Via a tweet from Shaun McLernon.

It’s part of the preparations for Wings of Desire, the big outdoor dance/visual spectacular as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham. Happening in Victoria Sq tonight and running until Saturday. It’s free and I bet it’ll be ace.

Encompass is an online project encouraging people to upload films of themsleves dancing, with dance tutorials in various styles created by professional dance artists.

Some of the submissions will be used in:

a 360 degree dance film performance in a huge digital igloo, which will take place on 19-21 July 2012

There are all sorts of other aspects to the project too. It’s part of the Dancing for the Games programme and is led by Toby Norman-Wright with involvement from all sorts of others including Sonia Sabri. More info, with details of how to get involved, on the Encompass website.

Because nothing says ‘I went to a thing’ quite like a blurry photo. The chap on stage is very probably Stuart Griffiths, Hippodrome Chief Exec and Co-Artistic Director of International Dance Festival Birmingham, announcing the launch of that very same festival.

There’s plenty of good stuff on over the next little while. There’s the free Breathe the Beat roadshow at the Bullring today with contemporary dance legend Louise Lecavalier in this evening.

Also tonight is the last night of Un Peu De Tendresse Bordel de Merde at Warwick Arts Centre – a show that’s had a lot of people talking and was the reason this guy was wandering around wearing nothing but a sandwich board the other day.

There’s a load of dance films being shown around town, curated by Flatpack (a nice little partnership, I thought). Birmingham Royal Ballet are doing a Three Short Works at the Crescent Theatre later in the week and next weekend there’s a whole load of family events going on.

There’s more too. Here’s the full line-up.

On the left: David Massingham, Artistic Director of DanceXchange and co-director of IDFB. On the right: Goldie.

It’s for Wings of Desire, a big outdoor spectacular that’s taking place in Victoria Sq in mid-May, that will also feature:

• 2 Faced Dance Company, who are based in Hereford and do amazing contemporary dance/breakdance stuff (have a look at this vid)
• CIRCA, who left me slack-jawed with amazement when I saw them perform at IDFB 2010 (check this out)
• Seeper, who do that cool architectural projection mapping stuff (among other things)

Basically, if this is anything less than incredible I’ll eat my hat.

More info here.

The Great Train Dance performers; dancers and students from throughout the region, transformed the Severn Valley Railway into a magical experience with a puzzle to solve. In a Hitchcock thriller designed for families, this fascinating performance drew all ages on the train into the world of the absurd and seduce everyone into hunting for clues.

I missed this – I got stuck in traffic on the way there and just missed the train – so it’s good to see a film’s been produced (by Louis Price). It can’t have been easy to shoot though, there’s all sorts going on and was only performed once. It looks like it was a lot of fun.

Via Dancing for the Games.

Also, BRB are doing The Nutcracker which opens at the Hippodrome tonight.

Hat-tip to @Robintheoffice

There’s a good round-up of what’s being planned over on West Midlands Dance.

There’s plenty of good stuff lined up, but the bits that made me nudge the person next to me and go ‘huh, that’ll be interesting’ were:

• Wings of Desire (the big dance spectacular in Victoria Sq), with Circa and 2FaCeD DaNcE Company
• Dave St-Pierre Company – Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde! (which generated a tonne of controversy in London a couple of months ago)

I like IDFB. It was probably the first one, back in 2008, that got me interested in dance in the first place. I then worked on the 2010 festival and managed to pack in 18 shows over the course of its month-long run. This one looks like being another good one.

Their new season features quite a few returning companies as well as some new faces, with Hofesh Shechter Company, 2faced Dance Company, Company Decalage, Rosie Kay Dance Company and Bare Bones among the ones performing. There’s a special season offer for this lot too:

Book for 3+ shows at once, get 20% off, and book for 5+ shows at once and get an amazing 50% off! That means you could come to all 10 shows in the season for just £50!

Ten shows for £50 really is a ridiculous bargain and no, I’m not on commission here.

They’ve also brought in Supercool to sort out their website, which is a relief because the previous one was pretty awful.

Leaps and Bounds are the ones that did Ballet Hoo (screened on Channel 4 in 2006) and, given that the chain shop is one of the oldest in the country, this could be quite a special thing. Here’s some blurb from the Dancing for the Games website:

Making Links is an exciting new dance project inspired by the industrial heritage of the Black Country. Over 2,000 young people are working with regional artists to explore the history of their local area. In Summer 2011 and 2012 you can see large exciting dance performances in unusual places throughout the Black Country

The livestream will be available below from 5pm. (Hopefully, if not head over to Dancing for the Games).

The order of play is:

• 5pm Stream goes live
• 5.45 Performance starts
• 7.15 Finish

The latest from Rosie Kay Dance Company is The Great Train Dance.

On 23 July 2011, The Great Train Dance will transform the Severn Valley Railway into a magical family experience with a puzzle to solve. With dancing at each station and in the train itself by a host of bizarre characters, this totally unique work will reveal all in a finale at the Engine House in Highley.

I’m going to see this on Saturday and if, you’re quick about it, you can win a pair of tickets to it yourself over on the Dancing for the Games website - the deadline for entries is midday today. Or you can book tickets here.

There’s also quite a well-stocked blog about the development of this project.