Brighton Early Music Festival

The theme of 'dance' has provided us with the perfect follow on to last year's 'Ritual'. It again allows us to look into the very origins of music and its place in human culture from the dawn of civilisation. Music and dance have always been intimately bound together - each influencing the other - throughout human history, and dance can be the physical expression of how music makes us feel, as well as being an integral part of how we have always enjoyed ourselves.

Quite apart from music that actually accompanies dance, or grew from dance forms, the spirit of dance is at the heart of more music than we perhaps imagine. In this year's festival we will be kindling that spirit in the flowing and ecstatic lines of chants by Hildegard of Bingen, in the thrilling dance of interweaving notes in great polyphonic works like Thomas Tallis's forty-part motet 'Spem in Alium', and in solo arias by Bach and Handel.
This year we have included more public participation than ever. You can learn to belly dance (with a five week course from early September) and take part in a concert with Joglaresa, join a period dance workshop, sing the Victorian Requiem or Arab-Andalusian choruses.

We've lots for kids to do too: watch them fuse ancient dances with contemporary STOMP-style percussion, or see a teen take on 'The Beggar's Opera'. Bring them to our great half tem concert and take advantage of the fact that under 12s get in FREE at every event!
And what better way to open the festival than with a ball? See you there!