Dance Your Way To Edinburgh For The Booking Dance Festival
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is fast approaching with only a few days until it kicks off right in the hub of Scotland. When checking out this years line up there is one that really caught the eye, The Booking Dance Festival. What exactly is this? A festival within a festival? A dance show that books dancers? Its all very intriguing so more research was undertaken…
The Booking Dance Festival is a festival within a festival, called such as it showcases twelve US dance companies over two programs in four shows across the festival. Each company is given just ten minutes to impress the audience and show them what theyre bringing from across the pond. This is in fact the second year the festival-within-a-festival will be at Edinburgh Fringe, bringing with it dynamic performances from our American counterparts. With four genres to choose from – beautiful, lyrical, rock it and athletic, there is a variety of dance styles to tickle your rhythm taste buds. The companies take the opportunity to show case their amazing dance wear and dance shoes, dazzling their audiences with their routines.
The Booking Dance Festivals Executive Producer, Jodi Kaplan, first spotted a gap in the Fringe for this type of event a few years ago whilst studying in Edinburgh. She told The List I noticed that dance was a peripheral art form within the Fringe and Scottish culture, she says. And I dreamed of returning to Scotland and bridging the American and Scottish dance communities. Booking is one step towards reaching that goal. And shes right; with it returning for the second year the Booking Dance Festival seems set to become a regular dance fixture at the UK festival.
The festival is committed to bridging political gaps through cultural connections, performing in places such as Beijing in 2008 and plans to perform in Africa in 2011. So get out your dancing shoes and show your support, and prepare yourself to see some extremely elaborate leotards and dance shoes as the Booking Dance Festival hits Edinburgh town this weekend.