INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL BIRMINGHAM

A WORLD OF DANCE IN ONE CITY

DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome officially launch

International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014

This week, International Dance Festival Birmingham launched at Birmingham Hippodrome's Patrick Centre, just one of 17 venues including The Crescent Theatre, Symphony Hall, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Birmingham Hippodrome's main stage that will host one of Europe's largest dance festivals. The award winning biennial celebration of dance, now in it;s fourth year, returns to the city from Thursday 20th April - Sunday 25th May for over four weeks of world premieres, unique collaborations, community events, outdoor spectacles and world-class performances.

IDFB 2014 highlights from Festival co-producer Birmingham Hippodrome include Swiss company Alias’ mesmerising Sideways Rain (click to book) and Vancouver’s Kidd Pivot (click to book) led by Crystal Pite (Sadler’s Wells’ newest Associate Artist), whose company perform her Shakespeare-inspired Tempest Replica. Celebrated names also include Sadler’s Wells’ hip hop spectacle Breakin Convention (click to book), and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui whose new work m¡longa takes a modern approach to Argentine tango (click to book). Finally, Matthew Bourne’s internationally-acclaimed New Adventures and RE:Bourne bring a new production of Lord of the Flies to Birmingham Hippodrome featuring talented local young performers (click to book).

LORD OF THE FLIES, choreographed by Olivier nominated Scott Ambler, and adapted and directed by Matthew Bourne, is a rare and distinctive collaboration that will bring together professional dancers with young people from the West Midlands. The success of the production is mutually reliant on a unique partnership between some of the UK’s most exceptional dance talent alongside local people chosen from each region the show visits - some of whom may have never danced before.

The professional company includes New Adventures dancers Sam Archer as ‘Maurice’, Luke Murphy as ‘Sam’, Dominic North as ‘Ralph’, Sam Plant as ‘Piggy’, Alastair Postlethwaite as ‘Eric’, Danny Reubens as ‘Jack’ and Dan Wright as ‘Roger’. Making their New Adventures debut’s in this production will be Layton Williams as ‘Simon’ and Jack Hazelton.  The young people cast in the production will be unique to every venue. Birmingham Hippodrome’s young cast will be announced shortly.

Séquence 8

IDFB is delighted that one of the city’s leading theatres, Birmingham Repertory Theatre is hosting the Canadian circus company Les 7 Doigts de la Main’s new show Séquence 8 (click to book), the theatre’s inaugural dance event since it re-opened in 2013. This show will delight family audiences with truly awe inspiring acrobatics. 

Featured here are merely a selection of a whole range of performances to suit all tastes across the festival. For a full list of what's on during IDFB including how to book and ticket prices, check the listings page of the website here.  You can watch the season trailer below: