Find utopia in Victoria Square this weekend

30th April 2010. Posted by Ruth Pipkin.

As part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham, this weekend Birmingham's Victoria Square has been transformed into a Utopian community. Visitors to the city centre can enjoy a free extravaganza of dance, music and song from 1-3 May thanks to IDFB 2010.

An enormous turquoise and gold stage has been built over the fountain and the famous “floozy in the jacuzzi” statue wrapped in gold.  The show is a riotous celebration of different cultures, with Russian, Spanish, Indian and African dancers joining with local contemporary dancers to create a relentless stampede of colourful dances and frenzied songs.

The vibrant performances will be accompanied by Birmingham-based band, The Destroyers.  They have worked with the director Arthur Pita and assistant choreographer Yann Seabra to create a brand new piece of music, drawing on their eclectic, turbo-folk style and Balkan influences.

Arthur Pita said, “There’ll be bits of furniture emerging from the stage all over the place – it’ll basically look like 40 people plus the band have taken over the square!  It’ll be very vibrant and a real cross-cultural feel, but you won’t necessarily see an Irish section then a Cossack section – it’ll be completely mixed up.”

Max Gittings from The Destroyers can’t wait for Utopia to begin: “It’s been a while since our last dance extravaganza, so we’re very excited to be part of Utopia.  Being at the heart of a fully staged outdoor spectacular, collaborating with dancers and musicians from around the world is the very essence of what The Destroyers are all about.”

Utopia is the centre-piece of IDFB 2010 and is a prime example of the kind of international exchange and creative collaboration that the Festival aims to initiate.  A total of over 50 dancers and musicians will be performing in the piece, which will be shown five times over the May Day weekend:

Friday 30 April, 9pm (preview performance)
Saturday 1 May, 5:30pm & 10pm
Sunday 2 May, 5:30pm & 10pm
Monday 3 May 12noon only

Utopia joins a jam-packed weekend of activity, including:

Waves
A work by KMA, commissioned by Dance Digital
Thursday 22 April – Wednesday 5 May, 8:30-11pm
Outside Birmingham Hippodrome
Waves is a kinetic light installation that explores scale and attraction, both positive and negative.  After dark the space will become populated by hundreds of small objects, drawn on the pavement with light, that behave according to a simplified version of the laws of magnetism.
Free, no booking required

Outspoken – New Performance from Arab Artists curated by Eckhard Thiemann
Thursday 29 April – Sunday 2 May
The Patrick Centre & Ikon Eastside
The UK’s first ever season dedicated to new work from North Africa and the Middle East, with performances, debates, film screenings and workshops.
Tickets: £5-£10 per show, or £30 for a weekend pass. 
Age guidance: 14+

Circa presents
CIRCA
Friday 30 April & Saturday 1 May, 8pm
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Experience a thoroughly new kind of circus in this thrilling journey of exceptional circus acts combined with dance, light, sound and video.
Tickets: £12-£20. 

Ballet Nacional de Cuba
Giselle
Friday 30 April & Saturday 1 May, 7.30pm (matinee, Sat 2.30pm)
Birmingham Hippodrome
Initially choreographed by Coralli and Perrot and revised by Petipa in 1884, Giselle is one of the world’s best-loved ballets, following the story of a fragile peasant girl and her enduring love for her prince, even after her tragic death.
Tickets: £16-£45. 

Produced by DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome, IDFB 2010 is one of the world’s largest dance festivals.  Representing over 20 countries from six continents, the festival will feature over 70 performances, as well as a number of free public events and plenty of chances for people to get involved. 

For more information on IDFB 2010 and the line-up, visit www.idfb.co.uk.