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.
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 world premiere of Rosie Kay’s 5 SOLDIERS: The Body is the Frontline at The Patrick Centre; and
- interactive show Running Sushi at Ikon Eastside
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:
- Rosie Kay Dance Company will be holding an open class on Wednesday 21 April
- There’ll also be a dance class on Colmore Row on Wednesday lunchtime
- Waves will light up the ground in front of the Hippodrome from Thursday onwards
- Two of the Shaolin Monks from Sutra will be holding a Kung fu workshop on Sunday
- and the IDFB shop will be open for business all week
Keep up to date with what’s happening – follow IDFB on Twitter and sign up to the Facebook page. We’ll see you around!
