Active Arts has set up some great opportunities for people in Castle Vale to see and take part in dance as part of this festival.
Sutra is a new dance piece created by choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui with 17 monks from the Shaolin Temple in China, so it has the extraordinary starting point of using martial arts skills of the highest possible standard as a basis for dance. Not only is the dance something extaordinary, so is the setting, created by world renowned British artist Antony Gormley, whose best known work is the Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead. For this dance he has created what look like 17 human-sized packing crates, which are continuously moved and danced in, on and around in an ever-changing spectacle. Add in the beautiful new musical score by Polish composer Szymon Brzoska, and the whole performance will take you somewhere entirely new!
Active Arts selected this work from the IDFB 2010 programme as one that would be especially inspiring and appealing to youth audiences and are offering a chance to see the show on an organised coach trip from Castle Vale to the Rep, Birmingham, on Wednesday 28th April. In addition we have also organised through IDFB a Kung Fu/Urban Moves workshop with dancer/choreographer Shaun Cope, a dancer who creates his own new urban fusion dance productions – so this is a fantastic chance to take your moves onto a whole new level. (See his photos on Facebook or his videos on YouTube for some insight). The workshop will be taking place in the week before we see the show, at the Sanctuary on Tuesday 20th April from 5-7pm and is open to anyone aged 11 to 19.
Active Arts is offering both the Kung Fu/ Urban Moves workshop and the Sutra performance (including coach travel) at a combined price of only £5 – a truly bargain price – but they must be booked in order to secure a place. Booking forms (including permission letters for those under 16 years old) can be obtained from J at the Sanctuary or downloaded from the Active Arts’ Website.
activearts.wordpress.com 
Leave a Reply