International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010: I ♥ Dance

Four weeks. More than 100 performances. World-class artists. That was International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010. I’ve had such an amazing time working as a Marketing and New Media Officer for the Festival. Not only did I get to work with such an amazing team from DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome, I have met some of the nicest and talented people in the world of dance such as the beautiful Rosie Kay, renowned British choreographer Akram Khan and Arthur Pita to name a few. The good news is that I am continuing with the online presence for IDFB and am very much looking forward to working more on this project.

I felt quite privileged to see such an extensive range of dance styles from renowned artists from all over the world. It was interesting to hear from the Arab artists about their shows and about how their dance is very much connected to their spiritual side. Here are a couple of videos of two talented artists from Tunisia/Algeria and Egypt from the IDFB channel on YouTube:

Ahmed Khemis, Tunisia/Algeria

Salah El Brogy, Egypt

Utopia and (in)visible / visible dancin’ were two great outdoor performances that were part of the Festival. These both proved how dance is increasingly becoming popular as the public have received them very well.

visible dancin’ – May 9, 2010, High Street, Birmingham

IDFB has reached canal networks, has been out and about in the region and has touched many around the world (thanks to being online). I very much look forward to the next one in 2012. Watch out for other news via its Facebook group. Really pleased to have seen it grow to more than 1,000. Check out its Flickr page too. The video packages, which I helped produced, will also be out soon. In the mean time, I leave you with a bit of Put Your Foot Down!

Put Your Foot Down! Finale – May 15, 2010, Bullring, Birmingham