DEVA photo by Parag Dhanani

Birmingham International Dance Festival returns for June 2022

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Birmingham International Dance Festival returns for June 2022

Via Helen for Birmingham International Dance Festival and FABRIC

The UK’s largest dance festival, Birmingham International Dance Festival, returns from Friday 17th June to Sunday 3rd July 2022. Expect amazing dance in the city’s theatres and a takeover of Birmingham’s public spaces all celebrating the city’s distinctive spirit of diversity, inclusivity and togetherness.

Produced by FABRIC (the new strategic organisation created by the recent merger of DanceXchange and Dance4), Birmingham International Dance Festival (BIDF) is presented this year in partnership with Birmingham 2022 Festival. Much of BIDF is free and outdoors with many opportunities to participate and get dancing, plus a thrilling theatre programme showcasing some of the best in current choreography, online screendance and professional industry events.

Across three weeks, the festival will feature newly commissioned work by UK artists plus dance from around the globe, including from across the Commonwealth, including nine World Premieres and eleven UK Premieres.

Lucie Mirkova, Head of Artistic Programmes at FABRIC says:

We are bringing world-class dance to the city’s theatres, outdoor spaces and online platforms. This year the festival is presented as part of Birmingham 2022 Festival with the programme featuring artists from Commonwealth countries such as India and South Africa and the first nations of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Work will be exploring themes of identity, home from home and diaspora journeys.
“Our ambition is to showcase Birmingham as a global dance destination, a dancing city with its public spaces as a dance floor. We hope everyone will see dance as a joyful part of their cultural life.”

Raidene Carter, Executive Producer, Birmingham 2022 Festival says:

BIDF will bring every conceivable place and space to life this summer; the range of events is staggering and there’s truly something for everyone. We’re particularly proud that Critical Mass will open the event and equally excited at the prospect of a mass shim sham that anyone can take part in. With 9 world premieres, this programme rivals any dance festival in the world, making Birmingham the destination for dance this summer.’

The participation strand aims to encourage people from all walks of life to give dance a go.

Alex Henwood, Head of Learning and Participation at FABRIC, says:

Through our community events including Critical Mass and Tappin’ In, we’ll be showcasing more than 450 individuals on a global stage. A world’s first in inclusive community activity.

There’s something for everybody, dance is for everyone in the broadest sense, whether that be as an international career artist or you’re someone who likes to dance and come along and have a good time,”

Find out more at: bidf.co.uk.

Programme Highlights include:

Birmingham Is A Dancefloor (17th to 19th June)

Entitled Birmingham Is A Dancefloor the festival opens with dance in Centenary, Chamberlain and Victoria Squares as well as Brindleyplace and invites audiences of all backgrounds and abilities to join in.

Birmingham 2022 Festival – image credit Doug Peters PA Wire
  • The World premiere of Sense from Critical Mass, an inclusive dance participation project bringing together young people from across the West Midlands, with and without disabilities. Critical Mass 2022 is a collaboration between DanceXchange, Arts Connect and the Dance Development Leaders Group supported by Spirit Of 2012 as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival.
  • UK premiere of French Compagnie Dyptik’s Mirage, taking over Victoria Square where fences, barbed wire, rusty metal sheets and hanging flags are the backdrop to an athletic performance featuring traditional dances inspired by the experience of the inhabitants of a camp on the West Bank.
  • Deaf Rave an inclusive experience full of fun, good music and laughter.
  • The city’s biggest tap lesson and mass ‘shim sham’ with Tappin’ In, presented by Birmingham 2022 Festival.

Dance Around the World (Thursday 24th to Sunday 26th June)

Themed as Dance Around the World the second weekend offers a packed lineup of the best of international and UK outdoor dance across the central Birmingham. Featuring:

Mind the Gap photo by Laurent Philippe
  • KRE8! an experimental dance battle and the UK premiere of Puzzle by Canadian street dance company Tentacle Tribe and Crowd_Ctrl by AndroidX + Megaherz featuring London’s Dragonsquad busking crew.
  • A daring circus performance inside a huge 7m high rotating hourglass with Timeless from Joli Vyann.
  • Four UK premieres with companies from Belgium, Spain, France and Canada including Granvat’s Come on Feet; Cia Moveo’s Echoes; Furinkaï-Satchie Noro’s Mind The Gap; and La Migration’s Landscapes,
  • Remembrances from Border Crossings’ Origins Festival, AVA Dance Company and b.solomon/Electric Moose presenting a blend of theatre dance and poetry exploring how we welcome visitors, commissioned by the Birmingham 2022 Festival.

BIDF for Handsworth Park (2nd to 3rd July)

A weekend of high-energy, stop-in-your-tracks dance activities for all the family, with performances from international dance companies, brand-new Hip Hop dance commissions, live music and local community groups. Look out for:

DEVA photo by Parag Dhanani
  • PLI by Viktor Černický from the Czech Republic as he turns 22 chairs into incredible architecture.
  • Brand new Hip Hop commissions by Midlands-based artists in partnership with Punch Records.
  • Patrick Ziza Dance’s Dandyism, celebrating style and cool with a concern for humanism and gender.
  • DEVA by Urja Desi Thakore and Hetain Patel challenging the myths and expectations of the South Asian body in Indian classical dance.

Theatre Programme

The on-stage programme sees dance at Birmingham Hippodrome, The Patrick Studio and Midlands Arts Centre all of which are either UK or World Premieres.

Mailles main credit photo by Leslie Artamonow
  • Mavin Khoo and Akshay Sharma’s Desiring God: 22nd June (Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome) an experiential evening of dance, showcasing site-specific work and a chamber concert recital – a baithak and abhinaya.
  • On Your Marks: 23rd to 25th June (Birmingham Hippodrome) A celebration of the Commonwealth Games from Birmingham Royal Ballet, with three thrilling works, brought together by BRB’s Director Carlos Acosta.
  • Tentacle Tribe’s Ghost: 24th June (Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome) combining elements of contemporary dance, street dance and martial arts.
  • Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s Blood, Water, Earth: 28th and 29th June (Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome) Weaving performance video and music to affirm First Nation womxn’s kinship relationship to all living entities.
  • ∞ {Infinite} by HUMANHOOD 28th June (Birmingham Hippodrome), A visionary dance theatre meditation, research and development originally commissioned as part of Birmingham 2022 Festival.
  • Stefan Jovanović’s Drumming in the Hall of the Mountain: 29th June (Midlands Arts Centre), Merging choreography, live-music, and installation-art to explore ritual and our relationship to the natural world.
  • Bygones by Canadian company Out Innerspace Dance Theatre: 30th June (Birmingham Hippodrome) Ghostly architecture, puppeteering and illusions tease our sense of reality.
  • Mailles by Compagnie Kadidi: 1st and 2nd July (Patrick Studio, Birmingham Hippodrome) Choreographer, singer and author Dorothee Munyaneza creates a dance and vocal performance for six female African descent artists to tell their unique story of journey, commitment and strength.

BIDF 2022 is produced by FABRIC and funded by Arts Council England and Birmingham City Council.

BIDF is presented as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival and is working in partnership with Birmingham Royal Ballet and Birmingham Hippodrome to highlight and celebrate Birmingham as a world-leading destination for dance in 2022.

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