Tag: London 2012 Festival

Showtime

Mayor of London Presents Showtime

On the weekend of the 21 and 22 July, seven weeks of free, family fun kicked off as part of the Mayor of London Presents Showtime.

Showtime signified an electrifying mix of incredible artists and shows handpicked from across the world. Over the coming weeks these specific art forms will join on London, be it leotards and pretty pink ballet shoes or jazz quartets. The performances over the next seven weeks will reach every corner of London, fulfilling everyone’s artistic preference.

Forming part of the London 2012 Festival and supported by Arts Council England as a principal funder of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Showtime will combine the best of British street arts, international acts, and a host of alternative music from beat box to electro swing across all 33 London Boroughs.

On the 21 and 22 July, the action began with major events at The Piazza on Wimbledon Broadway as part of Merton’s Outdoor Arts Festival; at General Gordon Square in Woolwich to coincide with the Torch Relay; at the Whitecross Street Party in Islington; in Kingston; and Richmond Riverside.

Over the rest of the summer, the highlights of Showtime feature a hair-raising experience with Arcadia’s Lord of Lightning wrestling four million volts of electricity, and an enchanting performance from the Invisible People telling poems, stories and jokes one to one.

The Lyrix Organix: Relay will feature the finest poets, beatboxers, hip hop and freestylers in an original live experience, and you can get dancing to everything from swing to break-dance in urban dancewear and sneakers at Continental Drifts’ Bandstand Remixed.

To find out what’s happening near you and to plan a summer like no other visit the Mayor of London Presents website.

The London 2012 Festival

London 2012 Festival

Over 12,000 performances and events across the UK celebrating the Olympic Games are marked by the London 2012 Festival, which bursts into life on 21 June 2012. The London 2012 Festival will be the most exciting festival the UK has ever experienced, bringing more than 10 million opportunities to observe some completely unique dance, music, theatre, fashion, food, art and film events. The Festival is the finale of the Cultural Olympiad, which has been inspiring creativity through art and culture in young people since 2008. It encompasses a wide range of events, from local projects to large-scale performances, in which 18 million people have taken part in so far… with or without their legwarmers!

Many events that are included can be taken part in by audience members completely free of charge, be it the free outdoor pyrotechnic and percussion extravaganza or the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra premiering of a new work , followed by the arrival of a gigantic ship sailing into the town centre accompanied by leotard-clad dancers and aerialists. With incredible cultural events and top artists from across the world, Londoners and many others from across the country enjoyed four spectacular launch events across the UK on 21 June, and the following events which continue until 9 September 2012, the last day of the Paralympic Games.

The festival includes dance performances such as Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Candoco Dance Company and Big Dance 2012. Big Dance is one of the UK’s biggest dance celebrations, featuring thousands of events inspired by numerous different dance styles taking place across the UK. The events include classes, workshops, courses, performances, flashmobs, film screenings, competitions and world record breaking attempts, open to both dancers and non-dancing fans alike, encouraging them to pull on their dancing shoes and get involved. The Big Dance 2012 national programme is being delivered by the Foundation for Community Dance in partnership with a network of regional dance organisations known as Big Dance Hubs.

Image courtesy of Geograph® Britain and Ireland.

Big Dance 2012

Big Dance 2012Big Dance 2012 aims to be the UK’s biggest celebration of dance, led by the Greater London Authority, Arts Council England and Foundation for Community Dance.

The programme is part of the London 2012 Festival, which is the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, championing dance throughout the country. Big Dance is delivered by a network of Big Dance Hubs, which are leading dance organisations around the UK, delivering dance to those areas. Whether it is ballet, modern dance, lindy hop, or bharata natyam, Big Dance is sure to provide it, regardless of the extent of your dance ability or dance clothing collection!

In previous years, Big Dance incorporated the Big World Dance, which aimed to encourage people from across London to take part in a mass participation performance that took their dancing shoes from the Southbank Centre to Trafalgar Square for a grand finale which was received by thousands of audience members. Luca Silvestrini of Protein Dance created five pieces of choreography inspired by the five continents which corresponded to an area of London, teaching these to people across the capital. Around 2,500 people registered to take part, with more participants turning up on the day to join workshops at the Southbank Centre, complete with live footage on huge screens.

The Big Dance Schools Pledge, led by Coopers Company and Coborn School, was also a great success. The project encouraged schools to don their dancewear and sign up to complete 20 minutes of extra dance a day to take part in a World Record attempt for the largest dance class in multiple venues. Hakeem Onibudo of Impact Dance created choreography on four different levels to music specially commissioned for the Schools Pledge, of which over 600 schools nationwide with 150,000 students signed up for the pledge. A half hour dance class was completed, culminating with a performance of the Level 1 choreography, emphasising the sheer impact of the power of dance, in bringing people together for one significant cause.