Welcome to another Wondrous Wednesday our blog dedicated to Wondrous Stories; the extraordinary large-scale production that will be the opening show of the Birmingham 2022 Festival!
Following on from our first blog post on the 6 October, we are sharing with you a short video from our session on Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 October, which ‘kick-started’ the creative process!
On the Saturday morning, our Artistic Director Kevin Finnan talked through his vision for the show to all of our collaborators as we gathered together for the first time in our creation space in Leamington Spa Town Hall, with some people joining us on Zoom.
The Saturday afternoon and Sunday were spent working with our Associate Choreographers for the show, Jamaal Burkmar and Sonia Sabri. They worked with the Motionhouse dancers to begin creating ideas for the movement language for key character groups in the show. The cast for these groups will be made up of performers from Critical Mass, a new inclusive dance collective of up to 300 young people, led by Birmingham 2022 Festival and DanceXchange. They will get the opportunity to work with Kevin, Jamaal and Sonia along with the Motionhouse dancers to make the choreographic content of Wondrous Stories.
Wondrous Wednesdays is all about how the show is being made. We will be sharing exclusive interviews with the team behind this amazing show as well as never-before-seen clips from rehearsals. Last week we shared a clip from Jamaal Burkmar’s workshop. This week, we are featuring a short clip from Sonia Sabri’s workshop – check out the video below.
Sonia specialises in Kathak dance and has an international reputation for presenting Kathak dance in a contemporary context. As part of the workshop, she taught a short sequence of her own choreography for our dancers to learn. To find out more about Sonia Sabri Company, check out their website!