Dancing city - IDFB 2016

It's hard to believe it's been two years since the last International Dance Festival Birmingham, http://birminghamcentral.blogspot.com/2014/01/dance-to-city-international-dance.html, but this years, the fifth biennial festival, continues as one of the largest dance festivals in Europe.

International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB) is one of the unsung heroes not just of dance in Britain, but of festivals. It treats anyone within striking distance of the West Midlands to an exciting range of performers and public dance events over three weeks...http://www.theartsdesk.com/dance/preview-international-dance-festival-birmingham-2016

The festival presents a mix of dance and shows from ballet to hip hop and circus across venues from theatre to the outdoors and with many free performances, http://www.broadwayworld.com/uk-regional/article/INTERNATIONAL-DANCE-FESTIVAL-BIRMINGHAM-2016-Launches-at-House-of-Lords-20151117#.

A trailer for the IDFB 2016 is below, reproduced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7fAnAGjM_o#action=share

The festival started on the 1st May and will run until 22nd May.  The evenings of the 11 - 14 May will see performances in Centenary Square from 6pm including The Machine Show as the festival's headline outdoor presentation, a dance-circus spectacular with live music by French rock dance band Rinôçérôse, http://visitbirmingham.com/what-to-do/festivals-events/art-photography-culture/international-dance-festival-birmingham-2016/#sthash.BM1WtJ9V.dpuf

The festival also features a Festival Hub in the former Municipal Bank Building on Broad Street with a pop up cafe and beautiful moving sculptures by Japanese artist Shun Ito which explore gravity, movement and light.

The following photos show some of the works in the former bank and my haiku swap in the vault.

Cells, a giant mobile made up of 200 rotating steel rings and 30 light bulbs in the main hall provides a beautiful reflective moving sculpture.

The following photos show the work through slow motion capture.

The programme for the festival is shown below, reproduced from the full IDFB 2016 Brochure.

The full brochure, reproduced from IDFB 2016 is below: