Six shows will have their world premieres during the sixth annual Body Festival of Dance and Physical Theatre in Christchurch this September.

As well as featuring four debut performances, the Festival is presenting new works by Louise Potiki Bryant and Daniel Belton.

The programme is out now and tickets are on sale.Six shows will have their world premieres during the sixth annual Body Festival of Dance and Physical Theatre in Christchurch this September.

As well as featuring four debut performances, the Festival is presenting new works by Louise Potiki Bryant and Daniel Belton.

The programme is out now and tickets are on sale.Director Adam Hayward is expecting a large turnout: "Last year we had 2,500 people participating in our various dance workshops over two weeks and 14,000 people attending events in the whole festival. This year we're spreading the Festival over three weekends, and we've got an incredibly strong programme of both workshops and performances."

Thanks to a grant from Creative New Zealand, The Body Festival is presenting two new works: Aoraki by Auckland-based Louise Potiki Bryant, following a Wild Creations residency at Aoraki Mt Cook; and choreographer/ filmmaker Daniel Belton's live performance Stitchbirds with six dancers from Te Whaea/New Zealand School of Dance.

Other premieres include Scrambled Legs' Hover, the film installations Grain and Morning Herd, Jolt Youth's production of Where the Wild Things Are and A Different Light's production of Ship of Fools.

"A conservative estimate is that 100,000+ people now take part in a dance class every week in Christchurch and we want to capitalise on that and the fact that dance has always been strong in Christchurch - from ballet, movement and hip hop classes through to line dancing and everything in between."

When: 19 September - 7 October 2007
Where: Christchurch

13/8/07