Celebrating some of our highlights of 2022

Here at Motionhouse, we love what we do, and every year is full of joy for us. But some years do stand out, and 2022 is one of them, so we’re sharing twelve of the year’s highlights with you – one for each month.

We’re going to end the year on a high, performing alongside the brilliant RAYE in The National Lottery’s New Year’s Eve Big Bash! Don’t miss us on ITV from 8.30pm tonight (Saturday 31 December)!

January saw the launch of our Wondrous Stories Post Box, where people from the West Midlands were asked to share their own stories with us in the lead up to Wondrous Stories, the opening show of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. The stories were then printed on colourful paper and thrown from flying bicycles into the crowds who came to watch Wondrous Stories in March. You can read the stories here.

In February, rehearsals really ramped up for Wondrous Stories, with the whole integrated cast meeting every weekend at the NEC. The sense of joy and excitement about making this incredible outdoor show was evident in the room each weekend. Friends and memories were made for life.

March saw the big day arrive, when we revealed Wondrous Stories in Birmingham city centre to launch the Birmingham 2022 Festival, which ran alongside the Commonwealth Games. Seen by more than 22,000 people over 4 days, Wondrous Stories took over the whole of Centenary Square. Our dance-circus artists were joined by an integrated cast of more than 250 people from across the region including Freewheelin’ wheelchair dance group and young disabled and non-disabled dancers from Critical Mass, Motionhouse Youth, Motionhouse community class participants, Timmins Academy and the Centre of Advanced Training programme run by DanceXchange and Sampad. The show featured additional choreography by Jamaal Burkmar and Sonia Sabri, and live spoken word from Coventry and Birmingham-based artists Raza Hussain and Sebbie Mudhai, and actor Leon Finnan. Birmingham’s Choir With No Name, made up of homeless and marginalised people, sang to an uplifting soundtrack by Sophy Smith and Tim Dickinson, and costume designer Sophie Donaldson led Birmingham City University students to create the costumes for the show. Digital projections by Logela Multimedia and an incredible aerial dance-circus spectacle in the night sky thrilled audiences.

It’s a special privilege to be able to create something that touches so many people’s lives and makes a whole city and region come together.

The journey that the participants went on was incredible and the sense of achievement that they all had at the end of the project is invaluable and will stay with them forever. It’s the essence of what we do and what we believe dance is all about, giving opportunities for people to experience something amazing.

In April we took our current touring production Nobody back on the road, having premiered at Sadler’s Wells’ The Peacock in September 2021 to 4-star reviews from The Guardian and The Times. We hope that you managed to catch the magic of Nobody somewhere on tour. If not, there are still some dates in 2023. 

In May we took our first trip outside the UK in 2022, taking our outdoor production WILD to Germany for the first of its European tour dates. WILD subsequently visited France, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands, plus dates up and down the UK.

June saw the creation of HENGE, a new production for families commissioned by our partners Bluestone National Park Resort in Wales. We held several Open Rehearsals in our rehearsal and creation space in Leamington Town Hall for local people to give us feedback before HENGE opened at Bluestone.

In July, we opened HENGE to delighted families at Bluestone. It was seen by more than 3,500 people between the 17 July and the 31 August.

August saw us return to Birmingham to perform an excerpt from Wondrous Stories at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Smithfield live site. A whopping 27,500 people watched our ‘globe duet’ as they enjoyed the Birmingham Commonwealth Games either live or on the big screen.

In September, we started work on one of our many projects with schools, working with St Mary’s School in Banbury on a creative dance project culminating in a live performance in a professional venue at the Mill Arts Centre. The children met some of our professional dancers and watched a live performance of one of our duets. September also saw us start work in a local care home, delivering dance and movement workshops with residents.

Excitement mounted in October, as we prepared for the premiere of Starchitects, our new production for children, families and those new to dance at Warwick Arts Centre. The show was seen by more than 1,200 people over 4 days before going on tour. Catch Starchitects next year up and down the UK and in Denmark. Starchitects was made in association with Bluestone National Park Resort. Supported by Warwick Arts Centre and Birmingham Hippodrome.

In November, we took our touring production Nobody to a venue we’d never been to before, Hull New Theatre, where we also connected with local professionals in partnership with Absolutely Cultured and Hull Dance to deliver a masterclass. We were also pleased to announce that we will continue to receive funding from Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation for the period 2023-2026. This support will enable us to carry on creating exciting dance-circus to entertain and move our audiences and to inspire the next generation of children and young people.

We’re very excited about December. It really is the most wonderful time of the year….

Tune into ITV from 8.30pm tonight (Saturday 31 December) to see us perform alongside the brilliant RAYE in The National Lottery’s New Year’s Eve Big Bash at the OVO Arena Wembley, hosted by Alesha Dixon and Jason Manford.

We’ll also be performing Nobody in Burghof Lörrach, Germany tonight (31st of December).

We think you’ll agree, it’s been an exciting and fulfilling year for Motionhouse. We can’t wait to share more dance with you in 2023!