West Midlands Dance has been on a bit of break recently (as I’m sure you’ll have noticed).

The main reason for this hiatus has been the end of support from International Dance Festival Birmingham, which was always due to finish once the festival concluded. This means we can’t dedicate the time to the site as we had done previously. However, we’ve also been thinking about how to take the site forwards. So, to explain our situation, we’re taking a break but we are working on a reincarnation of West Midlands Dance for the not-so-distant future.

In the mean time we’d like your input. You can help us in several ways. You can:

• Drop us an email or leave a comment on this post telling us how West Midlands Dance has helped you
• Send us suggestions for how the blog could improve or what you’d like to see us cover
• Join out Facebook group or follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with developments
• Offer your help or support

So that’s the situation. We’ll keep you up to date with any developments as they happen.

Thanks for your support so far!

Over at sister-site Created in Birmingham there’s a competition to win tickets to see Cruel by Deborah Colker at Birmingham Hippodrome tonight (Friday 14 May).

All you have to do to enter is email ‘CRUEL’ to createdinbirmingham@gmail.com. Be quick though – the draw’s being done this afternoon at 2pm.

Cruel explores the many different forms that cruelty can take in a relationship. It unfolds over four movements, the first of which sees an enormous globe-shaped chandelier suspended above the action. In a later scene violence is explored as two dancers perform on a 5-metre-long table which is spun around the stage as knives are thrown into it. The final act sees a selection of vast mirrors pivoting across the stage, creating dazzling reflections that give surreal and intriguing views of the dancers’ bodies and movements.

If you don’t win then tickets are still available and there’ll be a second chance to watch the show tomorrow night too (the last show of International Dance Festival Birmingham, in fact).

Dancers have slowly emerged from the crowds of shoppers and office workers on High Street in Birmingham, performing on the street around the lampposts and benches, dancing on (and in) the phone boxes and performing routines at the cashpoints, responding to the music of some carefully placed “buskers”.

It’s all been part of the (in)visible dances project, commissioned by International Dance Festival Birmingham especially for the Festival and choreographed by Luca Silvistrini, Artistic Director of Protein. The dancers take on different characters of the people who use High Street every day – from shoppers and office workers, to builders and joggers.

The project will conclude on Sunday 9 May at 4pm with Visible Dances, a unique outdoor spectacle reflecting and celebrating the rich mix of Birmingham’s street life.  The cast of dancers will join forces with local students and volunteers to bring a cast of up to 80 people together for the performance.

On Monday, we popped along to see a couple of the free United Colours of Dance Out & About events as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham.

I went to see Cossack dance group Barynya in Stoke-on-Trent’s Tontine Square. The troupe took over a large section of the square, drawing a decent-sized crowd of interested spectators and confused passers-by. Here’s a pic from the event, but there are more on Flickr here.

I also managed to put a little video together, so now you can enjoy some of the performance too.

Elsewhere, Chris went along to see Flamenco group Temperamento Español in Stratford-upon-Avon. Here’s a pic from the action:

For more information about International Dance Festival Birmingham, visit the IDFB website here.

More Salsa classes in the Birmingham area for you. This time from Salsa King. Here’s what they’re currently offering.

Salsa every Sunday @ The British Legion Club Solihull

7:30 – 8:30pm Absolute Beginners AND Improvers 1 Salsa, 
8:30 – 9:30pm Beginners Plus AND Improvers 2 
Salsa club till 12:00pm 
Classes £6 for one or £7 for two (NUS £3.50) 
or only £6 if you do both beginners lessons 
Club Admission FREE

Salsa every Tuesday@ Dickens Heath Village Hall

7:30 – 8:30pm Absolute Beginners AND Improvers 1 Salsa
, 8:30 – 9:30pm Beginners Plus AND Improvers II Salsa 
Classes £6 for one or £7 for two (NUS £3.50) 
or only £6 if you do both beginners lessons

Salsa every Wednesday @ La Tasca Broad St Birmingham

7:30 – 8:30pm Beginners Salsa, 
8:30 – 9:30pm General Improvers Salsa 
Free Club till 11:30pm

Salsa every Thursday @ La CC Cafe Restaurant Birmingham

7:30 – 8:30pm Beginners Salsa , 8:30 – 9:30pm Beginners Plus AND General Improvers Salsa 
Classes £6 for one or £7 for two (NUS £3.50), Free club till midnight.

For more information, visit the Salsa King events listings page here.

In yet more dance film news, the soon to be reopened mac are screening La Danse – Le ballet de l’Opéra de Paris between Tue 1 Jun – Thu 3 Jun, at 6pm.

Frederick Wiseman directs this behind-the-scenes documentary following a year in the life of the Paris Opera Ballet. The film shows the company and its dancers as they prepare for, rehearse and stage seven different ballets

The Ballet at the Paris Opera is one of the biggest dance companies in the world. The film shows the story of seven different ballet productions. Displaying the world of ballet within the walls of the cultural institution.

To book tickets, visit the mac website here.

Photo: Martin O'Connell

Four dancers will launch International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB) from the top of a canal boat on Monday 19 April for Dancing the Waterways. They’ll be setting off from Brindleyplace to travel the region’s waterways, delivering dance performances and workshops as they go.

The dancers will perform a farewell performance by Australian-born choreographer Paul Gazzola who works with Lone Twin Theatre, as they set off on the Birmingham Canal Main Line. The journey will take them through Wolverhampton to Brewood in Staffordshire, before turning back to return to Birmingham on Saturday 8 May.

On Saturday 24 April, the boat will pass through the famous 21 locks of Wolverhampton, and families are invited to come and cheer the boat along as it makes its mammoth descent. There will also be extra activities, treasure trails, and performances as IDFB heads out from Birmingham into the wider region.

Ever seen dance on the big screen? Well now’s your chance as Light House cinema in Wolverhampton will be showing two dance-related films this summer as part of its Music on Screen season.

First up is The Red Shoes on Thursday 24 June at 7pm.

Neatly restored in HD digital, this Powell and Pressburger classic is widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made and is winner of two Oscars. It focuses on Vicky, a young ballerina starring in a ballet The Red Shoes. Like her character in the ballet, she is irresistibly drawn to dancing. Her life becomes split between her simple human passion and artistic devotion to her profession. The film contains ballet sequences of stylistic mastery, and is visually one of the most innovative and beautiful works of cinema ever created. Starring Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, Anton Walbrook and Royal Ballet star Robert Helpmann, who also choreographed The Ballet of The Red Shoes, the music for which was conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham.

Tickets cost: £5.50 full / £4.20 conc.

The second is Swan Lake on Thursday 22 July at 7pm

Swan Lake is considered to be one of the greatest classical ballets of all time and remains a popular feature of ballet company repertoires worldwide. Its romance and beauty has entranced audiences for more than 100 years, offering the magical combination of Tchaikovsky’s score, a compelling love story and choreography that demonstrates the superb technical skills of the dancers. This production comes from the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, in a HD Digital presentation and stars Ulyana Lopatkina as Odette-Odile and Danila Korsuntsev as Prince Siegfried. Tchaikovsky’s music is conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Tickets cost: £14 full / £11.50 conc. / £7 under 15s

For more info or to book tickets contact Light House Box Office on 01902 716055, email info@light-house.co.uk or visit www.light-house.co.uk.

Outspoken is the UK’s first performance season dedicated to new choreography from Arab artists, celebrating a new generation of dancers and choreographers in North Africa and the Middle East creating audacious dance theatre. The programme is part of International Dance Festival Birmingham and is curated by Eckhard Thiemann.

The weekend of performances kicks off on Thursday 29th April at 8pm with a triple bill at The Patrick Centre featuring Muhanad Rasheed – Iraqi Bodies, Ahmed Khemis and Salah El Brogy, followed on Friday 30th April at 8pm by Lebanon’s Omar Rajeh and Maqamat Dance Theatre presenting The Assassination of Omar Rajeh.

Saturday 1st May sees Aataba (The Threshold) by Morocco’s Taoufiq Izeddiou come to the Patrick Centre at 8pm, and a double bill at Ikon Eastside at 6pm, featuring Meryem Jazouli and Muhanad Rasheed – Iraqi Bodies.

Sunday rounds off the Outspoken weekend with Nacera Belaza at The Patrick Centre with Le Cri at 5pm and an exclusive preview of Les Sentinelles at 8pm.

Other activities as part of the programme include a workshop with Ahmed Khemis, talks on Exile and Migration, dance in Lebanon, and the challenges and opportunities fro Arab dance artists, and the film Dancing Under Crossfire at the Pinsent Masons Suite.

Smash Bro’z, winners of the 2010 UK Hip Hop Dancing Championships, will be performing at Pavilions shopping centre in Birmingham on Saturday 17^th April as the shopping centre announces it is to be a temporary base for International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010.

Smash Bro’z success at the UK Championships means the Birmingham-based group is now eligible to compete at the World Championships of Hip Hop dancing, subject to raising the £5,000 required to jet to the tournament in Las Vegas. It is hoped that the weekend fundraising performances at Pavilions will go a long way towards enabling them to represent Britain and Birmingham at the showpiece competition.

The performance kicks off a series of events at Pavilions with the shopping centre donating a shop unit to International Dance Festival Birmingham for six weeks, enabling the festival to establish a base for public dance classes, workshops and exhibitions.