Sadler’s Wells, The Lowry and Birmingham Hippodrome theatres have formed a collaborative producing partnership, supported by funding from Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence fund. This is in order to develop and deliver an ambitious programme of high-quality large-scale dance. Named The Movement, the collaboration is set to be a dynamic partnership between three of the country’s leading dance venues.
Through a two-year pilot initiative for the theatres – that has been awarded a grant of £749,948 – they will strive to nurture dance talent as like-minded partners who share a commitment to growing new audiences together. Reaching and developing new audiences for dance through a programme of work will be co-produced by the three venues, with the line up including Company Wayne McGregor, Birmingham Royal Ballet, BBC Young Dancer finalist Vidya Patel, world tango champions German Cornejo and Gisela Galeassi, hip hop company Pockemon Crew, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Faun.
The Movement will launch at Birmingham Hippodrome on 17 and 18 May with Dance: Sampled, the first production to be presented via the partnership and as part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham 2016. Dance: Sampled is inspired by the popular Sampled format Sadler’s Wells introduced, which offers audiences a taster selection of different dance styles all in one programme. The production will then run for two nights at The Lowry in February 2017. The theatres will work closely to commission and stage dance together, helping to support talent and inspire large audiences across the UK.
Outside of London, Birmingham Hippodrome is an independent, not-for-profit, registered charity welcoming an average of 500,000 visits annually making it the most popular single auditorium in the UK. The Lowry is the most visited cultural destination in the North West. It plays host to one of the one of the UK’s most vibrant and diverse theatre programmes, as well as a visual arts programme.