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!

“Born of a passion and a belief that opera can speak directly to all kinds of people, Artistic Director, Graham Vick, set out to create a company that the people of Birmingham – a city of many peoples – could be proud of…

…We’ve got more exploring to do to discover where opera can be performed. How to perform it. How to re-write the rules of engagement between audiences and performer. How to experiment with space and acoustics. Who can we make it speak to?”

Birmingham Opera Company would like to invite you to their production of Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry.  You may have already heard a sneak preview at Springhill Tesco Superstore, where professional soloists Joseph Guyton and Stephanie Corley were accompanied by Sergey Rybin on piano. The singers performed a selection of opera favourites from Tosca, Madame Butterfly and Othello, demonstrating their talents whilst preparing to play the roles of Prince Andrei and Emma in this latest production.

The opera will take place in a big top tent at Cannon Hill Park, with performances at 7pm on the 22nd, 24th, 28th and 30th April before a final performance on the 2nd May.

The story depicts Russia in the midst of a division between powerful conservative forces and growing Westernising influence. Musorgsky paints a devastating portrait of a nation on the brink of collapse; torn apart by state corruption, religious fanaticism, social inequality and ethnic cleansing.

The unique setting and involvement from local performers already sets the bar for an interesting series of evenings. Birmingham Opera Company released an open call for singers with varied to little experience in performance, asking them to join in with rehearsals several days a week. If you’d like to become involved with Birmingham Opera Company’s projects yourself, then please contact them at getinvolved@birminghamopera.org.uk .

We wish the cast and Birmingham Opera Company the best of luck for the shows. For telephone booking information please call 0121 246 6632 Monday – Friday 9:00am-11:00am or use the following link for further information and online booking.

Milque & Muhle is an independent record shop based in the Custard Factory, created by Nathan Warner and Ellena Donlon,

Milque & Muhle serves as a shop which not only provides adventurous, underground vinyl and cassette, you will also find music fanzines, comics, presses and occasional art prints; with due course Milque & Muhle intend to curate local gigs and music/art based events targeted towards adventurous and curious audiences within Birmingham.

Milque & Muhle are screening an original 16mm print of If… at Custard Factory’s theatre space on 30th January.

Starring Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), this allegorical tale of the British public schooling system is universally acknowledged as a landmark of British counter-cultural cinema.

The feature will be introduced by a series of shorts starting from around 8pm. It’s £3 on the door and full details can be found here: http://milqueandmuhle.co.uk/news-events/

Film-poster image credit: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/sites/default/files/imagefield/if-2.jpg

As part of the Cultural Olympiad, there’s another free multimedia performing arts event happening in the city centre, Mandala at Chamberlain Square on Friday evening. At 6.30pm there is ‘seriously funky dhol’n’brass’ by RED BARAAT, with the main Mandala performance taking place at 8.30pm, and a repeat performance happening at 9.30pm.

“The buildings will be brought to life and transformed from their classical facades into breathtaking new forms using projections that jump out towards you and stunning visual effects triggered by live dance and music.”

More information on the Mandala 2012 website.

“The 48 Hour Musical project is this crazy thing where a bunch of writers, composers, performers, directors, designers and musicians all get together and give themselves just 48 solid hours to write, produce and perform a brand new musical. There’s no pre-planning of the show at all, other than to make sure there’s the pressure of an audience waiting at the end of it. So, within reason, pretty much anything could happen.”

They are looking for funding to make their idea happen. They’ve set up a kickstarter style sponsor page where you can read more about the project, and donate as little as £1 if you think that it’s something you’d like to support. As with all kickstarters, there are rewards in return for your donations. At the time of publishing this post, they are at just over 50% of their target. The money they receive will pay for the set, props, theatre hire, tech hire, costumes… and so forth. The event itself will be ticketed separately later in the year, and performed at the Mac.

Spotted via Birmingham it’s Not Shit (who are looking for a buyer)

There is an evening of theatrical happenings next Saturday at a disused Coffin Works near Summer Row. It’s being put on by Tin Box Theatre, who are also the folks behind the Three Week Window festival which we’ve covered a handful of times. I really like the flyer.

This looks to be an extremely exciting opportunity for theatre producers in the city centre as Sheffield’s Point Blank Theatre takes up residency in the now empty (used as the Christmas pop-up shop last year) unit on New Street. Here is a description for the unit that will be called Make.Shift:

Point Blank Theatre has secured the short-term lease on an empty shop unit in a prime location on New Street, right in the heart of Birmingham’s bustling city centre. During this time the space will be used by local theatre-makers to collaborate, network, and rehearse.

The shop unit will also play host to the Three-Week Window Festival, a brand new festival for Birmingham curated by local theatre companies Little Earthquake and Tin Box.

The Three Week Window Festival has been open for submissions but is in the last few days of application. Here is a description of what looks to be a great event:

Local theatre companies Little Earthquake and Tin Box are curating a new festival in the unit between Monday 3^rd and Sunday 23^rd September 2012 called Three-Week Window. 

The shop unit has a large street-level window measuring 5 and a half metres wide by 2 and a half metres tall, and thousands of people walk past it every day. We’re looking for up to 18 artists, companies or organisations who would each like to take over the shop window for a single day. Whatever you decide to do in the window is up to you…

Perhaps you’re a theatre-maker with an idea for a performance; an installation artist who could transform the window into something unique; or a visual artist who would like to display their work. Whoever you are, whatever you do, we’re keen to hear about ideas that will turn heads and stop people in their tracks for three special weeks in September.

The full criteria for performers is available here, but it seems as if the huge shop windows will become a theatre stage where passers by can stop and watch performers behind the glass.

I think this pop-up culture is outstanding and will hopefully inspire and open up even more opportunities for Birmingham to use its empty spaces more creatively – especially for local companies such as Tin Box.

Find out more on the Make.Shift website.

The festival runs this weekend, from Fri – Sun, and is the biggest free arts and culture festival in the UK, with around 600 performing, visual and digital artists at events taking place all across the city.

I would give you a run down of everything happening, but there are heaps of events, performances, screenings, workshops and all sorts of goings-on, so I’m not even going to attempt it. Chris did, however, mention a few things to look out for the other week.