Last night was the official launch of International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010. Guests were treated to a brief sample of dance the like of which might be expected in the festival, a speech in which the co-artistic directors announced the program highlights, a bit of wine and a very tasty and not insubstantial dish of food each.

It is genuinely exciting to have Birmingham making a serious push to get this festival established as one of the country’s major festivals. There are not enough opportunities to see really high quality international artists performing in the UK and it’s great have the festival addressing this issue.

It is also refreshing that this is a festival of Dance, not just Contemporary Dance, so the are a wide range of experiences on offer.

Obviously as a theatre company it is something of a shame that our art form was not chose to be the City’s focus, but we should be magnanimous about this. I’ve always found watching top quality dance hugely inspiring and am very much hoping that the company diary 19th April – 16th May allows me to get out and see as much of it as possible.

I’m already keen on seeing Rosie Kay‘s new piece 5 Soldiers, which has been especially commissioned for the festival and a piece by Mark Morris that is coming very highly recommended. It sounds as if there is ‘something for everyone’ so I’d urge everyone reading this living within striking distance of Birmingham to pledge to see at least one show from the festival next year. Let’s see some dancing going on.

James