dancing for the games

Encompass – 360° Digital Dance

Chris Unitt — Sat, 05 May 2012 10:41:20 +0000

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.

Links for 6 January 2012

Chris Unitt — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:43:06 +0000

Eastside Projects Hosting: What is Art? Charity event at St Basils 13/01/12
Organised by ESP member Kartal Uppal, this evening will look at and debate the question; What makes something Art? With contributions from Gavin Wade (Director, Eastside Projects), Tyler Cann (Curator, Ikon Gallery) and Cathy Wade (Artist and Lecturer)
Things Team Fierce looks forward to in 2012. . . | Fierce Festival
Lots of good stuff, with plenty happening around Birmingham
Sarah Ray illustration: Screenprinting workshops
Learn to make your own cards, posters or whatever. Silkscreen printing always looks to me like being a very satisfying process
Flatpack Festival founder: Ian Francis
A decent little interview
Follow the Dancing for the Games projects online
Loads of links to the projects that are part of the Dancing for the Games programme
Aga | Luthien Photography
Kamila’s been shooting around Digbeth (via Digbeth is Good)
Birmingham NYE 2012 fireworks
Sounds like things went a little wrong. If you’d read our New Year events round-up you’d have known to expect ‘low level pyrotechnics’

The Great Train Dance

Chris Unitt — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:51:12 +0000

Back in July, Rosie Kay Dance Company performed The Great Train Dance on the Severn Valley Railway between Kidderminster and Highley:

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.

Links for 18 November 2011

Chris Unitt — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:26:43 +0000

Yam Big Richard
Richard’s DJing, hacks, collages and write-ups from events
Warwick Bar
A website for Minerva Works, the small industrial estate in Digbeth currently home to Grand Union Studios, Fazeley Park, Street Print and Clifton Steel
Fast Forward – 6.8 million items in our collections! Phew « Museum Network Warwickshire
Fast Forward 2010, the 6th bi-annual survey of West Midlands museums. In all, 170 of you participated, 79% of all our museums! Covering organisational health, collections, and users, it is a wide-ranging and detailed picture of museum provision throughout the West Midlands in 2010
The Event, Various venues, Birmingham – Reviews
A review of The Event in the Independent
BASS FESTIVAL 2012- Commissions NOW OPEN!
To mark the 50th anniversary of Jamaican Independence and to welcome the Jamaican Olympic team to Birmingham BASS will have JAMAICA as its theme in 2012
Dancing for the Games | Blog | Moving Earth open workshops
sampad‘s Dancing for the Games project Moving Earth is holding open workshops in Birmingham on Saturday 26 November.
Michael’s Animation blog
Michael Price is studying animation at BCU
BBC Performing Arts Funds announce fellowships
The BBC Performing Arts Fund announced recently that 13 dance organisations across the UK had been awarded a grant as part of its Dance Fellowships scheme, including ACE Dance and Music and Warwick Arts Centre’s Boys Dancing
“Long-Eared Furry Things” – blog – frilly
Bunnies, generally
Eastside Projects Public Evaluation Event
“From 27 to 29 October, Eastside Projects in Birmingham, UK held a three day symposium to analyse and evaluate three years of an artist run space as public gallery”. The videos are online, I just wish they had titles
Open File
Open File is a curatorial conversation between artist Jack Brindley and curator Tim Dixon. The project began as a blog in February 2011. Launching at Grand Union this November 18th, the project will exist as an on-going series of live events, an open and expanding cumulative publication, and a new web-based archive and resource

Tweets from Artsfest

Chris Unitt — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 10:44:30 +0000

There’s loads of stuff happening at Artsfest this weekend. I pulled out a few suggestions here (with more in the comments below that post) but to get an idea of what people are up to, here’s a live Twitter search to have a look at:

Meanwhile, I’m covering what’s going on in the Dance Marquee today. You can follow all of that on the Dancing for the Games website.

Links for 21 July 2011

Chris Unitt — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:30:25 +0000

This is Captain Midlands | Tom Lennon’s Blog
I know naff all about comics. Tom knows more though and apparently there’s a Brummie in the Marvel universe
What’s on during Open Weekend
The dancey stuff that’s happening this weekend
Audio described performances & Touch Tours at Birmingham Hippodrome – my first experience
“Emma is a member of the theatre’s Access Forum. Here she writes honestly about her and her guide dog Rupert’s first experience of an Audio Described performance and Touch Tour”
From ATVLand in Colour
“This 5 x 45 minute documentary tells the story of the affectionately known ‘ATVLand’ – the ATV Centre in Birmingham, from its beginnings to its ultimate closure in 1997 and beyond”

Rosie Kay’s Great Train Dance

Chris Unitt — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:31:14 +0000

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.

Links for 11 November 2010

Chris Unitt — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:59:29 +0000

State of the West Midlands « D’log
“Just published, State of the West Midlands report, 2010”
Want to be part of Dancing for the Games and get free entry to The Dance Show and Clothes Show Live this December as well?
Then the info’s all here
no2self.net » Made in Birmingham
“I was recently contacted by some students from Birmingham School of Architecture and asked to take part in an exhibition they’re organising called Made in Birmingham for an upcoming RIBA/BAA event. The request was simply to pick my favourite building in the city and provide a 50 word explanation. Here’s what I’ve just submitted:”
First transatlantic cable company invests million in high tech wire production – Advantage West Midlands
Very occasionally an AWM press release will contain something fascinating
The beat of a different Brum: a culture weekend in Birmingham | Travel | The Guardian
“Eastside, while steeped in that clamour and grime, has dusted itself down and stepped back out with a raw new glamour”
Home is where the Art is
A new blog for me to follow. Marcus styles himself: “Community art worker, creative agent, married, Dad, Birmingham UK”
Higher education – universities with arts courses bear the brunt – Telegraph
Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies to lose all funding