Leamington company brings voyage to city square

The Voyage, a new performance spectacle by Motionhouse and Australian physical theatre and aerial specialists Legs On The Wall, is also marking the launch of the nationwide London 2012 Festival, the UK’s biggest ever cultural festival celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Produced by Birmingham Hippodrome, the show features more than 150 dancers and aerialists, projections, gospel choirs and a marching band, who all perform on a life-size cruise liner at the heart of Birmingham city centre in Victoria Square.

Professional performers join forces with an amateur choir, live musicians and more than 140 community performers to transform the square and tell the story.

Audiences can watch the action unfold onboard the ship and be caught up in the atmosphere on the ground, where seagulls swoop and travellers prepare to embark on their journey.

The ship sets sail, the town hall is transformed by spectacular projected imagery and the city’s skyline becomes a dream of undiscovered worlds.

Motionhouse, based in Spencer Yard, Leamington, is one of the UK’s foremost dance theatre companies, touring highly acclaimed and award winning productions to theatres and festivals throughout the world.

Rooted in dance, the company’s productions draw on theatre, circus, acrobatics and film, while it also has a reputation for experimenting with the performance environment and developing large scale spectacles.

The Voyage is on tonight (Friday), tomorrow and on Sunday at 10pm. The show is free to attend.

The Hippodrome is also inviting people who have aspects of global migration to their background to share their stories on The Voyage website.

To find out more, visit www.thevoyage.org.uk

For further details about Motionhouse, visit www.motionhouse.co.uk