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Hip hop to Bullring for Festival finale

Subscribe to RSS RSSThursday, 13th May, 2010

The second International Dance Festival Birmingham (IDFB) comes to an end on Saturday 15 May with a large-scale hip hop dance. Hundreds of people are expected to take part in the Put Your Foot Down event in St Martin's Square, Bullring.

A whole afternoon of free performances, demonstrations and classes will start at midday and continue throughout the afternoon until the mass dance at 6pm. Acclaimed French hip hop star Salah has choreographed a routine that has been taught to hundreds of people across the region over the last four weeks, and they will all come together to dance in the grand finale.

Louise Hamer-Brown, Marketing Controller at Bullring, commented: "It's great to be a part of the grand finale event of IDFB, Put Your Foot Down, at Bullring. We feel it's important to celebrate and support the local arts, and anyone who attends the event can upload their own photos and videos to lifefeelsbetter.co.uk, which is part of the Bullring Art Project."

In the evening, the closing performance of the Festival will take place, with Companhia de Danca Deborah Colker performing Cruel at Birmingham Hippodrome. This outstanding piece sees Colker's athletic yet graceful dancers perform around an enormous revolving table, throw knives and get entangled in giant revolving mirrors, exploring the different forms that cruelty can take place in a relationship.

The four-week Festival began on 19 April. Since then, tens of thousands of people have watched, taken part in, or experienced dance in Birmingham and across the West Midlands. Performances have happened in theatres, foyers, on the streets, in shops, and even on a canal barge.

World-class dancers and companies from across the globe have taken part in the Festival, from Shaolin monks and Ballet Nacional de Cuba, to Mark Morris Dance Group, Strictly Come Dancing - The Professionals, and Akram Khan.

Produced by DanceXchange and Birmingham Hippodrome, IDFB 2010 is one of the world's largest dance festivals. Representing over 20 countries from six continents, the Festival is funded by Advantage West Midlands, Arts Council England West Midlands, and Birmingham City Council, with sponsorship from Brewin Dolphin. IDFB is also working in partnership with the West Midlands Culture Programme for London 2012.