Last year saw dancer, choreographer and educator Freddie Opoku-Addaie take over as director, following several years of guest programming the festival. Now a year and two festivals into the job, Opoku-Addaie comments: 'This year the programme showcases the very best of hip-hop culture, performance art, audio-visual experiences and operetta from artists originating from Cameroon, Greece, South Africa, Taiwan and Croydon. It’s a privilege to be able to introduce audiences to some of the most inquisitive, boundary-pushing dance artists from around the globe.'
Highlights to catch in the Dance Umbrella 2023 programme...
Change Tempo
When: Friday 6 & Saturday 7 October | Where: The Place
Alexandre Fandard, Comme un symbole
A returning favourite in the Dance Umbrella programme, Change Tempo is introducing two international artists to London's dance scene. Girl's Notes by Taiwanese performance artist SU PinWen interrogates notions of gender, by picking apart a text dictating the 'correct' behaviours expected of a woman. It's set to live piano by LIN Mai-ke.
Part two of the programme is Comme un symbole by French visual artist and choreographer Alexandre Fandard. In it, Fandard explores the experience of marginalised youth, portraying a figure simultaneously despised and eroticised. What unites the two pieces is their blurring of the boundaries between dance and art, creating powerful visual spectacles.
MOS
When: Wednesday 11 – Saturday 14 October, 7pm | Where: Barbican, The Pit
Ioanna Paraskevopoulou, MOS. Photo: Pinemopi Gerasimou
Athens-based choreographer and dancer Ioanna Paraskevopoulou makes her Dance Umbrella debut with a work that's as much an audio-visual experience as a dance spectacle. Using everyday items including umbrellas, coconut shells and plungers, she creates the sound effects used by foley artists for theatre, radio, film and TV. The resulting soundscape is set to a film as well as being danced live on stage.
One Drop
When: Thursday 19 & Friday 20 October, 7pm | Where: Battersea Arts Centre
Sonya Lindfors, One Drop. Photo: Tuukka Ervasti
Injecting some politics into the festival this year is Cameroonian-Finnish choreographer Sonya Lindfors, whose piece looks to interrogate the history of the Western stage and its entanglement with capitalism, coloniality and modernity as we know it. It's name refers both to reggae-style drum beat and the US's former Race Separation Act law that determined a single drop of 'black blood' made a person Black. Belonging to multiple categories, One Drop is at once a speculative summoning, a decolonial dream, an autopsy of the Western stage and an operetta.
London Battle
When: Saturday 7 October, from 1pm | Where: Somerset House
Jade Hackett London Battle. Photo: Camilla Greenwell
Filling Somerset House’s courtyard with performances, workshops, cyphers and live DJs, this day-long event celebrating 50 years of hip-hop is bringing together tip-top dance talent from all four corners of London. It's a coming together with a healthy dose of competition: the programme has been curated by choreographer Jade Hackett, with the audience invited to help judge which corner of of the city – north, south, east or west – has the best moves.
This whole event is free to attend.
Skydiver
When: Saturday 21 – Sunday 29 October | Where: Unicorn Theatre, Stanley Arts, The Place, Studio 3 Arts & Watermans Arts Centre
Xenia Aidonopoulou's Skydiver. Photo: Nikolas Louka
Got the tots in tow? Make a beeline for Greek dance artist Xenia Aidonopoulou's soaring show, aimed at the littlest audience members aged three to five. A magical and imaginative work set up in the fluffiest of clouds, it'll be a chance for them to experience how movement, sound and visuals collide.
Dance Umbrella runs from Friday 6 – Tuesday 31 October at venues across London and online. Click here for more information and to book.
| What | Dance Umbrella Festival 2023, various London venues |
| When |
06 Oct 23 – 31 Oct 23, Performances taking place at various venues and online. Times vary depending on event. |
| Price | £Depends on event |
| Website | Click here for more information and to book |
