Festivals – Dance Direct Blog. News, Reviews & Advice About Dance

Dance To The Edinburgh Festival!

The Edinburgh International Festival has announced its 2015 programme, including some exciting dance highlights. These include Sylvie Guillem, Israel Galván, Zürich Ballet and Les Ballets C de la B. This year’s festival runs from 7-31 August, and is an artistic delight for all culture vultures.

Les Ballet C de la B will dance Alain Platel and Frank Van Laecke’s En Avant, Marche!, a work which starts in the rehearsal room of an amateur brass band in Flanders. Ballet Am Rhein will dance Martin Schläpfer’s Seven, set to Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, and the iconic Guillem will perform her farewell show, Sylvie Guillem – Life in Progress. In addition, Galván will dance Lo Real, which explores the plight of the Roma and Sinti people in fascist Spain in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Festival provides a huge variety of artistic offerings to those who descend upon the city during the summer. In terms of dance 2015 is an important year, especially for those hoping to catch Guillem performing for the last time. Guillem will also be performing at Sadler’s Wells and the Birmingham Hippodrome as part of her farewell tour.

Also at the Edinburgh Festival, Zürich Ballet will perform a double bill of company director Christian Spuck’s Sonett which uses speech and music by Mozart and Philip Glass to explore Shakespeare’s sonnets, in addition to Wayne McGregor’s Kairos, set to Max Richter’s reimagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with designs by Idris Khan. TAO Dance Theatre will perform Weight x 3, created by its founder Tao Ye to music by Steve Reich. Richter will also perform his Vivaldi work in concert with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. There will also be a dance element in a new production of Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Iván Fischer with choreography by Veronika Vámos.

VAULT Festival 2015

Vault Festival 2015 Following the enormous success of last year’s festival, VAULT returns to Waterloo’s Leake Street tunnels from 28 January-8 March. Specifically, dance and physical theatre are one of VAULT’s areas of excellence this year with a wide programme of powerful and provocative shows taking over the venue.

Six weeks of live entertainment will see Heritage Arts present a carefully curated, high quality multi-arts programme across seven different spaces under Waterloo station. This year’s highlights include the London premieres of radical theatre company Filter’s Macbeth as well as True Brits, a brand new play from Rich Mason Productions and HighTide Festival Theatre. They are joined by multidisciplinary and interactive Artful Badger’s first ever narrative production and the comedian and performance artist Yve Blake.

With more than 30,000 tickets available, 500 individual events and over 80 artistic groups, the line-up comprises some of the most exciting emerging artists and companies in a programme of music, performance, dance, comedy, discussions, debates and one-off late night events, all taking place in a secret maze of underground tunnels behind a single door.

Acts this year include masculine-feminist pop sensation Dani Frankenstien, Superbolt Theatre’s epic man versus monster adventure Jurassic Park, one-man-shows from the likes of Move To Stand, Rolemop Arts, Matthew Bellwood, Jessica Burgess, Tristran Bernays, cabaret from taxidermist Charlie Tuesday Gates and her gang, ensemble theatre from Dumbshow, d’Animate, Edinburgh sensations House of Blakewell and many many more.

The Festival Director has ensured the event has a pulse of many voices – there are 500 individual events happening at VAULT, chosen by mixture of invitation, public submission and charitable competition, so each day has a unique heartbeat. The programming philosophy looks for passion and ability and VAULT’s learned that artistic groups grow in knowledge by observation and practice. It is now the longest, biggest, broadest, most central performing arts festival in London, all behind one magical door in Waterloo.

Elixir Festival

Mid-September will see Sadler’s Wells present its largest ever celebration of lifelong creativity and the contribution of older artists with the Elixir Festival, running from 12–15 September 2014.

Across the four days, Elixir Festival will feature a range of performances: contributing artists include Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Hofesh Shechter, world-renowned choreographers Mats Ek and Ana Laguna, international guests and the Company of Elders among many others, including a new piece for retired professional dancers which will see them relive their swan songs.

In addition to performances on the main stage the Elixir Festival offers the opportunity for further engagement with a series of workshops, events and a conference to close the festival. The Lilian Baylis Studio performance programme will feature older dancers from international companies and from across the UK, invited to perform after an international call out for contributors; reflecting the diversity of approach and responding to the fast-growing interest in performance work for mature artists.

In the main house at Sadler’s Wells, ‘KnowBody’ encompasses a lifetime of experiences. The programme features artists Mats Ek and Ana Laguna, Sadler’s Wells’ Company of Elders performing a restaged excerpt from Hofesh Shechter’s ‘In your rooms’ and a new commission performed by the former professional dancers, some of whom are returning to the stage after twenty years or more. This unique evening will throw different light on dance and performance to challenge preconceptions and present contemporary dance illuminated by a lifetime of experience. In a juxtaposition of electronic music and contemporary choreography performed by older dancers KnowBody will present beauty and power in single gestures.

The Art of Age Conference will take place on one day only, featuring contributions from artists, choreographers and leaders in culture, health and performance research. There will be a range of focuses, on dance, wellbeing and artistic perspectives, followed by a performance from the Company of Elders in the Lilian Baylis Studio.

Festival News From Wilton’s Music Hall

Wiltons Music Hall The iconic East London performance venue Wilton’s Music Hall is set to host a three-day dance festival this autumn in order to showcase new work by emerging artists, and forge relationships for future collaborations. In addition, the organisation is also looking for potential companies to partner with on future commissions across different dance forms, widening their reach to new and potential dance audiences who may have not engaged with the music hall venue before.

The venue will stage the event, to be called Wilton’s Strike!, as part of its interim arts programme that is running while the venue’s restoration continues, providing an unmissable opportunity for emerging dance artists and choreographers all over the city and beyond. Wilton’s is inviting applications from dance groups to take part in the festival, by submitting an idea for a piece of choreography, up to 30 minutes in length, based on the theme of metamorphosis.

Following applications, six of those applicants will be selected to appear in the festival in the autumn of this year, and will be given £1,500 and rehearsal time to develop their work, as well as mentoring from contemporary dancer Jonathan Goddard and other artists. The chance to be mentored by dancers of this calibre alone is an incredible opportunity and not one to be missed. Goddard danced at Wilton’s Music Hall last summer in the title role of Mark Bruce’s Dracula to great critical acclaim.

Wilton’s Strike! will take place from 25-27 September, with two companies of the six selected performing per night. Dance and theatre critics will be invited to attend the festival and view the performances, and each performance will be live streamed online to expand the festival’s reach.

The deadline for festival application submissions is 23 June.

New Multi-Arts Festival For The Roundhouse Summer Sessions

Camden Roundhouse The Roundhouse, Camden, has announced a new multi-arts festival, named ‘Roundhouse Summer Session, in some of the best live entertainment for London this summer. Whilst lots is going on inside, outside visitors can enjoy Camden Beach, the Roundhouse’s very own seaside resort, all of which is taking place throughout July and August. On the terrace, Camden’s biggest outdoor space, there will be 150 tonnes of the finest sand, deck chairs, beach huts, live music and some of the best food pop-ups in the city.

Summer Sessions will present live music, dance, comedy, cabaret, spoken word and live-scored cinema in an intimate, table-seated setting. The eclectic line-up includes the world premiere live scoring of There Will Be Blood, exclusive UK headline performances from Sinéad O’Connor and Chilly Gonzalez, a preview of new work from BalletBoyz, performances from rising star Andreya Triana, Penguin Café, Funk Da Cirque, Boom + Bang Cabaret and The Nest Collective host London’s biggest Ceilidh.

Following international success, BalletBoyz present their award-winning show Serpent/ Fallen for the final time in London, together with a chance to see an excerpt from their much anticipated new full length work Young Men, choreographed by Iván Pérez, based on the theme of war and the men that train and fight together. Serpent is choreographed by Liam Scarlett (Royal Ballet Artist in Residence) and Fallen is choreographed by Russell Maliphant. Fallen won the award for Best Modern Choreography at the 2013 National Dance Awards.

Funk Da Cirque returns to the Roundhouse with Soul Trip, a show that combines street dance styles including boogaloo, house, waacking and b-boying – mixed with theatre, acrobatics, human pyramids and body percussion. Following sold out debut shows at Roundhouse CircusFest 2012 and hot on the heels of appearances at the National Theatre’s Watch This Space and Camp Bestival, Funk Da Cirque includes some of the best young street dancers and acrobats from across London, aged 11-25.

Boom + Bang Cabaret is a cabaret circus extravaganza featuring the most talented circus performers from around the world including evil clowns, fire breathing panthers, a drag ringmaster, a Russian prima ballerina, death-defying aerial feats and more. The Boom + Bang Circus is the new creative collaboration between producer Bioux Lee Hayes (formerly of Boom Boom Club and La Reve) and the award winning, international burlesque and circus performer Kitty Bang Bang.

Ignition Call-Out

Ignition Dance Festival Ignition is a brand new dance festival in Kingston, delivered by the Royal borough of Kingston and supported by Arts Council England. Ignition is seeking six dance companies or choreographers to create a brand new work for a dance platform at The Rose Theatre in the borough, during the International Youth Arts Festival on 12 July. The opportunity to present a work in the festival would be notable for any choreographer.

Each company will have access to two research and development weekends with BalletBoyz (at the end of May) and Roehampton Dance of the University of Roehampton (at the end of June), dance studio space at Kingston University, and a professionally produced platform at The Rose Theatre to display the work.

Either a choreographer or dance company can apply, however the choreographer/company must be under the age of 26, or working with dancers under the age of 26 years, tying into the International Youth Arts Festival where the work is to be presented. Choreographers/companies must apply for the project with a brand new idea that will be developed and created for the platform, with each piece a maximum of 10 minutes long.

Deadline for applications is Thursday 24 April: if the choreographer/company is successful, they will be notified by Thursday 8 May. The platform event at The Rose Theatre will take place on 12 July. There will be a budget contribution of £500 per choreographer/company.

How to Apply

Are you applying as a choreographer or company?
Send an outline of your previous choreographic experience (300 words), an outline of the new idea you would like to explore (500 words), a link to previous work that can be viewed online and a draft budget of how you plan to use the £500 contribution.

Please send all information to: Rosie Whitney-Fish, Ignition Producer (rosiewhitneyfish @ googlemail.com) by Thursday 24 April.

Yorkshire Festival 2014

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.

dancedigital Festival

dancedigital, in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire, is to present the dancedigital Festival from 25-27 April. dancedigital is one of the UK’s leading dance organisations based in Bedfordshire and Essex, renowned for leading the dance field in the development of technical innovations in choreography and dance. In April, to celebrate the latest achievements and best work of an outstanding group of dance practitioners, the organisation will stage its first digital dance festival at the University of Bedfordshire.

The festival will showcase the best and most exciting digital performances and installations by a range of dancedigital’s Associate Artists and Catalyst Artists, who will be showing their work in public for the first time. Performers and filmmakers will follow the festival’s theme of how digital technologies can transform the experience of choreography onstage, online, inside, outside. Performers include the award winning filmmaker Rachel Davies, choreographer and dancer Annie Lok, dance practitioners Luke Pell and Jo Verrent, dancer Tim Casson and video technologist Tom Butterworth, and visual artist Rachel Cherry.

This fantastic cohort of artists will bring together the arts, science and technology to create meaningful, touching and rich experiences for audiences, utilising the meeting of arts and science in performance to create new views in a technological culture. The festival will not only bring cutting edge performance to the area but will also provide exciting opportunities for the students and nearby arts communities to explore innovative approaches to performance.

Performances, workshops, learning and participation events are just some of what is on offer over the weekend. In particular, panels and workshops will be led by distinguished practitioners and teachers including Professor Helen Bailey, pioneering DJ and filmmaker Alex Reuben, Anthony Lilley, Chief Creative Officer and CEO of Magic Lantern, the award-winning interactive media and multiplatform creative house and consultancy, Kerry Franksen dance and intermedia artist and Nina Martin, international teacher, dancer and choreographer as well as performances and installations.

The GOlive Festival

GOLive Festival Donald Hutera, notable arts journalist and dance critic, has been invited to curate the GOlive Dance & Performance Festival currently taking place at the Lion and Unicorn theatre until the end of September. Hutera’s work has appeared in The Times, Time Out and Dance Europe amongst other publications and websites world-wide, making him the ideal candidate to programme this new festival of dance.

The Giant Olive Theatre is a small black box venue of about 50 seats, so the qualities desired when selecting artists to take part were venue and curator specific. Hutera aims to ensure an immediate connection between the performers and the audience, with the performances close-up; risk, intimacy and play underpin the basis of the festival. As critic-turned-curator, Hutera has found the transition smooth as he enjoys championing dance work he believes in on a day-to-day basis.

The GOlive festival looks to be highly rewarding as a result of its conception. George Sallis, the artistic director of Giant Olive Theatre at the Lion and Unicorn pub, questioned Hutera about curating a dance festival earlier this year, meaning Hutera’s desire to do so was met by Sallis’ need. In fact, the pub has a past record of presenting dance as a result of the efforts of George and Antonia Franceschi, formerly a Balanchine ballerina and later a teacher, coach and choreographer. Franceschi is also an actress, playing the ballerina who becomes pregnant in Fame.

Spread across 21 consecutive days and featuring works of over four dozen individuals or companies, the GOlive Festival will include Darren Ellis, Ella Mesma, Renaud Wiser, Anusha Subramanyam, Daniel Hay-Gordon/Eleanor Perry, Shane Shambhu, Nuno Silva, Moreno Solinas, The Dangerologists, Stopgap’s Sg2, Angela Woodhouse, Dog Kennel Hill Project, Mickael Marso Rivière, Jennifer Jackson/Susie Crow and Fred Gehrig amongst many others. Between them they have worked with the likes of Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Shobana Jeyasingh, Russell Maliphant, The Royal Ballet, Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, Rambert Dance Company, Henri Oguike and Arthur Pita.