural venues – a festival of authentic flamenco dance and music at Birmingham’s stunning Town Hall.

Emoción Birmingham is set to become an annual celebration of great contemporary flamenco performance in Birmingham.

Showcasing some of Spain’s most exciting artists, Emoción will present work that is set to dazzle and inspire audiences with its passion and sheer physical energy.

Lead by Ana Garcia (pictured) who runs regular classes at the Custard Factory and Moseley Dance Workshop, the festival runs for three days.

Pepa Molina and Company (9th Nov)
Joy, pain, and pulsing energy, Pepa Molina produces that heart-racing rush you yearn for in any great flamenco performance.

Los Arrieritos in ‘13 Rosas’ (10th)
Spectacular dance, live music and a recorded soundtrack create an emotionally searing performance that has scooped top awards in Spain and throughout Europe.

Último Tango Fusión (11th)
A unique artistic event, Ultimo Tango Fusión is a dance of joy and liberation, yearning and hope, menace and suppressed violence. Featuring El Último Tango – the UK’s acclaimed tango ensemble – plus voice, flamenco and tango dance, lovers of all things Latin are promised a fiery evening of pure passion.

There will also be workshops in dancing and flamenco guitar playing.

A blog, Flamenco Birmingham, has been set up but hasn’t been written in yet.

Photo snarfed from this page.

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.

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.

I went to the Ballet on the Buses today in Victoria Square and can heartily recommend it, especially if you get into the bus itself so make sure you get there early-ish for a ticket. The proximity to the dancers is quite the experience and the general oddness of the performance, especially when they move outside and dance in… no, I won’t spoil it. I’ll be at the performance outside the Hippodrome tomorrow at 4.30 for the photos and really suggest you try to be too. Wonderful stuff.

Birminghamusic.com brings news of the Breakin’ Convention 07 which is coming to the Hippodrome on the 15th and 16th May as part of a UK tour.

Witness the most incredible line up of poppers, lockers, house dancers, b-boys and b-girls, from the diverse world of Hip Hop dance. From pioneering artists to new skool visionaries, Breakin Convention brings you an line-up hard to match.

Judging by the websites this look to be heavy on the spectacle and more of a show than a convention but they are bringing in local “hip hop reps” on the tour. The West Mids rep is Marso.

Born in France, Marso (a.k.a Mickael Riviere) trained at the Rosella Hightower International Dance School from 1995-97. He then studied aerial circus skills & drama at the Circus Space and gained a certificate in theatre practice in 1999 from the London School of Speech & Drama. He has also graded and trained with the Northen school of Capoeira and Professor Tijolo since 2001. In 2000 he was employed as an Aerial and Ground artist performing on stilts, bungee and trapeze at the Millennium Dome as part of the New Millennium Experience Company. In 2002 he achieved an access certificate in Music Performance and Drama from South Birmingham College.

Marso is an established breakdance performer /teacher and teaches workshops internationally, he has also launched West Midlands first Urban Dance Agency, Bboys Attic.

In 2004 & 2005 he received funding from Arts Council England and was supported by DanceXchange to create his new work Decalage which was showcased as part of the New Vibes festival, British Dance Edition and Resolution! The Place, London (2006-2007). At the end of 2006 Marso launched Company Decalage and this is his first regional tour of a full evenings work “Decalage” and “See”.

Bboys Attic do a number of classes in the area at Aston Uni, the Hippodrome and the Custard Factory.

Update: BBC Birmingham has more details of the local acts appearing and covers more of the grass roots activity going on.