© Darren Ellis Ian Palmer at BDE Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Bruce Marriott at BDE 4 February diary Tanja Raman reviews Darren Ellis eviews Freddie Opoku Addaie reviews Lost Dog reviews Rosie Kay reviews recent BRB reviews more Bruce Marriott reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months) www.bde2010.co.uk

BDE is not just full of the UK's contemporary bright young things - it's a major international showcase and a goodly number of delegates are from overseas, talent spotting as dance becomes ever more global. The need for effective management has never been greater and my day started with a debate/discussion fostered by the Independent Dance Manager's Network (but open to all) called Getting Dance Out and About in the 21st Century. It actually proved an enlightening barometer/reminder of how dance is increasingly happening and we are seeing the gradual replacement of long-standing, traditional, fixed relationships (manager/company/dancers) with a more free-flowing, project-based, approach where teams of creatives come together to produce and perform the work, and then dissolve away and combine in fresh groups for other projects. To support this, freelance producers('general movers and shakers') help weld things together and add commercial sense. And finally there are consultants who can help package and market the work locally and internationally - and if you want to break into the USA you need serious help. There is a lot of good management sense in this fluid approach but I was less keen on some of the buzzwords about what dance should be doing for its public: "Engaging with the audience" constantly came up and just seems to lend such an earnest flavour to what going on stage is really about. Wearing my consumer hat I don't want to be "engaged with" - I just want to go to a theatre and be entertained, often after a long day. There was some group work to consider questions about doing things better and I think it's all being written up for wider dissemination - I hope I get to see a copy. All up an eye-opener and full marks to Nigel Hinds for chairing it and bringing the session in on time - oh, that other events though the day had managed the same.

Next up was a performance in the Patrick Centre (part of the Birmingham Hippodrome, DanceXchange complex) courtesy of the National Dance Network who are about touring up and coming choreographers in smaller venues. Called Dance3 we saw the work of the choreographers in what I imagine is a typical bill - but where the performance/choreographers will vary over the tour. It sounds like a great initiative - anything that gets dance out there - and being a bill of mixed fare you are most unlikely to go away feeling nothing entertained you (sorry engaged with you...)

First up was Tanja Raman DBINI Industries (Re)Traces - actually a collaboration between Raman and visual artist John Collingswood and sound artist Jon Ruddock. All 3 are represented on stage, the artists either side of the stage, sitting at small desks earnestly concentrating on their computers and Ramon dancing, often with lights attached to her extremities. All are behind a see-though screen on which are projected various repetitive phrases and diagrams together with time-lapsed/manipulated images of her live dancing and pushed along by an electronic score. The dance is flowing and smooth, but hardly stunning choreography and the collaboration didn't really seem to compensate or enhance things much. Despite the odd stunning graphic I'd long had my fill by 15 minutes and there was still 10 to run. Darren Ellis' Sticks and Bones was far more fun - he is obviously a frustrated Ginger Baker (drummer) and his 19-minute piece zoomed by as he used 2 drum sticks every-which-way while dressed in a Majorette's tunic. Excellent. Freddie Opoku-Addaie's Silence Speaks Volumes, earlier seen at the Place, was the most conventional dance piece. For 5 dancers, including the choreographer, Opoku-Addaie filled the stage with muscular, driven movement that, like the score (Sara Shanson and Fred Dahn), just never lets up. At 18 minutes long it was perfect length I thought. You can see short clips of these and learn more about what's touring at the Dance3 website: www.Dance3.org

Most of BDE 2010 took place around the centre of Birmingham but my next performance was 15 minutes down the road at Elmhurst School of Dance. None of the pictures I've seen did justice to the actual building and site itself - what an amazing dance resource and place to learn. It makes the Royal Ballet School look pokey by comparison! The feeling of space is emphasised when you enter reception - the entrance hall is positively palatial and a glass wall also allows you to see into one of the large main studios. As I was passing through Errol Pickford was giving boys class. No dawdling however, we were there to see Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer's company Lost Dog perform Salvage in the school's comfortable studio theatre. Like all the other performances this was packed, every seat filled, and there was often the serendipity of striking up interesting conversations with other delegates you'd never seen before. I have to say the highlight of Salvage was not the work but these ad hoc conversations and seeing the school, which I think I'd have much preferred to explore than seeing a piece of non-dance. To call Salvage 'dance theatre' would imply way too much abut the amount of dance in it. Ditto if one was to give it the unusual moniker 'theatre dance'. As theatre this piece slowly unfolds as a woman comes to terms with the impact of losing her partner in the tsunami, forced on by potential new love rearing its head. The redoubtable dance communicator, Kath Duggan, led this but I didn't feel drawn to her plight as theatre and it was another reminder how cross-art effort isn't doing much to take dance itself forward. It will be interesting to see what theatre reviewers make of it.

BDE laid on coaches to shuttle us back and forward between city centre and Elmhurst, but sadly a hiccup had us all waiting ages to get back and rather than go in very late I abandoned my next engagement which was the debate "In Britain today, are we bringing the best dance work to audiences in middle- and large-scale theatres?". Goodness knows what they concluded but there can never be enough of the good stuff in the good places... though we will not always agree on what's good of course!

I was first in the queue for Rosie Kay's 5 Soldiers preview, but true to BDE form it started well late. Overall organisation seemed very good, with all your tickets ready to go when you signed in the morning and as you visited each event you were scanned in on a little terminal. So I guess I have a black mark against me for missing the debate! The scanning and the filling of studios all took much time though and the DanceXchange studio manager apologised for the late start with the immortal words "Sorry we are a bit late - we needed to get you all in and seated." "Obviously didn't plan on that then" I thought irritably as I contemplated being even more late for the next event. I do though love Rosie Kay for her thoughtfulness and clear thinking. Most other shows starting late plugged on regardless but Rosie cut her words back and sacrificed her hoped-for Q&A to help recover some of the time. Of course those with time could still rush up and ask away, but it was well appreciated, as was her piece. It follows life for 5 soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan - the boredom, the training, the terror and most of all the comeraderie. She actually did battle training with the army before starting work on the piece and we were seeing a couple of parts of it about half-way through its creation. Impossible to review but what I saw seemed both clear, intriguing and compelling and I very much look forward to seeing the finished piece.

My final port of call was canapes and drinks up the road at the Rep theatre where Birmingham Royal Ballet and Elmhurst School held a reception. I had my bike and so peddled madly uphill to get there asap - 40 mins late but still lots of booze! BDE is very much about dance and it was good to see Birmingham and the School extending a ballet hand in fraternal friendship, just before delegates went in to see Jasmin Vardimon's company. Great to catch some words with BRB off the record and also a long chat with Errol Pickford about the school and tell him what he knew already - what a splendid set-up he works in. I've promised to spend a day there and I much look forward to that. Then it was a mad dash to More Street Station on my bike, made madder by getting lost in Birmingham's race-track of an inner city road system.

Time for a bit of newbie reflection as I coasted back through the Chiltern's towards home. The great thing is what a terrific coming together and total immersion experience BDE is. Although I only scratched the surface, you look at the programme and can't fail to be impressed by all that's happening and the mutual help around in discussions and debates. The sadness is that for many who attend dance is an art increasingly coupled to theatre, technology and cross-arts collaborations in which choreography is perhaps less to the fore than we've seen. The hot stuff is how you couple dance with other things and, hopefully, get the creative sparks from such collaborations, and not quite so centred on stunning dancers doing unique movement. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds. I will certainly go to BDE again, if perhaps with less "I need to see all I can in a day" eyes! And, despite the odd whinge, huge congratulations to all who make it happen.