I heard on the radio this morning that the BBC is to replace its floating hot air world balloon with dancers for its (and I think this is the technical term) idents (short branding pieces between programmes) for BBC1.<P>WOW! How amazing. It seems at the moment that there is a real surge of dance into the mainstream: fashion is very dance (specifically ballet) inspired at the moment, the health and fitness magazines are recommending dance as a great exercise form, and now the BBC has adopted it as part of the main expression of its identity. What an exciting acknowledgement of the marvellous and all-encompassing nature of dance. <P>If this runs for 5 or more years as the balloon did, it will do wonders for the dance world. <P>Does anyone know anything more about this? What dance companies did they use? What forms of dance are used in the idents? Does anyone know anyone who was invited to dance on it?<P><p>[This message has been edited by MariaR (edited March 27, 2002).]

<B>BBC Spiderman's 33ft leap</B><BR>by Alex Benady in The Evening Standard<P><BR>He runs up walls, leaps on to narrow ledges hundreds of feet above the street and jumps from rooftop to rooftop. TV viewers this week have been spellbound by a new BBC1 promo showing real-life Spiderman, 28-year-old French athlete David Belle, performing a series of stomach-churning stunts over the rooftops of a busy city. <P>But in an age where we assume everything is done with computer graphics and sophisticated post-production techniques, every hair-raising leap and fall was performed as seen. <P><A HREF="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html?in_review_id=557633&in_review_text_id=524040" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A><BR>