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.
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.
