International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB), now in its third edition, is a major biennial festival produced by DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome.
Animating the city and capturing the imagination, IDFB brings a remarkable line-up of outstanding dance to theatres, streets and public spaces across Birmingham and the West Midlands and creates a wealth of engaging participatory activity for people of all ages. Already one of the largest dance festivals in the world, IDFB is unique in its diversity and internationalism, programming exceptional dance from across the globe and fostering new collaborations with international choreographers and artists.
In addition to this years festival is the Family Weekend over the first May Bank Holiday from May 5-7. The Family Weekend is a three day mini-festival where amazing performances combined with interactive workshops and craft activities in a fun-filled programme that families of all ages can enjoy together. From 11am until 4.30pm every day there’ll be a jam-packed timetable of free and paid-for events – indoors and outdoors.
One of the highlights of this year’s Family Weekend is a World Premiere directed by Australian choreographer Shaun Parker. Original music score composed by Nick Wales. Spill is a brand new 30-minute outdoor production using existing children’s playground equipment as the set and taking dance into the heart of communities as it tours the West Midlands. Highly playful and physical, and at times teasingly comical – this is a cheeky dance celebration of the child within. Combining quirky, dynamic dance with high energy street gymnastics, the dancers in this performance blaze a colourful trail across the structures and landscapes of the playground. Each performance will be unique, as the show scrambles around, over, under and through swings, slides and roundabouts. Kids will love it, grown-ups will love it too!
For more information follow IDFB on Twitter @IDBF or visit www.idfb.co.uk