Report: The Dance Show 2010 at Birmingham NEC

Hailed by some as the Midlands’ answer to Move It, the Dance Show was hosted as part of the Clothes Show Live 2010 at Birmingham’s cavernous NEC for the first three days of its run.

Hailed by some as the Midlands’ answer to Move It, the Dance Show was hosted as part of the Clothes Show Live 2010 at Birmingham’s cavernous NEC for the first three days of its run. Residing in just one hall of the vast Clothes Show event the Dance Show felt somewhat isolated, cut off from its fashion related cousin by the food hall, which created some logistical difficulties if you wanted to wander between the fashion and dance areas.

These difficulties were compounded by a dance programme that scheduled all acts to perform just once on the Dance Show main stage, meaning that it was too easy to miss the 5 minute slot of any act you wanted to see.

If you managed to catch the action on the Dance Stage though you would have found a spread of dance from contemporary to ballet to street over the three days, including the Young Dancer of the Year 2010 Final where dancers had to learn a one minute lyrical routine on stage in front of the audience and dancers from Pattison College in Coventry performed a number from Wicked. Amongst the contemporary dance to be showcased were the Richard Alston Dance Company and Motionhouse, whose dancers were to be found later on with their nose pressed against the window of Kymberlee Jay’s Krump workshop looking like they were disappointed that a large crowd of teenaged girls had beaten them to it.

Other workshops delivered over the weekend were by Ashley Wallen and Lizzie Gough, giving the dancers of the Midlands an opportunity to experience a glimpse of London dance life both in workshops and watching the Dancer’s Inc dancers perform on the main Clothes Show Catwalk.

Whilst most were too timid to venture onto the freestyle stage hosted by Kymberlee Jay, some of the exhibitors did use the opportunity to showcase their moves including Tru Streetdance Academy and more dancers from Pattison College. Other companies with stands at the show included Komodo, who supply the merchandise for the UK B-Boy Championships and Diversity and Magic Streetwear who were apparel partners for the recent Enter The Battle event at London’s Indigo2.

There can be no doubt that the star attraction of the Dance Show was Flawless who performed their trademark precise choreography and added an air of excitement to the event that peaked with the results of the UK Hiphop Championships with AllStreetdance favourites Venom, Status and Peridot amongst those who will be flying to Las Vegas to rep the UK.