2B Public – Boys dance classes at The Public

by ianravenscroft on January 26, 2012

2B Public boys only dance classes

The Public in West Bromwich is hosting a series of boys-only dance classes called 2B Public . The free classes are suitable for males aged 16 or over and run every Sunday between 15 January and 18 march. The next event is on Sun, 29 January, 11.00am - 1.00pm.

Whatever your experience, come along and learn new dance moves and build your strength, stamina and flexibility through an energetic class with our professional male dance teachers.

The Public are also holding a competition called ‘Breaking Free at The Public’. For more information and how to enter email an enquiry to dancedesk@talktalk.net.

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Birmingham Royal Ballet’s David Bintley wins National Dance Award

by ianravenscroft on January 25, 2012

Cinderella Bill Cooper

Photo: Bill Cooper

Birmingham Royal Ballet artistic director David Bintley picked up the Best Classical Choreography award for Cinderella at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards 2011.

The awards, held at The Place’s Robin Howard Dance Theatre in London this week, are decided by the 60 members of the Dance Section of the Critics’ Circle after an extensive round of nominations and voting. To be eligible, performances had to be given in the UK between 1 September 2010 and 31 August 2011.

The current Birmingham Hippodrome season features a host of David’s other work, including the full-length narrative ballets Hobson’s Choice (22-25 February 2012) and Far From the Madding Crowd (20-23 June 2012). He is also creating a brand-new one-act work to be performed as part of our Summer Celebration programme. David’s one-act jazz tribute to Dave Brubeck, Take Five, will also be performed as part of this year’s International Dance Festival Birmingham.

For more background on the making of Cinderella, you can check out BRB’s Creating Cinderella blog.

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Win a chance to open for Elektro Kif at the Southbank Centre

by ianravenscroft on January 24, 2012

Parisian streetdance group Elektro Kif are giving you the chance to dance in the opening act at the Southbank Centre as part of a national tour that stops at Warwick Arts Centre in March.

For a chance to win the digital dance competition all you have to do is create a one-minute video in front of an iconic landmark in your city and upload it before the 6th February deadline. If your group wins you will be dancing in the opening act for Elektro Kif at the Southbank Centre on Fri 2nd March 2012.

If there is enough interest from dance groups in the West Midlands dancers may also be asked to perform at Warwick Arts Centre. Pick a landmark and get entering!

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Take part in International Dance Festival Birmingham’s Home

by ianravenscroft on January 20, 2012

Home idfb 2012

International Dance Festival Birmingham are looking for 1000 individuals from across the West Midlands to contribute towards Home, an inventive new dance production that will move through the streets of Birmingham city centre during International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012 between 23 April – 13 May 2012.

We are collecting creative contributions in any art-form from individuals, friends, families, work colleagues, community groups, and professional artists – anyone who would like to share their thoughts of home and be a part of this flagship festival project.

If you could sum up what home means to you, how would it look? What would it say? How would it sound? What would it do? How would it move? When you think of home what do you see, hear, taste, smell and feel? Is it about feeling like you belong, having a sense of identity, or being part of a community?

To get involved download the application forms on the Home website. You can find out more about the creative process behind the performance on the Home blog and you can see some of the submissions made so far on the Home YouTube channel.

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Dance Jobs and Auditions – 18 January 2012

by ianravenscroft on January 18, 2012

We Dance – Evaluator

Dancing for the Games project We Dance – a learning disability dance collaboration between Mencap, Birmingham Royal Ballet/Freefall, mac birmingham, Fox Hollies School and Performing Arts College and Midlands Mencap – are looking for an evaluator.

The evaluator will be expected to attend at least four of the project workshops (May-July), the two day festival at mac Birmingham on 13 and 14 of July, and one meeting with the project co-coordinator and Lauren Amery, the Dancing for the Games evaluator.

The total fee is £5000 inclusive of all expenses and VAT. For more information please contact Mencap national arts development manager Gus Garside on gus.garside@mencap.org.uk. The deadline for applications is 27 January 2012.

2Faced Dance – General manager and board members

Hereford’s 2Faced Dance is looking for a general manager. They want an experienced arts manager to manage the company on a full-time basis and develop and lead the company financially and managerially alongside the Artistic Director’s vision and the company’s business plan. Salary in the region of £27,000 – £30,000k per annum. To apply send your CV and application form to info@2faceddance.co.uk by 5pm 10 February 2012.

2Faced Dance are also looking for new board members to support the organisation as it moves into a new phase of development and expansion after a successful bid to Arts Council England, to become a National Portfolio Organisation in April 2012. Board membership positions are voluntary and unpaid. To apply, send a CV and on-page document on why you want to join the board to  info@2faceddance.co.uk before 29 February 2012.

Motionhouse – Apprentices

Motionhouse are looking for dance apprentices to join the company for 15 weeks to create and perform material for The Voyage, a major outdoor spectacle we are producing to open the London 2012 Festival in the West Midlands.

They are looking for four paid apprentices for 15 weeks from March until the end of June 2012. You can get further details or apply by downloading an Information Pack or you can contact mezze at info@motionhouse.co.uk. The deadline for application is Friday 27 January 2012.

International Dance Festival Birmingham – Home dancers

IDFB 2012 are holding auditions for versatile and quirky male and female dancers to take part in Home. This commission takes place in public spaces (indoors and outdoors) so this new production requires performers who are willing to work in a non-traditional theatre environment with experience and confidence.

Performers must have a strong technique as well as improvisation and contact skills. Additional skills, such as acting, physical theatre, street performance, playing an instrument or singing would be an advantage and can be used in this work. Candidates must be available in Birmingham for the dates as listed on the audition notice [PDF]. The application deadline is 5pm, 6 February 2012.

Secret Garden Musical Theatre Group - Dance/musical theatre teacher

Secret Garden Musical Theatre Group in Southam, Warwickshire are looking for a part time dance/musical theatre teacher. The days and lessons are flexible. Please send a cv and a headshot to Kerryhazlewood@hotmail.co.uk. Pay is £10 an hour but wages can be discussed.

http://www.dancerspro.com/uk/job_view.php?uid=129245&utm_source=jobalert&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=job

Music video – Female dancer

A female dancer is required to dance for 30 seconds for a music video.

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How to find dance jobs and auditions

by ianravenscroft on January 16, 2012

Finding dance jobs, auditions and opportunities is not always easy. Here are some tips to help you find a job, placement, internship, or volunteer position in dance.

how to find dance jobs and auditions

Photo: Matthew Fang

Finding national dance jobs

Arts Jobs

Arts Council England runs the Arts Jobs website which provides regular job updates. You can search for dance jobs on the site to find relevant roles for dancers and dance professionals. You can also subscribe to Arts Jobs updates via RSS.

Audition sites

For auditions there are sites such as Star Now and sites focused on dance such as Article 19, Dance Europe, Dancers Pro, Foundation for Community Dance, and London Dance. There will be more sites like these out there, so search for them and subscribe to any updates to make sure you don’t miss any auditions or opportunities.

Job sites

There are also plenty of general job sites such as Jobsite, Monster, Fish4, ArtsJobsOnline, The Stage and Guardian Jobs that are not focused on dance but publish jobs in many categories and may still provide dance opportunities.

Google Alerts

Auditions and jobs are posted online all the time but you don’t want to spend all your time searching for that information. Happily, you don’t have to.

Google provide a service called Google Alerts that allows you to set up automatic searches and receive the results via email or RSS. To set up a search just visit google.com/alerts, enter your search query such as ‘dance audition west midlands’, decide how frequent and detailed you want your search to be, and choose whether to have results delivered to you inbox or your RSS feed.

Google alerts dance jobs

Now mentions of dance jobs online will be sent straight to you when they appear. If you aren’t happy with the quality of results you get back you can amend your search terms to include extra terms or exclude certain ones. For example, if you’re searching for dance jobs in Birmingham add ‘-alabama’ to your search to ignore mentions of the US city.

Use social media

Twitter and Facebook are great for following news sources and peers in the dance industry. Follow fellow dancers, dance companies and publications in the dance (and wider arts and culture) sector and you’ll find that you’ll be more up to date with developments, opportunities and chances to work with others. Studies show time and again – the better networked you are, the more likely you are to be employed.

Dance jobs auditions west midlands

Photo: kelsey_lovefusionphoto

Finding dance jobs in your area

The tips above will apply no matter where you live and work, but what about closer to home? There will be information available in your local area too. The information below relates to the West Midlands but the principles apply no matter where you are.

Subscribe to West Midlands Dance

West Midlands Dance posts any relevant dance opportunities as they are found. To make sure you don’t miss out on any jobs or opportunities you can subscribe to the blog by email, or subscribe by RSS. If you’d prefer not to do either bookmark the site and check back regularly. You can follow @westmidsdance on Twitter and like the West Midlands Dance Facebook page.

Follow local dance companies

Most jobs and opportunities come direct from dance companies. To see them as soon as they are posted you can subscribe to individual dance company blogs. In the West Midlands local dance companies such as Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rosie Kay Dance Company, Motionhouse, 2Faced Dance all post jobs and opportunities on their websites, so make sure you’re getting those updates first. Many dance companies are on Facebook and Twitter too, so be sure to follow them there as well.

Follow your regional development agency

DanceXchange is a development agency for dance in the West Midlands and often posts jobs and opportunities on its website. dX also produces International Dance Festival Birmingham with Birmingham Hippodrome and therefore has opportunities relating to the biennial festival. Other development organisations in the region include Dancescape, Dancefest, and Dance Connected.

Other places to look include The Place (London), South East Dance, Dance North West, Dance South West, Yorkshire Dance, Dance City (North East), Dance 4 (Nottinghamshire), Dance East, Swindon Dance, and Dance Base (Scotland).

Follow Dancing for the Games

Dancing for the Games is the Cultural Olympiad project for the West Midlands and comprises many projects by regional dance companies and organisations. Subscribe to the blog to get updates, job opportunities, auditions and news from the projects leading up to London 2012. You can also follow the Dancing For The Games projects online.

Any other tips?

If you’ve got any other tips on keeping up with the latest dance opportunities online then let us know in the comments.

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ACE Youth dancer selected for U.Dance Ensemble

by ianravenscroft on January 13, 2012

ACE Youth dancer Natasha Smith, 18, from Wolverhampton has been selected by internationally-acclaimed choreographer Hofesh Shechter for the U.Dance Ensemble.

U.DANCE ENSEMBLE

The U.Dance Ensemble is a joint initiative, managed by Youth Dance England in partnership with YDance (Scottish Youth Dance), National Youth Dance Wales, DU Dance (based in Northern Ireland) and Southbank Centre.Twenty dancers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been selected to form the first UK-wide youth dance company.

You can read ACE dance and music’s post about it here and read DanceXchange’s post about it here.

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Launch event for Dance Connected and Get Dancing

by ianravenscroft on January 12, 2012

Dance Connected is set to celebrate its launch as Staffordshire’s dance development network and unveil its high-energy county-wide Dancing for the Games project Get Dancing at a launch event in Newcastle-Under-Lyme on 17 January 2012.

The Get Dancing programme is focused on participation, in which people around Staffordshire get the opportunity to take part in dance classes. Participants will eventually perform to a crowd of thousands as the project culminates in a spectacular live performance in Stafford Castle in July 2012.

Naomi Temple, Programme Manager for Dancing for the Games said:

Get Dancing will give hundreds of people across Staffordshire the opportunity to work with and perform alongside professional artists, connecting with London 2012 in their own community. It is hoped that Get Dancing will have a real impact, not just on the people taking part, but also in developing the dance sector in the county.

Here’s a video of the recent Get Dancing open workshops:

Get Dancing – Open Workshops from Dance Connected on Vimeo.

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Dance Job – Get Dancing disability dance artists

by ianravenscroft on January 10, 2012

dance jobs get dancing

Dance Connected are looking for a number of shadowing dance artists to assist in the delivery of a disability dance project which links the Aiming High programme to Get Dancing, a Dancing for the Games project for Staffordshire.

The projects will take place in five specified locations in Staffordshire, including Tamworth, South Staffordshire, Staffordshire Moorlands, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, and Stafford. Shadowing dance artist will assist the specialist disability dance artist in devising and producing of a series of workshops.

Work will take place over the February half term, Easter half term and during the summer holidays in each of the identified districts and boroughs which enables disabled participants to be involved in a fully inclusive opportunity.

For more information, including how to apply, download the brief. The deadline for applications is Friday 13th January 2012.

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Dancing for the Games projects on Twitter and Facebook

by ianravenscroft on January 3, 2012

Dancing for the Games has put together a list of the social media links for the projects and dance organisations that are working, or have worked, under the Arts Council-backed scheme.

Dancing for the Games

Many are on Twitter and Facebook to update people about their events and activity during the Cultural Olympiad in the West Midlands, so they’re definitely worth a follow or a like. See the full list on the Dancing for the Games website.

Remember, you can follow West Midlands Dance on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

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