Depending on how closely you follow the company, you may be aware that last October half-term, ACE Youth hosted the return leg of an exchange with French youth dance company ‘Les Orteils de Sable’, the youth dance company of Les Ballets Contemporains de Saint Etienne. This grew into a highly successful week of International youth dance activity involving more regional youth dance companies in rehearsals, masterclasses with International artists at Warwick Arts Centre, film showings, a symposium for dance professionals, performances at mac, and importantly, cultural exchange. We invited Birmingham based film maker Mat Beckett to come and document the week and at last… the film is ready! Make sure you take a look using the link here:

http://vimeo.com/35306211

The French company plan to host their own symposium in Saint Etienne in April, so watch this space! We aim to work together to create a strong European network of youth dance companies and get excellence in youth dance the recognition it deserves.

11am Saturday 21^st Jan 2012

The Link Dance Space

Meet with Charlotte (ACE’s administrator) and Nicky (ACE’s marketing associate) to be part of an informal network.

• Be part of a fun fundraising group
• Find out more about what we are doing
• Help us spread the word locally
• Give us hints and tips for information sharing
• Take away promotional materials
• Help us create a buzz

See you there!

Multi-award winning Vincent Mantsoe previously collaborated with ACE dance and music on their celebrated production ‘Skin’, which toured successfully both in the U.K. and abroad from 2007 – 2008. ACE dance and music are looking to build on this creative relationship and use this residency as a research and development period for their next production ‘Mana’.

Vincent Mantsoe trained at Johannesburg’s Moving Into Dance Company. His work draws on traditional African dance forms with a contemporary approach using modern, ballet and Asian forms such as Tai Chi, Martial Art and traditional Balinese dance. He is now based in France with his own company Association Noa, a multicultural company of dancers of different backgrounds. This residency will give participants the opportunity to experience his distinct style of dance, which he describes as Afro-fusion.

ACE dance and music will be following this up with a further residency in April with José Agudo, Rehearsal Director for Akram Khan, so watch this space!

The five day residency is priced at £100.00 per dancer, with only limited places available. Dancers should have a minimum of 3 years professional experience and must be able to attend the full 5 days. For more information or to apply for a place please email Charlotte Gregory at info@acedanceandmusic.com with C.V., photo and letter of interest.

If your group win you will be dancing in the opening act for Elektro Kif at the Southbank Centre on Fri 2nd March 2012. If there is enough interest from West Midlands dance groups we may also invite dancers to perform at Warwick Arts Centre.

All you have to do is create a one-minute video in front of an iconic landmark in your city, film it and upload! 6th Feb Deadline. http://www.facebook.com/southbankcentre?sk=app_121827307930964

“A dance community that exudes warmth, skill and professionalism. A wonderful learning space for children and adults alike.”
“The adult performance was absolutely inspiring and I loved the live drums. Fabulous!”
“Caring, dynamic, fun dance.”
“Loved all the classes/performances. Great for kids and older groups to see what they can and do achieve.”
“Particularly impressed by professionalism of the youth group.”
“Well organised. Enjoyed it all.”
“Great show. Can’t wait for the next one.”
“Excellence.”
“ACE is a family, welcome for anyone to join and have fun.”
“Different, dynamic, explosive. The little ones didn’t want to stop dancing.”
“I have been watching the ACE company perform for many years now and I’m never disappointed.”

We will be holding an Easter community showcase performance at the Drum on Sat 31st March, so with all these fantastic comments and everyone scoring us 9 or 10 out of 10 for the Xmas show, we hope to see even more friendly faces at our classes this term!

Saturday will see performances from across ACE dance and music’s class programme, which happens every Saturday morning throughout the year at our studio, led by professional ACE dancers Amayra Fuller and Laura Vanhulle, for children from 2-11 years.

Some of the dancers will be performing for the first time, including many of the adults who have taken part in our new community programme ‘Revival’ this term, which has been taught by Idrissa Camara of Ballet Nimba, so please, show your support – it promises to be a fantastic end of term party!

Tickets available from the Drum Box Office: 0121 333 2400 (£5/£3)

Since our hectic premiere at NSCD in Leeds at the start of October the show has kept on evolving, changing and growing with every performance.  I think the whole company would agree that it feels like a completely different piece to perform compared to where we started and that must be down to the fact that we never stopped exploring things in rehearsals, honing the details and questioning everything that we thought could work better.

You’ll have heard from other blog entries that, as well as rehearsing and performing, the dancers have been running all over the UK teaching ICE workshops and making curtain raiser pieces.  And, although we all love performing, teaching these workshops has proven to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the tour.  Meeting all the different and fantastically enthusiastic groups of people who wanted to come along and take part and then watching them perform has been genuinely uplifting and inspiring for the whole company.

Our last shows at the mac in Birmingham (where we were joined by a lot of family and friends) and then Stamford Arts Centre (where we got to take class in an actual ballroom!) went really well and were a great way to end the tour, even though it ended in some very late-night unloading of the van getting and lost on the way back!

Hope you managed to catch one of the shows, but if you missed your chance (shame on you!) then watch this space…

Bye!