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FROM BALLET TO BOLLYWOOD, TEA-DANCE TO TAP, AND STREET TO SALSA, GET MOVING FOR BIG DANCE CYMRU 2012 |
Celebrate dance of all genres this summer as Wales hosts Big Dance 2012, the UK’s biggest-ever festival of dance. Big Dance Cymru will see dance events take place across the whole of Wales, including professional and amateur performances, workshops, and events that will encourage members of the public to get moving too. It is co-created in Wales by Dance Cymru and Wales Millennium Centre, who are the hub for Big Dance in Wales. It doesn’t matter if you have never danced before – the event is about letting Wales know just how much dance is happening all across the country, from weekly Zumba classes to internationally-renowned professional companies. Wherever you live in Wales there will be something nearby that you can watch or take part in. Between June and September, hundreds of dance events will take place across Wales and the UK, culminating in Big Dance Week from 7th-15th July, which will see activities across the UK in all dance styles, for all ages and in all manner of venues. Saturday 14th July is Big Street Dance Day, when streets, parks and other public spaces will come alive with dance, as members of the public are encouraged to take part. Highlights in Wales include: * “Dance GB” The first-ever collaboration between Scottish Ballet, National Dance Company Wales and English National Ballet in a ground-breaking national celebration of dance inspired by the 2012 London Olympics and the coming together of the British nations for Team GB. It arrives at Wales Millennium between 28th-30th June following performances in Scotland and before heading to London. * Dancers from Wrexham performing at London’s famous St Pancras station at Big Dance 2012’s official UK launch on Thursday 5th July, alongside hundreds of dancers from all corners of the UK. The group of teenagers from NEW Dance will perform “Home”, a piece of contemporary dance that explores relationships and friendship and the need for ‘a safe place’. Celebrities expected at the launch include the renowned West End choreographer and former Strictly Come Dancing judge, Arlene Phillips. * An attempt to set a new Guinness World Record for the biggest ever Bollywood dance in Cardiff Bay on Sunday 15th July. Roald Dahl Plas will come alive with the sounds and colours of the popular Indian dance, as the annual Cardiff Multicultural Mela attempts to beat the current record, which involved 4,428 participants in Mumbai, India, on 26th March 2012. Local dance groups, community groups and members of the public are invited to learn a simple dance routine and take their place in the record books. * A week-long tour of mass-participatory performances of “The Readers” from the acclaimed David Rolland Choregraphiés Company, from 7th-14th July. Sites include Ynysangharad Park, Pontypridd; Llangollen International Eisteddfod and Cardiff Bay. Audience members will be given a booklet filled with instructions based on minute gestures marked by the soundtrack to form a collective choreography in which the most difficult thing to do is “a subtle swaying of the hips”. * National Youth Dance Wales will take part in the U.dance 2012 youth dance platform at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre in London on Saturday 14th July. Some of Wales’ most talented young contemporary dancers will perform an adapted extract of traces by NYDW Artistic Director, Errol White. * A week long programme of dance activity and performance, from folk to street dance, at the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru / National Eisteddfod of Wales, in the Vale of Glamorgan, between 4-11 August. * “Troy Boyz”, a street dance and music version of The Iliad (Trojan Wars). A collaboration between TAN Dance, Swansea Metropolitan University and Swansea Grand Theatre, it will be performed on Tuesday 4th September by young boys from the area. Jên Angharad, director of Dance Cymru, said that curating the Big Dance 2012 programme of events in Wales had been “an absolute privilege”. She said: “This is the biggest celebration of dance that has ever happened in the UK and it is great that Wales is a part of it. We want as many people as possible to know about dance so they can go and see and take part in activities and performances, wherever in Wales they are living. “It is a celebration of the diverse range of dance activity on offer. We have regional community dance organisations covering the length and breadth of the country, a network of folk dance groups, a multi-cultural dance scene and nationally and internationally-recognised dance companies right here in Wales. We want to show people what is happening on their doorstep and hopefully ignite a curiosity that will lead to the discovery of the dancer in all of us. She added: “Dance has so many benefits. Not only can it lift the spirits and give a sense of wellbeing mentally and emotionally, it can improve fitness and health and bring communities together. It can also support a deeper understanding of art within our culture. “The Welsh National Anthem talks about a land of poets and singers but we want people to realise Wales is a nation of dancers too. We may not all know it now but after the festival we hope more people will.” Louise Miles-Crust, Wales Millennium Centre’s Artistic Programme Manager and co-project manager of Big Dance Cymru, said: “Wales Millennium Centre is proud to be working alongside Dance Cymru on this pan-Wales celebration of dance that will showcase the best professional, amateur and community dance of all styles, whether you are in north, east, west or south Wales.” For a complete list of Big Dance Wales 2012 events, please visit www.bigdance2012.com |
| Big Dance Wales 2012 web site: www.bigdance2012.com |
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Monday, June 25, 2012 |
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