Body Festival 2008

Central City Venues
Annual dance and physical theatre festival. Contains information on workshops, performances, and bookings.
Friday 26th Sept to Sunday 12th October 2008

The Body Festival 2008 promises to be the biggest, boldest and brashest yet!

Pulling out all the stops the festival will kick off with a ‘World Record Attempt at the Largest Synchronised Dance’ with the Real Hot Bitches, a Wellington-based 1980’s clad dance troupe. The RHB's, as they are affectionately known, are leading the good people of Christchurch in a sequence of nifty moves to the Bon Jovi anthem ‘Shot Through the Heart’.

Also the Body Festival is hosting new a concept in dance called ‘Speed Dancing’ – think speed dating but with dance moves instead of chat-up lines. The Cathedral Square will be transformed into a break-dance battle zone as local and international B-boy and B-girls challenge their Hip-Hopping and Krumpin’ skills, and the South Island Dance Network will be hosting it’s first meeting in Christchurch to discuss the way forwards for dance in the Garden city.

There is a strong international performance and workshop presence in the festival with Tierra Flamenca from Jerez in Spain and martial dance theatre from India and Brazil, as well as showcases of the best in New Zealand contemporary dance.

With the annual blend of dance performance and taught workshops – totalling a staggering 20 performance events and 60 have-a-go workshops this year – the Body Festival can’t fail to impress with a line-up that celebrates the best home-grown and overseas talent.

So pen two weeks of solid dance excitement, entertainment, and healthy moving and grooving into your diaries now…

For all media enquiries and to arrange interviews please contact:
Adam Hayward, Festival Director – adam@thebody.co.nz, Ph: (03) 366 7709

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About The Festival
A dance crammed fortnight that is the Body Festival 2008.

Now in our 7th year, we've taken the programme up another notch. We begin by kicking off with a World Record attempt for the largest synchronized dance routine ever! Join us in Cathedral Square for this boisterous event and prepare yourselves for the fun to come.

Body Festival 2008 also hosts a number of international acts with Tierra Flamenca from Jerez in Spain; martial dance theatre from India, Brazil and New Zealand; and a fantastic dance film creating installation from the UK called the move-me.com booth, so be sure to check them all out. In addition we are once again presenting a vast array of performances, films, and workshops for you to participate in and enjoy and we hope you'll agree this year's programme is again full of something for everyone.

To support dance, as it becomes an increasingly popular physical activity we, the Dance and Physical Theatre Trust, have recently launched a South Island Dance Network (see www.southislanddancenetwork.org.nz). In order to promote the network and to discuss the future of dance in Christchurch, we're holding a meeting on the last day of the festival. We hope many dance participants will attend so that we can consider how we can work to strengthen dance for all those committed to its pursuit.

It also is important for me to make a few thanks here: to our supporters who allow us to continue to present this festival and in particular the Christchurch City Council who have supported us since the outset. As always we couldn't make this festival happen without the strong Dance and Physical Theatre Trust Board behind us sharing in our vision and giving us the backing to develop our ideas on a year-round basis, so a thanks to them also.

www.thebody.co.nz