The first ever Yorkshire Festival recently got underway as the official countdown to the Tour de France begins. Yorkshire Festival 2014 is the first ever arts festival to precede the Tour de France, the world’s biggest annual sporting event: the festival will run from 27 March to 6 July 2014. Yorkshire Festival is the first cultural festival in the Tour de France’s 111 year history. The events will take place in the 100 days leading up the first two race days of the Tour, The Grand Départ, this year hosted by Yorkshire.
Inspired by Le Tour, the majority of Yorkshire Festival’s programme is free to access. The Yorkshire Festival will showcase the very best that the region has to offer and will highlight the strength and depth of art and culture throughout the county to a huge number of visitors over the next few months as well as celebrate the vigour and ambition of the sector.
Out of almost 400 bids, 47 projects were commissioned to be officially part of the 100-day festival – which will also include hundreds of fringe events. In particular, Bicycle with Barefoot, will be part of Yorkshire Festival later this year on 27 and 28 June. Inspired by the temple dance tradition of Kuchipudi originating in Andrha Pradesh, Southern India, Bicycle with Barefoot brings ancient rhythms to a modern context. Dancing on a real blank canvas, movement-based storytelling combines with drumming and live music to guide the dancers. Abhinandana MK, Kopal Vedam and Navya Rattehalli reveal a story that is literally narrated through the body to create a visual remnant of the event.
The Annapurna dancers are experts in their field, using physical storytelling to speak to people across language barriers and maintain well-loved stories from Indian mythology. Their performances are underpinned by rigorous training that allows them to share this age-old language through precise movements and perfectly timed gestures.
Based in Yorkshire the company has worked relentlessly in education and community with many successful inspirational projects for over 20 years and their forthcoming Bicycle with Barefoot has been commissioned by Yorkshire Festival 2014. The idea derived from a dance style called Kuchipudi from the state of Andhra Pradesh, India in which the footsteps of the dancers inscribe designs for narrating ancient stories onto a blank canvas beneath them. It is a rare and unique concept of printing whilst dancing with barefoot and combines live music and uplifting drumming.