We caught up with Andy on his most recent visit, and asked him to introduce himself, and to explain his initial thoughts for the project.

Andy is the first of the creative team to come on board, and we’re currently looking for an Assistant Director to join us. You can read more about the oppportunity here, and the deadline for applications is Wednesday 25 January.

Visit our Take Part section to find out how you can get involved in Home.

Our programme features some great international dance icons, including Sylvie Guillem, Louise Lecavalier (pictured) and Dave St-Pierre. We’re also looking forward to new commissions and world premieres by Shaun Parker, Jessica Lang, and David Toole, not to mention performances by some of the world’s best dance companies – Royal Ballet Flanders, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Circolombia, Birmingham Royal Ballet and more!

From breakdance to contemporary, circus to ballet we’re sure you’ll find something to excite you!

You can view the full line up here.

The streets of Birmingham will come alive with dance next April when International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB), the UK’s biggest dance festival, takes place across the city. Now a well established, biennial event co-produced by DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome, IDFB 2012 will include a world-class programme of international performers, world premieres, new commissions and a range of participatory events in venues and public spaces across Birmingham and the West Midlands.

The programme of the 2012 festival has been released for the first time, and performances include Canadian choreographer Dave St-Pierre’s (in)famous Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde!, Artifact by William Forsythe from the Royal Ballet of Flanders and TURF – a dance, break and parkour commission, a new commission from Australian artist Shaun Parker. Birmingham Royal Ballet will perform a new creation from US choreographer Jessica Lang,  whilst Victoria Square will host a huge outdoor finale to the festival, featuring dance, circus, live music and archetectural projections on the Town Hall. Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Breakin’ Convention, hosted and curated by UK hip hop theatre legend Jonzi D, and Sylvie Guillem & Russell Maliphant will all appear at the Birmingham Hippodrome.
Finally, The Patrick Centre will host a double bill from Canadian Louise Lecavalier, and David Toole, Lucy Hind & Remix Dance Company (South Africa), who will perform The Impending Storm.

You can view the whole IDFB 2012 programme here, and more shows will be announced soon.

The launch also saw the announcement of Home, a bold, inventive new production that will animate public spaces across Birmingham city centre in 2012. The final production will be based around the theme of ‘home’ and what it means to each of us. It will be developed using ideas, inspirations and choreographic material contributed by 1000 individuals through workshops, open days, and uploading films online. The performance below was a DanceXchange community group’s contribution, performed live at the launch.

Building on the success of IDFB 2010, which generated over 66,000 audience and participatory experiences, IDFB 2012 aims to create even more opportunities for people to get involved, and attract more national and international visitors to the city.

Artistic Director of DanceXchange and Co-Artistic Director of IDFB 2012, David Massingham said, “The city’s existing dance offering provided by DanceXchange, Birmingham Hippodrome and Birmingham Royal Ballet has already created the biggest dance hub in the UK. IDFB 2012 not only creates a window to what is now a world centre for dance, but extends our reach to new, young audiences by breaking free from traditional venues and providing opportunities to participate in many different ways.”

Stuart Griffiths, Chief Executive of Birmingham Hippodrome and Co-Artistic Director of IDFB 2012 added, “With IDFB 2010 creating £6.2m worth of economic activity, it is well recognised that this festival makes a significant contribution to the economic growth of Birmingham and the West Midlands. It is a great example of a successful partnership working to enrich the cultural offering in the city.”

Click here to download the full IDFB 2012 press release.

Charlie Rachwal and Mike Hyde will be part of the marketing team, and we grabbed a few minutes with them to find out what excited them about the chance to work on the festival, and a bit about their backgrounds.

Charlie has joined us from Warwick Arts Centre, a new host venue for IDFB 2012, as Marketing Officer.

“I’m thrilled to be part of the team at IDFB. It’s a great festival full of varied and exciting performances from large scale outdoor spectacles to intimate studio duets, and as well as looking forward to working on them, I can’t wait to go and see them!

I was previously working at Warwick Arts Centre which I think is a great addition to the venue line-up that will attract new audiences for experimental and progressive contemporary dance. I’m also looking forward to working with other venues, partners and promoters to bring an exciting programme of dance to everyone in and around Birmingham.”

Mike’s been working as Digital Marketing Officer on DanceXchange’s Outdoor Dance Programme since July, and will now also be working on IDFB 2012 in the same role.

“I’m a self-confessed dance novice, having only seen the occasional piece here and there during my previous roles in arts centres. However, I have really enjoyed the shows I’ve seen so far at DanceXchange, and I’m looking forward to immersing myself in dance for a whole month next year!

I think being a newcomer to dance gives me a different perspective on marketing campaigns, as it’s easy to make assumptions about audiences and their expectations. As someone who would never have gone to see dance before, I’m working hard to make sure we remember that, for many people, dance is an unfamiliar artform. Luckily, we have some really great outdoor and participatory projects that will make dance accessible to people who wouldn’t normally come across it, so I’m particularly looking forward to working on those.

I’m also relatively new to the West Midlands, having worked in South Wales and London, so the festival will also be an ideal way to visit interesting venues and meet new people!”

We’ll be introducing other new members of the IDFB team in the coming weeks, but for now, you can find a full staff list here.

Hosted by ACE dance and music, Dance = Desir is the first in a series of symposiums aiming to develop a strong European youth dance network. The programme of activity, taking place at mac on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th October, includes international masterclasses, open rehearsals and film showings.

There will also be a showcase of work by youth dance companies including ACE Youth, BCSE, W’ire, Being Frank Youth and Compagnie Orteils de Sable, the youth company of Les Ballets Contemporains de St Etienne.
The symposium features an exciting guest panel including Gail Parmel (Artistic Director of ACE dance and music), Mirielle Barlet (Artistic Director of Les Ballets Contemporains de Saint Etienne), Compagnie Virevolte from Switzerland, programmers from across Europe, and key figures from the UK youth dance sector.

Most of the questions being debated will revolve around the future of youth dance, and how stakeholders and collaborators can help build a successful future for international projects.

For more information or to book a place at the symposium contact ACE dance and music (spaces limited) // 0121 314 5830 or info@acedanceandmusic.com.

To book tickets for the performances (Fri & Sat, 7.30pm, £6/£4) visit www.macarts.co.uk // 0121 446 3232 (open 9am – 11pm).

Salah, who has just embarked on a world tour with Cirque de Soleil’s new Michael Jackson inspired show, has created five video tutorials that demonstrate how to take inspiration from everyday surroundings to create routines using his unique PABE (Popping, Animation, Boogaloo, Effect) style.

Once you’ve watched the tutorials, upload your video to the Breathe the Beat competition and you could perform at one of the live events planned for 2012, and even win the chance to meet Salah himself!

Along with the five tutorials, Breathe the Beat continues to release interesting behind the scenes footage, including the video below filmed in Birmingham city centre in June.

Breathe the Beat is part of the Outdoor Dance Programme, led by DanceXchange, in partnership with Dancefest, Dancescape and Dudley Performing Arts. It is part of the Dancing for the Games programme, which is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

The season starts with the brilliant Hofesh Shechter Company’s Uprising & The Art of Not Looking Back on Thursday 22 – Saturday 24 September. In this exciting double bill, Uprising features seven men emerging from the shadows bombarding the stage with high energy against a brilliant percussive score composed by choreographer Hofesh Shechter himself.

Meanwhile, The Art of Not Looking Back is inspired by, and made for, the extremely talented female dancers of the Hofesh Shechter Company. This piece has been restaged with support from dx.

The following week 2Faced Dance Company perform In the Dust on Thursday 29 September – Saturday 1 October. Exploring themes of decay and destruction, the award-winning company return with a triple bill of darkly explosive new break-infused contemporary dance works from critically-acclaimed choreographers Tom Dale, Place Price finalist Freddie Opoku-Addaie and 2Faced Artistic Director Tamsin Fitzgerald.

It’s also the ten year anniversary of dx’s touring company Bare Bones, and to celebrate 10 years of innovative performance, a new production Bare Bones The Decade will be performed on Wednesday 5 – Thursday 6 October. The show features iconic solos and duets from previous Bare Bones productions, by some of the UK’s top choreographers – Hofesh Shechter, Carol Brown, Charlotte Vincent, Jasmin Vardimon and Luca Silvestrini. Bare Bones The Decade will also be performed at The Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House and Wales Millennium Centre in October.

Also in October, for dx’s anniversary Associate Artist Rosie Kay and her company are presenting Double Points: K & Asylum on Thursday 13 – Friday 14 October. Based on the seminal work by Dutch/Italian choreographer Emio Greco, Double Points: K features precise dance structure, synchronicity and stamina. Meanwhile, Asylum weaves a narrative of finding your identity through the sheer determination of the human spirit.

Frauke Requardt’s new work Episode is on Thursday 20 – Friday 21 October. Expect an atmospheric experience with live on-stage soundtrack by pianist Niko Meinhold and Andrew Plummer’s deep, deep voice, alongside an immersive, eerie soundtrack by the Ringham brothers.

Then there’s Darshan Singh Bhuller’s Caravaggio: Exile and Death on Thursday 27 – Friday 28 October. This dance show is inspired by the life and work of the 17th century master painter, Caravaggio.

Vocab Dance Company’s Episodes of Blackness is on Friday 4 November. The double bill features new work Word!, which is a choreographic response to headlines around youth culture and there’s also a revival of the highly acclaimed Kwenda-Kwenda, which is a compelling exploration of a female’s wish to step away from ones roots but anxious about the loss of tradition.

One of China’s most exciting companies  TAO Dance Theatre will perform Weight x 3 & 2 on Friday 11 November. Weight x 3 is a duet about the perceptions of physical practice, performed to the music of Steve Reich and the company’s newest work, 2, is a duet performed by Artistic Director and company founder Tao Ye and Duan Ni.

Prepare to be mesmerised by Company Decalage’s La Porte & Eteins Pas on Saturday 26 November. This is a moving double bill by dx’s Associate Artist Mickael ‘Marso’ Riviere’s company, combining original music, hip-hop, bboying, Capoeira and contemporary dance. In La Porte, the characters of Life and Death become real while Eteins Pas is partly improvised, and inspired by the idea of life after death, and out-of-body experiences.

And finally closing the autumn season is the brilliantly talented Aakash Odedra. Rising is on Friday 9 December. A new evening of work, Rising explores different processes and aesthetics to create a new personal language.

All performances start at 8pm at The Patrick Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome. Most first night performances have post show talks.

Tickets are £10/£7 concession in advance and £12/£9 concession on the day. They can be booked online via the dx website www.dancexchange.org.uk or by phoning 0844 338 500. And don’t forget there’s a season ticket offer! Book for 3 shows or more at once and get 20% off, book for 5 shows or more at once, get 50% off. This means you could get tickets for all 10 shows for just £50! This offer is only valid for advance ticket purchases booked by phone or in person, not online.

First up, it’s Tom Chambers (Strictly Come Dancing winner and Holby City heart throb) and Summer Strallen (double Olivier Award nominee and star of Love Never Dies and Hollyoaks) in the legendary Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Hollywood hit Top Hat (30 Aug – 10 Sept). One of the greatest dance musicals of all time, this show is packed full of wonderful song and dance routines performed to a string of Irving Berlin classics (Cheek to Cheek, Let’s Face The Music & Dance, and Top Hat, White Tie & Tails).

Birmingham Royal Ballet delivers a packed season this autumn, opening with gothic fairytale Beauty and the Beast (28 Sept – 2 Oct) followed by Autumn Glory (6 – 8 Oct), a trio of distinguished ballets from the heart of this country’s rich heritage. Ninette de Valois’ choreography for Checkmate is a dramatic and stylised war of lust, trickery and betrayal, whilst the pared-down purity of Frederick Ashton’s Symphonic Variations showcases technically brilliant dance from a master choreographer. Pineapple Poll is a 3-D cartoon classic set to a foot-tapping medley of Gilbert and Sullivan greats and featuring the comic choreographic touch of John Cranko.

Some Like It Hip Hop (11 – 15 Oct) is a show combining comedy, physical theatre, hip hop and a even bit of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night!  Starring Tommy Franzen (So You Think You Can Dance, Blaze, Goldberg), Lizzie Gough (So You Think You Can Dance, Blaze), and Teneisha Bonner (Into the Hoods, Insane in the Brain, StreetDance 3D, Shoes), here’s a preview of what’s in store for Birmingham’s hip hop fans:

Ballroom dance enthusiasts everywhere – get ready to Burn the Floor (25 – 29 Oct)! Visiting Birmingham direct from its electrifying run in London’s West End, this show sizzles with passion, drama and excitement delivered by 20 champion dancers.

For those of you who fancy your break dance and hip hop with a circus arts twist, don’t miss Cirque Éloize – ID (2 – 5 Nov). The scene is set in a place where identity is forged and individuality is expressed, all with amazing multimedia effects and a cast of sixteen performers!

Watch what happened when roving reporter Chris Unitt visited their rehearsals!

The final dance highlight on the Hippodrome main stage this autumn is guaranteed to get you feeling festive! Birmingham Royal Ballet presents the unparalleled Sir Peter Wright production of one of the most famous classical ballets of all time – Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (25 Nov – 11 Dec).

Check out the company getting the stage ready during the 2008 run of The Nutcracker.

Nutcracker technical preparations, November 2008 from Rob Lindsay on Vimeo.

Phew, what a season – all that’s left for us to say is get your tickets and we’ll see you there!

For times, ticket prices and more information, go to the Birmingham Hippodrome website.

Each year we need more and more people to work on what has become one of the largest dance festivals in the world. We’re currently recruiting for a Marketing Officer, Press Manager and Project Manager to work on next year’s festival. Following the success of IDFB 2010, these roles are a fantastic opportunity to work on a festival that is shaping up to be rather special.

If you are interested in one of these roles please visit our jobs page and download the application packs. For more information on any of the roles or the recruitment process please call 0121 689 3170

Using dance theatre, music and spoken word, Episodes of Blackness is Vocab’s first triple bill. Programmed by East London Dance, the show premiered brand new work ‘Word!’, a choreographic response to headlines around the negative aspects of youth culture which asked “is it in our power to do anything about it?”. The triple bill also featured ‘Temps Mort’, a powerful quintet that explored the theme of polygamy. It was a fierce combination of dance and percussive rhythms of drums.

And there was also a revival of the highly acclaimed ‘Kwenda – Kwenda’, a compelling exploration of a group of women wishing to step away from their roots but are worried about its consequences.

Vocab’s choreographer Alesandra Seutin combines traditional African dance with Contemporary and Hip Hop dynamics resulting in a distinctly fast paced, athletic evening of Afro-Eclectic Contemporary Dance.

Renowned dance critic Donald Hutera said: “Seutin’s work puts me in touch with a feisty inner black/mixed race female self I never even knew I had.”

And Vocab Dance will be performing Episodes of Blackness at DanceXchange, Birmingham Hippodrome on Friday 4 November 2011. Tickets on sale soon – visit www.dancexchange.org.uk.