Dance Umbrella 2021 highlights

Dance Umbrella first hit London more than 40 years ago, with the aim of presenting new and ground-breaking choreography from both the UK and abroad. Since its beginnings it's been a fixture of the autumn in the capital, gradually spreading its wings and indeed its scope to include ever more challenging approaches to movement and new venues.

The Covid-19 pandemic prevented a live Dance Umbrella last year; now the festival returns in a hybrid format – live and digital – devised by its new CEO and artistic director, Freddie Opoku-Addaie.

Here are the highlights of the live programme:

Dimitris Papaioannou – Transverse Orientation, Sadler's Wells
When: Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 October, 7:30pm
Tickets: £15-£45
Definitely the highlight of this year's festival, the Greek artist returns for the third time, having garnered critical acclaim and an Olivier Award nomination for his previous shows. Seeking inspiration in history and myth, Papaioannou creates visual feasts, and this year uses moths' attraction to light as a way of exploring humans' compulsion to find meaning in life.
Note: contains nudity

Transverse Orientation 2021, Dimitris Papaioannou. Photo: ©Julian Mommert
Dance Umbrella Watermans Takeover, Watermans Arts Centre
When: Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 October
For two whole days, Brentford's Watermans Arts Centre will be occupied by Dance Umbrella, with a programme of live dance, a variety of free dance workshops and an international dance short film programme.

The live shows sound particularly enticing:
Traces, by Kesha Raithatha (pictured top) marks the dancer's DU debut. Working within a blend of kathak and contemporary movement that rejects formal structures, Raithatha explores rejection, abandonment and loss in a 25-minute solo work.
Happy Father's Day, by Dani Harris-Walters forms a double bill with Traces. Here hip-hop, rap and narration are crafted together to tell a coming-of-age story not without its comedic elements.
This double bill starts at 7:30pm and lasts for one hour.
Tickets: £10
Age Guidance: 14+
Club Origami, by Takeshi Matsumoto
Times: 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Dur.: 40 mins + 10 mins stay on and play
This is an immersive and interactive dance show inviting family audiences to create, imagine and explore whole new ways of thinking, playing and moving. It's billed as using the magic of origami to take audiences on an adventure in a land made purely of paper and play.

Club Origami, presented by Little Big Dance
Club Origami will tour a variety of London venues: click here for full details.