OK, that’s not really the kind of title you want to see when you’re reading a blog but this particular blogger is only of any use while the festival is either running or about to run.
That time has now passed and we must, en masse, move on to the next festival in 2010 when we shall, once again, convene in the City of Birmingham and do all of this all over again! First of all though most of the staff are off on holiday for a well deserved break but they will be back soon to answer any questions you may have on IDFB 2010.
Over the course of this IDFB we have presented 35 major performances across 28 days with a combination of 17,000 participants and audience members. The live shows have featured 150 dancers from 20 dance companies from across the globe with numerous professional development opportunities and dozens of workshops and participatory events for the general public and their kids to get involved with.
What does 2010 hold for the unsuspecting dance aficionado you ask? Well, expect a lot more brand new work as well as some of the best and the brightest creative talent from the wide world of dance.
If you have any suggestions then we would love to hear them or if you have any feedback on this IDFB then we want to hear that too, good or bad. Send your comments to the usual address.
The IDFB website will be here not only to serve as a reminder of the festival that has just been, including all of the video and photo material, but the brand new festival that will be landing in just under 24 months.
Maybe we’ll put up a clock to count it down? Until then………
PS: there are still a couple of videos yet to publish but they’re not ready yet, so don’t go too far!
Prior to the premiere of the brand new Bare Bones show David Massingham the Artistic Director of DanceXchange and the co-director of IDFB spoke on camera about the festival and the future of the event in Birmingham.
If you want to see some Bare Bones footage then scroll down the page a little and take a look.
Despite some heavy rain and freezing cold temperatures (hard to believe this happened in May!) the Salsa at Sunset party went ahead with hundreds of people turning out to both take part and watch the fun unfold at the Mailbox in Birmingham.
The final event of IDFB was all about regular folks taking part in a Salsa sequence, en masse, with music being provided by a live band.
It was a fitting climax to the festival proceedings and all concerned had a ball, or a Salsa, or whatever you want to call it.
Video compression is not kind on very busy sequences of movement material so we’ll be sure to bring you much higher quality footage from the event very, very soon.
We must eat our lollipops with the wrappers on is a piece that was specially re-staged just for IDFB. The sometimes harrowing story of the devastating impact of AIDS and HIV on the African continent is played out in this dance theatre work from 1999.
Throughout, the show uses music, audience interaction, dance and theatre to get the message across with a few stunning lighting tricks thrown into the mix to ratchet up the impact of the work as a whole.
Sadly, the work is no longer on tour but you can keep up with the company via the website link below.
The final “live” performance at IDFB (which continues this evening at the Birmingham Hippodrome) is from the Kirov Ballet with a multi-faceted bill of works by George Balachine and Marius Petipa.
Just in case you missed the company’s performance of Jewels earlier in the week we were lucky enough to be invited along to a “press call” of the performance. As you might imagine a press call is for the press to go in, film, take photos and generally lark about so they don’t cause any disruption during the show you have paid money to see.
So when you watch the above, perfectly executed, performance think of it as a rehearsal because there is quite a lot of noise in the background as the company busy themselves with preparations for the show.
Don Quixote will be performed tonight for the final time at 7.30pm.
At the end of week one of IDFB we had International Raw Energy, a showcase of work performed by the younger dance talent out there in the world today.
There was a lot of great dance performed by all concerned and we want to show a couple of segments from two of those pieces.
First up we have the scarily titled Raging Skulls, choreographed by David McKenna, and the show stopping finale piece Bollywood Fever created by Mayuri Upadhya and Aakash Odera.
The entire evening was living proof that the professionals don’t have things all there own way when it comes to top flight performances and entertainment.
Bare Bones Dance Company are now in their sixth year of dance making and performance and this time they are looking for international domination.
With new works by Rui Horta and Garry Stewart of Australian Dance Theatre, a third work is coming soon, the company is making prepartions for touring in 2009.
Following their shows at the Patrick Centre in Birmingham as part of IDFB we have some video footage to share of Magnification by the aforementioned Mr Stewart. You’ll be able to keep up with what’s happening with the company on their brand new website very, very soon.
It’s happened all too quickly but this is the last week of IDFB here in Birmingham. Dozens of performances have come and gone and if you still want to see something then you need to get in fast before it’s all over.
The last week has seen some supeb shows from Akram Khan, National Ballet of China. Suburo Teshigawara, Robyn Orlin & City Theater and Dance Group and our own, homegrown, Bare Bones Dance Company.
Most Visually Arresting Piece of the Week Award goes to Mr Teshigawara and KARAS with Glass - Fragments in Time, performed at the brand new Ikon Eastside art gallery. it really is a sight to see when two professional dancers do their thing on a bed of razor sharp broken glass.
There’s plenty of video still to come here on the blog, after we overcome a minor technical problem with a computer we strongly believe to be cursed, but there is nothing like seeing a show live.
Bare Bones have one more show this evening (Monday) at the Patrick Centre but it is selling out rapidly (it’s an “in the round” performance so seating space is limited). You can catch two brand new pieces of work by Garry Stewart of Australian Dance Theatre and Rui Horta’s Container. The work itself won’t be touring until next year so catch these exclusive previews while you can. (we’ll have some video later on when the laptop is exorcised!)
Winding the whole festival up at the end of this week (on Sunday May 25th) will be the Salsa at Sunset Party in The Mailbox. All the places for the participatory event are taken but there’s nothing to stop coming along and joining in the fun as the festival winds down and preparations begin to do all this again in 2010.
We wrote about the unique nature of the collaboration between Akram Khan and the National Ballet of China a little while ago.
The shows have now come and gone and the audience response was fantastic, to say the least. Excellent dance making and world class performances were all in evidence during both nights of the show as well as a lot of humour.
bahok has moved on now, continuing to tour around the UK and Europe, but you can catch a little bit of it above in our video. If you can catch the show live then we highly recommend you do.
IDFB’s outdoor shows have provided the viewing public with more than a few opportunities to capture and record there own versions of the events on their cell phones and digital cameras.
A few videos have show up on YouTube (see below) and there are several Flickr pages featuring loads of still images from the outdoor events.
More often than not folks are told to turn off their phones and that filming or photographing a show will, in no uncertain terms, bring the authorities crashing down on your head!
So check out the people’s media and let us know if you have anything to share.
Sadly, the outdoor events are over for this years festival so take care not to break out your phone in any of the remaining, indoor, shows because the folks from the venues will have a gentle word in your ear about filming. You can catch a lot of great footage here on the blog though so stay tuned!
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