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dx Autumn season

This Autumn IDFB co-producer DanceXchange will have been based in the Birmingham Hippodrome complex for a decade, and have lined up a fantastic season of dance to celebrate.

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.

In the Dust

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.

Episode

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.

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.

Episodes of Blackness

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.

Rising

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.

  • Posted by Mars Elkins on September 5th, 2011
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Media & PR Support for IDFB 2012

Here at IDFB we’re not afraid to ask for help every now and again, especially when we know that things are about to get really busy!

As we head into the most hectic and exciting period in the festival’s calendar, we’re looking for an agency or individual to support our in-house media and PR activity.

Building on the success of previous festivals, we want to generate greater profile and media coverage than ever before. If you have a strong track record in securing media coverage and a creative, “can do” approach to PR, you could be just what we’re looking for.

For a full brief and details of how to submit your proposal, please visit the Jobs section of the DanceXchange website, or call 0121 689 3170.

The submission deadline is 10am on Monday 19th September 2011.

THRILLER LIVE moonwalks its way to Birmingham

Fans of dance and pop legend Michael Jackson have IDFB co-producer Birmingham Hippodrome to thank for bringing West End hit THRILLER LIVE to the city. The show is a celebration of the King of Pop’s music packed with awesome dance numbers. I spoke to Adrian Grant, the producer of this brilliant two-hour dance and musical extravaganza.

Adrian Grant photo

How did you cast for the musical? Have you had trouble finding artists for such an important role?

Casting the show is the most difficult aspect in Thriller Live because Michael Jackson was such a unique talent. I decided from day one that I didn’t want the show to be a straight tribute performance with one impersonator. I wanted to take the audience on a journey and display all of Michael Jackson’s different personas and talent on stage. Therefore we have 5 lead principal singers sharing the songs throughout – including a child for the early Jackson 5 hits, a soulful singer, the pop singer, a rock singer and a female singer which surprises many people – but she brings a lot of balance to many of the songs.

Thriller Live on stage

Then there is also the dancers. We have one lead ‘MJ’ dancer, who fronts songs such as ‘Smooth Criminal’, ‘Thriller’ and ‘Billie Jean’. On top of this we have 10 male and female dancers who bring the stage to life with fantastic choreography from Director Gary Lloyd. For these dancers it is a dream come true to be in a show inspired by an icon they grew up on, learning his moves daily.

Why is there a big gap between the first Jackson Celebration of ‘91 and the musical?

The Annual Michael Jackson Celebration started in 1991 and ran every years for 10 years. In 2001 Michael personally attended the show in London and watched over 100 performers pay tribute to him. Afterwards he came on stage and told the 3,000 fans in attendance that he thought the Celebration had been ‘beautiful and incredible!’

Adrian Grant and Michael Jackson

Is it true that Jackson didn’t want to start this show about him?

No, from the outset his management were fully aware of the show, and in 2007 Michael wished me luck with the production. He had always been fully supportive of the Annual Michael Jackson Celebration, even sending over his own video crew to film the event and fans.

It’s a great shame that he never got to see Thriller Live, but Kenny Ortega [Director of Michael’s This is It tour - ed.] recently told us that he was planning on coming to watch the show during his ‘This Is It’ stay in London – but dressed in disguise!

Do you believe that the performances scheduled in July in London would have meant his artistic rebirth? Or his golden moment had passed?

I believe the This Is It concerts would have reaffirmed Michael Jackson as the world’s greatest entertainer – and would have taken concert production to a whole new level. Michael was a perfectionist and was always looking to better his previous work. He was the ultimate showman, and he still had so much more to give – both on and off stage.

Do you see any possible heir of Jackson in the pop world?

There will never be another Michael Jackson. The music industry has changed and is far more instant then it was 10, 20, 30 years ago. Michael grew up during the Motown era, and worked hard with his brothers touring and perfecting their craft. Furthermore he learnt from greats such as Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Jackie Wilson and James Brown. He always said he would ‘study the greats and aim to become better!’

You may find an individual who can sing better, or dance better – but what made Michael the King of Pop was that he did everything, and he did it so very well and with his own style. As a songwriter he was sometimes underrated – but like at hits such as ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Wanna Be Startin Somethin’, ‘Earth Song’ and ‘Don’t Stop Til’ You Get Enough’ – pure pop classics. As a singer he had an incredible 4-octave range, and as a dancer he created breakthrough videos such as ‘Beat It’ and ‘Thriller’, and was complimented by none other than Fred Astaire.

THRILLER LIVE will be at Birmingham Hippodrome on Monday April 18 until Saturday 30 April. Tickets are priced between £13.50 and £32.00. You can book online at www.birminghamhippodrome.com or call 0844 338 5000. Please remember that transaction fees apply.

We’re giving away two free tickets for the opening night on the 18th. Simply go to the IDFB Facebook Fan page, ‘Like’ us and tell us what your favourite Michael Jackson video is. We’ll do a draw and we’ll announce the winner on Friday April 15.

Also, on Saturday April 16, a mass Thriller flash mob will be descending on central Birmingham and you can be part of it. You can register online and to find out more, go to http://thrillerinthecity.com/.

Here’s the Thriller in the city video:

Thriller in the city is presented by Birmingham Hippodrome and supported by Dancing for the Games; a project inspired by London 2012 and part of the Cultural Olympiad in the West Midlands and DanceXchange.