Six members of the Freefall Dance Company are performing in a dance studio. The performers, wearing black t-shirts with a white Birmingham Royal Ballet logo on the front left, and a larger white logo at the rear, with ‘Freefall Dance Company’ on are biased towards the left of the image in various poses. The dancers are lit by the sun streaming in from the two large dark red framed windows on the rear wall. The foremost performer is standing with their left arm raised, and right arm pointing towards the floor whilst looking off into the distance as the sun shines from behind them, their shadow is being cast onto the floor. Towards the back of the room there is a ballet barre, a glossy black baby grand piano, and some stacked black chairs. The studio has large rectangular light panels in the ceiling, with half wooden panelled and half white walls. The floor is a matt grey with scuffs on it. Credit Andy Ford.
Six members of the Freefall Dance Company are performing in a dance studio. The performers, wearing black t-shirts with a white Birmingham Royal Ballet logo on the front left, and a larger white logo at the rear, with ‘Freefall Dance Company’ on are biased towards the left of the image in various poses. The dancers are lit by the sun streaming in from the two large dark red framed windows on the rear wall. The foremost performer is standing with their left arm raised, and right arm pointing towards the floor whilst looking off into the distance as the sun shines from behind them, their shadow is being cast onto the floor. Towards the back of the room there is a ballet barre, a glossy black baby grand piano, and some stacked black chairs. The studio has large rectangular light panels in the ceiling, with half wooden panelled and half white walls. The floor is a matt grey with scuffs on it. Credit Andy Ford.

Freefalling for 21 Years: An Anniversary Celebration

News & Stories 15 Dec 2023

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Freefall Dance Company is an inclusive community dance company founded on the principles of classical ballet and special education. This year, the company is celebrating 21 years of groundbreaking, barrier-breaking dance.

A member of Freefall shaking Carlos Acosta’s hand backstage at Birmingham Hippodrome. The member of Freefall is on the left, shaking Carlos’ right hand. The Freefaller smiling whilst standing side-on to the camera and has short brown hair, a hearing aid in the right ear and is wearing a black t-shirt with ‘Birmingham Royal Ballet, Freefall Dance’ written in white on the back. Carlos smiling whilst shaking the Freefaller’s right hand and has the arm bent at the elbow. Carlos has short, dark, curly hair and is wearing a black t-shirt with ‘Birmingham Royal Ballet, Freefall @ 21’ written in yellow across the front. Carlos’ grey, checked coat is draped over the left arm. To the right of Carlos is Claire, who has shoulder-length blonde hair and is wearing a similar t-shirt to Carlos, holding a phone with a dark blue case in both hands. In the background there is a blue set of double doors to the right and a white wall with a silver sign to the left. Credit: John Palmer.

To celebrate 21 years, the Freefallers worked diligently with Freefall's Artistic Director Lee Fisher and the Freefall team to create an incredible week of 'Freefalling' in Birmingham Hippodrome in early November, including two fantastic performances in the Patrick Studio and the launch of a celebratory exhibition, running through to the beginning of March.

Individuality is not important, it's essential.

Lee Fisher, Artistic Director, Freefall Dance Company

Members of Freefall Dance Company pose for a photo with BRB Director Carlos Acosta in the Patrick Studio. Seven members of Freefall are standing either side of Carlos with arms around each other. The other two members of the company are sitting on the floor with their legs off to one side. The group are smiling and are wearing matching black t-shirts with ‘Birmingham Royal Ballet, Freefall Dance’ written on the top left of the t-shirts. Carlos is wearing a black t-shirt with ‘Birmingham Royal Ballet, Freefall @ 21’ written in yellow across the front. The background is a black, cloth backdrop, the floor is black vinyl with some scuffs on it and there are two white chairs off to the right side. Credit John Palmer.

Freefall's Anniversary Performances

Freefall performed two stunning performances of a double bill comprising a new delightful and entertaining dance piece, 'Still Life' at the Freefall Café and the ever-popular Chairs.

With this colourful and joyful celebration of dance inspired by David Bintley’s ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café and reflecting on people’s impact on the environment and everything that lives on the earth, Freefall came full circle, returning to the ballet that, through a BRB education project called Café Atlantic, kickstarted its formation in 2002.

Students from Fox Hollies School, Hazel Oak Sixth Form, Uffculme School, All Saints Youth Group and Reddi Support joined the company at these performances having worked with them earlier in the autumn term to create and choreograph the piece.

Henry McNab of the Freefall @ 21 exhibition at Birmingham Hippodrome. Dancers of the Freefall Dance Company are pictured in two different pictures hung against a grey wall. In the focal image, one of the dancers is amongst 5 white chairs in a green field surrounded with mature trees at the edges. The dancer is facing the camera with arms are spread outwards, and they are looking to the right of the image. There is more information in the bottom right corner. The image to the left of the focal image is out of focus, but pictures a group of the Freefall dancers wearing black in a dance studio. Credit: Henry McNab

Freefall's Anniversary Exhibition

We’re delighted that Birmingham Hippodrome is hosting the Freefall 21st Anniversary Exhibition (14 November – 2 March) in various sites across the theatre. Through photos, film and testimony, get to know the dancers, learn about the company’s history and discover how Freefall represents BRB’s values – creative to the core; devoted to brilliance; diverse and different; full of heart.

This exhibition on Level 2 and 3 is a great opportunity to get to know Freefall Dance Company better. Be sure to take a look if you're in the theatre for a performance before 2 March 2024. Alternatively, pop into the venue through the Thorp Street entrance Monday to Saturday, 10.30am - 4pm (check opening times over holiday periods as they may vary).

Learn more about the exhibition
Josef Reed, Barry Kirby and Tom Bright of the Freefall Dance Company are sitting in a line from left to right of the image on chairs in a corner of a dance studio whilst George Wood from the filming team stands behind Barry whilst holding two white virtual reality (VR) headsets with both hands. George has shaved hair and a dark trimmed beard with a hooped earring in the left ear. George is wearing a white t-shirt, black trousers and a grey over-shirt. George is looking at Barry’s reaction to the headset content and is smiling. Clive Booth is kneeling down to the right of of Barry, looking at them and smiling as they react to the content. Clive has short brown hair and is wearing a light tan coloured jacket with red tartan lining. The Freefall Dancers are all wearing black t-shirts with the white Birmingham Royal Ballet text logo, below which is written ‘Freefall Dance’ also in white. Barry is smiling and looking to the right. Barry has very shaved dark hair and is sitting centrally in the image, raising both arms to chest height with both thumbs up. Josef is sitting on the left of the image and is looking at Barry. Josef has short brown hair and has their arms folded. Tom is sitting on the right side of the image and is also looking at Barry. Tom also has short brown hair but only a portion of Tom can be seen in the image as the frame cuts off half of their body. In the background of the image there is a black, glossy baby grand piano behind Clive and Barry. At the back of the image there are white panelled walls, large, red framed windows, a light brown ballet barre and to the right, a white curtain. Image credit: Andy Ford.

Creating Immersive Experiences with Freefall's piece Chairs

Chairs one of Freefall's most well-known pieces has recently undergone the virtual reality treatment. The captured film was presented in virtual reality at our Virtual Stage launch in August 2023.

Learn more about Virtual Stage

Stepping Out, Stepping Up

This was a project that was inspired by BRB's Director Carlos Acosta and the music of Cuban-Iranian band Ariwo. The Freefall dancers created this work during lockdown via zoom, and filmed it on location under strict restrictions, working with filmmaker Oliver Hodges.

Freefall has been inspired by and worked closely with partners and other SEN (Special Education Network) schools around the West Midlands and beyond. We want to share a huge thanks to Freefall's supporters, friends and co-performers for their dedication, commitment and support throughout Freefall's 21-year history.

Here's to the next 21 years!

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