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Over 100 artists from across the globe will perform at Bradford Festival this July, in a free weekend of spectacular outdoor arts, combining world-class circus, street theatre, dance and family entertainment.
Bradford’s Mirror Pool, the UK’s largest urban water feature, will be the stage for an astonishing large-scale, aerial-spectacular act from Gorilla Circus. Featuring high wire-walking, dance trapeze, and hair hanging, UNITY merges immersive theatre, circus and community stories in a powerful but intimate way. Local poet Kirsty Taylor will write a new work for the show, reflecting shared histories and voices of Bradford.
Hip-hop choreography piece Closer to My Dreams will take place in new city-centre park Norfolk Gardens, alongside roaming performances from Art Doctors seeking to cure artistic slumps and living card tables creating magical and surprising encounters.
At the award-winning Darley Street Market there’ll be juggling, a huge hopscotch board, as well as a dance piece inspired by the pub featuring vats of physicality, barrels of humour and a pounding soundtrack.
Spanish street arts company Sound De Secà bring a fusion of percussion, dance and theatre, French actors offer a promenade piece looking at our perceptions of old age, and Indonesia’s Gigi Art of Dance display a performance of connections, cultures and conversations on human response.
Seeta Patel Dance will present an adaptation of Stravinsky’s iconic ballet The Rite of Spring through powerful Indian movement style Bharatanatyam, whilst Wave: All Around the World makes the audience a part of the show with body percussion, claps and self-made rhythm.
Printing workshops, a bus full of books and pop-up performances from dragons on bikes, foxes on scooters and posties delivering dreams, will entertain kids and adults alike, and a music stage will spotlight emerging musical talent from across the district turning the Centenary Square into a dancefloor.
