Kate Chapman & Charlotte Goodwin - Amplifying the Map

I have to admit to be SUPER excited about the impending re-opening of the mac.  So ANY news, or any work linked to the opening, in turn excites me too.  In addition, my personal interests are deeply rooted in events which involve an element of participation – and with that in mind, I’m particularly excited to touch upon ‘Site and Sounds’.

“Site and Sounds offers a taste of the activities planned for mac’s re-opening in 2010 including workshops, walks and the premiere of a specially composed anthem for mac. mac’s Associate Artists Stan’s Cafe and Motionhouse Dance Theatre will also be presenting work as part of the summer programme including an adventure in the dark and some in-your-face dancing.”

There’s a substantial programme of events leading up to the re-opening – details of which can be found on the macartists website, as well as information on how to book for workshop places.  I was excited to see a screen-printing workshop advertised, then realised I am sadly 16 years too old to take part. Sniffle.  If you DO fit into that age category however, I think it’ll be a lot of fun!

I’m also curious about the recent theme of ‘mapping’ which keeps cropping up in projects and artist’s works of late.  This time, artists Kate Chapman and Charlotte Goodwin are exploring the mapping theme by inviting people who live, work or play close to mac to re-discover familiar places and explore places they have never visited before, sharing their thoughts and observations to create an audio map of the changing landscape.  All of these recordings will feed into an audio map – a web of downloadable audio tracks focusing on different locations in a mile radius of Cannon Hill Park.  I’m wondering if any CiB readers have experienced any other map-themed artworks/projects of late – if so, send me an email or leave a comment.

I will also be interested to see ‘Underground’,  performed by four dancers from Motionhouse Dance Theatre.

“Set within a rocking tubular structure, using physical dance, poignant imagery and surprising aerial encounters, ‘Underground’, explores the reality of train travel.”

Considering the title of the performance, I imagine it would originally by inspired by the experience of underground travel as opposed to regular trains.  How this will translate both to regular train travel as well as the open space of Cannon Hill Park will remain a mystery until the performance itself, which is happening Saturday 18th July at Cannon Hill Park at 11.30am, 1pm and 3pm.

Motionhouse Dance Theatre - Underground

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Starting with a biggie – the People Dancing programme has been launched. This is a programme to encourage mass public participation in dance and dance-related events and is the main focus of the Cultural Olympiad for the West Mids. Info, documents and potential partners are over on the West Midlands Dance website.

It’s been announced that the British Dance Edition 2010 will be held in Birmingham on 3-6 February 2010.

There’s been plenty from Birmingham Royal Ballet who have announced their season for 2009/2010. They’ve been touring recently, with some of the dancers contributing to a blog. Also, the Guardian wrote a rather flattering guide to the company as part of their step-by-step series.

The latest Youth Dance England newsletter is out.

Breakin Convention is off on tour with several local breakdancing crews joining international acts at the Hippodrome on 12 & 13 May.

Last, and anything but least, a video from the last Project X Presents event, Digital Dystopia (link to video):

Read the fairly mind-boggling explanation and make sure the next Project X event is in your diary – it’s in Moseley on 9 May – Xhibition.

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Meanwhile, a visual from ACE’s production ‘Skin’ has been used for the cover of the Arts Council’s Annual Review 2008:

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The show is split into two halves and it says here the artistic director has worked with:

Akiko Kitamura from the Leni-Basso Dance Company of Japan and Vincent Mantsoe from Soweto South Africa to create a show which explores what lies beneath the skin, where our skin begins and ends, the spirit of unity and all the things that we all share

Here’s the trailer for the show:

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As you’ll have guessed from the title, DanceXchange’s Autumn schedule has been announced.

It kicks off on 24 September with Rosie Kay Dance Company’s ‘Double Points: K & Supernova‘ which were featured in the International Dance Festival Birmingham back in May.

The rest of the season features:

• 9 and 10 October, Jasmin Vardimon Company – Yesterday
• 21 and 22 October, 2FaCeD DaNcE Company – State of Matter
• 15 November, Jesús Fernández – Pura Emoción
• 4 December, Vincent Mantsoe – Ebhofolo

WhatsOnStage Midlands have some more info and the pic is of Hsiu-Hsien Tang in Supernova.

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On Thurs 10 July the first screening of Finished With The War will take place as part of New Vibes at the Patrick Centre.  New Vibes is DanceXchange’s annual showcase and Finished With The War is

a dance for camera piece that explores the relationship between the First World War and the current war in Iraq through research into the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Andrew Motion

It’s been produced/choreographed by Lucy Nicholls with direction and post-production by Liam d’Authreau and an original music composition by Marc Reck.

There’s more info on the eflyer and also on the Blendstate site and Lucy Nicholl’s own blog.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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

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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

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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.

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Read the full article.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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(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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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What are the traditional performance arts?

Activities using music, dance, song and storytelling which were traditionally learned and passed on by ear or word of mouth. Even if the texts or the tunes are nowadays learned from books, or have been written or composed by contemporary artists, the performance styles can still be based on those of traditional performers. Such activities may be indigenous to the British Isles or drawn from the traditions of people who now live here.

They run a fair number of events centering on the Moseley / Kings Heath area but spreading across the Midlands. Here’s the forthcoming itinerary for Birmingham:

Saturday 21 April – Ceilidh / Barn dance at All Saints Church Hall, Kings Heath. Tickets £7 (£5 unwaged) from Rachel 246 9873

Sunday 29 April – Village Band day workshop for all musicians at Moseley Post Office Rooms, 11am to 5pm. Tickets £12 (£6 unwaged) from Pam 244 3513

First Wednesday of each month: Storytelling Session at Scruffy Murphy’s, Dale End (corner of Newton Street). More information from John 350 6545

First Thursday of each month: Traditional Song Session at MAC, Cannon Hill Park. More info from Pam 244 3513

Second and fourth Thursdays: Moseley Village Band, at Moseley Post Office rooms. More info from Susan 449 3189

Third Wednesday of each month: Storytelling Cafe – tickets from the venues:
18 April – Kitchen Garden Cafe, 443 4725
16 May – Kitchen Garden Cafe, guest Chris Smith with Palestine Story
20 June – mac, AS A SWORD FROM A LAKE: Jamie Crawford tells the story of King Arthur

Lots of activity there and seemingly distributed amongst a wide number of organisers. Very interesting…

Photo by Kevin Hayes from a barn dance in February. More photos.

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