Dancedigital Festival Kicks Off Today

dancedigital, one of the UK's leading dance organisations based in Bedfordshire and Essex, leads the field in the development of technical innovations in choreography and dance. In April, to celebrate the latest achievements and best work of an outstanding group of dance practitioners, the organisation will stage its first digital dance festival in association with the University of Bedfordshire.

The aptly named dancedigital Festival will be staged this weekend, April 25th- 27th at the University of Bedfordshire, Polhill Avenue, Bedford MK41 9DU and will showcase the best and most exciting digital performances and installations by a range ofdancedigital's Associate Artists and the newly-hatched Catalyst Artists who will be showing their work in public for the first time.

Performers and filmmakers will follow the festival's theme of how digital technologies can transform the experience of choreography onstage, online, inside, outside. Performers include the award winning filmmaker Rachel Davies, choreographer and dancer Annie Lok, dance practitioners Luke Pell and Jo Verrent, dancer Tim Casson and video technologist Tom Butterworth, and visual artist Rachel Cherry.

Tamara Ashley, Artistic Director of dancedigital (left) says: "We are delighted to announce our inauguraldancedigital Festival. dancedigital is working with a fantastic cohort of artists whose performances bring together the arts, science and technology to create meaningful, touching and rich experiences for audiences. Atdancedigital we are interested in how the meeting of arts and science in performance create new views in a technologically pervasive culture. Partnering with the University of Bedfordshire has enabled us to create a rich environment of research and development for dancedigital artists and has given us the unique opportunity of bringing together leading academics and thinkers."

Says Jane Carr, acting head of department for performing arts and English at University of Bedfordshire: "The dancedigital Festivaldemonstrates how the University of Bedfordshire's partnership with dancedigital brings cutting edge performance to the area providing exciting opportunities for our students and arts communities to explore innovative approaches to performance."

dancedigital encourages and supports artists in experimenting with new technology - light, sound, film, music and much more. Viadancedigital dance practitioners are invited to collaborate with computer scientists and software artists as well as fellow choreographers and performers to learn about new technology with a view to incorporating it into their performance work. In their quest to support daring artistic endeavours in dance and technology, dancedigital has provided some funding as well as research and development opportunities for all participating artists.

Performances, workshops, learning and participation events and more are as follows:
Friday April 25th - Digital Futures in Dance talking about focusing on youth dance, students and emerging artists.

Saturday April 26th and Sunday April 27th - the main performance festival and conference will be taking place featuring work by artists named above and many more. There are panels and workshops led by distinguished practitioners and teachers including Professor Helen Bailey, pioneering DJ and filmmaker Alex Reuben, Anthony Lilley, Chief Creative Officer and CEO of Magic Lantern, the award-winning interactive media and multiplatform creative house and consultancy, Kerry Franksen dance and intermedia artist and Nina Martin, international teacher, dancer and choreographer as well as performances and installations:

April 25th-27th, Rachel Davies film, 'Breakfast'
April 25th, 27th, Rachel Cherry installation, 'Performing Small Spaces'
April 25th at 7pm, Youth Dance and Emerging Artists Platform
April 26th - 27th, Luke Pell/Jo Verrent installation, 'Take Me To Bed'
April 26th, Annie Lok, 'Metaphors We Live By'
April 26th, Lisa May Thomas/Becca Rose, 'Spectroposy'
April 26th at 6pm, Tim Casson and Friends, 'Fiend'
April 26th at 8pm, Alex Reuben film screening, 'Routes'
April 27th at 9am, Nina Martin, 'Rewire/Dancing States' - explorations in solo and contact improvisation
April 27th, Oliver Scott, 'Cascades'
April 27th at 11am, dancedigital Ar, 'The Chapter House'

Tickets from:www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dancedigital-mobilities-festival-25-27-april-2014-tickets-10668233975?ref=ebtnebtckt

Festival pass: £30 for Bedfordshire residents; £75 for non-residents
See website for individual day passes, concessions etc.

Buses from London to the University of Bedfordshire will run from The Place, 17 Duke's Road, London WC1H 9PY UK at 8am on April 25th, 26th and 27th - FREE to ticketholders

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