Dancin’ Oxford has got a cracking line-up ready for you all on Saturday March 4 at Oxford’s Leiden Square in Oxford’s Westgate where more than five hours of live dance awaits.
The Spring Dance Festival will kick off with the Launch Event starting at 12 noon. “This event will be truly spectacular, with five hours of incredible dance – including hip hop, breakdance and street dance, circus, cabaret, African and contemporary dance, as well as a Zumba party,” Claire Thompson, Director of Dancin’ Oxford said.
“We’ve chosen dance artists and companies who we think our community here in Oxford will love. There are so many beautiful, fun, glamorous, and thought provoking shows – so come along and celebrate the arrival of Spring with us,” she adds.
The following acts will perform on stage, listed in order of appearance.
- Van Huynh Company together with Etta Ermini Dance Theatre will perform their work Glam. Glam is a vibrant dance and circus cabaret celebrating fabulousness. Audience members are encouraged to join in the fun to dance with the cast in this gloriously fast paced show of acrobatics, hand to hand, disco, feathers, glitter and glamorousmake-up!
- Oxford Breaking is a community of dancers of all levels, who share a passion for breakdance and street dance. Oxford Breaking celebrates diversity and includes members from a wide range of backgrounds.
- Company Chameleon will be performing the work Umbra, meaning ‘shadow’ in Latin. Umbra, choreographed by Anthony Missen, is a piece that looks at the light and darkness within us; exploring what we hide and what we reveal. Highly physical, Umbra is an invitation to pause and understand ourselves better.
- George Martini is an Oxford resident and has been a Zumba instructor for over 15 years. He is a Zumba Instructor Network member. George aims to bring joy and laughter to people through Zumba.
- Step 2 Dance is an Oxfordshire based dance school offering a large range of classes specialising in street dance. Students from Step 2 Dance will be performing hip hop/street dance pieces.
- Say, a contemporary dance duo will be performing a piece called the album: live. the album: live is an explosive mix of fast-paced, slick dance routines accompanied by an incredible live DJ. SAY brings the infectious energy of a live music gig to dance. Featuring incredible tracks by both home-grown and international artists from a range of genres, the album: live has a song for everyone to get grooving to.
- African Dance Oxford will be performing two high energy, rhythmic dance pieces, accompanied by live drumming. There will be an opportunity to join in for anybody who wants to.
As if that wasn’t enough, four extraordinary dance artists/companies will showcase their newly created works – commissioned by Dancin’ Oxford and Pegasus Theatre especially for the launch of the Spring Festival 2023.
The four brilliant dance companies/artists are:
- the fuse collective
- Vita Peach
- CTC Dance Company
- Divija Melally.
Expect to see dance works exploring what it’s like to live with a hidden disability (fuse collective), watch a young, white man go through an extraordinary transition (Vita Peach), explore the relationship between a Cis Man and a Transgender Woman (CTC Dance Company) and delve into what it means to live with integenerational trauma (Divija Melally).
“These artists represent the cream of this country’s early career dance artists. Their presentations were all extremely different but all outstanding. We are thrilled to have commissioned these exciting artists to create such innovative new work especially for our community in Oxford.”
For further information go to http://www.dancinoxford.co.uk
