Dance at LIFT 2024, Various Venues

The London International Festival of Theatre, LIFT, has been going for over 40 years, bringing international cutting-edge performances to all manner of traditional and unexpected venues throughout the capital. And as this year's edition, LIFT 2024, amply demonstrates, it hasn't lost its ability to surprise and engage.

LIFT 2024 includes three challenging dance pieces, all very different from each other, but with one thing in common: all challenge accepted perceptions and invite spectators to allow their imaginations to open up new perspectives.

In chronological order, they are:

--- L'Homme Rare, Nadia Beugré (pictured top) --- 12 & 13 June at 19:30, Southbank, Queen Elizabeth Hall. Dur.: 65 mins no interval.
France-based Ivorian dance maker Nadia Beugré explores concepts of gender through her five male dancers, inviting the audience to experience her research on our understanding of the body, particularly black and male, in history and today.
Full info and tickets here
Culture Whisper's review here

--- Bacchae: Prelude to a Purge, Marlene Monteiro Freitas -- 18 & 19 June at 19:30. Sadler's Wells. Dur.: 2 hours 15 mins no interval

Bacchae © Laurent Philippe
The Lisbon-based Cape Verdean Marlene Monteiro Freitas deconstructs Euripides's account of the followers of Bacchus to create a riotous carnival where her five trumpeters and eight dancers parade to the sound of Brazilian funk, pop, and finally their own version Ravel’s Boléro, all in aid of an exploration of the human psyche.
Full info and tickets here

--- L'Animale, Chiara Bersani -- 22 & 23 June at 14:00 and 16:30. Old Bailey Grand Hall

Chiara Bersani © Rebecca Lena
The award-winning Italian artist Chiara Bersani is unique and her work is uniquely mesmerising. She is 98 cms tall and suffers from a moderate form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which leads to serious mobility constraints. That's something she harnesses to offer compelling performances, which force the spectator to see anew. in 2022 she brought her show Seeing Unicorns to the National Gallery; now she invites us over the the Old Bailey for L'Animale, a site-specific performance inspired by the ballet The Dying Swan. Bersani asks the audience to observe the animal, enter its world and thereby contemplate what it's like to be human.
Full info and tickets here