The buzz

Are any of the seasons more closely associated with dance than spring, a time of rebirth and renewal that seems to lend itself to movement and sensuality?

Through the ages the season has become synonymous with celebrations and fertility rites - such as the maypole dance, which, in Babylonian times, apparently involved young women dancing around a dancing around a phallic object to ensure offspring.

While such rites are noticeably absent these days, dance festivals marking the arrival of the season are held all around the world, including Springdance in Utrecht, the Netherlands, the Bregenz Spring Dance Festival in Austria, the Budapest Spring Festival 2011, and then, in the Antipodean spring in August, the Spring Dance at the Sydney Opera House.

Just as new plant growth 'springs' forth, giving the season its name, a range of dance events have sprouted up in the wake of the 2011 Arts Festival, meaning dance enthusiasts won't have to travel far to get involved in swinging celebrations of the season.

At the Academy for Performing Arts on April 15-16, the Academy Dance Ensemble will be presenting a programme titled Spring Stories, a collection of five works whose meanings are left open to interpretation. Of particular note is the piece Tea House, British choreographer/theatre director Jonathan Lunn's contemporary adaptation of the Lao She play.

The City Contemporary Dance Company is returning for its 2011/12 season with a production titled Off Screen by dancer-choreographer Noel Pong at the Cultural Centre from April 22 to 24. It's inspired by the film Shirin by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, and comes after earlier acclaimed works by Pong, including Crime Scene (pictured), Rainy Days and Monday, and A Walk on the Cloud.