London 2012 Open Weekend
Saturday 24th July
Centenary Square, Bradford
The London 2012 Open Weekend will take place on 23rd to 25th July, as we start the countdown to two years to go to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Cultural Olympiad is a series of events to showcase the UK’s arts and culture, and Bradford promises to host another fantastic event.
Last year movement and dance were the theme for Step Up Bradford, an exciting free event in Bradford City Centre for the Cultural Olympiad. Thousands stepped up on to the dance floor in a mass dance, and were enthralled by a range of spectacular dance performances.
This year's celebrations start on Friday 23rd July with the launch of the ‘Sacrament of Marriage’ exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. The exhibition celebrates the theme of marriages and alliances between people, cultures, art forms and the body & mind. It will be interpreted for the launch night only by the Northern School for Contemporary Dance. Not to be missed.
On Saturday 24 July there will be a Family Drop in for 2012 Open Weekend in the Bradford 1 Gallery Studio from 1 - 4pm. With free family activities linked to the 'Precious Cargo' project, which is part of London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme Stories of the World.
Find out more about these exhibitions by going to Bradford Museums.
On Saturday 24th July ‘Step Up Bradford’ will transform Centenary Square with amazing movement and dance performances from the best of local and national artistes, in a mix of specially commissioned urban dance pieces. Plus you can get involved by taking part in a flash mob spectacular.
Saturday Programme
12:00pm 'Bollywood to Bradford' flash mob spectacular
2:30pm Bradford Dance Network presents 'D'fusion'
4:30pm 'Helter Skelter' – performed by Cirque Bijou
7:15pm Prodigal Theatre Urban Playground - The Quartet
9:30pm Re-flex – Gravity and Levity in association with The Dream Engine
For the full programme listing, please see the link at the bottom of this page.
*Times are approximate and maybe subject to change.
Bollywood to Bradford - everyone can learn authentic Bollywood moves and join in the mass dance in front of the big screen, as part of 'imove - Bollywood to Bradford'. Bollywood to Bradford will be led by Zoobin Surty who is a professional dancer/choreographer and consultant, from Mumbai- India. Zoobin trained in Indian classical forms of dance and is a graduate from Northern School of contemporary dance, and cultural dance ambassador from South Asian Arts based in Leeds. The session will start with a warm up and explanation of the moves. Bradford's very own Dance for Life will also be on hand to demonstrate and assist.
Re-flex is a highly imaginative new outdoor work from aerial dance company, Gravity & Levity. Three women voyagers circumnavigate a strange landscape reflecting tales from journeys past and those yet to come. With split second timing and sensitive counterbalancing, the dancers ebb and flow across the structure, diving through calm seas and troubled waters to resurface anew, evoking images of sirens, sailors cast adrift and of seemingly weightless sea creatures tumbling, spiralling and sweeping through a dreamlike terrain. With innovative set design and finely crafted aerial dance performed to a hauntingly evocative soundscape, the dancers enter an ‘otherworldly’ space where the real and the imaginary merge, suspended in time and motion. Choreographed by Lindsey Butcher (Gravity & Levity) and designed by Steve Edgar (The Dream Engine), the collaboration combines the two company’s strengths to create an inventive and captivating aerial dance performance.
Re-flex is a free-standing, circular structure supporting a series of flexible poles forming a three-dimensional aerial performance arena, to be viewed in the round.
Re-flex is a Without Walls Commission and is funded by the Arts Council England South East, with generous support from the University of Surrey and The Point Eastleigh.
Bradford Dance Network – D'fusion - Dance Bradford is a network of organisations that support, promote and deliver dance throughout the Bradford District. Dance Bradford aims to make high quality dance more accessible to all and to coordinate the provision of development, training and support for aspiring professional dancers and to ensure opportunities for community dancing as a tool for empowerment, fun and well-being. The network was commissioned to create a unique youth dance piece D'fusion specifically for the Step Up Bradford. Young people worked with professional dancers from a variety of dance styles, blending Asian, contemporary, jazz and street dance over a four day dance camp. Participants learned new dance styles and worked with Rachel Wesson , Artistic Director of Ascendance Rep to devise a new choreographed piece merging these styles.
Cirque Bijou Helter Skelter dance - Beautifully animated stilt work, these stilt characters are both vivid and surreal, colourful and glamorous, with beautifully choreographed movement. These exceptional creatures react to music with the show culminating in a beautiful dance sequence.
Prodigal Theatre Urban Playground - QUARTET BACKGROUND - Prodigal Theatre’s Urban Playground Team combines contemporary dance styles and b-boying with Parkour (also known as free-running or l’art du deplacement). Since 2007 they have been working with co-creators of Parkour Charles Perriere and Malik Diouf and their organisation Gravity Style.
The Fusion performance which combined the staging of the Urban Playground, the movement styles of the UPG Team and the pure Parkour of Gravity Style is still touring and has so far been seen by over 40,000 people across the UK and internationally.
The UPG Team also continues to teach across the UK, and is involved in several large scale collaborative projects for council authorities in the South East, including the design of a permanent Parkour training facility due to open in Crawley this August.
THE QUARTET - At the heart of the Urban Playground Team’s work is the meeting of movement styles in relation to the (built) environment.
Choreographer and performer Miranda Henderson has a background in release-technique contemporary dance and physical theatre, and Alister O’Loughlin represents both Parkour and capoeira in the performance. Janine Fletcher is another contemporary dancer with a particular knowledge of foot-percussion styles, and JP Omari is a self-taught b-boy who travels and teaches internationally as the director of Streetfunk. All cross over in to each other’s disciplines and all have learnt their Parkour from its co-creators at Gravity Style.
Quartet is a physical conversation between four unique performers who playfully share the space between themselves and the audience, examining the dynamic potential available in a series of four sided structures.
With distance, speed and time comes the fourth dimension – flow. This is the root of Parkour and dance – the place where all techniques meet and melt, and where the result is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts.
Throughout the weekend, club competitions and taster sessions are being held in Sports and Leisure Centres throughout Bradford District.
