Border Crossings In Birmingham: Arts Company Brings Contemporary Dance REMEMBRANCES To Birmingham 2022 Festival

Intercultural theatre and arts company Border Crossings will present REMEMBRANCES, a collaborative new dance performance, to the Birmingham 2022 Festival - the biggest celebration of creativity ever in the region and one of the largest ever Commonwealth Games cultural programmes. This mesmerising dance piece forms part of the company's ORIGINS Festival, which has been offering a space for Indigenous people to share their cultures in Britain since 2009. In line with the Commonwealth Games, Border Crossings are partnering with contemporary Indigenous dancer Brian Solomon//ELECTRIC MOOSE and independent dance company AVA DANCE COMPANY, to ask how we can welcome Indigenous people as visitors to the city, country and land. Who are we now to welcome you?

As Birmingham prepares to host the long-awaited 2022 Commonwealth Games, REMEMBRANCES reflects on the challenging history of colonial injustices. In the time of #BlackLivesMatter, how can we offer a genuine welcome to First Nations people from Commonwealth countries? This dance performance will explore how contemporary Britain has moved from being a former imperial centre to a multicultural space, and how the nation can open itself up to a proper, equal exchange with people whose lands it colonised.

Supported by DanceXchange and presented as part of Birmingham International Dance Festival 2022, REMEMBRANCES brings together diverse artists from the Midlands and First Nations Canada in dialogue. The beautiful and poignant dance showcases the amazing ability of this artform to move audiences and drive essential conversations about welcoming, protocol and acknowledgment in relation to Indigenous people travelling to the UK. This collaboration sees leading creative thinkers and experts in their field generate an astounding piece of dance performance that is both an exploration of shared histories and an emerging ceremony of welcome for the Commonwealth Games.

Commissioned as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival and generously supported by the Canada Council of Arts and the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom.

Performances run Friday 24th - Sunday 26th June 2022.