PRESS RELEASE

Rising Stars of Dance Sample Life in The Spotlight

  • Dance: Sampled to shine a spotlight on Young Dancers from across the Midlands this March

Talented youngsters from across the Midlands are being given the chance to enjoy their moment in the spotlight this weekend as Birmingham Hippodrome counts down to the launch of its 2nd annual dance taster festival, Dance Sampled, from 3-4 March.

Originally pioneered by London dance house Sadler’s Wells, Dance: Sampled is a unique event taking place across two days which gives audiences of all ages the opportunity to  ‘sample’ a diverse range of world-class dance styles including Latin, Ballet, Kathak, Hip-Hop, Contemporary and more.

Bringing together the best in local, national and international dance talent, this year’s Dance Sampled event will see Youth dance companies from across the region come together in a celebration of West Midlands Dance taking place from 6.30pm on the Youth Showcase Stage in the Main Foyer on both days.

Pop-up performances taking place on the Youth Showcase Stage include an excerpt from Journey performed by the students of Stratford upon Avon College, Walsall College, BOA, BMET College and ACE Dance & Music. The piece was recently performed as a Curtain Raiser during the sell-out February run of Sir Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes and was produced by Birmingham Hippodrome CREATIVE in partnership with Re:Bourne, the charitable arm of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures.

Fresh from their starring role on the Birmingham Hippodrome Stage, Birmingham Royal Ballet join forces with dance students from across the West Midlands to perform an extract from their recent staging of Cinderella Dreams, a one-off performance project inspired by David Bintley’s fairytale ballet. This will be followed by pop-up performances from Adam Rutherford Youth Dance, and ACE Youth Dance.

Completing the line-up is a double-bill of Kathak and Bharatanatyam dance performed by the students of Dance Xchange’s Centre for Advanced Training, a partnership between Sampad South Asian Arts and DanceXchange aimed at 11–18 year olds across the country with an exceptional talent in dance.

Aspiring Bboys and Bgirls can look forward to a masterclass in contemporary Hip-Hop with Birmingham-based charity Breakmission, who will be taking over the Hippodrome Level 3 Foyer from 6.30pm with a series of live Hip-Hop Demos and dance battles. They will be joined by representatives from Shirelands Academy Bboy crew, who will be on hand to showcase a few moves of their own.

Andy Reeves, Head of Creative Learning at Birmingham Hippodrome, said “Birmingham is brimming with young creative talent. Hippodrome CREATIVE see this all the time in our work with schools, colleges and the community. Now Sampled is giving us the chance to showcase some of that talent in a vibrant dance explosion under our own roof. 

We hope both participants and audiences will get the chance to experience new styles of dance, and maybe try out something new, in an atmosphere that’s exciting, vibrant and welcoming. 

At Hippodrome CREATIVE, we are committed to work by, with and for young people. Recently local and regional young people have performed with us in shows like Fagin’s Twist and The Red Shoes Curtain Raiser, and soon One Dance UK will be here with the national youth Dance Festival U-Dance. We’ll be showcasing more local talent for that. So Dance Sampled is another stepping stone towards our goal- a theatre full of local young people, from all kinds of backgrounds, expressing themselves through dance.”

This year’s Dance: Sampled evening programme will feature taster programmes from contemporary dance artists the Aakash Odedra Company, Acosta Danza and Richard Alston Dance Company. Audiences can also look forward to a performance by BBC Young Dancer of the Year Connor Scott, tango from Julia Urruty & Claudio González, ballet from Birmingham Royal Ballet and Hip-Hop from experimental dance company Iron Skulls Co.

 “A wonderful showcase of dance diversity”

Time Out Magazine

Dance Sampled is part of The Movement, a dance producing partnership between Birmingham Hippodrome, The Lowry and Sadler’s Wells. Supported by Arts Council England, The Movement aims to nurture talent and bring large scale dance productions to even wider audiences.

“The message was clear: dance is cool”

The Times

Dance Sampled runs from Fri 3 – Sat 4 Mar at 8pm. Tickets to Dance Sampled cost £15. To book, call our Ticket Sales hotline on 0844 338 5000 or visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com

ENDS

For press enquiries please contact Laura Smith (Head of Communications) on laura@birminghamhippodrome.com  or Kate Evans (Communications Executive) kateevans@birminghamhippodrome.com

28th Feb 2017