Celebrate McNicol Ballet Collective's five-year anniversary with a world premiere at Hull City Hall. Hull-born Artistic Director Andrew McNicol presents a brand-new work featuring specially commissioned music by Jeremy Birchall, costumes by British designer Louise Flanagan, and innovative lighting by Yaron Abulafia.

The performance will also showcase highlights from the company’s acclaimed repertoire, including Of Silence, Moonbend, and audience favourite Bates Beats. Supported by a 2024 Made in Hull residency, this performance brings world-class ballet dancers to the stage at their creative peak.

Don't miss this unique evening of dance and music – book your tickets now.

Supported by Arts Council England, The Linbury Trust, Foyle Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.

Celebrate McNicol Ballet Collective's five-year anniversary with a world premiere at Hull City Hall. Hull-born Artistic Director Andrew McNicol presents a brand-new work featuring specially commissioned music by Jeremy Birchall, costumes by British designer Louise Flanagan, and innovative lighting by Yaron Abulafia.

The performance will also showcase highlights from the company’s acclaimed repertoire, including Of Silence, Moonbend, and audience favourite Bates Beats. Supported by a 2024 Made in Hull residency, this performance brings world-class ballet dancers to the stage at their creative peak.

Don't miss this unique evening of dance and music – book your tickets now.

Supported by Arts Council England, The Linbury Trust, Foyle Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.

Inspired by the rave scene and traditional Portuguese dance, Marco da Silva Ferreira and his cast of 10 performers move between past and present.

CARCAÇA explores tools of cultural construction through the encounter of Portuguese folk dances and contemporary street/clubbing dances.

What do we want to preserve; what do we want to transform; and what do we want to forget?

CARCAÇA is shortlisted for the Rose International Dance Prize, a brand-new biennial prize created by Sadler’s Wells for original dance creations in any style from across the globe. Sadler’s Wells will present the four shortlisted pieces on its main stage 29 February – 8 January 2025, each work selected for its inventive and daring choreography.

Photo: José Caldeira

Inspired by the rave scene and traditional Portuguese dance, Marco da Silva Ferreira and his cast of 10 performers move between past and present.

CARCAÇA explores tools of cultural construction through the encounter of Portuguese folk dances and contemporary street/clubbing dances.

What do we want to preserve; what do we want to transform; and what do we want to forget?

CARCAÇA is shortlisted for the Rose International Dance Prize, a brand-new biennial prize created by Sadler’s Wells for original dance creations in any style from across the globe. Sadler’s Wells will present the four shortlisted pieces on its main stage 29 February – 8 January 2025, each work selected for its inventive and daring choreography.

Photo: José Caldeira

Offering a high-flying, high-energy venture for the whole family, beloved circus company BrainFools are adorning their colourful wings and taking Lucky Pigeons to a town near you! Using polished contemporary circus skills and irresistible charm, this production tells a surreal fable about the pecking order of urban society, featuring jaw dropping juggling and dazzling aerialist tricks and lifts!

Lucky Pigeons follows a young businesswoman struggling to keep up with the non-stop helter-skelter of the big City. When she loses her corporate job, she takes her frustration out on the ever-present population of the city streets: pigeons. Conjuring the unearthly world of a flock of energetic, colourful and curious pigeons, birds of a feather flock together as her Saville Row suit turns to iridescent feathers and she grows a beak. She discovers a playful, misunderstood world from a bird’s eye view.

What started as a deep passion for theatre, movement, and storytelling has blossomed into an inspiring vision of an ecosystem of performing arts. BrainFools is on a mission to push the boundaries of traditional circus arts and inspire audiences to dream big.

Come and witness circus arts performances reimagined, both acrobatically and metaphorically, as BrainFools brings you Lucky Pigeons. It's an event you won't want to miss!

Change Tempo returns to Brixton House in 2024 to introduce London to two international artists whose transformational works blur the line between dance and visual art.  

Sweden-based Adam Seid Tahir and Amina Seid Tahir draw inspiration from literature on Black feminism and marine mammals for their latest production – several attempts at braiding my way home, a show born out of longing for a space that celebrates and holds their multiplicities as queer Afro-Nordic siblings. 

Solo performer Adam begins the show by removing their braids and attaching them to a sculpture of a weave that is suspended at the back of the stage. Like real hair, the weave grows with each performance, storing memories and emotions, creating a timeline that carries the history of the piece. 

Set to a pulsating score, several attempts at braiding my way home is a meditation on how it feels to have a place in which to dream, and to truly call home. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Brixton House. Supported by Kulturrådet, Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse, MARC, Riksteaterns Produktionsresidens för dans 2021 

Photo: Amina Seid Tahir

Change Tempo returns to Brixton House in 2024 to introduce London to two international artists whose transformational works blur the line between dance and visual art.  

Sweden-based Adam Seid Tahir and Amina Seid Tahir draw inspiration from literature on Black feminism and marine mammals for their latest production – several attempts at braiding my way home, a show born out of longing for a space that celebrates and holds their multiplicities as queer Afro-Nordic siblings. 

Solo performer Adam begins the show by removing their braids and attaching them to a sculpture of a weave that is suspended at the back of the stage. Like real hair, the weave grows with each performance, storing memories and emotions, creating a timeline that carries the history of the piece. 

Set to a pulsating score, several attempts at braiding my way home is a meditation on how it feels to have a place in which to dream, and to truly call home. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Brixton House. Supported by Kulturrådet, Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse, MARC, Riksteaterns Produktionsresidens för dans 2021 

Photo: Amina Seid Tahir

Contemporary dance and physical theatre collective POCKetART’s latest work Fairy Tales, featuring eight female dancers and two musicians, comes to the UK for the first time. 

Exploring the intersection of femininity, identity and self-discovery, Fairy Tales aims to connect us to our past by revisiting childhood experiences. By taking on different roles from fairy tales or every day real-life figures, the dancers envision new fantasies that reimagine how we see our happy endings. 

POCKetART’s work is characterised by tackling topics that go beyond the personal experience of the individual, touching on global societal issues. With striking visuals, melodic sound and virtuosic dance performance, Fairy Tales invites us to playfully reconsider our own identities. 

A Big Pulse Dance Alliance co-production. Presented by Dance Umbrella and The Place. 

Photo: Martí Albesa - Festival Sismògraf

Contemporary dance and physical theatre collective POCKETART’s latest work Fairy Tales, featuring eight female dancers and two musicians, comes to the UK for the first time. 

Exploring the intersection of femininity, identity and self-discovery, Fairy Tales aims to connect us to our past by revisiting childhood experiences. By taking on different roles from fairy tales or every day real-life figures, the dancers envision new fantasies that reimagine how we see our happy endings. 

POCKETART’s work is characterised by tackling topics that go beyond the personal experience of the individual, touching on global societal issues. With striking visuals, melodic sound and virtuosic dance performance, Fairy Tales invites us to playfully reconsider our own identities. 

A Big Pulse Dance Alliance co-production. Presented by Dance Umbrella and The Place. 

Photo: Martí Albesa - Festival Sismògraf

Join Dance Umbrella’s distinguished panel of experts – Polly Bennett (Saltburn, Elvis, The Crown) Yukiko Masui (SAY, Romeo and Juliet, The Effect) and Shelley Maxwell (Get Up Stand Up, Shifters, Macbeth), for a discussion about the growing demand for the role of movement director in theatre.

Chaired by Shakespeare’s Globe CEO Stella Kanu, the panellists will delve into conversations around how movement direction differs from the role of choreographer, demystifying the process. We’ll talk about how movement direction has evolved in recent years and how it is more in demand than ever. We will also discuss how roles for movement directors have developed on film, television and commercial projects and what the future of choreography and movement direction might look like.

Hurtling onto the stage with explosive physicality, six performers challenge their physical and mental limits in a genre-bending new work named one of New York Times’ ‘Best Dance Performances of 2022.’

Drawing influences from street dance, synchronised swimming, post-modern dance, tap, football, martial arts and contemporary African forms; Radioactive Practice from award-winning American choreographer Abby Zbikowski and crew, shatters movement expectations and explores our instincts for survival.

With audiences seated on multiple sides, this powerful piece incorporates the work of Sengalese dance artist Momar Ndiaye as dramaturge to interrogate the complexities of contemporary living.

Abby Zbikowski and her company Abby Z and the New Utility create contemporary dance works that pay homage to the effort of living. Zbikowski’s rigorous training in African and Afro-diasporic forms, playing sports and performing manual labour informs her craft.

In 2018 Zbikowski was nominated by Stephen Petronio as a ‘Choreographer of the Future’ for Dance Umbrella’s Four by Four commission. Following the global pandemic, Radioactive Practice now makes its European premiere at Sadler’s Wells as part of Dance Umbrella Festival 2024.

Photo: Maria Barinova

Hurtling onto the stage with explosive physicality, six performers challenge their physical and mental limits in a genre-bending new work named one of New York Times’ ‘Best Dance Performances of 2022.’

Drawing influences from street dance, synchronised swimming, post-modern dance, tap, football, martial arts and contemporary African forms; Radioactive Practice from award-winning American choreographer Abby Zbikowski and crew, shatters movement expectations and explores our instincts for survival.

With audiences seated on multiple sides, this powerful piece incorporates the work of Sengalese dance artist Momar Ndiaye as dramaturge to interrogate the complexities of contemporary living.

Abby Zbikowski and her company Abby Z and the New Utility create contemporary dance works that pay homage to the effort of living. Zbikowski’s rigorous training in African and Afro-diasporic forms, playing sports and performing manual labour informs her craft.

In 2018 Zbikowski was nominated by Stephen Petronio as a ‘Choreographer of the Future’ for Dance Umbrella’s Four by Four commission. Following the global pandemic, Radioactive Practice now makes its European premiere at Sadler’s Wells as part of Dance Umbrella Festival 2024.

Photo: Maria Barinova

In her earlier work, dancer, choreographer and acrobat Diana Niepce explored her journey of self-recovery following a spinal cord injury from a trapeze accident. Since then, she has sought innovative ways to express herself, aiming to integrate the disabled body into mainstream dance. This effort challenges audiences to reconsider conventional aesthetics of the body. 

In her solo piece, The Other Side of Dance, Diana delves into dance’s past and the hierarchical principles driving movement. She rigorously tests her own body, using minimal staging and occasional cutting sarcasm to present the non-normative body as revolutionary rather than victimised. 

Recognised as a compelling figure in Portuguese dance, Diana describes her piece as "a survey of the invisible in dance history". Drawing inspiration from artists like Bill Shannon, Claire Cunningham and David Toole, she redefines the laws of movement. She is joined on stage by three 'performer assistants' who support her through this intense exploration of an alternative dance history.  

The performance will be followed by an extended discussion with the choreographer, delving into the themes of the work. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Southbank Centre

Photo: Paolo Pimenta

Artist Encounters is a professional development talk with a guest artist, focusing on cultivating practical skills, sharing knowledge and asking questions that resonate.   

This year, Artist Encounters will be led by choreographer Lea Anderson, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary of her company The Cholmondeleys with the publication of two new books focusing on her work. Using these as a jumping off point, Lea, alongside author Mary Kate Connolly, will offer a window into a unique choreographic world. 

In addition to revealing Lea’s unusual modes of collaboration with some of the UK’s leading creatives, they will explore the ways in which her works live on today via their rich archive of costumes and performance ephemera. From the earliest Cholmondeleys days of dancing in Doc Martens on beer-strewn gig platforms, to the rigour of sleek chorus lines for the theatre stage, and the precision of performed gallery exhibitions, Lea Anderson and her dancers have forged a unique path.

Glimpses of a vast notebook collection, short films, archival images and costume objects will allow for an intimate look at her way of working, and the legacy of her companies. This encounter will also unpick the ways in which collaborations between artist and scholar can ignite new after-lives for archival remnants and sustain both legacy and ongoing artistic practice. 

Offering a high-flying, high-energy venture for the whole family, beloved circus company BrainFools are adorning their colourful wings and taking Lucky Pigeons to a town near you! Using polished contemporary circus skills and irresistible charm, this production tells a surreal fable about the pecking order of urban society, featuring jaw dropping juggling and dazzling aerialist tricks and lifts!

Lucky Pigeons follows a young businesswoman struggling to keep up with the non-stop helter-skelter of the big City. When she loses her corporate job, she takes her frustration out on the ever-present population of the city streets: pigeons. Conjuring the unearthly world of a flock of energetic, colourful and curious pigeons, birds of a feather flock together as her Saville Row suit turns to iridescent feathers and she grows a beak. She discovers a playful, misunderstood world from a bird’s eye view.

What started as a deep passion for theatre, movement, and storytelling has blossomed into an inspiring vision of an ecosystem of performing arts. BrainFools is on a mission to push the boundaries of traditional circus arts and inspire audiences to dream big.

Come and witness circus arts performances reimagined, both acrobatically and metaphorically, as BrainFools brings you Lucky Pigeons. It's an event you won't want to miss!

Internationally renowned choreographer Mamela Nyamza makes her Barbican debut, assembling 10 dancers, an opera singer and an African traditional multi-instrumentalist to perform the UK premiere of HATCHED ENSEMBLE, her urgent and subtly spectacular work. 

Clad in costumes covered in clothes pegs and balanced timidly en pointe while Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan plays, the dancers challenge gender norms while juxtaposing references to Western classical dance and music, and South African vocals. 

Mamela Nyamza has won many accolades for her activism-focused creations. HATCHED ENSEMBLE continues her work which unapologetically demystifies and deconstructs the history of dance, interrogating the accepted norms of the classics. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Barbican. Supported by British Council, Cockayne Foundation and the Edwin Fox Foundation. 

Photo: Mark Wessels

In his first appearance at the Barbican, acclaimed visual artist and filmmaker Hetain Patel returns to the stage with a preview performance of his latest solo Mathroo Basha (Mother Tongue in Gujarati). Following the passing of a number of first-generation immigrants in his family, British-born Hetain reflects on what is lost and what is transformed, revisiting rituals rooted in his family’s working-class Brit-Gujarati experience.  

Responding physically to audio interviews of women from his family speaking in Gujarati about inheritance, loss and the future, Hetain delves into the emotional realities of generational change through personal movement explorations where his body becomes the conduit.  

London-based artist Hetain has shown films, paintings, sculptures, photographs and performance work in galleries, theatres and iconic public screens around the world. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Barbican. Supported by Cockayne Foundation and Fabric International 

Photo: Camilla Greenwell

Offering a high-flying, high-energy venture for the whole family, beloved circus company BrainFools are adorning their colourful wings and taking Lucky Pigeons to a town near you! Using polished contemporary circus skills and irresistible charm, this production tells a surreal fable about the pecking order of urban society, featuring jaw dropping juggling and dazzling aerialist tricks and lifts!

Lucky Pigeons follows a young businesswoman struggling to keep up with the non-stop helter-skelter of the big City. When she loses her corporate job, she takes her frustration out on the ever-present population of the city streets: pigeons. Conjuring the unearthly world of a flock of energetic, colourful and curious pigeons, birds of a feather flock together as her Saville Row suit turns to iridescent feathers and she grows a beak. She discovers a playful, misunderstood world from a bird’s eye view.

What started as a deep passion for theatre, movement, and storytelling has blossomed into an inspiring vision of an ecosystem of performing arts. BrainFools is on a mission to push the boundaries of traditional circus arts and inspire audiences to dream big.

Come and witness circus arts performances reimagined, both acrobatically and metaphorically, as BrainFools brings you Lucky Pigeons. It's an event you won't want to miss!

Internationally renowned choreographer Mamela Nyamza makes her Barbican debut, assembling 10 dancers, an opera singer and an African traditional multi-instrumentalist to perform the UK premiere of HATCHED ENSEMBLE, her urgent and subtly spectacular work. 

Clad in costumes covered in clothes pegs and balanced timidly en pointe while Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan plays, the dancers challenge gender norms while juxtaposing references to Western classical dance and music, and South African vocals. 

Mamela Nyamza has won many accolades for her activism-focused creations. HATCHED ENSEMBLE continues her work which unapologetically demystifies and deconstructs the history of dance, interrogating the accepted norms of the classics. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Barbican. Supported by British Council, Cockayne Foundation and the Edwin Fox Foundation. 

Photo: Mark Wessels

In his first appearance at the Barbican, acclaimed visual artist and filmmaker Hetain Patel returns to the stage with a preview performance of his latest solo Mathroo Basha (Mother Tongue in Gujarati). Following the passing of a number of first-generation immigrants in his family, British-born Hetain reflects on what is lost and what is transformed, revisiting rituals rooted in his family’s working-class Brit-Gujarati experience.  

Responding physically to audio interviews of women from his family speaking in Gujarati about inheritance, loss and the future, Hetain delves into the emotional realities of generational change through personal movement explorations where his body becomes the conduit.  

London-based artist Hetain has shown films, paintings, sculptures, photographs and performance work in galleries, theatres and iconic public screens around the world. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Barbican. Supported by Cockayne Foundation and Fabric International 

Photo: Camilla Greenwell

Internationally renowned choreographer Mamela Nyamza makes her Barbican debut, assembling 10 dancers, an opera singer and an African traditional multi-instrumentalist to perform the UK premiere of HATCHED ENSEMBLE, her urgent and subtly spectacular work. 

Clad in costumes covered in clothes pegs and balanced timidly en pointe while Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan plays, the dancers challenge gender norms while juxtaposing references to Western classical dance and music, and South African vocals. 

Mamela Nyamza has won many accolades for her activism-focused creations. HATCHED ENSEMBLE continues her work which unapologetically demystifies and deconstructs the history of dance, interrogating the accepted norms of the classics. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Barbican. Supported by British Council, Cockayne Foundation and the Edwin Fox Foundation. 

Photo: Mark Wessels

Internationally renowned choreographer Mamela Nyamza makes her Barbican debut, assembling 10 dancers, an opera singer and an African traditional multi-instrumentalist to perform the UK premiere of HATCHED ENSEMBLE, her urgent and subtly spectacular work. 

Clad in costumes covered in clothes pegs and balanced timidly en pointe while Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan plays, the dancers challenge gender norms while juxtaposing references to Western classical dance and music, and South African vocals. 

Mamela Nyamza has won many accolades for her activism-focused creations. HATCHED ENSEMBLE continues her work which unapologetically demystifies and deconstructs the history of dance, interrogating the accepted norms of the classics. 

Presented by Dance Umbrella and Barbican. Supported by British Council, Cockayne Foundation and the Edwin Fox Foundation. 

Photo: Mark Wessels

Join Dance Umbrella for a panel discussion, designed to interrogate and move forward discussions around the body, its politics and movement practices, and the current discourse with colonial history. 

Facilitated by author, journalist and Bernie Grant Arts Centre Artistic Director & CEO Azieb Pool, the panel will include author, actress, director and public speaker Kelechi Okafor, who is the host of the Say Your Mind podcast, as well as being a highly skilled pole and twerk fitness instructor.  

They will be joined by choreographer Mamela Nyamza whose autobiographical work, which will be shown at the Barbican for four nights, addresses social injustice. She seeks to show the significance and particularity of each dancer’s movement that have been moulded by many diverse contexts and backgrounds through their history as classically trained dancers, permeated with embodiments of personal, public and political experiences as artists in South Africa. 

Offering a high-flying, high-energy venture for the whole family, beloved circus company BrainFools are adorning their colourful wings and taking Lucky Pigeons to a town near you! Using polished contemporary circus skills and irresistible charm, this production tells a surreal fable about the pecking order of urban society, featuring jaw dropping juggling and dazzling aerialist tricks and lifts!

Lucky Pigeons follows a young businesswoman struggling to keep up with the non-stop helter-skelter of the big City. When she loses her corporate job, she takes her frustration out on the ever-present population of the city streets: pigeons. Conjuring the unearthly world of a flock of energetic, colourful and curious pigeons, birds of a feather flock together as her Saville Row suit turns to iridescent feathers and she grows a beak. She discovers a playful, misunderstood world from a bird’s eye view.

What started as a deep passion for theatre, movement, and storytelling has blossomed into an inspiring vision of an ecosystem of performing arts. BrainFools is on a mission to push the boundaries of traditional circus arts and inspire audiences to dream big.

Come and witness circus arts performances reimagined, both acrobatically and metaphorically, as BrainFools brings you Lucky Pigeons. It's an event you won't want to miss!

Award-winning artist and choreographer Dollie Henry MBE and jazz composer Paul Jenkins, bring an exciting, original and innovative evening of jazz theatre to The Place this Autumn with a double bill: Footprints in Jazz and Touches of Miles.

BOP convey the spirit and vitality that lies at the very heart of the jazz idiom, providing a visible platform to share original jazz dance theatre. With new musical jazz scores, a live jazz ensemble and a company of highly talented jazz theatre dancers, BOP continues to break boundaries as the catalysts for UK Jazz Arts.

FOOTPRINTS IN JAZZ is a suite of contemporary jazz dance theatre works, that captures the individual and collective expression of BOP. Every step and every story will take you on a theatrical journey, that represents the richness and depth of Paul Jenkins original jazz compositions and Dollie Henry’s enthralling choreography performed by the dancers of BOP company.

Touches of Miles pays homage to the life and music of jazz trumpeter & composer Miles Davis. The production brings to the stage a riveting live jazz ensemble who bring to life Miles’ classic compositions including, All Blues, Milestones and more. The music lays the canvas for a captivating narrative of jazz dance theatre, that colourfully weaves through each musical variation, capturing the cool enigmatic character reminiscent of a true jazz music legend.

Award-winning artist and choreographer Dollie Henry MBE and jazz composer Paul Jenkins, bring an exciting, original and innovative evening of jazz theatre to The Place this Autumn with a double bill: Footprints in Jazz and Touches of Miles.

BOP convey the spirit and vitality that lies at the very heart of the jazz idiom, providing a visible platform to share original jazz dance theatre. With new musical jazz scores, a live jazz ensemble and a company of highly talented jazz theatre dancers, BOP continues to break boundaries as the catalysts for UK Jazz Arts.

FOOTPRINTS IN JAZZ is a suite of contemporary jazz dance theatre works, that captures the individual and collective expression of BOP. Every step and every story will take you on a theatrical journey, that represents the richness and depth of Paul Jenkins original jazz compositions and Dollie Henry’s enthralling choreography performed by the dancers of BOP company.

Touches of Miles pays homage to the life and music of jazz trumpeter & composer Miles Davis. The production brings to the stage a riveting live jazz ensemble who bring to life Miles’ classic compositions including, All Blues, Milestones and more. The music lays the canvas for a captivating narrative of jazz dance theatre, that colourfully weaves through each musical variation, capturing the cool enigmatic character reminiscent of a true jazz music legend.

Offering a high-flying, high-energy venture for the whole family, beloved circus company BrainFools are adorning their colourful wings and taking Lucky Pigeons to a town near you! Using polished contemporary circus skills and irresistible charm, this production tells a surreal fable about the pecking order of urban society, featuring jaw dropping juggling and dazzling aerialist tricks and lifts!

Lucky Pigeons follows a young businesswoman struggling to keep up with the non-stop helter-skelter of the big City. When she loses her corporate job, she takes her frustration out on the ever-present population of the city streets: pigeons. Conjuring the unearthly world of a flock of energetic, colourful and curious pigeons, birds of a feather flock together as her Saville Row suit turns to iridescent feathers and she grows a beak. She discovers a playful, misunderstood world from a bird’s eye view.

What started as a deep passion for theatre, movement, and storytelling has blossomed into an inspiring vision of an ecosystem of performing arts. BrainFools is on a mission to push the boundaries of traditional circus arts and inspire audiences to dream big.

Come and witness circus arts performances reimagined, both acrobatically and metaphorically, as BrainFools brings you Lucky Pigeons. It's an event you won't want to miss!