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

Founded in 1974, The Trocks are a company of professional all male dancers who perform an entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form. Their inspired blend of their loving knowledge of dance, their comic approach and the astounding fact that men can, indeed, dance en pointe have earned them international critical acclaim.

And if you’ve not seen them in action, here’s a video:

 
The Trocks, who have performed in over 500 cities in 33 countries, are winners of the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award and the TMA Theatre Award. They were invited to perform at The Royal Variety Performance in 2008.
 
Tickets are priced from £12.50 – £29.50. Evening performance times are 7.30pm and the Saturday matinee is at 2.30pm. To book, call 0833 338 5000 or go online at www.birminghamhippodrome.com. Please note that there are booking charges.

Sounds like a lot of fun, so see you there!

Tell us about the piece and what inspired you to do Ras Goffa Bobby Sands / The Bobby Sands Memorial Race?
It’s a dance piece on the life of Bobby Sands looking at the period 1976 to 1981. He was one of 10 who died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of the Maze prison in Belfast in 1981. Their aim was to win back political status for the republican prisoners, in pursuit of the longer-term aim of a united Ireland.

“Trust no thought arrived at sitting down,” is a phrase quoted at the beginning of the show, and the idea was arrived at on the move. I was training for another piece of work, which would feature a run of 18 miles, in January 2009. During one long run, I remembered Bobby Sands’ name. I remembered seeing an American website that had details of a race run in his memory. He’d run and raced as a teenager and wrote about it while he was in prison. He made the arresting observation that, while he could once run miles over fields and hills, he could now barely walk the length of himself.

I was running most days and each day, running or not, the idea developed some more. I thought it might be possible to present his life and struggle through running and might be able to say something through an activity that calls for endurance, effort, commitment and self-discipline.

The question then was how to present the action in a theatre space. I’d done much of the training for the other piece on a treadmill and I could not think of a better way of making running look like running. You can run properly, and its image stays before the audience all the time, without having to find more space or turning around and so on. Then there was the question of finding the right kind of treadmill. A regular gym machine would not work. The runner needed to be seen; there had to be some impression of open space; a machine with sidebars and a control panel up front could undermine the idea. We had one made in the end, by a company from Oldham, who make conveyor belts for everything.

What are the themes in the piece?
The themes are endurance and commitment, physical and mental.

What particularly interested you on Bobby Sands and why focus on the running side rather than the political side?

Running provoked Bobby Sands’ name and the piece then followed (or had to be pushed and bent into being). The running is a way of looking at the politics.

Can you tell us about the process of creating the piece? Who did you work with and why?
We recorded the sounds from which its electro-acoustic score would be made in December 2008. Once I’d had the idea while training in January 2009, I thought while I ran, and kept on thinking afterwards. I read books and drew out the structure on long pieces of paper. I practised the structure on a gym running machine. This was before I decided there ought to be choreography as well as running in the show (it could have been over 60 minutes of running, with a commentary on the soundtrack).

I asked Sarah Williams, a dancer from Montreal, to work with me on the choreography and the month’s rehearsal in July 2009 was devoted to devising the movement. I recorded interviews in Belfast before and during the rehearsal period too.

Guto Puw, the composer, sent sections of his electro-acoustic score everyday during this time. Nick Rothwell, the sound designer, made his own settings and we all thought about which of Guto’s pieces should go where. The structure changed during this time as well! The narrative, choreography and music naturally decided the shape of the piece.

Giles Parbery, the technical manager, made the sensor hardware as we rehearsed and we’d look over from the running machine occasionally and see a scene that, in miniature, was reminiscent of Merthyr Tydfil in the 1830s – tools, tubing, metal and smoke, all lit up and running almost continuously. The first week we worked a civilized 9am to 6pm. By the end, well, it was…like Merthyr Tydfil in the 1830s.

Can you tell us about the music and the role sound plays in the piece? How did you get to work with Nick Rothwell?
The electro-acoustic score is by Guto Puw and I asked him to work on the project before I knew what the subject matter would be. Although he’s a well-known contemporary composer (and has written for typewriters and the like!), he wanted to collaborate with someone who had experience in setting electronic sound. After a while, I was put in touch with Nick Rothwell, who specialises in programming, media, and making installations, and things felt solid from then on.

With Giles Parbery, Nick made the sound environment and Guto’s score was set into it. He wrote one-minute long sections, which were sometimes used as they were, sometimes looped and sometimes sampled. We all worked together to decide which pieces should go with which action. Before the subject was decided on, I’d wanted to make a piece which made the movement activate the music. Once we had the subject we had to decide how this would happen. It was Nick’s suggestion that we avoid wearables (sensors that you fix onto costume), as they’d be unreliable. They’d mostly need to be wireless to avoid getting cable snagged on the machine and to allow the movement to work, and the signals might not fire properly. He suggested sensors at ground level, mostly triggered by feet passing a short distance away.


What were the challenges in using the machine?
To stay still, you have to keep moving! For example, there’s a scene where I write on the wall, so I have to work to stay low, write properly and keep pushing the body to the right at the same time, otherwise, it’ll go left and straight off the machine. But working on a moving surface helps the action: you can run properly, the motion of the machine gives the impression of time passing, the body looks like it’s in relation to a system to which it has to react and adapt itself. The machine makes more noise as it gets faster. It’s 12ft x 6ft and the noise can’t be dampened down like a gym machine. It’s the belt that makes the running surface that makes the noise, rather than the motor. We had to accept that it would make the noise it does, and at its highest speed it makes a real contribution to the sound track.

You performed the piece in Birmingham earlier this year as part of British Dance Edition, what are you most looking forward to performing at The Patrick Centre again?
We showed the piece during a showcase in February at The Patrick Centre and it’s wonderful to be asked back!

What is the performance scene in Wales like? Also, does being Welsh shape your work, and if so, how?
There are different scenes in different areas. You could see different artists and performers working in and around Abertawe/Swansea, Caerdydd/Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Aberteifi/Cardigan, Bangor and Caernarfon. Lots of soloists and small groups at work. There are some big structures of course – recently two national theatres were established, one in Welsh, the other in English. There’s quite a lot of outright performance art because of the course at the Art School in Caerdydd/Cardiff and the performance studies course at Aberystwyth. Some might say that we’ve got an inclination to it because Methodism, strong during the 18th and 19th centuries, frowned on theatre, and in emphasising truth over fiction, gave rise to performance activity which stresses reality over representation. Discuss!

My work since 1996 has considered national identity and liberation, and the effects of colonisation on Wales. Two examples: Scarface* (the asterisk is meant to tell the audience that it’s not Brian de Palma’s film and that they won’t, sadly, be seeing Al Pacino), is a theatre show played against blue screen. I play to camera throughout, against the blue screen. My image is video-mixed into a proper scenic background and the result is projected onto a cinema screen. It’s like making a film on stage. The story of Scarface* is re-told against the wrong background (not Miami, but a farm in west Wales) and in the wrong language (quite a lot is in Welsh).

The second example is Cof y corff/muscle memory, which is also a camera and live action piece. It’s an account of Welsh history through movement analysis. Like Scarface*, it’s bilingual, played in Welsh one night and then English the next. In fact, it can be performed in any language, as the text is spoken live by a narrator by the stage. Ras Goffa Bobby Sands/The Bobby Sands Memorial Race in bilingual, Welsh and English, within the same performance.

Tell us about your dance training and background?
I went to Aberystwyth University and did a degree in Drama, as it was called then. A few years later I began working with a Welsh-language experimental theatre company called Brith Gof and they’ve had the strongest influence on me. They were a physical theatre company and it was through them that I became interested in dance. The definition of dance seems to have become wider and wider in the last few years, and it’s now wide enough for me to claim to be a dancer! My work sometimes gets called performance art but I think performance artists might go “Tut” at this point.

What’s next for you after Ras Goffa?
More dates for Ras Goffa this year and next and then I’ll work on a dance installation at Aberystwyth University. It’ll be a “deep map” of several areas on the coast and will feature dance in the environment. It’ll be projected onto the 30m long window of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies (the drama department…)

Eddie Ladd’s Ras Goffa Bobby Sands / The Bobby Sands Memorial Race is part of DanceXchange’s exciting Autumn season. The performance is on Thursday, 11 November at 8pm at The Patrick Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome.

For ticket sales call 0844 338 5000 or to book online and for more information visit www.dancexchange.org.uk.

Just saw a group of dancers queue up behind a very confused man at a cash point in town and dance behind him.

I also saw people dancing in town and a little girl tried to join in!

There was a massive crowd of people around a group of people dancing outside the Pavilions in town.

I heard someone talking about the performance. They said “Oh my god, these guys are really amazing!” So true!

There was massive cheering from the crowd while they were watching a dance performance and I saw loads of people taking photos and filming it. Must be IDFB!

Many thanks to Ruth for such fabulous photos.

If you’re a young person and would like to get more involved in dance activities in and around the West Midlands, drop DanceXchange a line to see what opportunities are out there.  You could join the DanceXchange Youth Forum, gain valuable work experience through volunteering, or take part in dance classes to improve your technical skills.

Click here to get in touch with our Youth Dance team!

Saw a huge crowd gathering for the performance in the centre of town today!

There were massive cheers from the crowd as the dancing started in High Street.

What an amazing performance!  IDFB got loads of other dance groups together to perform.  I saw belly dancers, street dancers, ballroom, Latin and Bhangra dancers performing.

Today’s performance was a brilliant success, and I hope to see another one soon!

Thanks to Ruth for these great pics! She will be back next week with her shots from (in)visible dancin’ – don’t miss it!

If you’re a young person and would like to get more involved in dance activities in and around the West Midlands, drop DanceXchange a line to see what opportunities are out there.  You could join the DanceXchange Youth Forum, gain valuable work experience through volunteering, or take part in dance classes to improve your technical skills.

Click here to get in touch with our Youth Dance team!

So, we’ve reached the end of the second International Dance Festival Birmingham, and I’m really pleased to say it’s been a massive success. It seems like an awfully long time ago since we waved the Dancing the Waterways barge off to start the festival and the intervening four weeks have passed in a bit of a blur of trips to airports, rushing between different venues and, most importantly, a whole range of fantastic dance performances. Other than the Liquid Loft show in the first week, which fell victim to the ash cloud, all of the theatre shows went ahead as planned and there really were too many highlights to pick out. Some memorable moments for me personally though would include crying with laughter at the Pere Faura/Club Fisk double bill, play-fighting with the monks from Sutra backstage at The Rep, witnessing eight remarkable UK premieres in four days during the Outspoken weekend and hearing several capacity audiences of under 10s giggling during the Family Weekend. I find it impossible to pick out a favourite show, but I think the stunning beauty of Akram Khan’s Gnosis and the compelling, bizarre and extraordinary Self Unfinished by Xavier Le Roy, for me represent two very different approaches to making movement-based performance which sum up the diversity and quality of the work on show during the festival.

Outside the theatre settings, the work produced by the festival for outdoor spaces exceeded everyone’s expectations. Utopia, the folkloric spectacular in Victoria Square set the city alight, and brought colour, sound and some truly incredible movement to the city centre. (in)visible dancin’ surprised, amused and amazed passers-by and Dancing the Waterways brought dance to Wolverhampton and beyond via festival’s very own narrow boat, Oddball. Finally, Put Your Foot Down saw us out in style with the irrepressible Salah leading a mass-dance outside Bullring in front of thousands of shoppers on our sunny final festival Saturday.

We’ve had a busy four weeks, and achieved a lot, and all of this is down to the fantastic team of individuals and organisations we’ve worked with on the festival.  So, time to thank some people.

First up, none of this would have been possible without the support and trust of our funders; Advantage West Midlands, Arts Council West Midlands and Birmingham City Council. Then our principal sponsor Brewin Dolphin, who really embraced all aspects of the festival, even learning the Put Your Foot Down routine! Our media partners BBC WM have been incredibly supportive throughout, not only covering the festival events but also supplying impromptu weather forecasts and ash cloud updates! Our accommodation partner, Crowne Plaza Birmingham City Centre, have provided first rate accommodation and very tasty breakfasts.

Next, I must thank our festival venues. The staff at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Town Hall and Ikon Eastside have worked on the festival shows as if they were their own events and pulled out all the stops to make them a great success, as have our own venue teams at Birmingham Hippodrome and The Patrick Centre. Thanks too to Birmingham City Centre Partnership, who have once again demonstrated their commitment to ambitious and unusual outdoor events in the city’s public spaces.

Last, but certainly by no means least, I must thank our remarkable group of staff who have worked on this festival. All have shown a dedication and commitment to the festival’s success which has been incredible, and I have been really proud to have worked with them all. In particular, our two interns, Natalie and Helen, have been key members of the team and deserve particular recognition.

Unfortunately, there has also been a sad end to the festival. Neil Cooper, our technical director for both the inaugural festival in 2008 and this year’s edition was taken seriously ill in the week before the opening event, and sadly died on Friday 14 May. Neil was instrumental in making the festival a success, and his ability to work with a range of artists and organisations to creatively realise the technical complexities of some of our more ambitious projects was invaluable. His cheeky and irreverent sense of humour, his knowledge and his friendship will be hugely missed by the team, as it will be by so many other organisations, festivals and venues.

And so we look forward to the next festival, and the planning starts straight away. Whilst a number of members of the team will be moving on to new jobs and fresh challenges, I’m already starting to look for possible work for the next festival, and the core team are already starting to imagine new ways of filling the city with dance again in 2012. Until then, there’s plenty of dance to see and get involved in at both DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome so don’t be a dance stranger!

We hope you enjoyed the festival and would be really grateful if you could spare a moment to tell us what you thought.

There are two short surveys – one for people who watched events, the other for people who took part in classes or workshops.

• If you attended indoor or outdoor events, please fill out the audience survey
• If you took part in workshops, classes or other activities, please fill out the participant survey

As a thank you, everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a prize draw with a chance to win one of these fabulous prizes:

• £50 Bullring Giftcard
• A pair of tickets for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Tuesday 5 October, 7.30pm at Birmingham Hippodrome
• A full set of IDFB merchandise
• Vouchers for DanceXchange classes (valid for summer or autumn 2010 terms)
• Two tickets to a performance of winner’s choice during the DanceXchange Autumn 2010 season

(Terms and conditions here).

Unfortunately we can only accept responses from those aged 16 and over – if you’re younger than this, perhaps you can ask an adult to fill it in on your behalf?

Thanks very much, we really appreciate it.

Our Festival may be entering its final 24 hours, but the IDFB team is still very much on the go and gearing up for a big finale this Saturday with Put Your Foot Down! and Deborah Colker’s Cruel.

So what have we got in store for you on 15 May then? Well, between midday and 6pm, we’ve got an array of free performances lined up on our main stage in St Martin’s Square including:

• VOCAB Dance Company performing Kwenda-Kwenda
• Musical Dance performance by class participants from DanceXchange
• Beingfrank Youth performing Deja Vu
• Hina & Co Bollywood Bhangra Performance
• Guest Performance by Making Choreographers students (Telford Culture Zone & DanceXchange)
• Club Jazz performance by class participants from DanceXchange
• IDFB Dance Challenge Showcase featuring Jodie Schofield from Smooth Radio
• SteadiFlux performing BodyRock
• Performance by Hereford-based 2Faced Dance Company
• ACE Youth performing Artificial Intelligence
• Dance into Fitness demonstration by class participants from DanceXchange
• Guest Performance by Centre for Advanced Training in Contemporary and South Asian Dance students from DanceXchange
• Capoeira demonstration by class participants from DanceXchange
• IDFB Dance Challenge Showcase featuring Louisa James from ITV Central
• Tap Dance performance by Advanced Tap class participants from DanceXchange
• Guest Performance by High Achievers from DanceXchange’s Buzz! project
• DanceXchange Class Programme Showcase
• IDFB Dance Challenge Showcase featuring Satnam Rana from BBC WM
• Plus, DJ Moyma will be providing some quality tunes throughout the afternoon.  Presenters are Smooth Radio’s Tammy Gooding, BBC WM’s Satnam Rana and David Massingham, IDFB’s Co-Director.

Then, it’s the bit you’ve all been waiting for – the Put Your Foot Down Mass Dance with hip hop sensation Salah between 6pm and 6.30pm. We’re expecting hundreds of people dancing the same street/hip hop dance routine (choreographed by Salah) at the same time, so don’t miss it!  Check out a sneak preview of the routine here.

Want to join in?  There’s still time!  Come along tomorrow afternoon and follow the on stage demos (12.30pm-12.45pm, 2.35pm-2.50pm, 4.35pm-4.50pm), or take part in classes outside Debenhams in Bullring at the following times: 12.15pm // 1.15pm // 2.15pm // 3.15pm // 4.15pm

And, for our final theatre show of 2010, we welcome renowned Brazilian company Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker with Cruel, 8pm at Birmingham Hippodrome. The performance explores the many forms cruelty can take in a relationship.  For tickets, book online or call 0844 338 5000 or buy on the door.

Tickets are still available for tomorrow’s performance at The Patrick Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome, at 8pm.

OUT OF TIME is presented with the generous support of CULTURE IRELAND.

Q: What inspired you to create DanSense?
EC: DanSense was originally created for the first International Dance Festival Birmingham in 2008. It is inspired by the five senses and is a fun exploration of how we experience the world around us through them. We work with flowers for the smell, dresses covered in spoons as we explore taste and finish with water, which, for me, stimulates all five senses!

Q: You are currently rehearsing the piece – will it change significantly from when you first created it in 2008?
EC: Well I’m working with different dancers for this performance, and I like to work with each dancer’s individual energy. Everyone has a different way of moving – even just watching people on the street they all move differently. I like to work with this individuality rather than force a particular movement on a dancer, so parts of the performance are being re-worked slightly and will change from the original piece.

Q: What age group is DanSense aimed at?
EC: It is aimed at children of all ages.

Q: Why did you choose to create a dance piece specifically for children?
EC: I create a lot of dance pieces for children and families. People need to have stimulation throughout their childhood, and throughout their whole lives really, although it is especially important for children. Dance is just one way of doing this, but is perfect for young children. A baby’s first experience of the world is through movement and sound, not through speech, so using dance and movement is the perfect way to engage them and communicate ideas and imagery.

Q: Did you dance yourself as a child?
EC: I didn’t start dancing until I was around 21 or 22. I started to do puppet theatre then and took some dance classes to help with the movement. I immediately loved it and decided that dancing was what I wanted to do, so I changed my career.

Q: What was it about dance that made you want to change your career?
EC: I could see the potential it had – although theatre was great I felt dance had even more opportunity for expression and communication. Movement is fundamental and communicates on a basic level that words can’t, and also, the body is an amazing tool to work with.

Q: What do you feel the benefits are of being involved with an event like IDFB?
EC: Any international festival, in any city around the world, is immensely important as it allows the people of that area to see so many different kinds of performances they may never see otherwise. Also a lot goes on behind the scenes at an international festival like this – co-operation between companies and dancers, sharing ideas, changing opinions and meeting new people. Many new friendships are made and can often result in new collaborations further down the line. The festival will be an amazing experience for Birmingham.