Read down – there’s a competition for free tickets later on in this post.

I’m conscious that I’ve not mentioned International Dance Festival Birmingham so much on here over the past month. Partly that’s because I’ve been busy working on it and going to just about every event that I could.

There’s only a couple of days left but still a chance to catch some good stuff. Tonight, there’s:

• Cruel by Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker (Birmingham Hippodrome)
• Self Unfinished by Xavier Le Roy (Ikon Eastside)
• Kathak Duet by Abhimanyu & Vidha Lal (The Patrick Centre)

And tomorrow (the last day) there’s:

• A second chance to catch Cruel (Birmingham Hippodrome)
• Put Your Foot Down (St Martin’s Square, Bullring)

Put Your Foot Down is a big, free event that’ll run from midday to 6pm. Worth checking out, because the festival has been doing big, free public events very well (for instance, Utopia was great).

I saw Self Unfinished at Ikon Eastside last night and it’s probably the most ‘out there’ event in the entire programme – as David Massingham (festival co-director) said afterwards, it’s probably the furthest you can get from Strictly Come Dancing.

I’m off to Cruel tonight though – athletic Brazilian dancers, knives, spinning mirrors and a ruddy great big globe-shaped chandelier. That’s entertainment. Speaking of which…

Competition

We’ve been given a pair of tickets for the spectacular-looking Cruel tonight. If you want your name to go into a draw for them then email ‘CRUEL’ to createdinbirmingham@gmail.com. We’ll do the draw at about 2pm and let the winner know the good news.

The Sampad Story is an exhibition that will open on 1 May at the mac and run through to 30 August. It’ll be accompanied by a book edited by Tasawar Bashir. From the blurb:

Come and find out how from humble beginnings from its home at mac, sampan has transformed an annual festival into a year round programme. From large scale productions to intimate poetry sessions and participatory activities, sampan has been instrumental in developing and showcasing a wealth of south asian arts from the UK and abroad

They’re also doing some performances as part of IDFB – Utopia, Thresh Dance Company: The Absent Lover and a Kathak Duet – showcasing Urban Jungli at The Drum and there’s the sampad Arts Mela on Sunday 25 July.

There’s loads more too, so here’s the brochure: