Dancing City, Greenwich and Docklands International Festival
Dancing City, part of the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival, brings a variety of dance artists to Canary Wharf
Dancing City, Valse à Newton
The dance programme for this year's Greenwich and Docklands International Festival is enticing indeed. Entitled Dancing City, it will take place in and around Canary Wharf over the weekend of 9/10 September – may this summer's unpredictable weather cooperate...
The full programme for Dancing City can be found here. What follows is our own selection of highlights:
• Sleepwalker, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 2:25pm and 3:15pm, Columbus Courtyard, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 10 mins
The Royal Ballet dancers Alexander Campbell (director) and Kirsten McNally (choreographer) collaborate with disabled dancer Joe Powell-Main in an emotional duet inspired by the Bellini opera La Sonnambula, with music by Sophie Cotton. The piece challenges traditional perceptions of dance and movement; and as the Candoco Dance Company for disabled and non-disabled dancers (see below) has amply demonstrated over its two decades of life, disabled dancers have a lot to contribute to our appreciation of dance. Recommended.
• Bouncing Narratives, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 1pm and 5pm, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 50 mins
Bouncing Narratives. Photo: © Josh Lake
This is an immersive event, performed in and around a shipping container with a trampoline as a roof. Audiences can experience the show from underneath the trampoline seated on cushions inside the container (see image) or from the outside. The performance by Roza Moshtaghi and Shahrzad Malekian is billed as a jumble of images and sounds that explore the way in which past experiences rebound back again and again. An intriguing proposition.
• Valse à Newton, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 1pm and 5.15pm, Montgomery Square, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 35 mins
This performance (pictured top) comes from Le Grand Jeté, a French company of acrobat/dancers, and features a giant Newton's Cradle, around which three performers play with notions of physics, gravity, time and space. It sounds original and fun.
• I Think We Should Start Over, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 1pm and 4pm, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 20 mins
Candoco Dance Company and Jamaal Burkmar present a duet which is billed as exploring the complexity of relationships by translating patterns of communication from podcasts and audio recordings into graceful movement and expressive gestures. Recommended.
Dancing City presents 12 shows over the Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September weekend. All are free and unticketed.
The full programme for Dancing City can be found here. What follows is our own selection of highlights:
• Sleepwalker, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 2:25pm and 3:15pm, Columbus Courtyard, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 10 mins
The Royal Ballet dancers Alexander Campbell (director) and Kirsten McNally (choreographer) collaborate with disabled dancer Joe Powell-Main in an emotional duet inspired by the Bellini opera La Sonnambula, with music by Sophie Cotton. The piece challenges traditional perceptions of dance and movement; and as the Candoco Dance Company for disabled and non-disabled dancers (see below) has amply demonstrated over its two decades of life, disabled dancers have a lot to contribute to our appreciation of dance. Recommended.
• Bouncing Narratives, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 1pm and 5pm, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 50 mins
Bouncing Narratives. Photo: © Josh Lake
This is an immersive event, performed in and around a shipping container with a trampoline as a roof. Audiences can experience the show from underneath the trampoline seated on cushions inside the container (see image) or from the outside. The performance by Roza Moshtaghi and Shahrzad Malekian is billed as a jumble of images and sounds that explore the way in which past experiences rebound back again and again. An intriguing proposition.
• Valse à Newton, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 1pm and 5.15pm, Montgomery Square, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 35 mins
This performance (pictured top) comes from Le Grand Jeté, a French company of acrobat/dancers, and features a giant Newton's Cradle, around which three performers play with notions of physics, gravity, time and space. It sounds original and fun.
• I Think We Should Start Over, Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September at 1pm and 4pm, Canary Wharf. Dur.: 20 mins
Candoco Dance Company and Jamaal Burkmar present a duet which is billed as exploring the complexity of relationships by translating patterns of communication from podcasts and audio recordings into graceful movement and expressive gestures. Recommended.
Dancing City presents 12 shows over the Saturday 9 & Sunday 10 September weekend. All are free and unticketed.
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| What | Dancing City, Greenwich and Docklands International Festival |
| Where | Canary Wharf, 1 Canada Square, London, E14 5AB | MAP |
| Nearest tube | Canary Wharf (underground) |
| When |
09 Sep 23 – 10 Sep 23, Starting times and dur. vary according to performance |
| Price | £FREE |
| Website | https://festival.org/gdif/whats-on/dancing-city-2023/ |