Bradley Hemmings, Artistic Director of the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival tells us about this years highlights (24 June – 2 July 2011). Over 9 days, you can see 200 performances from 35 companies - all taking place in the great outdoors! In our interview we ask about the special guests from Catalonia for the opening night (Gravity) and Dancing City, along with the infamously mischief Greenwich Fair  (look out for That's The Way To Do It),  a spectacular site-specfic aerial production, the English National Ballet, Motionhouse - and where to get a good tipple! And an opera with giraffes!

Run Riot: What can we look forward to from Gravity on the opening night?

Bradley Hemmings: We’re working with FiraTarrega to present 8 small and medium scale outdoor dance, physical theatre, circus and installation pieces all inspired by the force of gravity. The overall event has been designed as a promenade experience so that audiences can move between the different performances with featured artists including Acrojou, Max Calaf, Company Chameleon, Company FZ, Llorenc Corbella, Fet a Ma, Guixot de 8, Res de Res/Circo Dux and Up and Over It.
RR: Who else from Catalunya can we expect to see during the festival?
BH: We’re delighted to be presenting Cia de Dansa Mar Gomez for the first time at our Festival with the wonderfully ironic 'Heart Wash' which takes place around a washing machine!

RR: Do the artists from Catalunya and the Balearic Islands have a distinct performing style?
BH: I think that there are a variety of styles ranging across many forms, but I’m always struck by the richness and inventiveness of the visual content of the work. Catalan artists constantly amaze me with their visual virtuosity – I’m particularly excited that we’ll be working with the theatre designer Llorenc Corbella this year on a new co-production which has recently been developed in Tarrega with the British Company FZ.

RR: Also, as part of Dancing City we’re really looking forward to the English National Ballet and Motionhouse Dance Theatre – what will they be performing?
BH: English National Ballet will be presenting Hans Van Manen’s 'Trois Gnossiennes'. Van Manen is one of the world’s leading contemporary ballet choreographers so that’s very exciting. Motionhouse are presenting a new piece for 2 dancers and a JCB called 'Waiting Game' – Motionhouse are well known to GDIF audiences and this new performances will be full of humour and machine choreography

RR: What other gems from Dancing City?
BH: We’re really pleased to be presenting a new piece from Mark Smith’s Deaf Men Dancing called 'Alive' which brings together contemporary dance, sign language and live painting from Rachel Gadsden. There will also be performances of 'La Mirada Transparente' from Producciones Imperdibles – extraordinary performances on a transparent stage with audience members on recliners underneath.

RR: What’s the spectacular night time aerial event in one of London’s most ecological parks, Haverfield Green, Mile End Park?
BH:  'As The World Tipped' is a new large scale theatre spectacle presented by Wired Aerial Theatre and directed by Nigel Jamieson. It offers an extraordinary perspective on climate change, with integrated aerial theatre, filmscape, original music and ingenious staging. The show opens at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, dramatising this failed opportunity as a human tragedy and unleashing an environmental catastrophe.

RR: We hear the traditional Greenwich Fair may be rather unruly with plenty of ‘That’s The Way to Do it!’ being exclaimed by mischievous characters – will you be joining in?
BH: I’ve always been a bit of a Regency man, so am very pleased to be bringing back the forgotten tradition of the Greenwich Fair. It was Britain’s biggest fair in the early nineteenth century but got suppressed for bad behaviour. Dickens loved it and so we’re going for a 21st century reincarnation as a street theatre festival

RR: During the festival, do you have a favourite place to gather your thoughts?
BH: I love the Nevada Street Deli and the Buenos Aires Cafe for caffeine support!

RR: And how about that late night refreshment?
BH: It’s the Rose and Crown for me!

RR: Is there anything else we really must know about the festival?
BH: We’re bringing back one of our “signature” shows this year – 'Compagnie Off’s Les Girafes'. We presented it last in 2003. So by popular request it’s back with  9 life-sized giraffes, a squadron of giraffe keepers, an opera diva and a ring-master - all in Woolwich on 2 July. Don’t miss it.

Bradley Hemmings is the Artistic Director of the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival.
For more details, visit the website: www.festival.org

'Gravity' and 'Heart Wash' are supported by the Institut Ramon Llull.

For more details, visit the website: www.llull.cat/miro