Posts Tagged ‘brindleyplace’

And we’re off!

IDFB 2010 launched in five cities and towns across the West Midlands today, with Cossack dancing in Stoke-on-Trent, African/hip hop in Coventry, Indian dance in Hereford and Flamenco in Stratford-upon-Avon.

United Colours of Dance - Barynya

In Birmingham, the festival was opened with speeches by David Massingham (Co-Artistic Director of IDFB 2010) and Paul Kaynes (Creative Programmer for the Cultural Olympiad in the West Mids).

The obligatory bottle of bubbly was smashed against the side of the barge that will soon make its way up through Wolverhampton to Brewood. First we were treated to a performance of Canal Work Dances, the piece that has been developed especially for the Dancing on the Waterways project.

If you missed the free performance then there’s another chance to catch it at Brindleyplace, Tuesday lunchtime at 12.30pm.

In the meantime, photos from today are already up on Flickr and on our Facebook Page. Go check them out.

What’s on in week 1

The waiting is finally over! Here’s a round-up of what’s happening this week (19-25 April) at International Dance Festival Birmingham.

The big launch

Festival proceedings get underway today (Monday) with Dancing on the Waterways at Brindleyplace. Elsewhere in the region on Monday, there are free traditional dance performances to get the festival going in United Colours of Dance Out & About. You can see them in Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent, Hereford, and Stratford-upon-Avon throughout the afternoon.

The performances

We’ve got Mark Morris Dance Group’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at Birmingham Hippodrome, with performances from Thursday through to Saturday.

L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato | International Dance Festival Birmingham

The show has been at the Coliseum in London recently, earning five stars reviews from both The Times and Guardian, Londondance.com and ballet.co.uk have rounded up the reviews.

There are two further shows on Friday and Saturday:

The debate

Tomorrow (Tuesday) there’s also a debate on the future of public investment in the arts with Ed Vaizey and Sion Simon at The Patrick Centre. We’ll be liveblogging that event so if you can’t make it in person you’ll still be able to follow along and contribute.

And there’s even more besides:

Keep up to date with what’s happening – follow IDFB on Twitter and sign up to the Facebook page. We’ll see you around!