June 17, 2005

Slow Man Walking!

In a story to be filed under "only In Contemporary Dance" Ohad Fishof will be walking very slowly across London Bridge on June 21st as part of some bizzarre recognition that June 21st is the longest day of the year.

This chap is going to take hours, literally, to walk from one side of the bridge to the other and then back again. Mr Fishof will begin at 8AM which is during rush hour in one of the most people congested cities in the world. Londoners are expected to be thrilled at the presence of a slow moving "multi disciplinary artist" on the bridge as they make their way to whatever it is people in London do for a living.

Some local wags may suggest he tries the feat of endurance in a car because it would take a lot longer than walking it very slowly!

If you thought walking across a bridge could be done without financial assistance then you would be wrong. The website for this 'art' features logos for no less than 8 funding partners once of which is, of course, Arts Council England!

If you wish to see this work in action then a video demonstration is available on the website. You couldn't make this stuff up, you really couldn't!

[ link ] Slow Walk Website

Capture in Brum

If you are yearning for dance on camera then look no further than Capture West Midlands which will be showing its' frames at the Patrick Centre in Birmingham on 21st June.

Capture is Arts Council England's valiant (we're being generous here) attempt at film making with dance as the central focus. Previous efforts have been risible but always approach things with a fresh mind we say.

These particular offerings will be installations rather than straight dance films which you can sit down and watch with your popcorn. Look at it as an afternoon in an art gallery rather than a night in the Odeon!

The press info states this about one of the works on show:

"Aureole explores themes of pregnancy and identity. The installation will combine a large scale video projection and features an 8-speaker audio composition. This highly praised piece of work was devised by filmmaker Katy Connor who has worked on a wide variety of film and television programmes for Channel 4 and the BBC"

We should have some footage to show you from this event next week so stay tuned.

For more information call the Patrick Centre on 0121 689 3040

South East Dance New Site

Last September the South East Dance, National Dance Agency received just 3/10 for their website in our review of all the NDA's online homes.

This week the agency launched a new site to deliver information and feedback about their services and opportunities to the dance industry. Considering the amount of time that has elapsed it seems unlikely that the redesign was prompted by our review. If was then hats off to the folks at SED for responding with the physical prowess of a cardboard box.

The new site, although nothing to shout too loud about, is a vast improvement over the old one. Featuring content you can actually read and navigation that works is always a good start in developing an online presence. In design terms it is also a lot smarter than before, albeit a little to 'bank like' for our tastes.

You can find the new site by clicking on the link below.

[ LINK ] SED Website

June 01, 2005

New Blog From A Field!

Lucy Field that is, a dance maker living and working in Birmingham (and for that she has our sympathy). Lucy will be bringing you regular updates about her new production 'Esther' to be premiered in Birmingham and the Patrick Centre which part of DanceXchange.

We have been promised images and even some video to plot her progress form nothing to something in the dance making stakes.

You can read the blog by clicking on Lucy's name over to the right.