RoguePlay, founded in 2009, can most likely be found hanging from a trapeze, or silk, balancing, lifting or throwing one another, all while speaking a monologue, singing a song or playing the accordion.

Every year they like to showcase their new routines and skills from trapeze, to hoop solo and silks. With aerial acts, music and drinks the Aerialist Showcase tickets are charged at £5.00 with all proceeds going back into the theatre company with the aim of buying curtains for their new space.

To find out more about RoguePlay Theatre visit their site where you can also book tickets.

International Dance Festival Birmingham 2016 has put a callout for proposals of work to be performed in ‘Outdoor Places or Unusual Spaces’ (OPUS) for the 2016 edition of the festival.

To see full details go to the full brief on the DanceXchange site: http://www.dancexchange.org.uk/about/commissions-auditions

IDFB is inviting professionals to submit a great idea and concept for a new festival commission for IDFB 2016, with a particular focus on dance or cross-artform projects that take place in outdoor places and unusual spaces. We welcome ideas from any UK or International Artist. The IDFB team will work alongside the successful professional artist/company to produce and realise the OPUS Idea in a collaborative way. The Artist will be paid a fee as collaborator (please include this in your submitted budget), and the project will be creatively produced by IDFB. We welcome proposals that come with a company of performers. Alternatively, performers can be recruited for the project, collaboratively through a fair and equal process. Collaborators or partners should be researched and named within the proposal where relevant, but please note that all artistic personnel will be mutually agreed by the Artist and the Creative Producer.

Deadline for proposals to be submitted: 29 April 2015, 10am

If you have any questions about your proposal, please contact Hannah Sharpe on 0121 689 1093 or email hannah.sharpe@dancexchange.org.uk

We are all very excited to tell you about the return of the International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014! You will be able to experience a range of performances from ballet to large non-choreographed social dances. With so many brilliant performances to talk about, the following will just be a selection of my top picks for the festival.

For Starters, ‘Three Short Works’ 24th – 26th April

The International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014 kicks off with ‘Three Short Works’. From the Birmingham Royal Ballet, a selection of performances called Quatrain, Kin, Les Rendezvous and Façade. Les Rendezvous will be available to see from 24th–25th April, with Quatrain and Kin continuing to be shown alongside Façade on 26th April.

QUATRAIN

Inspired by the fantastically exciting and vibrant tango rhythms of Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Season’s of Buenos Aires, Company First Artist Kit Holder creates his third ballet for the Company. Following the success of his previous work, 9-5, which featured in IDFB 2012, these premiere performances of his latest work are keenly anticipated.

KIN.

An exciting new ballet from Royal Opera House Choreographic Affiliate, Sadler’s Wells New Wave Associate and former Birmingham Royal Ballet dancer, Alexander Whitley. The ballet, to music by young American composer Phil Kline, will receive its’ premiere at IDFB 2014. Not to be missed!

LES RENDEZVOUS

A huge hit when it was first performed in 1933, Les Rendezvous was the first ballet in which Ashton put aside the comedy for which he was known and concentrated on pure technique. Loosely based round a group of friends meeting up in a park, the ballet is a series of fiercely difficult divertissements which give the whole cast the chance to show off their virtuosity.

FACADE

Finally, based on Edith Sitwell’s deliciously nonsensical poetry, Façade embraces the fun of it all with whole-hearted and wilful abandon. Be entertained by a series of delightful characters dancing tangos, foxtrots and waltzes, all with their tongues firmly in their cheeks. Choreographed in 1931, Façade was Sir Frederick Ashton’s first big hit, and is full of the gentle comedy he is known and loved for – an enjoyable break from the sanity of everyday life!

World Premier, ‘Headphones’ 30th April – 4th May

Promising to provide us with a fresh organic series of performances, Corey Baker brings us ‘Headphones’. In keeping with Corey Bakers’ ethos of producing engaging and unique productions, ‘Headphones’ will allow the audience to direct part of the dancers’ choreography. Set to hide ‘undercover’, the performances will be surprising and unpredictable with elements of comedy.

You can watch this trailer to get an idea of the fun performance, as well as directly suggest moves by tweeting @IDFB #headphones.

‘Lord of the Flies’ 14th–17th May

Mathew Bourne has invited 24 young people to join his latest hit production ‘Lord of the Flies’ based on the classic novel written by William Goulding. There are 8 professional dancers within the cast, to work alongside the newly recruited dancers to give a unique opportunity to young dancers in each city that the production is set to perform in. Because of this the theatre performance has already gained great publicity. The combination of mentoring and unity has made the project a wonderful success already and should be a great motivational piece, especially for young people who with a passion for dance.

‘Lord of the Flies’ will be performed at The Birmingham Hippodrome over 4 days with tickets available now.

‘Spill: A Playground of Dance’ – 25th May

DanceXchange is housed within Birmingham Hippodrome, both of whom have worked together to produce the 2014 International Dance Festival Birmingham. Owning 3 dance studios and The Patrick Centre (a 206 seat studio), DanceXchange strives to support the dancing community and enable their dancers to showcase the best of their talents. ‘Spill’ was first shown in 2012, and is an outdoor production that will be performed in the beautiful Cannon Hill Park. Choreographed by Australian Artist Shaun Parker, of Shaun Parker & Company, it should be a playful piece using street gymnastics and location based props of swings and roundabouts.

With so many different events and performances there is bound to be something for everybody and you can view IDFB’s 2014 staff picks here to find some first hand recommendations!

The 18^th annual Sony Xperia™ B-Boy Championships World Finals will see top break dancers; poppers and hip-hop dancers bring their best moves, routines and unique style to the stage!  The audience are set to witness the most incredible action as the dancers go head-to-head, battling it out for the coveted world titles.

The O2 Academy Birmingham will welcome 6,000 fans to the world’s #1 dance competition for a weekend of awe-inspiring battles and shows on Saturday 21^st & Sunday 22^nd September 2013.

We’ve got 3 pairs of tickets to giveaway thanks to Sony. 

This outstanding video documents some of the rehearsel and creation process of Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s Cinderella. Created by BRB’s Rob Lindsay, this is a rare glimpse behind the scenes, while also being directly set against moments in the final production, all with commentary by choreographer and company director David Bintley.

Well worth 3 minutes of your time.

Birmingham Hippodrome’s season of street theatre and performance continues tomorrow with 6 acts popping up in a variety of locations around the city centre. The Reds (Natural Theatre Company) will be roaming around, The Princess & The Maharaja (Nutkhut) will perform on New Street, while Turbo Jonez (Reckless Invention, @turbojonez) will be on High Street.

You can find The Whale (Talking Birds) at Brindleyplace, Hinterland (Mercurial Dance) outside the Hippodrome, and Sink Dancing (Lucid Incident) in the Mailbox underpass.

You can find out more about Six Summer Saturdays at their hub on the ground floor of the Mailbox, where you can also find an exhibition of photography from The Voyage. And if you have an iPhone or iPad there’s an augmented reality app called Zoe’s Magic Camera.

Stuart Griffiths, Chief Executive at Birmingham Hippodrome, has blogged revealing what we can expect from their new season of dance.

As the climax of Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s 20th Anniversary celebrations, David Bintley’s brand new production of the classic fairytale, Cinderella, has been presented as a gift to the city. You can catch it from 24 Nov – 12 Dec (and follow the Creating Cinderella blog in the meantime), but before then there’s plenty to keep you entertained. A few of the highlights include:

• Birmingham Royal Ballet: Points of View 22 – 25 Sept
• Birmingham Royal Ballet: Romeo & Juliet 28 Sept – 2 Oct
• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Revelations 5 & 6 Oct
• Fresh from the West End is Blaze – The Streetdance Sensation 7 – 9 Oct

Matthew Bourne will be bringing his latest production north of London for the first time, plus the Welsh National Opera are offering a selection of new operas and revivals.

On the musical front, several favorites will be back by popular demand, with new productions of including Hairspray and Chess. Bringing 2010 to a close, Joan Collins tops the bill at this years pantomime, along with Julian Clary, Nigel Havers, Keith Harris and Orville, and Jeffrey Holland in a spectacular production of Dick Whittington.

For full listings take a look at the Hippodrome’s website along with Stuart’s full blog post.

The eagle-eyed shoppers among you may have noticed ballet shoes and tutus, like the one pictured above found in the Created in Birmingham shop, popping up all over Bullring recently.

Add this to questions like “What is Urban Ballet?” on the shopping centre’s Life Feels Better twitter stream, and this Urban Ballet website, and it looks like there will be a surprise in store for Bullring visitors tomorrow. Perhaps a little something like this:

If you want to find out what Urban Ballet is, it looks like it will be kicking off between 11am and 2pm, so get practising those pirouettes and get down to Bullring.

It’s on Thursday 11 February at 7.30pm at Elmhurst School for Dance. Tickets are limited to two per person and seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If you act fast you can get your tickets here.

]]> http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2010/02/05/birmingham-royal-ballet-choreographers/feed/ 2 http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2010/01/22/the-river/ http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2010/01/22/the-river/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:40:35 +0000 http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/?p=4915 [Read more...]]]>

The River project is a collaborative animated film based on a bespoke piece of contemporary dance, which has been created to represent and reflect the wider and diverse communities in Birmingham. The participants will consist of five groups of around forty people from different ages ranging from 8-78 years old all working collaboratively with lead-artist and director Babis Alexiadis to create the film.

Here’s a bit more blurb:

The project aims to engage with people from diverse communities in Birmingham; each community represents a river of creative energy; each river embraces its own shape, characteristics, colour and surroundings. As nature commands, the small rivers stream into a bigger river; this culturally and characteristically integrated river is Birmingham.

The project’s completed its first stage of research and development and presented the pilot at the West Midlands Cultural Olympiad launch on 24th July 2009.

There’s a River Project blog here and a website here for more info, and you can also contact Babis Alexiadis via email on alexiadisb@hotmail.com.